![]() ![]() There is almost no politics in “Origins” beyond the decisions and processes that eventuated in total domination. The lesson: Freedom is fragile, and when demagogues speak, and others start following them, it is wise to pay attention. One reason the book resonates so strongly today is its fixation on the way many “bads” long taken for granted can come together to generate a maelstrom of evil and horror foreseen by no one, perhaps not even the protagonists themselves. “Origins” charts the “grotesque disparity between cause and effect,” which made the horrors of the 1940s so surprising, and shocking, to so many. While her account of these “elements” is bracing, even more disturbing is the way she links them to the monstrous outcome to which they gave rise. But their “crystallization” into the horrific outcome that was totalitarianism was neither predictable nor inevitable. As Arendt made clear, her interest is in understanding the origins of totalitarianism, not explaining its “causes.” The elements that together made its rise possible - anti-Semitism, imperialism, racism, the post-World War I crises of multinational empires, the displacement of peoples by war and by technological change - were important. “Origins” centers on the rise of totalitarianism, especially its Nazi variant, out of the ashes of World War I and the Great Depression. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |