After breakup of the Soviet Union millions of people around the world cried with joy, “Communism is dead! Socialism is dead!”. At the same time many university professors and academicians, politicians and political scientists stated somehow less audibly, “Long live socialism! Long live social democracy!” They did not want to start an open struggle with the people who after more than 70 years of struggle finally broke free. They behaved like a well-known villain Ellsworth Toohee from Ayn Rand’s novel “The Fountainhead”. They were cunning enough not to stick their necks out. They were designing a new loop that the people will voluntarily put their neck into and give then – the masters of their souls the end of the rope to manage and pull when necessary.  

Totalitarianism has never been dead in theory and is still alive in practice

Is the world safer today than it was let’s say 30 – 40 years ago? There is no accurate measure to answer this question. Philosophical and ideological sources for new threats and dangers are always aplenty. 1) Islamic fundamentalism and religious extremism, 2) hatred of countries that are based on values of enlightenment, respect of fundamental rights and freedoms of a human being, 3) intolerance of people who hold different opinions on politics, economic development and social security; 4) ideas of collectivism universal equality meaning that all people should earn alike, look alike, dress alike – i. e. be just human robots. Free trade has failed to become a dear child of humanity. Protectionism and middle age mercantilism still dominate international trade.  

Of course many countries in the region are much freer now than they were 20 years ago. Hard work, dedication and courage of Lithuanian, Polish, Czech and Russian many other peoples led to collapse of the most bloody, cruel and anti-human system in the world. We should hail the people who broke the backbone of the deadly communist, socialist system in their countries. They are heroes of today, leaders of fight against totalitarianism of tomorrow. At the same time it would be a gross overestimation to call them consistent supporters of capitalism and philosophy that supports this political social economic system. Can we call Gobrachyov or Eltsyn, Walensa or Nemet, Havel or Nazarbayev champions of capitalism? By no means. Very few government ministers and decision makers in post-socialist countries were aware of the capitalist alternative. The third way, “the best of the two worlds” was the dominant thing they had in mind. It was up to ex-soviet style nomenclature to decide what the balance between the two systems should be. Totalitarian state was officially declared dead to be able to quickly regroup resources for further battles.

There are still many countries in the world that are oppressed and socialized. Their citizens can not enjoy basic freedoms and rights: freedom of expression, right to life, freedom of religion or association. North Korea, Liberia and Libya, Saudi Arabia and Iran, China and Myanmar, Belarus and Turkmenistan – these are sad evidence than totalitarian state is still alive, that it is preparing to fight back and attack. Moreover there are still many so called soft totalitarian or authoritarian states: Governments of these countries pretend to be free and democratic but we can say that these governments are like wolves in sheep’s clothing. People are murdered or imprisoned for their political or religious views. People can not teach or study what they want. People can not travel freely and get rid of the governments and rulers who appointed themselves. They call it democracy and we know of so many cases of elections without voters. Authoritarian rulers do not care how people vote. Controlling the process of elections and all spheres of human life they believe that they are vox populi and vox dei in one pack. There are somehow milder forms of oppression that are widely practiced by countries in all continents. People are deprived of their natural rights and their freedom of choice and opportunities are restricted by taxes, regulations, state monopolies, trade restrictions and straight prohibition of certain types of goods and services exchanges. These countries are so numerous that it is no use enumerating them here.

  The danger of comeback of totalitarianism is also in numerous radical groups and organizations (like Al Kaida, Hamas, IRA). They do not belong to any state. They do not act in one area. They make the best use of fruits of globalization and civilization and attack people all over the world. Do they fight for liberty, prosperity and pursuit of happiness? No they fight to force countries and all the world to live according to their own pattern. They want us to live according to books written centuries ago. We want to be alive and they want us to be dead. There is no way to reconcile these points of view. Hence we must protect ourselves from these dangers. Freedom is never won once and for all. Every generation starts its own fight based on successes or failures of their predecessors. Shapes and sizes of oppression change all the time. Looters and witch doctors of today come out with numerous modern tools to reinstall or using a modern word to “reload” totalitarianism. The fight for freedom is not over. It will never be over. That is why there is growing demand for people in all countries to unite their forces and to coordinate their activities in our common struggle against modern totalitarianism.  

