Hannah Arendt
@hannah-arendt.bsky.social
Skeeting about totalitarianism since 1951.
https://archive.org/details/hannah-arendt-the-origins-of-totalitarianism
https://archive.org/details/hannah-arendt-the-origins-of-totalitarianism
Pinned
Never has our future been more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest—forces that look like sheer insanity, if judged by the standards of other centuries.
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.
December 23, 2025 at 12:15 PM
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.
It is precisely because the utilitarian core of ideologies was taken for granted that the anti-utilitarian behavior of totalitarian governments, their complete indifference to mass interest, has been such a shock. This introduced into contemporary politics an element of unheard-of unpredictability.
December 21, 2025 at 11:18 PM
It is precisely because the utilitarian core of ideologies was taken for granted that the anti-utilitarian behavior of totalitarian governments, their complete indifference to mass interest, has been such a shock. This introduced into contemporary politics an element of unheard-of unpredictability.
In order not to overestimate the importance of the propaganda lies one should recall the much more numerous instances in which Hitler was completely sincere and brutally unequivocal in the definition of the movement’s true aims,
December 15, 2025 at 1:07 PM
How justified disgust can be in a society wholly permeated with the ideological outlook and moral standards of the bourgeoisie.
December 15, 2025 at 12:54 PM
How justified disgust can be in a society wholly permeated with the ideological outlook and moral standards of the bourgeoisie.
They elevated cruelty to a major virtue because it contradicted society’s humanitarian and liberal hypocrisy.
December 14, 2025 at 3:10 PM
They elevated cruelty to a major virtue because it contradicted society’s humanitarian and liberal hypocrisy.
Within the organizational framework of a totalitarian movement, so long as it holds together, the fanaticized members can be reached by neither experience nor argument; identification with the movement and total conformism seem to have destroyed the very capacity for experience.
December 13, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Within the organizational framework of a totalitarian movement, so long as it holds together, the fanaticized members can be reached by neither experience nor argument; identification with the movement and total conformism seem to have destroyed the very capacity for experience.
The Nazis based their whole propaganda on this indistinct comradeship [among war veterans], this “community of fate,” and won over a great number of veteran organizations in all European countries, thereby proving how meaningless national slogans had become even in the ranks of the so-called Right,
December 12, 2025 at 11:48 AM
The Nazis based their whole propaganda on this indistinct comradeship [among war veterans], this “community of fate,” and won over a great number of veteran organizations in all European countries, thereby proving how meaningless national slogans had become even in the ranks of the so-called Right,
The fact that the lives of new mass leaders prior to their political careers had been failures, naïvely held against them by the more respectable leaders of the old parties, was the strongest factor in their mass appeal.
December 11, 2025 at 12:28 PM
The fact that the lives of new mass leaders prior to their political careers had been failures, naïvely held against them by the more respectable leaders of the old parties, was the strongest factor in their mass appeal.
In order not to overestimate the importance of the propaganda lies one should recall the much more numerous instances in which Hitler was completely sincere and brutally unequivocal in the definition of the movement’s true aims,
December 10, 2025 at 10:57 AM
In order not to overestimate the importance of the propaganda lies one should recall the much more numerous instances in which Hitler was completely sincere and brutally unequivocal in the definition of the movement’s true aims,
It is precisely because the utilitarian core of ideologies was taken for granted that the anti-utilitarian behavior of totalitarian governments, their complete indifference to mass interest, has been such a shock. This introduced into contemporary politics an element of unheard-of unpredictability.
December 9, 2025 at 10:55 AM
It is precisely because the utilitarian core of ideologies was taken for granted that the anti-utilitarian behavior of totalitarian governments, their complete indifference to mass interest, has been such a shock. This introduced into contemporary politics an element of unheard-of unpredictability.
What is more disturbing to our peace of mind than the unconditional loyalty of members of totalitarian movements, and the popular support of totalitarian regimes, is the unquestionable attraction these movements exert on the elite, and not only on the mob elements in society.
It soon became apparent that highly cultured people were particularly attracted to mass movements and that, generally, highly differentiated individualism and sophistication did not prevent, indeed sometimes encouraged, the self-abandonment into the mass for which mass movements provided.
December 8, 2025 at 11:43 AM
What is more disturbing to our peace of mind than the unconditional loyalty of members of totalitarian movements, and the popular support of totalitarian regimes, is the unquestionable attraction these movements exert on the elite, and not only on the mob elements in society.
Any recommendations of a more readable book on the topic?
December 7, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Any recommendations of a more readable book on the topic?
Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally arise.
Totalitarian movements are mass organizations of atomized, isolated individuals. Compared with all other parties and movements, their most conspicuous external characteristic is their demand for total, unrestricted, unconditional, and unalterable loyalty of the individual member.
December 7, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally arise.
Totalitarian movements are mass organizations of atomized, isolated individuals. Compared with all other parties and movements, their most conspicuous external characteristic is their demand for total, unrestricted, unconditional, and unalterable loyalty of the individual member.
December 6, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Totalitarian movements are mass organizations of atomized, isolated individuals. Compared with all other parties and movements, their most conspicuous external characteristic is their demand for total, unrestricted, unconditional, and unalterable loyalty of the individual member.
It soon became apparent that highly cultured people were particularly attracted to mass movements and that, generally, highly differentiated individualism and sophistication did not prevent, indeed sometimes encouraged, the self-abandonment into the mass for which mass movements provided.
December 5, 2025 at 11:46 AM
It soon became apparent that highly cultured people were particularly attracted to mass movements and that, generally, highly differentiated individualism and sophistication did not prevent, indeed sometimes encouraged, the self-abandonment into the mass for which mass movements provided.
Never has our future been more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest—forces that look like sheer insanity, if judged by the standards of other centuries.
December 4, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Never has our future been more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest—forces that look like sheer insanity, if judged by the standards of other centuries.
Totalitarian movements are possible wherever there are masses who for one reason or another have acquired the appetite for political organization.
December 3, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Totalitarian movements are possible wherever there are masses who for one reason or another have acquired the appetite for political organization.
The propaganda of totalitarian movements, which precede and accompany totalitarian regimes, is invariably as frank as it is mendacious, and would-be totalitarian rulers usually start their careers by boasting of their past crimes and carefully outlining their future ones.
December 2, 2025 at 11:53 AM
The propaganda of totalitarian movements, which precede and accompany totalitarian regimes, is invariably as frank as it is mendacious, and would-be totalitarian rulers usually start their careers by boasting of their past crimes and carefully outlining their future ones.
It was characteristic of the rise of the Nazi movement in Germany and of the Communist movements in Europe after 1930 that they recruited their members from the mass of apparently indifferent people whom all other parties had given up as too apathetic or too stupid for their attention.
December 2, 2025 at 11:50 AM
It was characteristic of the rise of the Nazi movement in Germany and of the Communist movements in Europe after 1930 that they recruited their members from the mass of apparently indifferent people whom all other parties had given up as too apathetic or too stupid for their attention.
The only man for whom Hitler had “unqualified respect” was “Stalin the genius”. We also know since Khrushchev’s speech before the Twentieth Party Congress that Stalin trusted only one man and that was Hitler.
December 1, 2025 at 12:08 PM
The only man for whom Hitler had “unqualified respect” was “Stalin the genius”. We also know since Khrushchev’s speech before the Twentieth Party Congress that Stalin trusted only one man and that was Hitler.
NOTHING is more characteristic of the totalitarian movements in general and of the quality of fame of their leaders in particular than the startling swiftness with which they are forgotten and the startling ease with which they can be replaced.
November 29, 2025 at 7:36 PM
NOTHING is more characteristic of the totalitarian movements in general and of the quality of fame of their leaders in particular than the startling swiftness with which they are forgotten and the startling ease with which they can be replaced.