quotations about totalitarianism
Even though Christ Himself would not deliver us from the power of the Totalitarian State, as He did not deliver Himself, we must see His purpose in it all. Maybe his children are being persecuted by the world in order that they might withdraw themselves from the world. Maybe His most violent enemies may be doing His work negatively, for it could be the mission of totalitarianism to preside over the liquidation of a modern world that became indifferent to God and His moral laws.
FULTON J. SHEEN
Characters of the Passion: Lessons on Faith and Trust
From the totalitarian point of view history is something to be created rather than learned.... Totalitarianism demands, in fact, the continuous alteration of the past, and in the long run probably demands a disbelief in the very existence of objective truth.
GEORGE ORWELL
Books v. Cigarettes
True totalitarians are celebrated as the embodiment of the people, so much so that they are granted the authority to shape those people from above, overriding any purported rights that individual persons might have.
CHARLES ROSENBERGER
"Religion and Totalitarianism", Learn Liberty, April 14, 2017
That's essentially what totalitarianism is -- a small inner group that dictates what everybody else will do and they take it or leave it.
CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
"Psychologist Philip Zimbardo of the Stanford Prison Experiment: Donald Trump is an 'unconstrained, unbridled present hedonist'", Salon, April 6, 2017
The reassurance that totalitarianism is unsustainable may reassure some in the current political climate -- though it's worth remembering the often lengthy time-frame, and the casualties.
CLAIRE FALLON
"Margaret Atwood Just Schooled Us All On What '1984' Is Really About", Huffington Post, May 10, 2017
Surely one thing to be learned from the lapsed totalitarian system was the unwholesome relationship between the cult of the masses and the adoration of the supreme personality.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports
Historically, one can observe that, even during the lives of those totalitarian regimes which have asserted the supremacy of the party, a 'personalisation' of power has occurred, leading to the political liquidation of the party as a centre in the formation of choices and decisions, as these become the privilege of the leader.
EMILIO GENTILE
"Fascism, Totalitarianism and Political Religion: Definitions and Critical Reflections on Criticism of an Interpretation", Fascism, Totalitarianism and Political Religion
A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state.
ISABEL PATERSON
The God of the Machine
Totalitarian government is unique in seeking to kill the juridical person in man through arbitrary arrests; to murder the moral person in man by killing him behind barbed wire and depriving him of a meaningful death; and to annihilate the uniqueness of the human person by transforming him into an animal.
ROGER BERKOWITZ
"Why Arendt Matters: Revisiting 'The Origins of Totalitarianism'", L.A. Review of Books, March 18, 2017
And it was not merely tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, but hundreds of millions of people who were the obedient witnesses of this slaughter of the innocent. Nor were they merely obedient witnesses: when ordered to, they gave their support to this slaughter, voting in favour of it amid a hubbub of voices. There was something unexpected in their degree of obedience.... The extreme violence of the totalitarian social systems proved able to paralyse the human spirit throughout whole continents.
VASILY GROSSMAN
Life and Fate
No matter how thoroughly they control a system, disorder invariably leaks into it. Then the managers panic, rush to plug the leak and endeavor to tighten the controls. Therefore, totalitarianism grows in viciousness and scope.
TOM ROBBINS
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Totalitarianism is not a political goal for anybody of relevance in Western politics.
DAVE RICH
"Where Is Steve Bannon on the Fascism-nationalism Spectrum?", Haaretz, February 22, 2017
Regardless of the specific contents of the ideology on which it is based, every totalitarianism is always all about possession, the possession of human lives even to the point of their ultimate consumption. Its insatiable appetite for consumption extends inevitably -- if it is really totalitarianism -- to the conquering of the entire human race. It is thus essentially expansionist, in a way that the old empires never were, for it seeks to expand not only in time and space, but even into the interior space of the human spirit.
TADEUSZ BUKSINSKI & DARIUSZ DOBRZANSKI
Eastern Europe and the Challenges of Globalization
One of the things about totalitarianism is that people disappear, and you can't find out what happened to them.
MARGARET ATWOOD
"Margaret Atwood Is Still Seeing the Future", The Ringer, April 27, 2017
In totalitarian states, one of the first features of public life to be deformed is public assembly. In time, all instances of public assembly--artistic, religious, sporting, festive--are recast as celebrations of the leader.
CHRISTOPHER LEBRON
"What Totalitarianism Looks Like", Boston Review, January 28, 2017
Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders. ... The Goliath of totalitarianism will be brought down by the David of the microchip.
RONALD REAGAN
The Guardian, June 14, 1989
In a totalitarian state, the will of rulers is effectively superior and morally preferable to the sense and sensibility of citizens, and all state instruments are mobilized to secure this claimed superiority. Under these conditions, the people become an agglomeration, a political organism, sustaining a regime that does not perceive any obligation to reciprocate. Indeed, such regimes insist that the duty of citizens is simply to obey, while the duty of rulers is to express their power.
CHRISTOPHER LEBRON
"What Totalitarianism Looks Like", Boston Review, January 28, 2017
If you fear totalitarians, don't fear the priest; his influence is long diminished.
CHARLES ROSENBERGER
"Religion and Totalitarianism", Learn Liberty, April 14, 2017
Because religious authority has traditionally been paired with the worldly power in a system of checks and balances, we only see totalitarianism itself arise in cases where one of the two sides has been swept away.
CHARLES ROSENBERGER
"Religion and Totalitarianism", Learn Liberty, April 14, 2017
Perhaps one of the most under-acknowledged elements of totalitarianism ... is the rise to political and social power of a corrupt business and governing class as well as a class of intellectuals that find corruption funny rather than outrageous.
ROGER BERKOWITZ
"Why Arendt Matters: Revisiting 'The Origins of Totalitarianism'", L.A. Review of Books, March 18, 2017