Totalitarian Regimes example essay topic

The British author George Orwell achieved prominence in the late 1940 ies as the author of two brilliant satires attacking totalitarianism. The novels, documentaries, essays, and criticism he wrote during the 1930's and later established him as one of the most important and influential voices of the century. His reputation as a novelist was consolidated however, with the publication of "the Animal Farm" and "1984" who where inspired by his detestation for totalitarianism. Both these works, describe the means in which a totalitarian regime comes into power and the means employed by it in order to maintain itself into power, with an, more than, obvious resemblance to the Russian revolution. In effect, Orwell tried to distinguish the difference between socialism and communism or any other totalitarian political movement and prove with his narrations that the greatest enemy of all social movements where the absolute power that was given to the party leaders.

Orwell's will was to "make political writing into an art" ('Why I Write'). He believed that it was his duty to "attack the Right, but not to flatter the Left". His political views were shaped by his experiences of Socialism, Totalitarianism and Imperialism all over the world. In his essay 'Why I Write' he admitted that "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly against Totalitarianism and for Democratic Socialism, as I understand it".

His fury and hate against totalitarianism came from his own personal experience when he dealt with communists in the Spanish civil war. There he witnessed betrayal and realized the true nature of Stalin's rule and how false it was the idea that Russian was considered a social state. In a sense Orwell wanted to save socialism from being mistaken for Communism. After the Spanish civil war Orwell went on and wrote "The Animal Farm", in order to outline the betrayal of the Russian revolution by selfishness, ambition and hypocrisy and how it was turned to a totalitarian regime. According to the Brittania encyclopedia, totalitarianism is a political system in which a citizen is totally subject to absolute state authority in all aspects of day-to-day life. According to Arendt in "the Origins of totalitaruabism", the totalitarian movements aim at and succeed in organizing masse, not classes (308).

In "The Animal Farm", Orwell describes an uprising of the animals against their master due to the poor conditions they live in. The animals drive the human presence away from the farm and declare their "independence". They constitute a set of rules that they describe "Animalism" that can be summarized in the phrases "all animals are equal" and "four legs good, two legs bad". The parallels between the Marxism hate for capitalism and the drive for a classless society is more than obvious. What started as a set of philosophical ideas in the animal farm, and in reality by Karl Marx, was transformed in means for propaganda by the leader of the Animal farm, Napoleon the pig, as it happened in Russia as well with Stalin. Socialism that was established quickly turned into totalitarianism.

That according to Robert Michael in "Political Parties" was unavoidable. The young German sociologist in his book argued that the great error of socialists is their optimism, their belief in the eventual classless society (18). With the introduction of the Iron Law of Oligarchy, Michaels tries to prove that while socialists may succeed and gain power, socialism paradoxically will never. Organisation which is essential to socialist success is also the greatest barrier to its implementation (16).

In any organisation, leadership is essential for success. Leadership itself contains powers and advantages because of the nature of organisation. In theory the leadership is kept in check, by the mass of the political party through elections, or even a party Constitution. Yet in practice it is not the leadership that rely upon the mass for power or support, but on the contrary, the mass have very little in displacing a leader, who, rather than talking about revolutionary change, begin talking about their importance and indispensability to the movement for they cannot be replaced at a moments notice, especially with their knowledge and expertise, yet they do very little for their supporters apart from slogans and propaganda (85), as does Napoleon in the animal farm. Moreover, it was in Michels beliefs that Marxism's biggest theoretical problem was the administration. It ignored the power of socialist administrators once they gain power, and it ignored the continuation of conflict between the leaders and the masses (277).

Consequently while socialists may win in the end, socialism itself will perish on the moment of its biggest triumph. The psychology of human nature (205), which lead to those in power craving for more power, the fact that organisation itself can create conservatism even out of the most radical parliamentary representatives, add to the conclusion that socialism will in the end perish. The bureaucracy that is needed in order to maintain and expand a socialist party in order to eventually take over governmental power and apply its ideas, is in detail the greatest enemy of the parties ideas (188). War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

With these slogans, George Orwell's "1984" established itself upon the literary world as the definitive anti-utopian novel for the second half of the 20th Century. In the book Orwell presents a version of the future when totalitarianism has established itself as the governmental political system, with the "Big Brother" as the political figure in charge. The government's most brilliant and most appalling project is the actual deconstruction of the English language into Newspeak, the language of the Party. Each successive edition of the Newspeak Dictionary has fewer words than its predecessor. By removing meaning from the vocabulary, the government hopes to eradicate seditious and anti-social thinking before it even has the chance to enter a person's mind.

Without the vocabulary for revolution, there can be no revolution. For those who persist in thinking for themselves, so-called Thought Criminals, the Thought Police, are there to intervene, incarcerating the free-thinkers in the Ministry of Love, where they will be re-educated, or worse. History has taught that once a socialist party is established in power, it no longer represents socialism. The political parties that rise to power loose their revolutionary character (Arendt 392). It is more likely to resemble to totalitarianism or tyranny.

