The Five Stages of Totalitarianism

The Five Stages of Totalitarianism by Walker Larson.

Fears of a growing totalitarian tendency in the US

have swelled during 2020 to 2022.

But how close are we really to a totalitarian state?

How have such regimes come about historically?

And what are the warning signs?

This article will answer these questions

by examining totalitarian regimes in the 18th and 20th centuries

and the pattern by which they came to power.

Stage one, discontent and rumblings.

Every new order rises on the ruins of the old.

Those who would establish a new regime

must tap into or generate dissatisfaction with the status quo.

However much those desiring a reset may despise the old order.

They can't accomplish much without harnessing

or fabricating a similar attitude in the public.

Then the revolutionary totalitarian appears

as the solution to these problems.

The reign of terror in revolutionary France, for example,

didn't begin with blood but with bread.

Between 1715 and 1800, the population of Europe

doubled, creating food shortages among the French people.

Many of the French people resented

the King's growing centralized authority.

In addition, the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers

were stirring up revolutionary feeling.

Finally, the French government was massively in debt due

to the many wars of the 18th century

and it increased taxation even on nobles.

It was these sufferings and fears combined

with the machinations of the secret societies

admitted by the Marquis de Rosambeau

at the Chamber of Deputies Session of July 1st, 1904

that led to the revolution and the totalitarian Jacobin

government.

The reign of terror came after the fall of the King

and the ASEAN regime, which the revolutionaries

accomplished in part because of the problems

and suffering in French society, pre-revolution.

The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917,

which established the totalitarian regime so bloody

that it would make the reign of terror look

like a mere red drop in the guillotine bucket

followed a similar blueprint.

The Bolshevik communists exploited the sufferings

of the Russian people for revolutionary purposes.

What were these sufferings?

The Russian people had lost faith in Tsar Nicholas II

and his government, Russia contained restless ethnic minorities

and the poorly equipped and led Russian armies

were losing against the Germans in World War I.

Russia's failures in the war led to demoralization

and disrupted the economy.

In January 1917, transportation to cities

like Petrograd broke down and this caused food

and fuel shortages and eventually riots.

Not long after the rise of Bolshevism in Russia,

Adolf Hitler became involved with the Nazi party

during the Weimar Republic.

Struggling post-war Germany bubbled with discontent.

The Treaty of Versailles had been harsh.

Germany was expected to accept full responsibility

for the war, pay massive indemnities to the Allies,

surrender large amounts of territory,

possess no military worth speaking of,

and be monitored by Allied troops.

In the years following the war and the treaty,

the German economy suffered mightily,

including through hyperinflation.

When Germany defaulted on some of its payments,

French and Belgian troops occupied Germany's richest

industrial region, the Ruhr district,

which only made Germany poorer and the people angrier.

Stage two, the false savior and the first revolution.

After identifying and appealing to the people's discontent,

the totalitarian presents himself as a savior.

In stage two, the revolutionary totalitarian

and axidramatic change to solve the problems

and discontent of stage one.

To find a solution for its debt crisis,

the French government called the Estates General Assembly

to advise the king on what to do.

The Third Estate quickly claimed full governmental authority

as the National Assembly.

The National Assembly wanted to draw up a new constitution

that would change the nature of the government

to deal with injustices.

After the storming of the Bastille,

peasants in rural areas revolted against their lord.

The National Assembly declared feudalism abolished

and introduced the declaration of the rights of man

and of the citizen.

With the execution of Louis XVI on January 21st, 1793,

the first stage of the revolution was over.

The regicide left a massive power vacuum.

Various groups struggled to fill this hole,

but in the end, the Jacobins, the radicals,

dominated the new revolutionary government.

In the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks took advantage

of the food riots that began early in 1917.

When the military began siding with the rioting workers,

rather than restoring law and order,

Tsar Nicholas knew all was lost.

He abdicated on March 2nd, 1917, and was later shot.

The Bolshevik-run Petrograd Soviet quickly took control

of post-Zarist Russia.

Their slogan, peace, land, and bread,

attracted many frightened and angry people to them

as to a savior.

On November 6th and 7th, they staged a coup

that finally overturned the provisional government.

The initial rise of Nazism in Germany

was less bloody, but similarly based on messianic promises.

Capitalizing on the resentment in Germany

due to the Versailles Treaty and global economic downturn

in 1929, the Nazi party grew in size and influence.

The Nazis had attempted a violent coup in November, 1923,

but had failed, and they turned to legal means

of gaining control of the government.

Due to Hitler's skill with propaganda,

the Nazi party won more and more of the vote by the early 1930s.

Eventually, it was the second biggest political party

in the country.

At this point, Hitler was demanded that President Paul von

Hindenburg appoint him chancellor,

which Hindenburg agreed to in 1933.

This was not a violent revolution,

but the failed 1923 attempt shows the party's violent tendencies.

Stage three, censorship, persecution, propaganda,

and the ending of opposition.

In stage three, the initial upheaval of stage two

has passed.

The old order has been fundamentally changed,

and now various forces begin to react.

The rising totalitarian government faces many enemies,

often dubbed counter-revolutionaries or extremists.

Here in its infancy, the new order must struggle

to gain more power and maintain that which has been acquired.

For this reason, it sets about combating its enemies

through censorship and persecution.

As soon as they had gained sway over their countries,

the first move of totalitarians like Hitler and Vladimir

Lenin was to censor opposition and put out propaganda.

Each of these totalitarian leaders also

gained control of education and had secret police forces

to monitor and even kill anyone designated as an enemy.

Another strategy was to establish youth organizations

to indoctrinate citizens in the state's propaganda

from an early age and tear their loyalties away

from family or religion.

Religion was almost universally persecuted

once these regimes came to power.

Finally, Hitler and Lenin outlawed, either de Jure

or de facto, all political parties

and views besides their own, after coming to power.

Totalitarians create a one-party system

that often maintains a facade of democracy.

Stage four, the crisis.

Stage four prepares the way for the totalitarian government

to grasp total control over those under its rule.

It consists of a crisis moment which maybe either a real threat

or a false flag that seems to threaten the nation.

By 1793, the French Revolution was at a crisis point.

Defenders of the old order rose up on all sides

to crush the new order.

Austrian and Prussian armies encircled France

while the Vendée and peasants revolted against the revolutionary

government and army.

And so, in the name of public safety,

the government decided to take harsh measures

against all enemies of the revolution.

And so, of course, they needed more control.

This was the task of the Committee of Public Safety

and it suffered from no scruple in its methods.

On August 3, 1918, Lenin was shot

after giving a speech at a factory.

While recovering in the hospital, he wrote to a subordinate,

it is necessary secretly and urgently to prepare the terror.

This initiated a campaign of mass killings and detentions

by the government known to history as the red terror.

As always, the justification for these acts

was the emergency indicated by the attempted assassination.

The radicals and counter-revolutionaries

were allegedly at the gate and it was necessary

to use extreme measures to deal with this imminent threat

so the rhetoric went.

And so, it always goes.

Hitler also used a state of emergency to justify his clamp down.

On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag went up in flames.

In response, Hermann Goren, minister of the Interior,

ordered a raid on communist headquarters,

allegedly for evidence of sedition,

and a communist plot to attack public buildings.

This, in Hitler's mind, was the signal for seizing complete control.

On February 28, the cabinet abolished freedom of speech,

assembly, privacy, and the press.

Around 4,000 people were arrested that night.

This crisis, with the usual language about safety

and countering threats, ushered in totalitarianism in Germany.

Stage five, purges, genocide, and total control.

Using the crisis of stage four as an excuse,

the totalitarian government now ceases absolute control

over the lives of its citizens.

The regime overcomes the enemies of stages three and four.

It begins brutally enforcing its utopia and ideology

on a populace.

