Origins of Totalitarianism

Go for information that has a long half-life, not something that’s going to be contradicted in the next week.

This quote by Ryan Holiday grabbed me and held me. Lately I have been investing in literature to understand the current state of American and global politics. How did we get here? How can I make sense of today? Where are we headed?

I found a book from 1951, “Origins of Totalitarianism”, by Hannah Arendt. Much of this book feels as if someone wrote it yesterday. Yet it was written in the aftermath of WWII, exploring the history of how totalitarian regimes like Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union emerged. This book has a long half-life.

This quote feels like someone could have written this book yesterday.

“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.” (source)

My childhood in the 90s was saturated by the voice of Rush Limbaugh. Three hours of hate and division broadcast over the radio each day. Rush did not care for truth. He spun stories with extreme one-sided rhetoric to create division. His power was in his personality and platform. His legacy was an audience who embraced the worst in themselves. And he paved the way for more extreme and toxic personalities like Tucker Carlson. We have been in this mode of “extreme contempt for facts” for decades.

This slide into contempt for truth and a thirst for fiction has left America ripe for totalitarian takeover.

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.” (source)

We are living the aftermath of the destruction of fact and truth. This book is as relevant today as it was in 1951.

“the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. … Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.” (source)

When I participate in modern media, be it social media or television, I feel this tug-of-war every day. There is no respect for truth. And when the truth does surface, those peddling the falsehoods offer no retraction, apology, or otherwise acknowledge they were wrong and misleading. They just keep on keeping on, to the cheers of their adoring fans.

The painful irony lies in this fact: they promise stability only to bring about destabilizing chaos.

“The point is that both Hitler and Stalin held out promises of stability in order to hide their intention of creating a state of permanent instability.” (source)

Yesterday it was Hitler and Stalin. Today it is Trump and Musk.

I am deeply troubled by America’s slide into tyranny at the hands of a wannabe fascist dictator and an unelected nazi oligarch. I feel a deep need to understand how we got here and where we are going. Perhaps more importantly, how I can participate to ensure a better outcome and a better future for my son.

Back to the opening quote, the entire article is worth a read. But this expanded version gives context, showing how studying and understanding the past helps make sense of today.

If you want to understand current events, don’t rely on breaking news. Find a book about a similar event in the past. Read history. Read psychology. Read biographies. Go for information that has a long half-life, not something that’s going to be contradicted in the next week. As I said, 2025 will be crazy and weird and tough. But probably not any more than the year 1925. Or the year 25 AD. That means there are lots of books, lots of ideas, lots of history that can help us with what lies ahead…because it will rhyme with what lies behind us.