What is it that makes totalitarianism so novel and so demonic? To Arendt totalitarianism is the total domination of a people through a combination of simplistic ideology and constant terror. This is quite a claim - and for those of us who are amateurs in the field of political science, accustomed to using tyranny, fascism, dictatorship, and totalitarianism interchangeably - something of a shock. It is not just another form of tyranny, although there are similarities, but a unique and novel development, indeed, the ultimate tyranny. It is Arendt’s claim in The Origins of Totalitarianism that totalitarianism is a new form of government, ushered onto the stage of history with the regimes of Josef Stalin and Adolph Hitler. The recognized forms of government are few in number and have been much the same ever since the Greeks analyzed and classified them to include monarchy, oligarchy, democracy, republic, and despotism. Campbell Chapter 3: Totalitarianism: The Annihilation of Action
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |