totalitarian regime, the first instinct for a lot of people is to keep their heads down and try to go about their lives as best they can. There is a good case to be made for this -- no good comes to people who are paid a visit by the likes of the Stasi or NKVD. Yet, there is something about non-resistance that is inherently wrong. In 1978, Vaclav Havel, the future Czech President, argued that such non-resistance contributes to a "panorama" of society, presenting the impression that non-resistance in the face of brutal totalitarianism is somehow acceptable. Havel argues that even small forms of dissident behavior -- little subtle gestures -- can carry great meaning when they are repeated throughout society. Yes, the decision to make such a gesture is difficult because of the increase in risk to one's own person and family that protest gestures carry, but…...
It is necessary to control the workers and make them dependent on the government. The policy also makes it possible for the government to direct all its resources on a single project -- typically the major "goal" of a regime such as war.
Complete government control on weapons, although not an exclusive characteristic of totalitarian governments precludes the chances of successful uprisings.
Case Studies: Specific Examples of Totalitarian egimes
The Soviet Communist regime under Joseph Stalin, the fascist regime under Mussolini in Italy and Nazi regime led by Adolf Hitler are typical examples of totalitarian regimes.
Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin: As observed earlier, it is debatable whether Karl Marx had clearly envisaged the formation of totalitarian governments by the application of his Communist theory. However, the first country to adopt Communism, i.e., the Soviet Union soon degenerated into the worst type of totalitarian government imaginable under Joseph Stalin who ruled the country…...
mlaReferences
Arendt, Hannah. (1966). The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23477515
Blum, G.P. (1998). The Rise of Fascism in Europe (R. M. Miller, Ed.). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Characteristics of Totalitarianism." (n.d.) From: Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy, by Carl Friedrick and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Retrieved on November 5, 2004 at http://plato.newarka.edu/~labbey/ap_total_charac.html
Kreis, Steven. (2004) "The Age of Totalitarianism: Stalin and Hitler." Lectures on Twentieth Century Europe: The History Guide. Retrieved on November 5, 2004 at http://www.historyguide.org/europe/lecture10.html
Fear of the Return of Totalitarian Architecture Due to Technological Advancements
This paper examines some of the different aspects of the coming worldwide technological totalitarianism and the expanding of it influence. The argument that this is both a conscious and accidental program of influential individuals and organizations carried out through the procedure of reification of philosophical beliefs which are misshapen into institutions, services, technologies policies and in the end, culture. Some experts that have explored this topic believe that by pay no attention to the costs of new technologies, what there may be some kind of loss in the bargain and that it can lean so something that is immeasurable and potentially disastrous. It is obvious that history was not or is not all the way inevitable, however, it is likewise a question of human values in connection to changes that are looked at as being natural. Although there have repeatedly…...
mlaWorks Cited
Carpo, Mario. "Architecture in the Age of Printing." The History of Architectural Theory. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, 6 March 1998.
-- . "The Alphabet and the Algorithm." Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. The MIT Press, 7 May 1995.
Giroux, Henry. Totalitarian Paranoia in the Post-Orwellian Surveillance State. 14 Feruary 2014. 18 March 2014.http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/11/totalitarian-paranoia-in-the-post-orwellian-surveillance-state/ .
Keller, Marcello Sorce. "Why is Music so Ideological, Why Do Totalitarian States Take It So Seriously: A Personal View from History, and the Social Sciences",." Journal of Musicological Research, XXVI 2.3 (2007): 91 -- 122.
In the words of BBC Middle East analyst Gerald Butt (2001), "…his (Saddam's) opponents have not been able to nominate anyone else who might hold Iraq together -- with its Kurds in the north, Sunni Muslims in the centre [sic], and Shi'a in the south. What the outside world calls terror, Saddam calls expediency." Interestingly, Butt's analysis took into consideration the fact that despite the atrocities that Saddam had and has purportedly done to Iraqis and Iraq's neighbors, world leaders, particularly Western leaders like the U.S. And Britain, are still actually taking an active role in Saddam's political decision-making, albeit the latter has chosen to contain himself within Iraq's borders. Prior to 9/11, U.S. leadership continued to tolerate Saddam's regime, only until the point that it is able to find a 'suitable' replacement for the dictator (Dickey and Thomas, 2002).