Semantic revolution as popular way of saving totalitarianism

  The only long-lasting social economic revolution is the one based on revolution of ideology. If it does not happen there is always a chance for comeback of totalitarianism. In the very beginning of the 90-ies it was not clear what the fate of ideological struggle will be. Now after about 14 years it is evident that ideological revolution that must ensure stability and sustainability of capitalism in politics and economy, individualism and rational egoism in ethics, rationality in epistemology, objective reality in metaphysics is just in the cradle. Collectivist wolves in sheep’s clothing’s that were responsible for ideology assisted by “witch doctors” from the West laid the foundation of slightly modified ideology of new millennium collectivism. They sold it to people using the adjectives “modern”, “progressive”, “socially oriented”, “humanitarian”, “non-discriminatory”, “just”.   They did not come up with new tactics and tricks. They realized that full-fledged ideological revolution requires much time, effort, financial and human resources. As their historical predecessors they began with semantic revolution. Playing and manipulating words and labels was the easiest and historically tested way to achieve quick results and to confuse people who were not exposed to competition of ideas. Old “gods” were declared dead as it was difficult to defend and to justify horrible crimes against humanity performed by communists. Few politicians managed to form a stable similarity between communists and fascists. Witch doctors stopped using the words “communism”, “socialism”, “centrally planned economy”, “collectivism”. They added some adjectives to make them sound progressive and dynamic. Studying Marxism was old-fashioned but teaching “Analytical Marxism” was meant to be somehow different. Building centrally planned economy was out of the question but constructing socially oriented market economy was in vogue.  

But old terms were not enough. That is why the witch doctors of the new collectivism from post—Soviet countries came out with new labels. They did not have to invent them themselves. There are plenty of organizations and producers of intellectual products in the world that generate such words (for example UN, IMF, World Bank, OECD, Greenpeace, defenders of rights of animals, plants, bugs etc). I want to make a point that they generate just labels and words to dress old collectivism and socialism into new clothes. Everybody knows these new labels: “sustainable development”, “responsible corporate behavior”, “environmentally conscious policy”, “intergenerational solidarity”, “international cooperation” and of course “anti-globalization aimed at preserving national identity, cultural diversity and universal equality. The list of human rights and freedoms seems to be growing faster than GDP of the USA or China. Few people remember what these notions meant originally. By diluting their meaning the witch doctors of the new millennium have succeeded in achieving important goals. Firstly they expanded the list of generally accepted and well-received words and labels that could be used to justify the presence of still omnipotent state in the most important spheres of social and economic life. Secondly, they diverted the public’s attention from real culprits of crimes and social economic experiments on the post-soviet area in which people were used just as guinea pigs.

