БОГОВИ И ЧУДОВИШТА: ЗА (НЕ)МИСЛИВОТО ВО ЧОВЕКОВАТА ПРИРОДА
Gods and Monsters: About the (Un)thinkable in Human Nature

Summary/Abstract: History is full of different types of slavery. They may take the form of religious fanaticism or political extremism, but fundamentally they owe their existence to an obsessive and oppressive ideology whose ultimate goal is to rule the world. We are talking about totalitarianism, which bases its dominance on the suggestive abilities of the Leader. His strategies, based on manipulation and violence, create a specific illusion and blind loyalty among the crowds, consolidating his absolute power. In this text, I dwell on two works: the novel Alamut, by the Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol, and the essayed travel reportage Imperium (The Empire), by the Polish writer and journalist Ryszard Kapuściński. The first successfully shows the power of religious fanaticism in the countries of the Middle East, and the second skillfully illustrates the ideological extremism, specific to the countries of the Eastern Bloc, but both evoke direct associations of a timeless reign of terror which, with the consistency of its ideological matrix and the application of force simply controls people by turning them into bloodsuckers and victims.

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