“Totalitarianism is a new form of government, not merely an exaggerated form of tyranny or despotism. It is characterized by an all-encompassing ideology that claims to explain all of history and human nature. The totalitarian state aims to control not just behavior but thought, belief, and even the human soul.”
—
Hannah Arendt
The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), Part Three
Commentary
Arendt distinguishes totalitarianism (Nazi Germany, Soviet Union) from traditional tyranny and authoritarianism. Totalitarian regimes employ terror, propaganda, secret police, and ideology to achieve total domination of society and individual consciousness.
The totalitarian state is not merely repressive but transformative: it aims to remake human nature itself, to produce 'new men.' This unprecedented aspiration makes totalitarianism uniquely dangerous and uniquely twentieth-century.
Commentary
Arendt distinguishes totalitarianism (Nazi Germany, Soviet Union) from traditional tyranny and authoritarianism. Totalitarian regimes employ terror, propaganda, secret police, and ideology to achieve total domination of society and individual consciousness.
The totalitarian state is not merely repressive but transformative: it aims to remake human nature itself, to produce 'new men.' This unprecedented aspiration makes totalitarianism uniquely dangerous and uniquely twentieth-century.