In addition to "covert actions" taken to secure that Iraq…...
mlaReferences
Butt, G. (January 2001). "Saddam Hussein profile." BBC News World Edition website. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1100529.stm
Dickey, C. And E. Thomas. (September 2002). "How the U.S. helped create Saddam Hussein." Global Policy Forum website. Available at: http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/167/34978.html
O'Reilly, B. (2004). "Document connects Saddam Hussein to 9/11 terrorists." Fort Worth Business Press.
Paz, M. And J. Aviles. (2009). "Demonizing the tyrant: Saddam Hussein's image in Spanish news programs during the Second Persian Gulf War." International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1.
Recent Trends in Restrictions on Freedoms by a Totalitarian State
Two and a half centuries ago, the Founding Fathers of the United States forged what has become regarded as a “living document” with the U.S. Constitution that has managed to weather numerous conflicts, including a civil war, two world wars and dozens of regional clashes over the years. This foundation in liberty is being threatened by some politicians today to the point of making the United States a totalitarian state, including most especially the current occupant of the Oval Office. For example, in their article, “Three warning signs of ideological totalitarianism” (September 8, 2020), Sharansky and Troy make the point that more than 3 decades after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, “embers of the kind of totalitarian thinking that spawned the Communist Revolution are inflaming Western debate — and inciting Americans” (para. 2).
In truth, not all Americans are being…...
mlaReferences
Sharansky, N. & Troy, G. (2020, September 8). Three warning signs of ideological totalitarianism. Newsweek. Retrieved from https://www.newsweek.com/three-warning-signs-ideological-totalitarianism-opinion-1529824 .
hat we learn from this is that no mistake can be erased from history just as no reparations can completely repair damage done. Germany's inability to carry her own weight during this time of trouble only prolonged the world economy, which was badly bruised and desperately needing to be healed.
2. Democracy became the word that was whispered across the globe during the twenties and thirties. The promise of democracy proved to be easier than the act of democracy. "Democracy seemed divisive and ineffective, so one country after another adopted a more authoritarian alternative during the twenties and early thirties" (Noble 1034). However, it is impossible to squash the human sprit that longs to be free. Noble asserts, "Democracy proved hard to manage in east-central Europe party because of special economic difficulties resulting from the breakup of the Habsberg system" (Noble 1035). In addition, he notes, "The countries of east-central…...
mlaWorks Cited
Chamber, Mortimer, et al. The Western Experience. New York: Alfred a. Knopf. 1979.
Chodorow, Stanley. A History of the World. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers. 1986.
Craig, Albert, et al. The Heritage of World Civilizations. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 2000.
Noble, Thomas, et al. Western Civilization: The Continuing Experience. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1994.
Therefore, the totalitarian threat does not just replace the first president with Hitler, but also removes any possibility of difference or ambiguity. The multiple, varied, and multifaceted portraits of Washington are replaced entirely by a single, repeated image, because the totalitarian regime must remove any room for interpretation. Furthermore, the importance of the name of Washington himself is demonstrated by the careful attention to the ribbons which once held his name:
And on the ribbon beneath each portrait, there was no longer the name "Washington" either. Whether the ribbon curved downward as on the one-half-cent stamp and the six, or curved upward as on the four, the five, the seven, and the ten, or straight with raised ends as on the one, the one and a half, the two, the three, the eight, and the nine, the name lettered across the ribbon was "Hitler" (Roth 43).
Thus, the family's trip to…...
This provides two strong disincentives to innovate. hat is left is a Chinese state that discourages the development of the most tried-and-true means of economic development -- competition and innovation -- and instead relies on wealth transfer due to currency manipulation as the foundation of its success.
The role of government in an economy, therefore, should be limited if long-term sustainable growth is the objective. For totalitarian capitalism to be the superior system would require that system to develop competencies that enable its economies to compete globally. Thus far, these competencies have only emerged in the Chinese firms that have access to estern systems -- Lenovo's Hong Kong roots place it into estern-style competition for example. ithout competencies, you have short-term success built on an artificial and unsustainable economy, rather than long-term success. The estern style emphasizes a limited role for government and the power of market forces. The totalitarian…...
mlaWorks Cited:
Huang, Y. (2008). Just how capitalist is China? MIT Sloan Research Paper 4699-08.
No author. (2008). The long march backwards. The Economist. Retrieved March 21, 2010 from http://www.economist.com/culture/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12333103
No author. (2010). The spirit of enterprise fades. The Economist. Retrieved March 21, 2010 from http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15331470
Krugman, P. (2010). Taking on China. New York Times. Retrieved March 21, 2010 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/opinion/15krugman.html?hp
Subtly, between the pages of memoir and of literary and political criticism, this book deals with the uncertain and uneasy solipsism of the world.
The way in which the totalitarian, theocratic regime seeks to impose its will on the women of Tehran is certainly horrific. Girls are forbidden to have any sort of color in their attire or about their person, as if someone the very existence of color would challenge the monochromatic existence of the regime. All must wear dark-colored robes related to the chador, and similarly dark veils that must cover every strand of hair; they must not wear lipstick or fingernail polish, or even pink socks. This robe makes women almost indistinguishable, a situation heightened by the Islamic prohibition against looking directly at unrelated women; Nafisi imagines that it makes her invisible, "I pretended that when I wore the robe, my whole body disappeared." (Nafisi, 167) in…...
A McDonald's hamburger in the United tates and in the United Kingdom for example is to be sold within the same price range when the exchange rate is calculated. McDonald's has had a large amount of success in its global expansion. The reasons for this comprise a number of factors, one of which is the perceived value to the purchaser. In all countries where McDonald's is sold, the customer perceives the value of food purchased for a certain price as economically viable. The food is of the same quality and portion size globally. This kind of stability is valued by the customer.
Possible short-term problems for McDonald's relate to the daily changes in foreign exchange rates. It is hardly practicable to change prices on a daily basis. Customers have come to expect stability from the company, especially in terms of price, which makes maintaining PPP a challenge. This problem is…...
mlaSources
Antweiler, Werner (2006). Purchasing Power Parity. University of British Columbia. http://fx.sauder.ubc.ca/PPP.html
Chapman, Alan (2005-2006). Change management. http://www.businessballs.com/changemanagement.htm
Mrak, Mojimir. (2000). Globalization: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for Countries in Transition. Vienna: United Nations Industrial Development Organization. http://www.unido.org/userfiles/PuffK/mrak.pdf
Nishimura, Yoshiaki. (2001, March) Economic Policy for Transition to Market Economy - Overview. Economic and Social Research Institute. http://www.esri.go.jp/en/tie/russia/russia1-e.pdf
Holocaust Politics
Totalitarianism's Controversial Notions
The human social animal's capacity for collective tyranny and violence in Hannah Arendt's seminal work
Since the publication of her 1951 work on The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt has received much criticism as a philosopher and an historian for her theory of the human, historical development of notions of society or what Arendt terms 'the social.' From the social organizations of the salon, which were loose and diffuse, and based on ideological alliances, human beings evolved in their organization, she suggests, to alliances upon material interests in the forms of classes. But the nationalist and imperialist movements of the 19th century perverted these previous mental and material social alliances in history, to create the manifestation of 'the masses' that enabled totalitarianism to take hold in Germany, Russia, and other areas of the world.
Critical to Arendt's conception of totalitarianism is her notion of the political phenomenon as a…...
mlaWorks Cited
Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism. Harcourt and Brace, 1951.
Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. U of Chicago Press, 1998. Originally Published 1958.
Part 1: Analytical SummaryIn \\\"The Origins of Totalitarianism,\\\" Hannah Arendt examines the rise of totalitarianism in the 20th century and the various factors that contributed to its emergence. In Chapters 10 and 11, Arendt discusses the concept of a \\\"classless society\\\" and the role of the \\\"totalitarian movement\\\" in the rise of totalitarianism.In Chapter 10, \\\"A Classless Society,\\\" Arendt argues that the emergence of a classless society was a crucial factor in the rise of totalitarianism. She notes that traditional social hierarchies and class structures were disrupted by the forces of industrialization, urbanization, and modernization, leading to the erosion of traditional values and the emergence of new forms of social and political organization. Arendt contends that in a classless society, individuals are more likely to feel disconnected from their social and political communities, leading to a sense of alienation and powerlessness. This sense of alienation can make individuals vulnerable to…...
mlaReferencesArendt, H. (1973). The origins of totalitarianism. Harvest/HBJ.