However, according to Arendt "only the mob and the elite can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarian itself. The masses have to be won by propaganda". (342) In 1984, Orwell emphasises in the works of a totalitarian regime that are needed in order to maintain itself into power. Arendt in "The origins of totalitarianism" describes terror and propaganda as the sides of the same coin in which the regime pays its rent for power (342).

Moreover, Serge Chakotin in his work "The Rape of the Masses", states that propaganda that is based on fear has greater appeal into men whose economic situation is precarious. Economic oppressed classes could be lured easier into following a doctrine, with the hope that it could change their difficult financial status (72). Fear itself, was a very effective form of propaganda. Fear caused by deliberate terror was constantly used in totalitarian regimes. At the beginning terror and violence were necessary in order to eliminate political adversaries, but later on it was discovered that it could serve excellent into keeping the masses under strict "discipline". According to Chakotin "discipline consists solely in obedience to rules of subordination and in the meticulous performance or prescribed gestures as outward marks of respect to superiors" (81).

It is in effect, a simple training that with the fear of punishment would bring obedience to the leaders. It is what it was so successfully impersonated in the phrase "Comrade Napoleon is always right" in the animal farm. Winston Smith, the protagonist of Orwell's novel, is a minor bureaucrat. His job is to actually rewrite the archives of the London Times so that they are consistent with current party policy. When the party changes its political alliance with another superpower and begins waging war on a former ally, Winston's job is to rewrite all the prior information to show that the old alliance never existed.

So addled are the minds of the people he meets that they don't even realize that these changes have been made. Again as in the "Animal Farm" Orwell is emphasizing in the manipulation that occurs in totalitarian regimes. When a resolution of the past, an old political movement, oppose the present and doesn't agree with the current party policy it is simply removed or changed. Every time the pigs in the animal farm got closer to humanity and their way of life, they changed the seventh commandments to suit their purposes. This represents the ultimate betrayal of the revolution by its own leaders. And the masses are so much brainwashed that they don't understand the difference.

And even if they did the "thought police" or napoleons guard dogs were standing by to suppress their objections in a very violent way. Newspeak in "1984" moved in the same direction. Its purpose was to drastically reduce the number of words in the English language in order to eliminate ideas that were deemed dangerous and, most importantly, against the totalitarian dictator, Big Brother and the Party. "Thoughtcrime", the mere act of thinking about ideas like Freedom or Revolution, was punishable by torture and brainwashing. Newspeak was the sinister answer. As Syne describes it in 1984 very successfully, "Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?

In the end, we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible because there will be no words in which to express it... The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought as we understand it now". The purpose of the regime, as with any totalitarian regime, was to eliminate and possible future resistance.

Even if that meant taking back humanity ten thousands years. Moreover, in 1984, the purpose of the Party was not to rule for the general good, but in order to have control over everyone and everything. Power is everything. And apparently information is power. The most frightening concept that Orwell deals with in 1984 is the idea that a political party could see power as being the ultimate goal. The Party rules over its people without even the pretence that it is governing for the benefit of the people.

But how is Orwell's works related with today? Today's world is a very different one than the on in 1948 when the novel was written but is it really different than the nightmarish world of "1984"? Totalitarian regimes are obsolete. Communism is also dead, with the exception of the Chinese democracy, which however is being heavily influenced in our days from western capitalism. Cameras are everywhere recording every movement Televisions are also present everywhere like in the Big brother's regime. The difference is that now the choice of switching them off exists.

But nobody wants to. The choice of where to spend a hard earned salary is also there but why is also there the need to spend it? Are advertising and marketing merely the tools needed for a free market to survive or they present the ultimate form of brainwashing? It may appear to someone that the "Big Brother" succeeded.

While it appears to be a sort of choice, no matter what the choice is the result is still the same. And nobody can tell the difference, nobody can understand it. Cox named in "The market as a god" the free market economy as the new "God" of mankind. The markets commodities are the new driving principal in humanity's lives. The market dictates what we need. The market is in charge of our lives.

The market is the "Big Brother". And everybody loves the "Big Brother". Orwell's work despite being directed absolutely towards totalitarian regimes it had a broader inner target group. In a way it looks like it has under its strict critique and condemns all forms of power that could eventually influence and later control people's lives. Orwell's legacy is in effect a warning on how society could become if power slippers in the wrong hands. Arendt, Hannah.

The Origins of Totalitarianism. Florida: Harvest / HB, 1952 Chakotin, Serge. The Rape of the Masses. New York: Haskell House Publishers, 1971 Cox, Harvey. The market as a god. Atlantic Monthly, March 1999.

Michels, Robert. Political Parties. New York: The Free Press, 1962 Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Penguin Group, 1996.

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Orwell, George. 'England, Your England and Other Essays' Why I write. London: Seeker & Warburg, 1953.