Descriptions:
Video Description
Totalitarianism is more than a political system — it is a fanatical religion, and it is spreading again. This lecture from Academy of Ideas dissects the theology of tyranny. When the state takes the place of God, politics becomes worship, obedience becomes salvation, and non-believers become weeds to be removed. It shows how the alternation of terror and love creates a trauma bond that keeps citizens loyal even as the monster devours its own. To know this enemy, the video insists, is the first step toward refusing its false gods and reclaiming your own sovereignty.
Full Video Transcript
This content is made possible by individuals like you become a supporting member and access our
growing library of exclusive content learn more at academyofideas.com backslash members
the state takes the place of god the socialist dictatorships are religions and state slavery
is a form of worship since the birth of totalitarianism in the 20th century much has
been written about this form of rule and millions have read george orwell’s depiction of it in the
classic novel 1984. But what is often overlooked is that totalitarianism is more than just
a political system, it is a fanatical religion, and this religion is spreading across the
globe with a ferocity not seen since the mid-20th century. In this video we are going to investigate
the religious nature of totalitarianism in the recognition that we must know our enemy
if we are to defeat it. Shortly after fleeing Nazi Germany, the political scientist Waldemar
Gurian wrote the following, The totalitarian movements that have arisen after the First
World War are basically religious movements. Their aim is not only to change political and
social institutions, but also to remodel the nature of man and society. Totalitarianism
shares many characteristics with organized religions. For example, Christianity and Islam
are built on the belief of a future golden age that will be ushered in with the second coming
of Christ. Totalitarian movements share a similar idea, but instead of a god or prophet
that transforms the world, totalitarian movements are built on the belief that man can recreate
the world, and a new golden age can be constructed under the direction of the all-powerful and
all-controlling state. In consequence of the decline of Christianity,
writes Carl Jung, the religious projections have largely fallen away from the divine figures
and have necessarily settled in the human sphere.
The modern, enlightened intellect cannot imagine anything greater than those tin gods with
totalitarian pretensions who call themselves state.
This belief that it is possible for a centralized, all-powerful state to radically change society
for the better is why Hannah Arendt wrote that
“…totalitarianism is not a government in any traditional sense, but a movement.
In the totalitarian movements of the past, this golden age was envisioned to be one of
racial purity, or a communist utopia of equality, efficiency, and prosperity for all.
Today this totalitarian golden age is one in which mankind exists in harmony with Mother
Earth, or in its more extreme form, an age where man merges with machine and transcends
biological limitations of disease and death.
Needless to say, totalitarian utopia has never come to fruition, for as Karl Popper warned,
the attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.
These utopian visions do, however, succeed in stimulating the religious enthusiasm of
the masses, and totalitarians use these visions to convince the population that the utopian
end justifies any and all means, be it mass surveillance, censorship, widespread oppression,
mass imprisonment, or even the extermination of groups of people, or as Barry Goldwater
explains, those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard
as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth.
And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies.
Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed.
In the totalitarian religion, there are the chosen people and there are the sinners.
The chosen ones naively believe in the possibility of a paradisal future and the ability of the
to be the vehicle to effectuate this transformation. They are the pious who follow the state’s commands
with unquestioning obedience. The sinners are the non-believers. They are the heretics who stand in
the way of the so-called greater good and prevent the forward march of history. To use an analogy
offered by the Polish philosopher Zygmunt Bauman, the totalitarians see the earth as a garden to
which they are anointed to cultivate, and the sinners as the weeds that must be exterminated
to bring about the full flowering of the totalitarian utopia.
All totalitarian visions of society as garden define parts of the social habitat as human weeds.
Like all other weeds, they must be segregated, contained, prevented from spreading,
removed and kept outside the society boundaries.
If all these means prove insufficient, they must be killed.
But removing the weeds is only one part of the totalitarian religious movement.
The remaining citizens must be turned into totalitarian true believers, who inwardly
assent to a life of strict conformity and obedience to authority.
For in totalitarianism, the mere outward display of compliance is not enough.
Like all fanatical religions, totalitarian movements seek to control the innermost thoughts
of its followers.
Referring to Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship in Italy, Giovanni Amendola explained,
Fascism did not so much aim to govern Italy as to monopolize the control of Italian consciences.
The possession of power is not enough for fascism.
It needs to possess the private conscience of all its citizens.
It demands the conversion of Italians.
Fascism makes the same claims as a religion.
It does not promise happiness to those who do not convert.
In pursuit of this totalitarian religious transformation, various proselytizing methods
are used.
Two of these are demagogy and pedagogy, the former being the spreading of state propaganda
through art, literature, music, plays, and festivals, and the latter being the ideological
indoctrination of the youth via compulsory schooling.
The strategy of terror and love is another technique used to proselytize the masses into
the totalitarian religion.
Citizens are subjected to terror via ongoing wars, continual fearmongering, false flags,
and the ever-present threat of loss of livelihood, property, imprisonment, or death.
Yet these displays of terror are interspersed with displays of love.
Ceremonial rituals are held to honor the goodwill of the leaders, and continuous propaganda
assures the citizens that the regime cares for them and is working hard to keep them
safe from the dangers of the world.
And as Alexander Stein explains in her book Terror, Love, and Brainwashing, as in the
Stockholm syndrome, thus does the abuser become the perceived safe haven, a person or an entity
to whom one can turn for help, mercy, forgiveness, comfort. This alternation of terror and love
triggers free-floating anxiety, confusion, and creates a trauma bond between the citizen and
the state, a bond that lies at the basis of all cults. Stein explains further,
The alternation of love and fear within an isolating environment results in a dissociated,
loyal, and deployable follower, who can now be instructed to act in the interests of the
leader, rather than in his or her own survival interests. Processes of brainwashing rest
on the creation of stress or threat with no escape, other than compliance to the apparent
safe haven of the totalitarian regime and group. Persistent fearmongering, in conjunction
with promises that compliance to the regime will bring the citizens salvation, creates
true believers who will do whatever the regime commands, even if these commands require them
to disown friends and family, face economic ruin, spend time in prison or even go to an
early grave. As one example, Nikolai Valenchik, a man loyal to the Soviet regime, was forced
to spend 17 years in the hard labor gulags for a crime he did not commit. Yet upon being
released he did not condemn the Stalinist regime, instead he stated,
We believed in the party, and we were not mistaken.”
Other reports tell of political officials and party followers who cried out,
long live Stalin, as they were being taken out to be shot by the Soviet secret police.
As further evidence for the mass religious conversion that takes place under totalitarianism,
Hannah Arendt explained,
The amazing fact is that the totalitarian true believer is unlikely to waver in his loyalty
when the monster begins to devour its own children.
and not even if he becomes a victim of persecution himself, if he is framed and condemned, if he is
purged from the party and sent to a forced labor or a concentration camp. On the contrary, to the
wonder of the whole civilized world, he may even be willing to help in his own prosecution and
frame his own death sentence, if only his status as a member of the movement is not touched.
Totalitarianism is a religion that never achieves what it promises. It creates a hell on earth in
which many are sacrificed to the god of the state. But none are delivered into the brave new world
they were promised. The more power the state is granted, the more corrupt become the individuals
who operate the state machinery and the more the world descends into chaos. Totalitarianism
must be avoided at all costs. But sadly this religion is seeing a modern day revival.
Politicians and others in positions of global power are vocal about their desire to remake,
rebuild, or reset the world, and the masses are expected to obey and to love the new society that
is being forced upon them. If obedience does not come voluntarily, then force is being used with
an alarming frequency. They want to be our shepherds, but that requires us to be sheep,
warns Thomas Sowell. In these times of tyranny, we each face a choice. Accept the false gods of
the state and allow the totalitarians to lead us into what Alexander Solzhenitsyn calls
the land of smothered opportunities, or resist. There is but one choice, to rise to the task of
the age. In the mid-20th century, Carl Jung watched the religion of totalitarianism sweep
across Europe, and his words serve as a call to action for all who see the perils we face.
Where are the superior minds, capable of reflection, today? If they exist at all,
nobody heeds them. Instead, there is a general running amok, a universal fatality against whose
compelling sway the individual is powerless to defend himself. And yet this collective phenomenon
is the fault of the individual as well. For nations are made up of individuals. Therefore,
the individual must consider by what means he can counter the evil. What are some tactics we can use
to counter this evil? We can stop allowing our children to be indoctrinated with totalitarian
ideas. We can ostracize people who blindly obey the immoral commands of the state,
for ostracism is one of the most powerful means of social influence. We can mock and ridicule the
so-called priestly class of politicians and bureaucrats, and point out their hypocrisy and
the absurdity of their propaganda and lies. We can create and support technology, art, memes,
videos, books, merchandise, or music that informs, inspires, and spreads the message of freedom.
system, or we can help build and participate in the counter-economy, which consists of
all voluntary exchange that is conducted outside the controlling eyes of the totalitarian state.
Simply put, we can strive to live as freely as possible in the recognition that while
we single-handedly cannot liberate the world, our own personal liberation creates ripples
in society and serves as a powerful example for others.
In making the choice of whether to help resist the rise of the totalitarian religion, we
should recognize that the choice is not between complying in living an easy life versus resisting
in inviting unnecessary hardship.
For compliance to totalitarianism is the riskiest of choices, as it is based on the naive hope
that this time will be different, that this time power won’t corrupt politicians and
state officials, that this time the totalitarian monster will not devour its children and create
a man-made hell on earth. But as Solzhenitsyn warned, there always is this fallacious belief.
It would not be the same here. Here, such things are impossible. Alas, all the evil
of the 20th century is possible everywhere on earth.
Source: Academy of Ideas