Preview

Hannah Arendt's Total Domination: Why Totalitarianism is Scary Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
486 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Hannah Arendt's Total Domination: Why Totalitarianism is Scary Essay Example
Total Domination
Hannah Arendt is the author of “total domination” that is one part of last chapter in the Origins of Totalitarianism. In Arendt’s essay “Total Domination”, she uses thesis to support her opinion that totalitarianism is a scary system and totalitarian leadership should never be used. However, in some facts, I disagree with Arendt’s statement that she mentions in essay.
In the beginning of Arendt’s essay, she states:
“The concentration and extermination camps of totalitarian regimes serve as the laboratories in which the fundamental belief of totalitarianism that everything is possible is being verified (124)”
Form that, we can understand clearly that Arendt assumes the purpose of the camps constructed in every regime and the main role of all camps in all totalitarian states are to instill the fundamental ideals of totalitarianism.
Secondly, Hannah Arendt mentions that “these camps are the true central institution of totalitarian organizational power (125)”. In this statement, I realized that the totalitarian government had no power without concentration camps. Also, without it, the totalitarian leadership was not insignificant. When I looked at back this statement, I was thinking about what a totalitarian government was and consisted to people.
Additionally, I disagree with Arendt’s opinion with one thing is the difference between the murder and the mass occurred in concentration camps.
“The murder who kills a man-a man who has to die anyway-still moves within the realm of life and death familiar to us (129)”, “The murder leaves a corpse behind and does not pretend that victim has never existed…he destroyed a life, but he does not destroy the fact of existence itself (120)”. When a murder kills someone, they take away a person’s life, but they don’t destroy the fact they existed. Then, she went to explain how what the Nazis did was different: “ However, I think that it does not matter whether a person kills another of thousands. The

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Arendt believes that Eichmann only participated in the Holocaust and carrying out the Nazi’s regime regarding the Final Solution as because it could’ve helped him with his career. In this case it turned out to be true as Eichmann had been promoted as a commander of death camp. Eichmann himself contends that the only reason why he committed the crimes he had been accused of was because he had been told to do so. To others Eichmann was an evil man, but to Eichmann he believed he did nothing wrong. In his eyes he believed that he was being a good citizen by following the Fuhrer’s orders. However, though he later on admitted that he could have backed out like many others had done, but he thought such a step as this was “inadmissible,” and even when he was in court didn’t think it was “admirable”; to him it would’ve meant no more to switch another well-paying job. This turned out to be true as Arendt pointed out that Eichmann could have made the choice on whether to participate or not in innocent people being killed. It was because of Eichmann’s unwillingness to say “NO” that helped facilitate millions of people dying, and in the end he would ultimately pay the price for that with his own life.…

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the course of my essay, I will attempt to clarify the meaning of totalitarianism, briefly analyze a dictatorial mind and its weapons; highlight a few historical as well as present-day examples of oligarchic governance and offer an in-depth analysis of the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell as well as the novel Nineteen Eighty Four by the same author while relating it to the topic of discussion. My personal opinion has also been included.…

    • 1590 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Duckwitz Research Papers

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages

    During the Nazi trade of Lithuania a German Sergeant, Anton Schmid, disobeyed his superior officers and saved 250 Jewish man, females, and children. In Buchenwald a four-year-old-fashioned lad, Joseph Schleifstein, survived the horrors of the KZ cantonment, covert from the Nazis until liberation. By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been quell by the Nazis. At the end of a seven-Time back-breaking trip in the inactive of hiems, the SS guards completely situation the two assurance cattle-cars with their earthling freight at the gates of Brunnlitz. - Louis Bümound. It seems as though there is no beau of human thing, no play of humankind, to lighten that mysterious annals. In Auschwitz the missionary Jane Haining reject to deny her goats and showed herself to be a saintling. In 1933 approximately nine million Jews lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be occupied by Germany during the hostility. She was murdered in the qualifier chambers. “Oh, bless you so much. Emilie Schindler was just in time to suspend the SS camp commandant from emit the train…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She comments on the “principle of action,” as the twin criteria of organization. She also comments on the difference between “lawful” and “lawless.” “Arendt argues that Western political thought has customarily distinguished between ‘lawful’ and ‘lawless’, or ‘constitutional’ and ‘tyrannical’ forms of government” (Dietz) Arendt reveals that terror is at the core of a totalitarian government and that terror is based on ideology. Arendt uses two types of governments to prove a point; fascist Germany and communist Russia. These governments are very controlling and difficult to live in, like totalitarian governments. She clears up the fact that totalitarian governments are not run by tyranny. She explains that even though it seems as if tyranny could be the only way a government would be run like that, that it wasn’t. Having first hand experiences with a type of totalitarian government makes her arguments very…

    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Habermas feels that Hannah Arendt conceptualizes the idea of power as a force that characterizes an individual’s strategy in pursuing one’s own goal in an attempt to reach an understanding. She pictures “power” as equivalent to “violence” which gives individual the authority to manipulate their opponents for realising their purposes. So “power” according to her is considered as “the potential of a common will formed in coercive communication.” While on the other hand, Habermas argued that Hannah Arendt view on “power and violence” needs to be revised or modified because the “system of rights” which requires law for the legitimation of legal order yet again is in need of a force called “communicative force” in order to bring out the accounts of the democracy in the constitutional…

