Totalitarism

(from L. totalis, the whole, all). 1) Ideology that seeks to subordinate the human being to the complete and total domination of the omnipotent State, through sociol-psychological and ideological manipulation of the behavior of the masses, the repressive control of all public and private life for every citizen, and through daily terror. 2) A sociopolitical regime and system that is a variation on the motivational model that is marked by complete repressive bureaucratic control, violently imposed by an all-powerful and terrorist State on the whole society and each of its inhabitants. Today, this control and corresponding repression are carried out using the information technologies of post-industrial civilization. Totalitarian regimes exploit organized industrial forced labor on an increasing scale. T. makes use of the image of the enemy to maintain psychological control of the masses; it inhibits human intentions, devaluing them and degrading and destroying the personality; it transforms the individual into a primitive instrument of the bureaucratic machinery and of the state. It is characterized by a total militarization of public life and an elimination of civil society. There are various forms and manifestations of t., based on the ideas of fascism, nationalism, corporativism, communism, etc. N.H. condemns all manifestations of t. as violent and oppressive regimes and ideologies, and calls for a struggle against such a crushing of human dignity. Humanism is diametrically opposed to t., and creates an atmosphere of resistance to that inhuman system, undermining its foundations and pointing out methods to combat it.