Seminar on Totalitarianism

For the last seminar of the semester we looked at Totalitarianism and Hanna Arendt and how her theories can be easily applied to many historical events. As a group we focused on Hitler and the Nazi Regime and how methods were enforced on the Jews that can be regarded as Totalitarian. Hitler used state terror in order to round up the Jews into concentration camps and then punished them with torture should they speak out. We also discussed whether there could ever be another incident of extreme totalitarianism, I argued that there could because it only takes one extremely power hungry dictator to introduce new ideology and terror to the masses within a country and then a totalitarian state to be formed. There will be no end to this method of rule as throughout the world today there are many dictators in countries such as Congo and Zimbabwe and it only takes new forms of repression for terror to spiral out of control.  The group also discussed how it is difficult for the masses to speak out against a dictator as they will get punished by either torture or death or a combination of the two. Totalitarianism can be seen as one of the most repressive methods of rule over the masses as it succeeds in destroying a whole group of innocent people who have a different way of life and religion to the ruling government who consider themselves to be the superior class. We concluded that everything should be done in order to attempt to prevent any more Totalitarian rule as the Nazi Regime and Apartheid in South Africa show the devastating effects of power with thousands of innocent people being killed as a result.