Terror, Imperialism, And Totalitarianism
Imperialism is defined in the abstract, quite often, as the ideology of 'carrying the white man's burden,' in other words, of carrying the white cultural burden of civilization to the native or darker peoples of the world. But in practice, imperialism often has a less lofty goal and terror rather than teaching is the method used to enforce imperialism's 'laws' and values of social and political control. In the past, such as in French-controlled Algiers, depicted in the 1965 film directed by Pontecorvo "The Battle of Algiers," imperialism is often enforced through a series of dominating policies or military actions by a stronger European nation. One country seeks to exert its control over another country or territory, often to gain an economic or political advantage in a particular region.
In the film, the Algerian people fight long and hard to wrest control over their own territory once again.…...
mlaWorks Cited
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. 1958.
"Battle of Algiers." Directed by Pontecorvo. 1965.
Camus, Alberto. "Caligula." 1936.
"The Great Dictator." Directed by Charlie Chaplin. 1940.
This would have been a truly unethical action.
The second objection that can be brought to the sustained thesis is represented by the fact that censorship is a violation of several human rights. These rights include the right to freedom of speech, the right to self-expression and the right to be well informed. It might be argued that Google made a mistake and created a precedent, proving that totalitarian regime scan impose their rules even upon independent companies because these companies are more interested in obtaining financial profits rather than defending human rights and liberties.
This may be true to a certain limited extent. Supposing that Google had refused to implement its dot cn service. In this manner it would have made a statement regarding censorship and freedom. but, at the same time, it would have failed to serve the Chinese people in any way.
An action of this kind would not…...
mlaBibliography
Martin, K.E. "Google, Inc., in China (condensed)." Business roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics. 30 October 2008. http://www.darden.virginia.edu/corporate-ethics/pdf/BRI-1004.pdf
Mill, J.S. "Utilitarianism." Google Books online. 30 October 2008 http://books.google.it/books?hl=it&id=9PE1LARQNV8C&dq=utilitarianism&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=54SBhkL_2p&sig=jUOgPaHFZE0wtGFE9IPUjqiAE8Q&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result
Internet and Democracy
In one sense, computers and the Internet are just a continuation of the communications revolution, starting with the printing press then continuing with the telegraph, telephone, motion pictures, radio and television. Could this be leading to a more fundamental change in history on the same level as the agricultural and industrial revolutions? This is a more problematic proposition. Of course, the idea of a post-industrial economy based on services and high technology dates back to the 1960s, although some visionaries had an inkling of it even in the 19th Century. Skills and education that were valuable in an industrial economy have become obsolete in the new system, although this has happened before in the history of capitalism. Society has changed relatively little from the era before the computer age, with only a few exceptions, such as the use of computers to speed up financial transactions and in scientific…...
mlaREFERENCE LIST
Agre, P.E. And D. Schuler, (eds.). (1997) Reinventing Technology, Rediscovering Community: Critical Explorations of Computing as a Social Practice. Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Alavi, N. (2005). We Are Iran. Brooklyn, NY: Soft Skull Press, Inc.
Baase, S. (2009). A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues in Computing, 3rd Edition. Prentice Hall.
Barglow, R. (1994). The Crisis of the Self in the Age of Information: Computers, Dolphins and Dreams. Routledge.
Evolution of Political Titles and Its Impact on Contemporary History
Throughout history, political titles have played a crucial role in shaping the exercise of power and the evolution of societies. From ancient monarchs to modern leaders, the titles attributed to political figures have carried immense symbolic and practical significance.
Ancient Monarchies:
In ancient civilizations, such as Egypt and Mesopotamia, rulers bore titles that reflected their divine authority and earthly power. Pharaohs in Egypt were considered gods on earth, while Mesopotamian kings were often referred to as "shepherds of the people." These titles reinforced the absolute authority of the monarch and maintained social order....
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