A totalitarian system of the communist, fascist or Nazi type was a radical, revolutionary and brutal attempt to create a completely new type of utopian society on a class or racial basis. It was an expression of the tremendous surge of will and energy that Western society possessed in the first half of the twentieth century, without which totalitarian aspirations would have been unthinkable.
Contemporary Western society lacks a similar vitality. It is losing its freedom and is gradually turning into an undemocratic system which only pretends to be democratic by its procedures. It is an expression of the stagnation and civilisational fatigue of the Western world, not a totalitarian temptation.
It is an expression of the stagnation and civilisational fatigue of the Western world, not a totalitarian temptation.
The German lawyer and philosopher Carl Schmitt linked totalitarianism to the existence of so-called political soldiers. A political soldier was an ideological activist who was willing to kill and be killed for his beliefs. This was the case, for example, of a communist who went to fight in Spain in 1936, where he shot his enemies, only to be killed by a bullet from the rifle of an Italian fascist, another political soldier.
What are today’s activists like? They are certainly not political soldiers. With surprising ease, they place themselves at the service of a system that condones or even accepts their radical rhetoric, knowing full well that they pose no real threat. They are corruptible.
The flood of orders, prohibitions and recommendations that overwhelms us is thus not a sign of the advent of totalitarianism of the traditional type. It is, among other things, a consequence of the gradual disappearance of unwritten principles, norms and regulations that guided previous generations but which modern liberalism has removed in the name of liberating the individual from tradition.
The strengthening state, which limits human freedom, is thus the last obstacle preventing the final disintegration of society.
It is a great historical paradox. Liberalism originated in the eighteenth century as a movement to liberate man politically and economically from the oppression and prejudices of traditional society. In its final phase, however, it also destroyed everything that makes normal human coexistence possible, including a sense of self-control, discipline and common sense.
The strengthening state, which limits human freedom, is thus the last obstacle preventing the final disintegration of society.
Ivo Budil is a Czech professor of antropology.
