To Transform the Human Species

By Jeffrey Champlin

In Chapter 13 of The Origins of Totalitarianism, “Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government,” Arendt connects the universal claim of totalitarianism to its project of completely transforming humanity:

The law of Nature or the law of History, if properly executed, is expected to produce mankind as its end product; and this expectation lies behind the claim to global rule of all totalitarian governments. Totalitarian policy claims to transform the human species into an active unfailing carrier of a law to which human beings otherwise would only passively and reluctantly be subjected (Origins, 462).

Arendt’s interchangeable reference to “the law of Nature or the law of History” indicates one of the most controversial claims of her study: that the racist Nazi government and Soviet communist government both followed a deeper underlying idea. To some liberals of the day, the “or” marked an outrageous equivalence since they held the Soviet Union to be qualitatively different due to its stated goals of equality. For Arendt though, the parallel works because both governments have the same understanding of the law. Arendt argues that traditionally the law functions as an imperfect mediator between a higher, stable source of authority and the changeable nature of human beings. For Nazi and Soviet governments, however, the law itself takes on a transcendent and unquestionable status. Law no longer represents authority but announces it immediately.

[caption id="attachment_15108" align="alignleft" width="300"] Totalitarianism in Nazi Germany (Source: Political Pathologies)[/caption]

Readers with an ear for the literary dimension of Arendt’s writing will hear a grim multivalence when she speaks of the law “properly executed.” She does mean this in a logical sense, in the sense of implementation. She also repeatedly emphasizes the physical violence which gives her word choice the additional sense of the literal executions employed by totalitarian governments.

Arendt’s central insight in this quote connects the totalitarian expectation to “produce mankind” to the “claim to global rule.” Totalitarianism does not just wish to change opinions of a certain subgroup of people or conquer a defined territory. Instead, it claims a global transformation in the sense of there being no room outside for man or the world. The species as a whole will change, for the Nazis in terms of race and for the Soviets in terms of a historically higher form of humanity. Actual people that belong to races or stages of history considered lower will necessarily be destroyed in service of this transformative development.

The totalitarian “claim” announces a course of action. It orients the government and sets its goals. Arendt’s elucidation of the transformation promised by totalitarianism specifies a subtle mechanism of circular logic. Totalitarianism does not claim to impose a new rule from without but to change humanity’s relation to an already existing law. Humans are already subjects of the law whether they know it or not. They must move from a passive to an active relation to the law. As an “unfailing carrier of a law,” humanity would accept its burden and commit itself to moving it forward. This solves a paradox inherent in Marx’s analysis of history: if history automatically proceeds by contradictions between classes that necessarily occur at the point of contradiction, why do people have to form revolutionary groups to make the change happen? Totalitarian movements commit to violence as the means of change.

[caption id="attachment_15111" align="aligncenter" width="549"] Extremist Somali clerics (Source: Qaranimo)[/caption]

Arendt’s work on totalitarianism offers a way of approaching religious fundamentalism, a phenomenon which ignores all facts and employs violence as a means for transcendent ends. (This is despite the fact that fundamentalism is not a form of government but an ideology that may pave the way for future totalitarianism.) Broadly speaking, Arendt notes that ideology appears only in the age of science, meaning that fundamentalism as an ideology is a specifically modern phenomena. More specifically, the claim of fundamentalism works in an analogous fashion to totalitarianism insofar as it follows the law as a direct source of authority, with its proponents acting as instruments that enact its law on earth. The energy of their claim derives from the tension between the current state of subjection to the law and the promised future in which supporters actively work on its behalf. This logical circle is called prolepsis: assuming in advance that what you wish to prove. Arendt acknowledges that the loneliness of the modern age makes humans susceptible to totalitarianism. But in the Human Condition, she offers the alternative of breaking apparently independent historical processes through common action.

(Featured Image: "Who invented the totalitarian state?"; Source: Understanding Society)