Laying foundation for comeback of totalitarianism

Totalitarianism especially in Europe became much milder. The state and the government did not have resources to exercise the control over everything and everybody. Massive amount of evidence and brutal reality with permanent deficits of goods and services opened eyes of people who wanted changes. Statists of all breeds and sizes realized that brute physical force of former Soviet style communism can not be applied. They had to quickly adjust to new reality. They realized that the old system was over. They could not keep it so they decided to head the process of transition. And they successfully did it. 1) The omnipotent overzealous state has survived. They is not a single state in Central and eastern Europe that would redistribute less than 40% of GDP through the state. The government still keeps monopoly over many key sectors of economy. Education, information sectors are heavily regulated and controlled. National bureaucracies are still powerful and difficult to control. The military component of the state (force structures) kept the right to intervene into private affairs of citizens though the degree is definitely not Orwellian. 2) Old ideologists in most cases managed to keep their positions to run education and ideology. The teachers and professors who taught political economy of communism and socialism became experts in market economy almost overnight. Those who promoted scientific atheism suddenly discovered their new mission to hail the Bible and the word of God. Academicians and historians who justified or silenced atrocities of communism were called upon to explain to people and student the meaning of human rights and freedoms, democracy, rule of law. Translating economics textbooks into Russian, Polish, Lithuanian or Hungarian is definitely not enough to understand capitalism. University elites failed to introduce courses or open departments of Austrian economics, philosophy of libertarianism, literature of Ayn Rand. Instead of creating pluralism of opinions Marxist based education system was substituted by welfare state based theories (development economics, environmental economics etc.). 3) Resources of big state or newly privatized business that closely cooperated with the state were readily available. Communist bosses and party apparatchiks, KGB and police officers who mastered managerial skills by ruling people with iron rod became prosperous businessmen. They had access to necessary networks to stifle competition and to prevent private sector of natural development. Of course they are willing to support the state that can be used as a powerful tool to manage the market. 4) Liberated people were intoxicated by new unprecedented freedoms and abundance of consumer goods. They were beginning to realize the meaning of the expression “to make money”. Thinking short-term they rationally ignored the investment of time, money and resources into ideology. They did not reject the notion of “serving the state”. Note that people who work for the government are still called public “servants”. 5) The West failed to have Nuremberg-like court process against communist and socialism ideology and communist crimes against humanity. Western ideologists were willing to give new states their own version of modern society: welfare state, third way, socially oriented market economy – you name it. Anything but comprehensible capitalism was welcome. Central and Eastern Europe was a huge promising new market for their ideas. They did not have to go back to universities and libraries to understand why their teachings were rejected by the people of Soviet Union dominated countries. It was convenient to believe that it was the people who failed to carry out the noble ideas of socialism that the theory is still beyond suspicion. Just new methods based on econometrics and computer modeling must be applied. To their relief money from IMF, UN. World Bank and hundred of other NGOs to build new institutions and to teach new aboriginals what market is about was readily available. Thus foundations for possible comeback of totalitarian state were laid down.

Unstubbed intellectual roots of totalitarianism

  Builders and supporters of totalitarian state never admitted that full control over people’s lives and property was their ultimate goal. They always declared attractive politically correct, appealing to the masses slogans and policy goals. It is not in the declared goals and tasks that lay the difference between totalitarian and free democratic states. It is in concrete policies, in how fast and consistent a man is given back his natural rights to use all his resources and life, how freely he can make interpersonal exchanges and take responsibility for the outcome of his own choices. As L. Mises, M. Rothbard, H. Hazlitt, S. Ikeda and many other outstanding thinkers pointed out the difference between socialism and welfare state is not in substance but in degree. It is not a matter of principle but a question of compromise among various intellectual and business groups. That is why when Soviet Union and the socialist system in Central European countries collapsed intellectual bases of totalitarianism were not rooted out. There were too few skilled “lumbermen”, too little money to do it and too many rich and influential opponents of this. If you look through UN documents and goals of its numerous organizations, if you analyze the activities of IMF and World Bank in different countries for the last 50 years, if you fathom what European Union, OECD and other organizations are really up to in practice you will see that intellectual roots for overpowering state are still there. Rich citizens and countries, big businesses with faint resistance accepted the sense of guilt for all horrors of the modern world: poverty, pollution, injustice, crimes, AIDS etc. Do many people in countries of the Central Europe know that Th. Roosevelt made attempts to socialize America? Few as most people and politicians believe that New deal was a big success of the state. The conviction that Great Depression was the ultimate failure of capitalism and laissez faire attitude is rarely questioned in Europe. On the other hand Marshall Plan that was carried out by The USA to help countries of the Western Europe to rebuild their economies is seen as a big success of the government and an evidence of his ability to get a country out of the crisis.  

It is even more difficult for people in transitional countries to understand why American professors and politicians call their most outstanding industrialists “robber barons”. How can you praise robbers? How can you sympathize with barons? Can we believe in morality of the system that was built by these robber barons?

Six dreadful institutions and socialism by default

  There is another spin to this enigma. If champions of capitalism – the USA could not avoid having these types of businessmen why should we resist home made oligarchs, so called “new Russians”, “new Lithuanians, Belarusian or Poles? Protagonists of the third way and new forms of totalitarianism did their best to convince the public that this stage of social development is inevitable, that people should yield to demands of oligarchs and empower the state that knows how to ensure smooth gradual transition to another hand made paradise. By saying “hand” the meant their own hands – not choices of each individual. The public thought that that was what they really needed. No wonder they were taught by their teachers at schools and professors at universities, by journalists and analysts that capitalism is immoral, that it must be regulated for the sake of “national security”, “national interests” or any other vague across-the-board. In transitional countries and I think it is true for Western countries a person acquires collectivist ideas and becomes a random socialist by default due to nature formal and informal institutions around him: 1) family (few lucky ones have parents who question “virtues” of the theory of socialism and welfare state), 2) primary and high school (books that he reads and curriculum that he had to go through), 3) church which attacks individualism, capitalism and appeals to the state and addresses to a person’s sense of guilt; 4) entertainment industry (movies he watches, music and movie stars he admires, “fashionable” books that he reads; 5) media and especially television (almost universally anti-capitalistic source of information). 6) universities and post-graduate education (there is not a single university in Europe and in transitional countries based on Austrian school of economics, libertarian philosophy and that train professional ideological defenders of capitalism). Here I do not mention formal structures of the state as usually they do not deal directly with ordinary people in the sphere of education.  

If a person is not exposed to libertarian ideas, philosophy of objectivism presented in a simple attractive form, if he is not around sympathetic , likable and influential people who tell his about these ideas he can hardly resist the dreadful impact of the mentioned above institutions. He does not dare ask “why” and question the authority of these commonly respected institutions that seem to be with mankind forever. That is why an average person does not have  natural resistance to people who make attempts to restore totalitarian state under attractive slogans. That is why forces of totalitarianism might suffer temporary setback but there are always people, institutions and resources to bring it back to life. After a person has his ideals and ideas formed and well set he encounters almost universal approval from abroad. He sees that representatives of international organizations speak the same language, produce similar ideas and suggest visible presence of the government to correct “inborn defects” of capitalism also knows as externalities. Few international experts and politicians warn policy makers in transitional economies about dangers of government failures, state intervention and empowered bureaucrats. Few western experts realize the dangers of mechanical transfer of the welfare state model to a country that has just got rid of communism or socialism. Periodic crises and recessions, high unemployment and inflation, wage arrears and contract obligations,

Why Belarus got stuck with authoritarian state

Belarus is a unique case in many respects. Many experts believed that it was one of the most Soviet republics of the Soviet Union. It was the most consistent in implementing ideas of socialism. Belarus had more diligent, disciplined and responsible apparatchiks per capita than any other country. The Soviets took a great care to destroy its intellectual elites and did their best to substitute them with strong institutes for continuous indoctrination. The two biggest totalitarian states of the XXth century in Europe destroyed intelligentsia who were bearers of national culture, the language and businessmen and landowners that formed its economic foundation. The Soviet Union worked out instruments to suck the most talented and ambitious young persons from republics and sent them to Moscow to work in strictly controlled and socially highly prestigious places. Those who disagreed were either sent to clinics for mentally ill persons or made to leave the country. Another common escape from dreadful reality was drowning your ambitions and sorrows in alcohol. Many others chose the orderly all-absorbing peaceful game of chess. That must be the reason the Soviet Union had so many chess champions. The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic had one of the best party schools and indoctrination institutions in the country.

