It was also, according to both Casspi and Schottenstein, about changing American impressions of the country, particularly the "super-totalitarian, apartheid image," which Schottenstein dismissed as "bogus".
I saw the pre-fascist zeitgeist expressed in Lady Gaga, in the Dadaism and German Expressionism of her music videos and image, especially in the totalitarian stylings of "Alejandro".
It framed the little most of us knew about the country, cementing, or perhaps creating, the image of China as a totalitarian country where people lack personal freedom.
Traditionally, the West has been resistant to the hyperbolic image, associating it with inflated egos and totalitarian monuments.
Their image is of a virtuous victim of totalitarian brutality, coupled with stereotypes about the enigmatic serenity of the East.
"The image of the country is of a totalitarian regime, no freedom of the press, no human rights, high corruption," said the group's executive director, Irina Gagarina, not bothering to dispute a single allegation.
This is one of the reasons why totalitarian systems prefer to dictate through double bind-communication.
This conjures images of police states or the worst totalitarian regimes in which the government and centralization of authority are more important than individual people.
Realizing that their image needed bolstering, the Saudis did what troubled totalitarian regimes the world over do: They hired a PR firm and a gang of high-powered Washington lobbyists.
Backroom technicians in totalitarian darkrooms removed unwanted faces from pictures and turned emotive images into posters.
