I'm writing these reactions together, even though they are two separate blogs because I feel that the two readings are closely linked. Arendt talks about totalitarianism by looking at concentration and extermination camps as examples. She says that they are the only true experiments for a totalitarian society. She talks about "The Big Lie", the idea that if you tell people a lie, and if it is big enough, many people will believe in it regardless of whether or not it uses common sense. This can be seen readily enough in Orwell's 1984. The main character of the book works in a place where they essentially re-write history. They take out and change quotes said by Big Brother, or events that took place and replace it with whatever the current lie is, and the citizens readily believed it. Although in the context of the book, they didn't really have much of a choice. Big Brother, who is of course never wrong, could be at war with country A and always has been, and then next week Big Brother could be at war with country B, but then again, they always have been haven't they?
Ardent also says that terror is the essence of totalitarian states, and that it controls not only the opposition but everyone in the society. If we apply this to 1984, we may gain some insight into why Big Brother is always at war with one country or another. There are bombs constantly going off around certain parts of the city, whether an actual war is going on or not. This creates an atmosphere that lends people to need a government more than ever.How else will they be protected? If it weren't for Big Brother, they would probably have been taken over by country A a long time ago, no?
posted by Rich @ 6:31 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home