There is an important economic component of the history of Belarusian totalitarianism. Byelorussia was the assembly line of the Soviet Union. The Communist party industrialized the country and built the plants that were designed to supply tractors, trucks, engines, TV sets and fridges, clothes and carpets to all USSR and even socialist camp countries. That was the arbitrary decision of central planners – not the natural production order caused by the division of labor. That made many Belarusians beneficiaries of this kind of economic redistribution. They had one of the highest standards of living in the USSR. Many people were duped to believe that it was socialism, the totalitarian state that ensured these high standards of living. Of course this standard was relative. The Iron Curtain helped much to sustain it for a long time. Many soviet citizens pitied poor black Americans and Asians and Europeans who were oppressed by greedy blood sucking exploiting businessmen. Total control over all spheres of life, skilful propaganda helped to keep these images in the minds of gullible, suppressed and individuals who had some temporary relief in sports, dachas, drinking and watching Soviet TV.  

It was like a bolt from the blue for most Belarusian and elite groups that the BSSR got independence and turned into the Republic of Belarus. There was no bloodshed, no TV center or shipyard tragedies, no consistent program of market reforms, no government of reformers. Belarusian communists were so confused and baffled that they passed one of the best laws on the national language, restored national symbols and were almost ready to head to Europe. They were such lousy managers that they lost the fight to inflation that reached over 2000% a year. People felt tremendously insecure and they thought that that was what capitalism was about. They wanted order, regulated gradual reforms, restoration of ties of Russia and punishment fro criminals and corrupt bureaucrats. There appeared one man, ex propaganda machine clerk who promised everybody everything. A few influential Russian groups that being afraid that Belarus might turn its back on Russia invested in him. So as a result of the first more or less democratic elections Belarus got its first president. The dream of the person with deeply ingrained Soviet values and mindset, with no scruples and understanding of market economy came true. Belarus did not even have enough time to make a U-turn to welfare state when it was forced to move back to the USSR, to the authoritarian state. Nomenclature was happy to regain the power to regulate economy and political life. State-roofed entrepreneurs were pleased to finally get rid of cut-throat competition and start building their private fortunes. The president began to implement his plan to restore greater Soviet Union. He was readily assisted by many powerful groups in Russia, businessmen with highly dubious reputations in western countries. Grey economy and black market actors were also helpful. As there was hardly any intellectual resistance on the academic university or civil society level the road back to serfdom began. Values, anticipations and interest of many united and effectively networking groups in Belarus and Russia were common. They quickly restored monopoly in the information sphere. Concentration of decision making power in Belarus reached unprecedented even according to soviet standards degree. Puppet structures of the state and civil society were restored: appointed parliament and regional executive power bosses, obedient trade unions, fully subsidized youth organization, powerless and flabby Soviets or local councils and even political parties. Control structures with unprecedented powers were set up to ensure sustainability of the system. Everything was done to literally follow the immortal John Lennon’s song “Power to the people”. Elections and referenda were held and it no longer mattered what people thought. Since 1994 all elections have been orchestrated and fudged. There are institutions in Belarus with familiar labels “parliament”, “local council”, “court’, “government”. In fact these are all substructures of one powerful Administration of President. It drafts laws, passes and executes them. It imposes norms and defines what just distribution of goods, fair competition, and equal conditions are.

Two basic scenarios for Belarus

Nowadays we are witnessing one of the last stages of the authoritarian state. It will evolve into an totalitarian state (monopoly on foreign trade and travel, prohibition of private ownership of mass media, ban on activities of political parties and non-affiliated with the government NGO, imprisonment of political and social activists who hold different views on national interests, civil society and social economic development. This scenario will become real and durable only under one condition: financial, resource and information support of Russia. When the regime gets about 2 bln. USD subsidies a year (general government budget is about $3,1 bln.) you can afford experimenting with central planning for a while. The other option is stagnation of the Belarusian regime, deterioration of the social economic situation, weakening of the hierarchy of power structure, social instability and decline of standard of living and finally – regime change which might take many forms. This scenario is possible if the following conditions are met: 1) Russia reconsiders its policy towards Belarus and will not recognize results of any referendum in Belarus that will allow the incumbent president to run for the third (and according to the Constitution of 1994 - for the fourth time); 2) Europe (EU, PACE, OSCE, national governments and NGOs) will finally start coordination their activities towards democratization of Belarus and bringing meaningful changes in this country; 3) all forces than do not support the government and want changes and reforms will coordinate their efforts and speak as one voice both inside and outside the country. This is quite a tricky thing as the authorities and Belarusian intelligence do their best to create pseudo-opposition, to make political parties and NGOs quarrel with one another; 4) forces, countries and institutions that are interested in bringing Belarus back to normality will launch a meaningful information campaign both inside and outside the country to tell people of Europe and to Belarusians in the first place the truth about the regime and about the alternative scenarios of political, social economic development.

