Totalitarianism Tethered by the Invisible Tendrils of Glorious Conformity

“Big Brother” from George Orwell’s ‘1984.’

Defining Totalitarianism:

  • “A system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state.” – Google Dictionary
  • “Form of government that theoretically permits no individual freedom and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of individual life to the authority of the state.” – Encyclopedia Britannica Online
  • “Totalitarianism is best understood as any system of political ideas that is both thoroughly dictatorial and utopian. It is an ideal type of governing notion, and as such, it cannot be realized perfectly.” – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • “Relating to a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state.” – Oxford English Dictionary Online

Totalitarianism Quotes:

  • “Totalitarianism demands, in fact, the continuous alteration of the past, and in the long run probably demands a disbelief in the very existence of objective truth.” – George Orwell
  • “Totalitarianism is never content to rule by external means, namely, through the state and a machinery of violence; thanks to its peculiar ideology and the role assigned to it in this apparatus of coercion, totalitarianism has discovered a means of dominating and terrorizing human beings from within.” – Hannah Arendt
  • “Totalitarian movements succeed when they offer rootless people what they most crave: an ideologically consistent world aiming at grand narratives that give meaning to their lives.” – Roger Berkowitz
  • “Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” – Benito Mussolini
  • “The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.” – George Orwell

Resources and Links:

Some Names to Know:

See Also:

Totalitarianism Post Index: