The Origins of Totalitarianism

In Chapter 8, Arendt introduced the idea of the pan-movements which act as a bridge between imperialism and totalitarianism. Inspired by the ability of imperialism to cross national lines, as well as its lawless enactment of power, pan-movements sought to unify peoples across nations. These movements united people across the continent through antisemitism and racism.

The end of World War I left many countries in a difficult situation, and the rise of stateless people left many feeling disenfranchised and isolated. Pan-movements capitalized on these feelings by promoting racist ideologies which gave people a sense of belonging and purpose. Arendt argues that pan-movements, like their totalitarian successors, used racism as a tool for control through perpetual motion and unification. These pan-movements introduced the idea of tribal nationalism, an emotional appeal that emphasized loyalty to one’s tribe over all else and emphasized mood over agenda. Tribal nationalists feel an allegiance that Arendt asserts is related to a type of religious fervor.

The 17th-century English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes explored how individuals pursued their interests through the exertion of power. Hobbes believed that Man owed nothing to his nation, and that the government existed to protect Man’s private securities. These ideas contributed to the imperialistic notion that there was a morality to dominating entire people groups in pursuit of personal wealth. The bourgeoisie took these concepts and used them to exert violent control over other nations in Africa, Egypt, and elsewhere.

In Chapter 9, Arendt details the origins of the Rights of Man, i.e., human rights. The phrase Rights of Man originates with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, affirmed in 1789 by the French National Assembly, and which appeared later as the preface to the 1791 French Constitution. Arendt adds several additional rights she believes are needed, including the right to asylum. According to Arendt, the loss of the right to asylum is an indicator of danger to come.

Arendt also introduces the idea of the right to community in this chapter. Hobbes also perpetuated the idea that communities could be easily destroyed and that loyalty to a community was in direct contrast to Man’s initial purpose. Hobbes’s philosophies provided an ideological bedrock for imperialism and the destruction of communities both within the nation-state and within those nations that imperialists sought to dominate. By placing man’s individual needs above collective interest, the pursuit of wealth and power can be justified by any means necessary. As a result, community is demolished, and isolation and loneliness reign.

In Part 3, Arendt argues that loneliness is the reason why the masses succumb to the ideologies of totalitarian movements. Throughout her work, she emphasizes the importance of community. In Chapter 9, she writes:

The calamity of the rightless is not that they are deprived of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, or of equality before the law and freedom of opinion—formulas which were designed to solve problems within given communities—but that they no longer belong to any community whatsoever (295).

Stateless people were deprived of their community, meaning that they were not able to act or hold an opinion upon which they could act in an organized way with others. National citizens felt that their community was being threatened by the rise of stateless people. These losses and failures of community led to feelings of isolation, which then led to individual feelings of loneliness that left those individuals vulnerable to the ideologies perpetuated by totalitarian movements.

Arendt suggests that the right to community is the foundation upon which all other rights are formed. Without community, all other rights are stripped away. Arendt writes that concentration camps are the ultimate stripping of the right of community. Camps create “a condition of complete rightlessness” (296).