The characteristics and impacts of totalitarian societies in the mid-twentieth century

The characteristics and impacts of totalitarian societies in the mid-twentieth century

The defining characteristics and impacts of totalitarian societies in the mid 20th century are concerned with coerced unanimity. As totalitarianism involves total control over many aspects of life, coercion must take many forms: ideology, propaganda, indoctrination, and terror. Ideology forms the backbone of the totalitarian movement. Whether focusing on race or class or some other category, the totalitarian party is not designed to promote the interests of a group and therefore never has a specific agenda. It is intended to ponder sweeping ideological questions of importance to the ages, not to everyday life. It is often pseudoscientific, based on “laws” of humanity and human nature. Because only the future can resolve the correctness of the ideological arguments, the use of reason and logic against them becomes useless.

The ideology of totalitarianism is interpreted by a mysterious, and often charismatic, totalitarian leader. This leader is represented as infallible by the party and often speaks prophetically, describing predictable forces of human nature and political relations. To this end, the truth is often adjusted by the party to fit the declarations of the leader, leading to such practices as the rewriting of history (practiced famously by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin). Predictions made by the leader may be actively fulfilled by the party, reinforcing the leader's status. The leader can manipulate the truth and determine what is true; and the party reinforces this truth through repetition.

The totalitarian state has a single mass political party, though only a few are allowed to be full party members (the rest are considered sympathizers). Party control means that active unfreedom exists—citizens are continually forced to show their support for the regime and may be punished if they do not. Control ...