The Origins of Totalitarianism

In Chapter 11, Arendt explores the power and necessity of propaganda for the totalitarian movement. Propaganda, paired with terror, exert power, control, and influence. However, as was true with imperialism, terror can only reach so far. Propaganda was found to be highly effective and far-reaching.

In concentration camps, there was no need for propaganda. Totalitarian regimes found that the ideas of propaganda only confused the purpose; therefore, in concentration camps, only force was used. Outside of their totalitarian reach, however, Nazis flaunted their violent prowess, making it clear to other nations that they had power. They admitted political crimes publicly and rejected intellectuals and scientists.

Arendt suggests that the efficacy of these tactics proved that facts do not sway the masses; consistency does. Totalitarian governments establish a fiction the masses can consume through “a lying world of consistency” (353). Arendt also theorized that the masses cling to the fiction offered to them by totalitarian propaganda to escape the truth. Nazi propaganda focused on a story of Jewish conspiracy which capitalized on the race-thinking and antisemitism of the previous eras. The Nazi party succeeded in linking, in the minds of the masses, every social ill with the Jewish people. The goal was not to persuade people to view Jews in a particular way necessarily but to organize people within the movement using a shared set of ideals.

Totalitarian governments develop a unique hierarchical organization which places not just the leader but the idea of the leader at its top. It creates a wall which separates party members from the masses. The leader must be able to handle his inner circle, gain and retain loyalty, and maintain public interest with the use of secrets and rituals. 

Chapter 12 examines what happens to a totalitarian regime once it has seized power. Arendt suggests that totalitarian governments face a unique paradox because they must maintain the momentum of the movement and its consistency using a framework of everyday government while avoiding a normalization which would undermine the ideology of the necessity of totalitarianism. Totalitarian rulers must rule without giving the impression of governmental rule.

According to Arendt, all totalitarian governments seek to bring into reality the aims of the movements themselves, which is world domination. She asserts that Nazi and Bolshevik literature reveal that these governments based their decisions upon the assumption that, at some point in the future, their aim would be achieved. Therefore, totalitarian rulers must find a way to balance the goal of domination with everyday governance, all while avoiding the stability that would render the movement itself no longer necessary.

Arendt outlines how Stalin and Hitler accomplished this. Stalin erected a shadow government and established the secret police, while Hitler created parallel offices for every government office, stripping the original of any power. Hitler also created other offices which rose to power in the hierarchy of government, including one which pursued scientific antisemitism.

The nature of totalitarianism makes it difficult to declare a leader’s successor; yet totalitarianism is only successful through the dynamism of its leader. A totalitarian dictator must lie while exuding both callousness and competence. The secret police, Arendt shows, is a highly effective way of managing this because the organization of the secret police shifts the way society views criminals and crime. In contrast, concentration camps serve as the realized dream of totalitarian rule. Arendt outlines the horror of concentration camps and urges confronting that horror rather than turning away from it. Arendt believes that the fear of these camps might inoculate people from another totalitarian rule. 

Arendt suggests that totalitarianism in Germany and Russia were not isolated incidents; totalitarianism is the story of mankind. The acquisition of power lies at the heart of mankind’s struggle, and the retention of that power through fear has always been a part of government. Arendt suggests that the narrative of Nazi and Stalinist totalitarian movements hearkens to the age-old story of mankind. However, she also suggests that totalitarian movements are ultimately unsustainable. Continuous movement is so important that there is no finality or stasis to a totalitarian rule. Arendt cites the example of a government based upon the killing of peoples. Even if world domination is achieved and all humans are the subject of this totalitarian movement, the killing would have to continue. Totalitarian movements are only successful so long as they are in motion.

The perfect image of totalitarianism is one in which all men become One Man, and terror is the only operation needed to maintain order and motion and everything is else is guided by ideology. Arendt identifies three totalitarian elements in ideologies. First, like totalitarian rule, ideologies are about motion. They look to history and to the future but rarely say anything about the present. They must constantly be in motion and perpetuate the idea that they are, at their core, a movement which requires activism. Second, ideologies are not connected to reality. They are more concerned with mood, and the movements must continue to project the mood of their ideologies over the reality of experience. Totalitarian rulers use fiction to give a sense of consistency. Third, ideologies are powerless; they cannot alter reality. They are ideas that lack the ability to act.

Arendt ends the book by re-examining a question brought up in the first chapter—that is, the question of what conditions cause men to seek out and be ruled by ideology and terror. Arendt’s answer is isolation and loneliness. Through isolation, people are separated and therefore powerless. Through loneliness, they feel deserted to such a degree that they lose their sense of self. Arendt asserts that loneliness is the greatest contributing factor to whether individuals will succumb to the ideologies of totalitarianism and absorb into the masses. She cautions that loneliness has become a widespread problem. She ends on a positive note, however, by stating that each ending gives rise to a new beginning, securing hope that the end of the Nazi and Bolshevik movements may give rise to an era which eradicates the loneliness that fostered the movements in the first place.