What Is Totalitarianism? Understanding Hannah Arendt Now

“The rise of totalitarian governments,” Hannah Arendt wrote, “is the central event of our world.” In her masterpiece, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Arendt linked the horrors of Nazism and Stalinism, seeing them as twin manifestations of a terrifying new political system that sought absolute control over all aspects of life. How does this book, which probed the psychology and pathology of the twentieth century, take on new relevance in today’s political landscape?

Join celebrated scholars David Bromwich, Seyla Benhabib, Roger Berkowitz, and Thomas Wild, editor of LOA’s new expanded and annotated edition of Arendt’s great work, for a riveting conversation about the causes, means, and ends of totalitarian regimes and the difficult, sometimes excruciating choices faced by those who live under them.

[alanthomas]

this is brilliant! Thank you so much for introducing a succinct analysis of Arendt's views on totalitarianism. And also thanks for comparing and contrasting that word with other -isms on the tongues of many right now.

[biznaz]

Arendts analysis in conjunction with Sheldon Wolin’s Inverted Totalitarianism from his book Democracy Inc., are absolutely necessary reading for our regressive times.

[MyAladdinSane]

34:44 Great to hear somebody acknowledge that 'authoritarian', as we use it today, is all but meaningless.

For what it's worth, Arendt herself clearly distinguishes authoritarianism, tyranny & totalitarianism in 'What is Authority?'.

[ziziroberts]

The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt is the non-fiction companion to George Orwell's 1984. Read both. Now.

[grahamcroston]

I really want to know about all this, but the low volume is making following it difficult, (and a pity no-one told Mr Blue Shirt to mute his mic until it was his turn to speak)

[Human-lent]

Thank you for this thought- provoking discussion. I admire Arendt’s work and others like Gitta Sereny, Primo Levi and Bruno Bettelheim who seek to understand human behaviour, mass hysteria, need for authority, confirmity, meaning and self-importance. However, I was left perplexed by the lack of transporting their analyses to contemporary political and societal settings, especially in the context of increasing marginalization and alienation of non-capitalist classes and the relatively swift emergence of militaristic uni-party systems.

[charleskatz]

Love these seminars in ur your audio is to low

[alfredorezende]

Uma lei é superada por aquela que a precede.

[alfredorezende]

Há duas ideologias: uma que restringe a vida ao restringir a possibilidade de incrementar a evolucao humana tanto fisica como emocional ; à outra cabe o inverso. Agora faça sua escolha. Boa sorte!

[mongoharry]

The "deep craziness" of our present situation is discussed in the work of forensic psychiatrist Dr Bandy X Lee.

[svenhanson]

I wanted to hear about this but the sound is barely existing. I will go for the transcript instead. Thank you and goodbye

[fritzteetsel]

I’m 10 minutes into this and they’re still babbling about everything but the material at hand.

[stanleykubrick]

This went absolutely nowhere. A better subject matter would’ve been to say that every household, school, church, neighborhood, sports team, etc. that we participate in is a form of totalitarianism.

[toddwoolner]

Hannah Arendt was a bit of a stooge for the US State Department. The whole concept of “Totalitarianism” was just a US propaganda term to bash the Soviet Union with, if you read declassified CIA documents dated from 1953, they even state Stalin wasn’t even a dictator, but in public propaganda campaigns against the USSR they said the opposite. So which is it?