    • 374 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    15. How did the Agricultural revolution in the Soviet Union impact the peasants and production in the country?…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    1984

    • 1374 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Cited: Enteen, George M. "George Orwell and the Theory of Totalitarianism: A 1984 Retrospective." Journal of General Education 36.3 (n.d.): 206-15. Print.…

    • 1374 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    “We can't be confined to one way of thinking, and that terrifies our leaders. It means we can't be controlled. And it means that no matter what they do, we will always cause trouble for them.” (Roth, 2012) Victoria Roth describes the way people act in a society, individuals are different from one another, and therefore have different beliefs, ideas, and thoughts. When a ruler comes into power, he wants to make the whole community think as he does, but the real problem comes when he abuses of his power to take control. In this way totalitarian governments and rulers have arose, and have intended to influence in the society to achieve their goals. A totalitarian leader controls the behavior and actions of its people in order to become powerful. In the novels, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and 1984 by George Orwell, two futuristic dystopias are depicted. Both of them show totalitarian rule, where liberty has been deprived by different means of control. In Brave New World, the control of society is maintained through a peaceful way that consists in convincing people of loving their lack freedom. On the other side, in 1984, control is upheld by surveillance, the restriction of information, and torture. The absolute power of a totalitarian state leads to a total control of the society, causing it to be vapid, ignorant and oppressed.…

    • 1675 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hannah Arendt wrote “Total Domination” as the Nazi regime began their apparatus of terror and destruction. As a motive of terror, Hitler removed specific races, the mentally impaired, and other attributes that weren’t suited for him and put them in concentration camps. He not only eliminated the human species but also history was lost as well. In “Total Domination” Arendt correctly explains totalitarian rule through acts of terror, losing individuality, and leaving ones humanity and self-judgment,…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    George Orwell's prediction in the novel 1984 could very well be a reality. Aspects of this totalitarian dystopia appear throughout the United States. It is a constant battle between the government and the people. In 1984 the government forgets that it should cater to the needs of the governed. Orwell was trying to warn everyone of the impending doom that faces the United States. He feels like the U.S is steadily increasing towards becoming a totalitarian government. I agree with Orwell in that his warnings outlined in 1984 are still relevant in today's society and appear quite often. Of course I don't believe a totalitarian government is about to take over our government in the U.S., however we all don't live free from the laws that keep our society functioning. We are all governed in some way, with our civil liberties bound at one point or another. Just like in Orwell's 1984, the United States is controlled by political parties that lead our country. The U.S has two major political parties, the Democrats and the republicans. Much like the U.S., Orwell’s 1984 also has two parties, the Inner party and the Outer party. In the United States, one party tends to come to power and gain control. This is also true in the Novel with the Inner Party controlling everything. The government outlined in the novel 1984 shows many similarities to the United States government.…

    • 1280 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1984

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Totalitarianism is a political system with absolute and total rule over its people. The state has no limits to its authority and tries to regulate every aspect of public and private life. This is most evident when Orwell writes, “it was conceivable that they watched everybody all the time.” The danger of this form of government is that your life ceases to be your own.…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There were thousands of people captured and put into the Nazi camps where they were put through some very harsh treatment. Many bad experiences were encountered at the camps, at no camp were the prisoners seen as regular people they were just people/prisoners The Nazi’s did not care how many people were going to end up dying they just wanted all of these innocent people to suffer just because they did not like them. These next two quotes show just how cruel the Nazi’s were. They did not care about the Jews just because they did not look like the perfect race, and practiced a different…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    While both the Holocaust and the Purges included the mass murder of specific groups, the Holocaust is commonly the only one referred to as ‘genocide.’ Many people do not seem to think that controlling the political views of individuals through the eradication of rebels should be constituted as genocide, most notably the United Nations. Despite this, both Stalin’s Purges and the Holocaust should be considered genocides because both were centered on the extermination of certain groups that held particular…

    • 1880 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Holocaust has become the standard by which crimes against humanity are measured. It is defined as the industrialized mass-murder of predominately Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the homeless, and the disabled; orchestrated and directed by the German Nazi Government1. Many questions arise such as: why was it socially allowed? How were the murders concocted? And what is meant by “industrialized?” Industrialized murder is the mechanized, impersonal, and sustained mass destruction of human beings, organized and administered by states, legitimized and set into motion by scientists and jurists, sanctioned and popularized by academics and intellectuals (Bartov 4). To move forward, it’s important to understand that industrialized…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As Thomas Jefferson once stated, “No government can continue good but under the control of the people.” The government controlling every aspect of your life, watching your every move, and judging you every second, that is what the people in the novel 1984 are experiencing everyday. The definition of a totalitarianism government is absolute control by the state or a governing branch of a highly centralized institution. The totalitarian government headed by Big Brother in the novel 1984, has control over everything in everyone’s life. George Orwell uses the theme of totalitarianism to warn that if the government has too much control over people and if something does not change, human rights and individual…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays