Sárospataki Füzetek 1. (1997)

1997 / 2. szám - Dr. Frank Sawyer: The roots of totalitarianism (A totalitarizmus gyökerei)

THE ROOTS OF TOTALITARIANISM

their own destruction, for they then throw society and the human heart itself into turmoil.1

It was Marx who said that philosophers had only interpreted the world and now the point was to change it; and such change could be very positive. But this homo homini Deus est became a terrible ideological weapon for totalitarian extermination of millions of people.

The everything or nothing’ fixation

Theological convictions have a social reality.1 2 Totalitarianism is true to itself when it rejects God and seeks salvation by means of an everything or nothing’ attitude.3 Of course, socialism is not always totalitarian, and capitalism, democracy, and any ideology can become totalitarian in hidden ways. Democracy’s totalitarian side is that it is the victim of its own development: having so many choices, life is more and more fragmented and The West is a slave to the idea of absolute freedom’.4 Often social systems have demanded duties without many rights; we today demand rights without duties. While ideologies in the past have demanded sacrifice for future benefits, we now expect no delay of gratification. There is presently a great ’technological fix’ which seems to be very rapidly draining the humanity from our souls. People are "overpowered by technique and become its object" and "technique becomes the center of society". Technique ironically gives the illusion of freedom while enslaving us. Life becomes more and more impersonal, leading to the "elimination of all human

1 Centesimus Annus 1991 (par.24.). See further George Weigel, ed., A New Wordly Order - A ‘Centesimus Annus’ Reader (Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, D.C., 1992). George Weil & Robert Loyal, Building the Free Society - Democracy, Capitalism, and Catholic Social Teaching (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1993)

2 cf.Max LStackhouse, Public Theology and Political Economy (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987)

3 cf. Albert Camus, The Rebel - an Essay on Man in Revolt, where he gives a penetrating analysis of totalitarianism.

4 Cornelius Castoriadis, Philosophy, Politics, Autonomy: Essays in Political Philosophy, ed. David Ames Curtis (Oxford University Press, 1991), p.196.

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