Totalitarianism Is Totalitarianism Is Totalitarianism

Recently I watched the film/doco Orwell: 2+2=5 which doesn’t stop at simply documenting Orwell’s life or his novels (the two most famous being 1984 and Animal Farm.) The film illustrates that the recent rise of totalitarianism in a number of countries are instances of exactly what Orwell was warning about in the writing of his novels. In discussing this film one person commented that there are a degrees of totalitarianism.

That comment reminded me of the 1913 poem by Gertrude Stein, Sacred Emily.

One of the lines in that poem is widely known and frequently cited. It reads,

‘A rose is a rose is a rose.

So too, I thought, is totalitarianism.

Totalitarianism is totalitarianism is totalitarianism.

There are no degrees. Just as murder is murder, totalitarianism is totalitarianism.

Okay, okay, I hear the retort. What about murder in the first degree, and murder in the second degree? What distinguishes one from the other? First-degree murder is pre-meditated, intentional and deliberate. Second-degree murder is unplanned, but still intentional. Second-degree murders are often those committed in the “heat of passion.” Both are murder.

Does such distinction apply to totalitarianism?

It would be hard to argue that totalitarianism is unplanned or that it occurs in a moment of heated passion.

But, what is totalitarianism? The term itself was coined in the early 1920s to describe Italian fascism under Mussolini. The word totalitarian derives from the Italian totalità meaning totally with the suffix arian being a reference to the word authoritarian. So, in essence, totalitarianism is total authoritarianism. It is a word of dominance, oppression, and tyranny. As a political ideology it has been studied many times by philosophers, political theorists, historians, and others. The most common features that these studies attribute to totalitarianism include:

• Centralised government and control of the State.
• A dictatorial approach.
• Requirement of subservience to the State.
• Use of State terrorism.
• State control of mass communication and monopoly of the media.
• Display of an overbearing arrogance to others, especially those deemed to be enemies of the State.
• A one-party State.
• A charismatic dictator who holds power for powers sake.

Not all these characteristics need be present to qualify a system as totalitarian. Absence of one or two of these does not make a system a second-degree or third-degree totalitarian one.

There are no degrees of totalitarianism.

One of those who undertook a lot of research into totalitarianism was Hannah Arendt. She noted that totalitarianism, and its charismatic leader, provided people with a simplistic and comforting worldview about complex social issues.

Another writer was Wilhelm Reich who wrote The Mass Psychology of Fascism in 1932 just as Hitler was coming to power and then updated it in 1944. Reich suggested that fascism arose out of patriarchal systems already existing in society. Patriarchy, Reich theorised, prepared children to obey and revere a harsh and dominant leader.

By fusing these two theories (Arendt’s comforting worldview, and Reich’s patriarchal roots) George Orwell composed his two classic novels: Animal Farm in 1945 and 1984 in 1949.

It would seem that Orwell’s warnings went unheeded, for totalitarianism seems to have been given a kick-start again in many parts of the world.

We cannot and must not allow totalitarianism to take root. If it does, it must be uprooted.

I began this blogpiece with a reference to a poem about roses. I will finish with another well-known quotation related to roses. This time from William Shakespeare and his play Romeo and Juliet:

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Applying this to totalitarianism:

Totalitarianism by any other name would smell as repugnant.