Sárospataki Füzetek 1. (1997)
1997 / 2. szám - Dr. Frank Sawyer: The roots of totalitarianism (A totalitarizmus gyökerei)
THE ROOTS OF TOTALITARIANISM he feels feverish. A guard tells him he will be punished by having to spend three days in the punishment cell for not getting out of bed on time. He pretends to lead Ivan to the punishment cell, but then it turns out the guard is only commanding him to mop the guardroom floor. At the beginning of the story the feeling is presented that one never knows what punishment will be given: a cruel fate - probably undeserved - awaits at any time. The author is no doubt telling us that this was true under Communism not only in the workcamps but also within society at large. At the heart of the Communist system there is fear. Indeed, the workcamps are not abnormal: they are merely more of the same (total control) applied more ’efficiently’. In the camps the ’social engineering’, the ultimate logic of Stalinist control, could be practiced. The camps were blueprints for the totalitarian society. In the camps the dream of total control could be applied without having to deal with the unpredictability of human freedom.1 2 Tyranny as neurosis Where does totalitarianism and tyranny of any kind come from? Obviously one of the motives lies in power over others. Dictators, whether in politics, the church, the home, or the factory enjoy controlling and commanding others. While we usually think of a dictator as a ’strongman’, psychologists have pointed out that people who like to dominate others actually have trouble standing alone. They feel empty if they have no one to boss around. It has been said that dictatorship is -a means of escape from freedom since authoritarian people and systems are afraid to face the freedom of democratic decision-making.3 They have little trust in others. But the irony is that they often seem to have so little trust in themselves (or their program)! They actually follow actions calculated to frustrate their own goals. For example, communists’ method of domination was sure to estrange the people from their own government. And where there is psychological tension there can be no real community or cooperation. And if there is no cooperation, the system will 1 cf.Zygmunt Bauman, ’A Century of Camps?’, in Life in Fragments: Essays in Postmodern Morality (Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, 1995). 2 cf.Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom (New York, 1965). 81
