ABSTRACT
Civil society is where we can keep alive, or revive, the public realm by gathering people together—out of their isolation—to talk and work together in active participation in a pluralist society. In a complex society, the active participation required by the exchange of stories can be a way of reclaiming the spaces in-between people, and equally, in-between diverse cultures and identities. It is clearly a normal and adaptive response to the atomization of society to make attempts to affiliate with others. The task at hand is to both continue deepening the research, but, perhaps more importantly, to tackle the problem of disseminating this knowledge in order to strengthen society’s defenses against the threatening forces of totalism. Individuals and society as a whole must learn to identify the features and methods of totalism and brainwashing, and have the means to both call attention to them and hold totalist leaders and groups accountable for their abusive activities.
