CONTROL ME

If you remember, my last article ended with a question about the general public and Hitler.

That is, Hitler was NOT: a) Handsome and charming

b) A guy who helps old people cross the road

c) An intern at Hypnotism and Co.

Then how did he manage to sway the crowds? How did his actions seem justifiable to them? I’m talking about ordinary people, like you and me, who were right there when Hitler was still just climbing the stairs to absolute power. Why didn’t they stop him? How did most of them end up helping him along instead?

I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE AWESOME TO SEE THIS IN A CONVERSATION FORMAT!

Introducing Jo and Mo! And it so happens that there is nothing that excites them more than discussing this very question. Let’s take a look at what they think.

Jo: I say that it could have been because of antisemitism, just spreading like an epidemic (not a good time to mention this word?).

Trends and movements like #MeToo are always happening, so why not #ShooJew? Especially since they were (wrongly) blamed for how the war turned out.

Mo: Wait, what’s antisemitism again? Being opposed to Jews and their faith, right?

Jo: Well yes, but it’s more of an ideology. For example, a communist thinks that the world would be a better place if only we could eradicate capitalism and have community- owned property and production. Similarly antisemitism is a belief that the world would be a better place without Jews in it.

Mo: Well I can understand discrimination being a possibility as a result of that kind of opinion. Like you know that really weird family which moved in recently near our house? My aunt thinks that we’ll be better off without them living in our neighborhood, and so do some others. But you don’t see anyone actually doing anything to them.

Jo: Yeah, that’s a fair point. But think about what Hannah Arendt said in her book, The Origins of Totalitarianism (totalitarianism meaning dictatorship)….

She said that totalitarian politics use and abuse their own ideological and political elements until the basis of factual reality of those ideologies has all but disappeared.

Mo: Okay, so totalitarian politics move farther and farther away from real-life conflicts, is that what she’s saying?

Jo: Yes and the further they move from reality, the more extraordinary their acts are allowed to become, up to the point where they are able to take away basic human rights.

Mo: Hold on.....

Mo: I want to apply this to my weird-neighbor situation so that I can understand. The actual conflict is that these people………

<Fill this in with any actual clash or conflict that you can think of, like food habits or class difference>

Jo: Okay and now let’s say that the Head of your Society wants them out, but he cannot do that by quoting any rule because there are no rules. So the only way is if he gets everyone to feel the same way.

Mo: What if the people living in the society had a superstitious belief that could be exploited? I guess he could just go around telling everyone that the family in that house is possessed, maybe show some misleading signs. Then it would only be a matter of time before everyone is willing to listen to his solution of evicting them from the society.

Jo: Bingo! I think we really got this, the farther they went from reality, the easier it was for them to take extreme actions.

(SUGGESTION: WATCH THE OSCAR-NOMINATED MOVIE “JOJO RABBIT” TO UNDERSTAND THIS COMPLETELY!)

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Since this is the last ever article on this topic, bear with me just a little bit longer.

What might make a group of people vulnerable to dictatorship or totalitarianism?

According to Arendt, every person has three things in their life: labor, work and action.

Labor is what you do to fulfill your basic needs. When I say basic, I mean basic, like eating and sleeping. Watching Netflix does not count.

Work is what you do which contributes to the cultural reality of your world. Things that we produce, make our culture what it is, so your job as an app developer or a furniture designer counts as Work.

Action is what you do in the political realm, as a community. Action is responsible for assigning meaning and significance to things.

For example, let’s say you live in a small town in China, where, as a community, you all value mashed caterpillar salad. You have caterpillar themed parties and people get all teary-eyed when they talk about caterpillars, “Aah God bless those caterpillars…”

Obviously that particular community was responsible for assigning significance to caterpillars. So action involves a community, it involves participation and a consciousness.

My final point on this topic: The more absent this “Action” is in every person of a population, the more vulnerable they are to totalitarianism.

What Arendt says, is that political participation used to be an integral part of a person; now a lot of us don’t give a damn about our neighbor. It is a cultural change that started in the late nineteenth century itself that has made us the “economic man”, cycling continuously between labor and work. We sleep, eat and then focus on how to earn money so that we can eat and sleep again.

Even when you talk about yourself, you start with what you do for a living. But according to Arendt, what you don’t realize is that you are missing an integral part of yourself called ‘action’ and that makes the population, a mass without consciousness and a mass without consciousness is “a single bundle of reflexes” that is easy to control.

So despite being millions in numbers, you could essentially be powerless in the face of a totalitarian government, if each person cannot see beyond their own money, food and sleep.

That’s all folks, thank you for your patience. Peace out! I've had enough for a lifetime.