What makes totalitarianism?
Social ideas can be powerful things, and useful for organizing the world. A social idea is any idea that has to do, primarily, with how humans relate to each other. Among social ideas, there is a certain class of idea that attempts to explain all of social reality. Call them reality-complete social ideas. (A theory about something limited-say, about how people treat each other under duress-would be a reality-incomplete social idea.)
Reality-complete social ideas, when they become popular, can become the animating force behind religions, nations, civilizations. But in order to be reality-complete, a social idea must re-interpret history through the narrative of the idea. For example, communism was a reality-complete idea. It effectively broke down all of history into different periods of development leading up to the advent of communism. Various different forms of racialism are reality-complete ideas, often portraying reality as a struggle between the in-group race and other races. Modern narratives about democracy can be reality-complete ideas, portraying history as a struggle towards more freedom and autonomy for the people. Libertarianism and attendant Objectivism are reality-complete ideas, portraying history as a long struggle between collectivism and individualism.
These reality-complete ideas hold a strong allure, especially for the intelligent. A romantic notion of intelligence is that we have it in order to pursue truth and rationality. In reality, that (limited) ability for humans to pursue truth and rationality is a side-effect of what intelligence was truly meant for, which is social maneuvering. Intelligence is not meant for rationality, but instead rationalization – the post-fact justification of beliefs and opinions that you arrived at by often non-cognitive means. Reality-complete ideas can find ground among the less intelligent, but by and large they are usually more skeptical of them, because they lack the intelligence to consistently defend their particular reality-complete idea in the face of criticism. Reality-complete ideas find their most fertile ground in the more intelligent, who are more capable of defending their positions and justifying their beliefs to themselves. The less intelligent will often not be so committed, especially if they are exposed to many competing reality-complete ideas.
Once a reality-complete idea has taken root in a number of intelligent minds, it can become a mental trap. What is a mental trap? A mental trap is when a reality-complete idea, among a social group, creates conditions that so reinforce itself that it is nearly impossible to break through. Normally, a reality-complete idea can be tempered by exposure to competing reality-complete ideas, or reality-incomplete ideas that contradict the narrative of the reality-complete idea. This leaves the intelligent person whose mind is occupied by the reality-complete idea to still have room for subtlety, nuance, and the capability to consider things from the point of view of others. A mental trap overrides these tempering factors.
For example, let’s consider a somewhat intelligent young man, Michael, who believes in reality-complete idea called A. Reality-complete idea A describes history as a struggle between Michael’s country, let’s call it Funland, its allies, and an international cabal of diamond smugglers. Now, as it so happens, Michael’s country does suffer a lot of political meddling on the part of fabulously wealthy diamond merchants. It would be a poor reality-complete idea if it didn’t reflect reality a little bit. Michael joins an online discussion group based around reality-complete idea A. (Maybe it’s not explicitly based around A, but it serves its purpose if it’s dominated by A-believers.) From here, the trap closes in on him. You can gain status in the community by thinking up clever arguments that justify A. Moreover, the most clever, effective arguments on behalf of A are quickly distributed. Rarely does a member of this community encounter an advocate of a competing reality-complete idea and not have an effective retort.
Enough time in this community, and Michael will become incapable of understanding why EVERYONE doesn’t believe in reality-complete idea A. What’s more, he’ll see advocates of competing ideas only in terms of how they can serve reality-complete idea A. And he’ll see people who advocate contradictory reality-complete ideas as complete monsters.
If you think I’m describing a process that happens to only an unfortunate few who stumble onto the path of being zealots, I’m not. It happens to almost everyone in the modern age. The internet makes it far too simple for somewhat intelligent people to fall into mind traps of various different reality-complete ideas. It makes it too easy for effective arguments on behalf of reality-complete ideas to propagate quickly. And the open nature of the internet makes it too easy for people to whip themselves up into a siege mentality by viewing the off-hand comments of people from contradicting reality-complete ideas. For example, consider idea A again. Let’s say that B is an idea that directly contradicts reality-complete idea A, let’s say it’s sympathetic to the diamond smugglers. Advocates of idea A can easily go to see the public communications of the advocates of idea B. Imagine that advocates of idea B have a forum, where they are accustomed to talking among themselves about how great idea B is. In one discussion, they talk about how idiotic A-idea advocates are. One cheeky rogue suggests they shouldn’t be allowed to vote. A-advocates can take this public communication back to their OWN community, and hold it up as an example of how dastardly B-advocates are, and use it to whip people into a frenzy of doubling down on the obvious correctness of idea A.
People in the midst of a mind-trap see their reality-complete idea in everything. They are capable of spinning almost any event so that it fits the narrative of their idea. What’s more, they often operate under a siege mentality, seeing themselves surrounded by bloodthirsty opponents. This is what makes totalitarianism – for totalitarianism to work, you need an idea that reaches into every aspect of social relations, and you need a strongly motivated group of people who are capable of – independent of instruction – capable of seeing and rationalizing the idea’s narrative in any given situation. And most of all, these people need power. (Which most of them do not have.)
Reality-complete ideas can be dangerous, but I believe they are also necessary for the operation of any type of leadership caste or government. I plan on writing more on this thought in the future.
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