Arendt on totalitarianism
"Terror as the counterpart of propaganda played a greater role in Nazism than in Communism. The Nazis did not strike at prominent figures as had been done in the earlier wave of political crimes in Germany (the murder of Rathenau and Erzberger); instead, by killing small socialist functionaries or influential members of opposing parties, they attempted to prove to the population the dangers involved in mere membership. This kind of mass terror, which still operated on a comparatively small scale, increased steadily because neither the police nor the courts seriously prosecuted political offenders on the so-called Right. It was valuable as what a Nazi publicist has aptly called "power propaganda": it made clear to the population at large that the power of the Nazis was greater than that of the authorities and that it was safer to be a member of a Nazi paramilitary organization than a loyal Republican. This impression was greatly strengthened by the specific use the Nazis made of their political crimes. They always admitted publicly, never apologized for "excesses of the lower ranks"--such apologies were only used by Nazi sympathizers--and impressed the population as being very different from the "idle talkers" of other parties.
The similarities between this kind of terror and plain gangsterism are too obvious to be pointed out. This does not mean that Nazism was gangsterism, as has sometimes been concluded, but only that the Nazis, without admitting it, learned as much from American gangster organizations, as their propaganda, admittedly, learned from American business publicity."
--Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism: Part Three of the Origins of Totalitarianism, pp. 42-3
They never apologized for the excesses of the lower ranks, eh?? Some stuff here looks familiar in the current American political landscape.... Kdo nepracuje, nejí.
Reading this book on the psychology of totalitarianism (using the specific cases of Nazi Germany and Bolshevism after 1930) during the current Saturn-Uranus-Pluto T-square is heavy, especially with the Saturn-Pluto so tight right now. Ugh
The similarities between this kind of terror and plain gangsterism are too obvious to be pointed out. This does not mean that Nazism was gangsterism, as has sometimes been concluded, but only that the Nazis, without admitting it, learned as much from American gangster organizations, as their propaganda, admittedly, learned from American business publicity."
--Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism: Part Three of the Origins of Totalitarianism, pp. 42-3
They never apologized for the excesses of the lower ranks, eh?? Some stuff here looks familiar in the current American political landscape.... Kdo nepracuje, nejí.
Reading this book on the psychology of totalitarianism (using the specific cases of Nazi Germany and Bolshevism after 1930) during the current Saturn-Uranus-Pluto T-square is heavy, especially with the Saturn-Pluto so tight right now. Ugh