Essays on Totalitarianism

Nowadays, totalitarianism is commonly thought to be a terrifying regime from the past, regime that triggered numerous deaths and suffers. However, some countries continue to maintain totalitarian or authoritarian regimes. What is more surprising, the development of modern technologies facilitates total control over the public,...

Writing after WWII, Hannah Arendt, in her text, The Origins of Totalitarianism, moves from a discussion of the plight (danger) of national ‘minorities’ and the altogether ‘stateless’ in the inter-war years of European history to a fundamental critique of the notion of ‘human rights’. Who...

The nineteenth century was a time of great change and upheaval for humanity. The collapse of entire governmental systems that had been the status quo for centuries, the fall of empires, implementation of brand-new systems of governments, the two bloodiest wars in human history, the...

Throughout our history, humans have struggled to create the perfect society, the utopia of our dreams where all people live free and happy. Many experiments have occurred over history to create this perfect society, from the United States to Communism, all of which were founded...

The French Revolution was an effort to transform France from an unequal rule by the monarchy into an ideal republican form of government that was based on Enlightenment concepts such as natural rights and legal egalitarianism. In its ambitious attempt to do so, it disregarded...

Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, is a political novel which draws attention to the consequences of a totalitarian regime. It depicts the struggles of young adult, Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a disadvantaged province, or ‘District’, and her journey as an advocate of freedom and...

A totalitarian form of government is one which tries to control every aspect of life including a person’s private life, how people spend every minute of their time even in private, who they can associate with or what they are allowed to say. A totalitarian...

Totalitarianism, in simple terms, is best described as a society where the ruler or ruling group has total control over the governing society. The government controls all private and private aspects of citizens life in a totalitarian society. There have been a few countries under...

George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) is a science fiction novel based in a critical dystopia, written at the end of the Second World War. The start of the twentieth century brought about advancements in technology and was a catalyst for a new modern society. However,...

“When you give the government the power to control the money supply, it grows like a tumour until it extinguishes society itself” (Stephen Molyneux). In George Orwell’s novel 1984, it is evident Orwell is trying emphasize the dangers of having a totalitarian government, which can...

The Land of Green Plums, by Herta Müller, is a novel arguably as defined by its language as its content. There are many interpretations of Müller’s literary style, and one of the most cogent is that it serves to show the reader how indirect, and...

Following the political upheaval and struggle for power after the second world war, George Orwell’s novel 1984 cautions against the dangers of oppression and exemplifies the consequential nightmarish world of the near future. The plot traces the struggles of the main character, Winston Smith, as...

In order for one to exist in a totalitarian society whose government is successful in its control, one must deal on a day-to-day basis with strong persuasion and propaganda. These totalitarian societies have an iron grip on their people, leaving their citizens with absolutely no...