Hannah Arendt's Views On A Totalitarian Government

Hannah Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism Views on a Totalitarian Government

Governmental issues are rising in our nation, especially recently with the presidential race being in session. Republicans and democrats are discussing and even arguing about which candidate would be most fitting for the seat of the President of the United States. The United States is not considered a totalitarian government but described as totalitarianism. “Bearing in mind that totalitarianism is first and foremost about power, we can see that the ideas of imagination and of the imaginary, while pointing toward the fanciful, are power-laden terms, striking because they seem to join power, fantasy, and unreality.” (Wolin) This is what this country is supposed to
There is an idea that totalitarian governments are bad and should be removed everywhere and replace it with totalitarianism. “The contention of this book is thus that the notion of totalitarianism, far from being an effective theoretical concept, is kind of a stopgap: instead of enabling us to think, forcing us to acquire a new insight into the historical reality it describes, it relieves us of the duty to think, or even actively prevents us from thinking.” (Zizek) Our government in the US makes our decisions basically, however we still get the freedom to do what we please for the most part. The difference in a totalitarian government is the fact that they are usually ruled by a dictator and what freedoms does that give a person? They do not get to think on their own like Zizek said, they might even be prevented from thinking on their
There must be a reason they still exist. “Autocracy is therefore not ‘in itself’ bad; it has worked over long periods of time, and the question of its value now is its workability, as well as the ideological considerations just enumerated. Totalitarian dictatorship may, in a preliminary characterization, be called an autocracy based upon modern technology and mass legitimation.” (Friedrich) This is a very good point. Although it may seem like a terrible way to live, especially coming from a totalitarianism view, maybe it isn’t so bad. LIke Friedrich said, it has lasted over a long period of time. A new idea that some don’t always think of is that maybe it’s not the type of government that a country uses, but who is ruling that country. If you have a good leader, then it shouldn’t matter what type of government is being