The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt Chapters 8-13 Chapter 8Continental Imperialism: the Pan Movements Tribal Nationalism

m o Introverted; soul as embodiment of general national qualities (227); grew out of atmosphere of rootlessness (232); organized into pan-movements o Nation-State (STATE v. NATION)introduced problem of belt of mixed populations (Macartney) (232) o Irony of human rights: 1) nation declared subject to laws and 2) nation deemed sovereign o Western national trinity: peopleterritorystate (232) o Characteristics of pan-movements: Claims to chosenness (twofold function: 1) gave nationality quality of permanence and 2) eroded differencehomogenized Hostility to state (priority of national over state interest (237)) o Antisemitism: symbolized a tribal, stateless people = threat to claim to chosenness The Inheritance of Lawlessness o Law v. Decree o Bureaucracy Totalitarianism = political sterilitytotal sterility Intrusion upon individual and inner life Loss of the individual within the collective Party and Movement o Characteristics of MOVEMENTS Constantly in motion; distrust parties (pan-movements as forerunners of totalitarians Party systems: one party-rule versus two-party system (opposition control strengthened by knowledge that it is in power; control w/in grasp of citizens) Parties above parties notion that the masses were alienated from the government but actual goal to promote one particular interest until it had devoured all others and to make one particular group the master of the state machine Party versus movement (movement must not have any definite, closely determined goals) There are no movements without the hatred of the state. (259) GENERAL MOOD: For the only thing that counts in a movement is precisely that it keeps itself in constant movement. Attacks the state itself; finds itself superior Totalitarian state is a state in appearance only; The Movement by now is above state and people, ready to sacrifice both for the sake of its ideology. o Fascism differs from totalitarianism by its attitude toward the army the national institution par excellence (259)); Italian fascism as only example of modern mass

movement organized within the framework of an existing state. Chapter 9The Decline of the Nation-State and the End of the Rights of Man The Nation of Minorities and the Stateless People o Peace treaties sought to regulate the nationality problem but were an arbitrary game which handed out rule to some and servitude to others. (270); neglected those without a government minority as permanent institution recognition that some would lie outside the system and they needed protection UNTIL they were assimilated and divorced from their origin; that only nationals could be citizens and only people of the same national origin could enjoy the full protection of legal institutions o National government as human right (the nation had conquered the state (275)) o Minorities: needed to be ASSIMILATED or LIQUIDATED (problem of the stateless: couldnt be REPATRIATED) APATRIDE (278) Discursive shift from stateless to displaced persons (ignoring the existence of those who cannot be repatriatedinaugurates a series of nonrecognitions) Problems created by refugee populations: 1) right to asylum limited; 2) impossibility of transforming refugees into nationals in country of refuge (only solutions: repatriation (failed: no country to which they could be deported) or naturalization) o Stateless person = outlaw by definition (=an undesirable) Statelessness and criminality [criminal has more freedom: examples on page 296] (only as an offender of the law can one gain protection from it) The larger the stateless populationthe larger the danger of the erection of a police state (under the auspices of national security) The Perplexities of the Rights of Man o Rights of Man as unenforceableespecially where there appeared to be people who were no longer citizens of any sovereign state (What is unprecedented is not the loss of a home but the impossibility of finding a new one. (293)) o Losses: 1) home; 2) government protection o The stateless = the rightless o Ultimate deprivation of human rights: The fundamental deprivation of human rights is manifested first and above all in the deprivation of a palace in the world which makes opinions significant and actions effective. (296) (deprivation of right to opinion) Comparison to slaveryslaves have a character/place in society (even if it is degraded) Only the loss of a polity itself expels him from humanity. (297) The world found nothing sacred in the abstract nakedness of being human (299) Nationality as recognized tie to humanityDISTRUST OF

NATURAL, PREFERENCE FOR NATIONAL Much is invested in the human artifice of political life and organization) o Danger of the stateless: their ever-increasing numbers threaten our political life, our human artifice (302). Chapter 10A Classless Society The Masses o perpetual-motion mania of totalitarian movements which can remain in power only so long as they keep moving and set everything around them in motion. o Organizing the masses (=politically indifferent, neutral large group of people) Totalitarianism requires large populations; group with appetite for political organization Success of totalitarian movements showed illusion of democratically elected countries by showing that: 1) politically neutral and indifferent masses could be the majority and 2) democracy rested as much on the silent tolerance of swaths of indifferent people as on the activism of politically engaged individuals Masses and Mob: both stand outside all social ramifications and normal political representation. Psychology of mass man: loss of interest in ones self/well-being (creation of atomized and individualized mass) o Heterogeneous uniformityone of the primary conditions of totalitarianism (guilt by association) o definition of totalitarianism: TOTALITARIAN MOVEMENTS ARE MASS ORGANIZATIONS OF ATOMIZED, ISOLATED INDIVIDUALS (323) their most conspicuous external characteristic is their demand for total, unrestricted, unconditional, and unalterable loyalty of the individual member. Sense of place in world only from belonging to movement; membership in party TOTAL LOYALTY Specificity is detrimental to totalitarianism; abstraction is central. TOTALITARIANISM: means of dominating and terrorizing human beings from within (325). Their idea of domination was something that no state and no mere apparatus of violence can ever achieve, but only a movement that is constantly kept in motion: namely, the permanent domination of each single individual in each and every sphere of life.The practical goal of the movement is to organize as many people as possible within its framework and to set and keep them in motion; a political goal that would constitute the end of the movement simply does not exist. (debate about movement institutionalization). The Temporary Alliance Between the Mob and the Elite o Terrorism: forcing the recognition of ones existence on the normal strata of

society. (332) o The temporary alliance between the elite and the mob rested largely on the genuine delight with which the former watched the latter destroy respectability (333). (desire to unmask hypocrisy; both had been eliminated from the structure of the nation-state and framework of class society) o totalitarian movements spurious claim to have abolished the separation between private and public life and to have restored a mysterious irrational wholeness in man. (336). Chapter 11The Totalitarian Movement Totalitarian Propaganda Totalitarian Organization Chapter 12Totalitarianism in Power The So-Called Totalitarian State The Secret Police Total Domination Chapter 13Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government Discussion Questions: MOTION INDIVIDUAL/GROUP GOAL-ORIENTATION MOB AND EMOTION ARBITRARY Mob masses in motion (226)