Sources of sustainability of the totalitarian state

  So there are a few major political, ideological, economic and institutional reasons why the totalitarian state in Belarus in its present form has survived: 1) relatively good starting conditions and state of Belarusian economy (machine building, petrochemical plants, forestry, fertilizers and chemical goods) and steady demand for Belarusian goods of the Russian market; 2) consistent political, ideological and financial support of Russia; 3) semantic revisionism of catchy phrases and words that were used by the Belarusian new Soviets to fool the people – i. e. skillful propaganda campaign aimed at socialized collectivism minded population, at the same time there was not a single unifying national idea and national identity was weak; 4) lack of national well trained well functioning bureaucracy than would prevent continuous gross violation of law; 5) lack of national business that would be interested in sustainable development of its country and having competitive national legislation; 6) weakness of Belarusian intellectual elites that were dominant in the 1990-ies; 7) lack of experience and knowledge of political parties and undeveloped civil society structures; 8) chaotic information market and its further monopolization by the state; 9) international recognition (de facto) of the president and his actions and lack of coordination of international organizations and national governments in dealing with new forms of authoritarian and totalitarian states. Such comeback of the totalitarian state did not happen in other socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union because they did not have this unique combination of so many factors that opened the road to new forms of serfdom.  

In fact a totalitarian state can become reality in any country if pro-totalitarian collectivist forces have 1) money, 2) fanatically thirsty for power individual (or individuals) and aggressive minority that might provide street support, 3) access of mass media, 3) infrastructure to run a campaign and later to run a country; 4) dominant Marxist or other collectivist ideology among intellectual elites, 5) poor quality of government administration (corruption, inefficiencies in social security sphere etc.) and dependent judiciary system, 6) possibility of international recognition after taking power at least by one big influential country; 7) politically and economically illiterate and aging population and indifferent youth; 8) poorly developed media market and structures of the civil society.

10 steps to Freedom Society and to prevent totalitarian state from surviving

  Social economic model, political institutions and functioning market economy are unintended consequences of billions of choices that individuals make every moment for dozens if not hundreds of years. One can not instantaneously change the whole system that exists in a country. In a mature society probability of radical changes is much lower than in a country like Belarus too many people, institutions and power groups are interested in status quo. So we must concentrate on human mind if we want to gain meaningful changes and reduce chances of totalitarian state comeback to minimum. It should be noted that none of the reforms are irreversible. Each generation must build up on intellectual and ideological victories of its predecessors. I can describe a few important features of a country in which restoration of totalitarianism is the least likely. Here they are: there are fierce battles in the parliament over the size of the general budget – 10 or 11% of GDP at existing 15% of GDP constitutional limit of all government expenditures. Boards of corporations decide on the best currency for their company for the coming year as businesses work under currency competition conditions. Golden gram is one of the currencies issued by one of the biggest, most reliable private banks. It is becoming more and important means of exchange both on the national and international level. It takes a business or a person 20 minutes to fill out a tax form and send it via internet to the Tax Office. The government is holding its session in a small 40 m2 room that it rents from a private company. The prime minister is furious as the session can not begin as 3 out of 7 ministers are being late. One of the favorite topics that is discussed by people in lunch time – how to better locate pension money that are saved on their individual pension and medical accounts. Wives and husbands argue about the choice of private suppliers of energy, gas, water and other utility services. Parents and grandparents discuss whether it would be better to send a child to a private primary school with exchange program with Germany or the USA. Professors of political economy department of private universities report that out of 1000 PhD papers 95% were based on Austrian school of economics. In citation index only one student in the country referred to Keynes in a historical survey of major theoretical blunders. Rand novels Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged” are on the top of bestsellers for 58 weeks already. Media reported that one citizen of the country was stopped at the international airport of Washington D. C. as he did not have a passport. Confused US immigration officers could not believe that the Country does not issue passports and does not have any trade restrictions at all. The breaking news of one of the private TV channels is that one of the biggest private courts in the country got bankrupt as it has lost most of its clients after the corruption scandals with one of the judges.  

Many people still think that it is a fantasy, a dream that will never come true. You should never say “never”. Nothing is predetermined in social and political development. To prevent totalitarianism and to ensure sustainable, long-term development of free capitalist society we should start by designing a marketing strategy to promote and “sell” ideas of liberty in the market place of ideas and ideologies. Such massive PR-campaign requires much coordination and availability of many elements:

1.      appealing wrapping paper or a box for ideas to attract customers. Determination to become the single best supplier, libertarianism should become the Wal-Mart in the market of ideology – not a fancy boutique for single shoppers. That means that hard core philosophy, economic or political science jargon will not go. The language must me simple enough, emotional and based on real issues that people care about. It is too expensive, too ineffective and futile to use terms and words that are discredited y collectivists of all breeds and shapes. New set of terms and catchy labels should be introduced;

2.      skillful sympathetic, charming, sexy, influential trustworthy and sellers that are perceived by the target audience as fair and just. It means that anti-totalitarian forces and individuals should not preach to the convinced, be arrogant, self-conceited and like Ivory Tower representatives – hardly accessible;

3.      access to mass media with issues, presenters and alternative solutions that are appealing to people and advertisers and that increase popularity of these media;

4.      access to key policy makers of major like minded (or closest possible) political parties and NGOs to arrange public and intra-organizational debate on major policy and ideological issues;

5.      becoming a part of intellectual teams that design national and regional policies in various spheres: money, taxes, regulation, privatization, social security reform, utility reform, poverty reduction, environmental protection, youth movement, gender issues, international cooperation etc.

6.       selling students, NGOs, politicians and broader public the intellectual product they want: high quality lectures on topics they choose, books and publications in the form they like; articles on issues and in the formal they prefer. On the first stage intellectual product we sell can be a kind of a gift a big retailer gives a customer for his loyalty and money;

7.      campaign to show inferiority of alternative intellectual products: fact based, with necessary emotional underpinning and without so called “black PR-campaign tools”;

8.      a Harry Porter of philosophy of liberty should be written. It has been awhile since Rand published her novels “Fountainhead” and “Atlas shrugged”. There is strong demand for a fiction novel that would appeal to the broadest possible audience and would catalyze public debate about ideology, the place, role of the individual in a society;

9.      consistent work with potential donors (businesses or all sizes), individuals, international donor organizations. There are many issues that are common for many organizations. If you have high quality social infrastructure, well trained people and access to target groups you can be easily chosen for a partner; 10. make the best use of Belarus as a case study of the most recent failure of the totalitarian state that declared one set of goals and came to quite opposite results;   This list is far from being inclusive. It can be further expanded and elaborated upon. Each individual can start this work today. Each organization can do it too. Of course coordination and intellectual support is much needed. It is never too late to begin this work. It is never one person or one structure who is to blame that libertarianism, theory of liberty is still deep in trenches practically all over the world. We have a wonderful product in our hands. We know about its superior consumer qualities. The public using Austrian school terminology is radically ignorant about it. So if we are serious in our declared goals, if we love life and liberty, if we are ready to treat others as we wish to be treated by them, if we do not want to succumb to looters and witch doctors of new millennium collectivists we must get down to work. It is sure to be quite a rewarding experience. But facing these challenges well-armed with powerful ideas must be an exciting way to live your life.