THE TOTALITARIAN
THREAT

Joseph Goebbels asked the crowd in an infamous speech in 1942:

"Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today?"

The crowd answered in ecstasy: "YES!"

CONTENTS (bookmarks)

| What is totalitarianism? | Power fractions in totalitarian states | The totalitarian mechanisms |

| Totalitarianism in a wider sense | What triggers totalitarianism? |

 

Next to nuclear war and new plagues, totalitarianism is the biggest threat to modern civilisation. It endangers important values and concepts such as freedom, peace, justice, humanism, individualism, art, religion, science and progress.

 

WHAT IS TOTALITARIANISM?

To put it simply, totatlitarianism was the political system enforced in Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, Josef Stalin's Soviet Union, Mao Ze Dong's People's Republic of China, Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea and Kim Il Sung's North Korea, to mention some real nightmare examples. 

Obviously, totalitarian rule is based on radical and anti-democratic ideologies, basically fascism and communism, but it is more to it than that. Totalitarianism is the result of a revolution gone wretched; not a rare thing throughout history, unfortunately. The ideology, which might have been radical and dynamic in the past, soon becomes rigid and reactionary. The visionary madmen are not the real danger, but the cadres of ordinary men with a desire to exercise personal power. Hitler would not have been able to achieve anything without Göring, Bormann, Goebbles, Himmler and Heydrich, to mention a few Nazi coryphaei. 

In a totalitarian society, the regime strive to control everything, literally. In order to obtain this total control, the regime restrict the individual freedom of the citizen dramatically and actively try to manipulate his thoughts and beliefs. Where a conventional dictatorship just demands obediance and silence, the totalitarian dictatorship also demands co-operation and commitment. All social functions — education, work, spare-time activities — are politicised to one degree or another. The regime even restrict personal matters like sexuality, marriage and family, and sometimes even oppose them as they undermine the citizen's loyalty to the state. The citizens are usually not allowed to travel freely and not even allowed to learn other languages in order to close the society hermetically.

In all totalitarian states, mass media and cultural institutions are merely propaganda extensions of the regime. Key industries and national resources are directly or indirectly controlled by the state, not seldom for military purposes. Sometimes the trade and industry sectors co-operate voluntarily with the regime, which was the case in both Hitler's Third Reich and Mussolini's Italy. The control of the police and army is essential and the fulfilment of ideological goals is given first priority within these organisations. Every single aspect of the society is integrated in a total solution, the new order.To quote Benito Mussolini:

All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.

A significant feature of totalitarian societies is the brutal repression, actually the worst examples in modern history. The citizens are often closely monitored in totalitarian states. In DDR, for instance, the secret police Stasi and their invisible army of informers literally watched the whole population. The judicial system is either non-exist, ignored or designed to fit the needs of the regime. Imprisonment without trial, torture, summary executions, mass deportations, forced labour camps and annihilation camps have been common in most totalitarian states.

At a certain point, the terror becomes almost random, which was the case in Stalin's Soviet Union and Pol Pot's Democratic Kampuchea. In a way, repressing dissidents becomes more important than ruling the country.

 

POWER FRACTIONS IN TOTALITARIAN STATES

Like a conventional dictatorship, the totalitarian dictatorship has one-party rule and not even fractions within the party are tolerated. The leader of the party is the absolute ruler, idolised and infallible. The party bureaucracy constitute the elite; the amount of party members is usually limited to 5-15 % of the population. Membership is often a prerequisite for any kind of white-collar career. Furthermore, Party members are supposed to follow the official party ideology, as interpreted by the leader, slavishly. The bureaucracy tend to have a military-like organization and own para-military corps.

The regime controls the people with the police, especially the secret police. This elite force usually have almost unlimited authorities and basically stands above the law. They can use any methods they find suitable, which include wire-tapping, torture, deportation, assassination etc. Everyone but the very top-ranking leaders are potential targets of their terror. In many cases, it has been difficult to determine whether it is the leaders in the Party bureaucracy or the secret police who have the ultimate power. In some totalitarian states, there is just one powerful secret police, e.g. the USSR (GPU/NKVD/MGB/KGB), while there are several competing secret police forces in others, e.g. the Third Reich (Gestapo, Sipo, SD etc.). All police forces, including military police, are usually integrated in an umbrella organization, which enables the leader to control the police more easily.

A totalitarian regime are completely dependent on support from the armed forces of the country and usually obtain it; totalitarian states tend to spend an unproportionally high percentage of the GNP on military production. Consequently, it is impossible or at least very difficult to over-throw a totalitarian regime with open violence. As the party ideology always is expansive and aggressive, totalitarian states usually try to export their political system and often get involved in armed conflicts with other states. As a result, the regime becomes even more dependant on support from the army. Sooner or later, totalitarian states becomes militaristic and nationalistic, even communist states which officially support Marxist theory. In fascist states, war has been a goal in itself. In 1932, Mussolini wrote an entry in the Italian Encyclopedia on the definition of fascism:

Fascism [...] believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace. It thus repudiates the doctrine of Pacifism — born of a renunciation of the struggle and an act of cowardice in the face of sacrifice. War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the people who have courage to meet it. All other trials are substitutes, which never really put men into the position where they have to make the great decision — the alternative of life or death....

It is symptomatic for totalitarian states to blur the line between police and army; military forces can be used for law enforcement and police forces can be used in armed conflicts.

There are of course other important power fractions — the forced labor camp top management, the propaganda department, the industrial sector, the youth organizations etc. — but they can only exercise economical and political power, not raw power backed up with violence and threats. The three pillars of totalitarian terror are always the same: party, police, army.

A significant feature of the totalitarian state is the frequent purges. It goes without saying paranoia prospers in a society based on violence and threats, especially in the ruling class. Power struggles, personal vendettas and even mere envy are solved by neutralising the opponent. Sometimes the victims gets framed with false accusations and goes through a staged trial, sometimes the victim simply gets arrested and sent to a concentration camp or executed. One of the most brutal purges is the so-called Night of the Long Knives. Basically, all important Sturmabteilung (SA) leaders where murded in one night in order to calm the Wermacht generals.

Of course, the victims of purges have to be replaced. Usually, younger party members — which not seldom has a modest background and lack the requested competence — are chosen. Consequently, they become grateful to the regime and execute their assignments with fervency and exactitude. In a wretched way, the purges render totalitarian systems vitality and dynamics, which cannot be obtained otherwise. Totalitarian systems are often stiff and clumsy, and incompetent leaders cannot easily be removed. I think George Orwell captures the essential weakness of totalitarianism in the following extract from an essay:

The immediate cause of the German defeat was the unheard-of folly of attacking USSR, while Britain was still undefeated and America was manifestly getting ready to fight. Mistakes of this magnitude can only be made, or at any rate they are most likely to be made, in countries where public opinion has no power. So long as the common man can get a hearing, such elementary rules as not fighting all your enemies simultaneously are less likely to be violated.

 

THE TOTALITARIAN MECHANISMS

The engine of the totalitarian state seems to be the common man's hunger for personal power. Power is often exercised for its own sake and not seldom in destructive manners; rank is one of few true priviligies in totalitarian states. As Inner Party member O'Brien puts it in Nineteen Eighty-four: 

We are the priests of power. [...] Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. 

It is almost like power becomes more important than life itself; it becomes more important than ideological principles for sure.

Power is often expressed through privilegies and wealth, even in communist states. However miserable life may be in a totalitarian state, the ruling class make sure their lives are the least miserable. Corruption is common on all levels and the party elite wallow in luxuries. For instance, Stalin's standard of living was remarkably extravagant and probably exceded most Western presidents' and kings'. Milan Simecka, a dissident in communist Czechoslovakia, suggests in Our Comrade Winston Smith that this is the fundamental principle of totalitarian systems: the hunger for the fruits of power. Comfort, luxuries and other expressions of materialism have always been the engine in societies throughout history and why should totalitarian societies be different?

Totalitarian societies are more materialistic than other societies, even extreme consumption societies like USA. Creative arts and religion are restricted or even surpressed; utilitarianism and pragmatism leaven all through the totalitarian society. There are no such things as art or beauty as we know it, only insipid Party buildings and propaganda statues. Physical strength is idolised, athletics and body culture is encouraged. It is not a coincidence the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China have been so successful in various sports.

The most extreme examples of body culture can be found in the Third Reich. For instance, a Schutzstaffeln (SS) membership required a certain length and a proportional body constitution, but no intelligence level or education. Contrary to popular belief, few SS members made any decent career, neither military nor civilian. A perfect example of this incompetence is Waffen-SS; it is true they did accomplish most of their tasks with extra-ordinary efficiency, but their casulties were the highest in the whole German army.

 

HEINRICH HIMMLER (1900-1945)

Creator and engineer of the SS death machinery. A minimum of 12 million people were summary executed by special death squads or tormented to death in the concentration camps under his command.

 

Idealists and visionaries, however faithful to the ideology, are bound to be swept away in purges. Totalitarian societies are characterised by die-hard bigotry and calculating hipocracy, which severely handicaps the state in the long run. The devastating Soviet defeats during 1941 can partially be explained by the fact that few commander dared to utilise mobile warfare, as Stalin personally prefered static defense strategies. The most ridiculous and at the same time most horrifying example of ideological bigotry is the Nazis' denial of an objective truth: they made a distinction between "Jewish" and "German" science. Consequently, the Third Reich's nuclear programme was a disaster. Obviously, two plus two can make five, just like in Nineteen Eighty-four.

It goes without saying that in a society which such poor moral stature, a human life is basically worth nothing. Ordinary citizens are either regarded as cannon-fodder, production assets or enemies of the state.

 

TOTALITARIANISM IN A WIDER SENSE

In a wider sense, totalitarianism does not have to equal fascism or communism. The keyword is "total". 

For instance, Imperial Japan was totally militarised, even more than the Third Reich; the efforts of the Japanese people during World War II is debatedly the only case of true total war. Another example: Iran after the religious revolution is a total theocracy; the laws of the Koran are applied on all social and societal functions. As a paranthesis, there are actually some laws — profanel, not Koranic — in Iran which contains the word "thoughtcrime". Such societies are probably best described as semi-totalitarian or crypto-totalitarian.

Furthermore, it might be proper to make a distinction between "soft" and "hard" totalitarianism. Mussolini's Italy and Castro's Cuba, for instance, are definitely totalitarian, but cannot really be compared to the Third Reich or the Soviet Union. As another example, Iraq is probably a much more dangerous society to live in than People's Republic of China. The real terror begins when the ruling class becomes paranoid and the repression becomes murderous.

There are degrees of totalitariansim, but when it becomes difficult to distinguish the demands of the government, the course of the state and everyday life of the common man, a society is in real danger of becoming a living nightmare, no matter how "soft" the rule.

It is sometimes said that USA has totalitarian tendencies, but that is not really true. Yes, USA is more materialistic, nationalistic and militaristic than other Western countries and undoubtedly less democratic, but there is one important difference: it is not intentional; it has happened spontaneously. Totalitarian regimes always have a deliberate purpose with everything they do, whoever trivial it may seem.

 

WHAT TRIGGERS TOTALITARIANISM?

Totalitarianism, as manifested by fascism and communism, is the result of wealth gaps, social unrest and political chaos. All totalitarian societies have been preceded by turbulence to one degree or another: the October revolution in Russia, the Weimar republic in Germany, the Japanese occupation of China etc. When the state is weak and uncapable, all kinds of groups try to take advantage of the situation: criminals, capitalists, nationalists, militarists, anarchists, fascists, communists and so on and so forth. Militarist, fascist and communist groups have proven to be superior in such situations throughout modern history, as they usually are better organised and totally unscrupulous.

Every single totalitarian society has also been proceded by a war or lingering effects of a war. Obviously, an armed conflict entails a strong sense of unsecurity and a dramatic lowering of the standard of living. The people long for stability and wealth, which both fascist and communist groups always claim they can accomplish. In most cases the national pride has been hurt too: the French occupation of the Ruhr area in Germany, the Western interference in the Russian Civil War, the Japanese occupation of China and Korea, the American bombings of viet cong bases in Cambodia etc. This might explain why totalitarian states tend to be nationalistic and protective.

Finally, people tend to underestimate radical and anti-democratic movements. Many people did not take Hitler seriously, and disapointed army officers, greedy corporate leaders and opportunistic politicians thought they could use him for their own purposes. Obviously, members of fascist and communist movements believe they will be the winners after the revolution. They better think again, though. Totalitarianism is a lethal lottery and even the most cunning and ruthless men have ended up in concentration camps.

Note: My appologies to Czech and Slovak readers for misspelling Simecka's name. I simply don't know how to make special symbols work in all browsers.