This stage also sees the greatest atrocities

committed against the populace because resistance

to the totalitarian regime has been crushed.

The people are defenseless and demoralized.

Nothing stands between the regime and its victims.

This stage involves mass killings

as the regime liquidates any remaining enemies

while seeking to control every detail of citizens' lives.

During the latter stages of the French Revolution,

the Committee of Public Safety received dictatorial powers

to defeat anyone who opposed the revolutionary government.

During 1793 to 94, the CPS eliminated rival revolutionary groups

before passing a law that suspended citizens' rights

to a public trial or legal assistance

and gave the jury only two options, acquittal or death.

The result was horrifying.

Throughout France, 300,000 suspects were arrested.

17,000 were executed, and about 10,000 died in prison

or without trial.

But it was nothing compared to the red terror

and Joseph Stalin's purchase.

The party used the attempted assassination of Lenin

as justification for intense persecution of its enemies.

Tens of thousands of people became victims

as discussed in Richard Pipes' The Russian Revolution.

But Lenin's handiwork was only a precursor

to Stalin's purges of political enemies.

Historians are divided on just how many people Stalin killed,

but estimates reach as high as 60 million.

Estimates of the people killed by Hitler

and his Nazi party vary as well.

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,

the figure stands at 17 million.

But only God knows for certain.

In addition to carrying out mass killings,

established totalitarian regimes seek

to control everyday life through measures like censorship,

propaganda, gun control, and internal passports.

The United States in 2022.

So as the United States headed for totalitarianism,

here we move from facts to speculation,

a risky business, the answer is not straightforward.

But if we are careful to avoid exaggeration,

some useful comparisons can be made.

Have any forces in the US take an advantage

of real or imagined problems in the country

to stir up discontent and even violence?

The death of George Floyd and the associated claims

of systemic racism in 2020 gave rise to violent

and destructive riots.

Fortunately, this has calmed down,

but like in pre-Soviet Russia,

ongoing tensions surrounding racial minorities

continue to threaten more social unrest.

This unrest could intensify if predictions of food shortages

and increasing inflation come true in the coming months and years.

Has any figure or group presented themselves as a savior

with the solution to our problems?

A solution that will require the curtailing

of individual rights, our freedom of assembly,

freedom of speech, due process,

or religious rights under attack.

The COVID pandemic was used by governments around the world

to justify vast restrictions on personal freedom,

including limitations on freedom of assembly,

the closing of religious centers,

and censorship of information or viewpoints

that oppose the official COVID narrative and dictates.

Many of these public officials presented themselves

as experts whose forceful policies were necessary

for public safety.

Entities such as the World Economic Forum

and many global leaders continue to discuss the need

for a great reset in part as a response

to the threat of COVID.

This reset includes everything from redesigning health systems

and education to the implementation of vaccine passports.

This is presented to us as our salvation from COVID

and other dangers including racism.

Are we experiencing any censorship in the US?

Are our media sources independent and objective

or coerced and controlled?

As the recent musk-slash Twitter debacle has highlighted,

Big Tech bears responsibility for censoring certain information

and views with increasing regularity in recent years

and particularly conservative voices.

Does the US live under a one-party system?

As far as we can tell, the answer to this question is no.

However, if the claims of election fraud

abounding since the 2020 elections are true

and the fraud remains unremodied,

we effectively live in a one-party system

since one party can maintain power indefinitely

through illegal means.

But that is a substantial if.

Are we witnessing mass arrests or mass killings?

We clearly have not progressed into stage five type mass arrests

and killings at this time,

although the data on adverse reactions

surrounding the COVID vaccine is concerning.

Still, that data, even if accurate,

does not definitively show that premeditation

or a totalitarian regime is the culprit

behind these injuries and deaths.

Yet the possibility, I think, should not be ruled out entirely.

One final point must be made.

Though troubling similarities exist

between the trajectory of the US and the historical examples

of totalitarianism outlined above,

we must avoid both the extremes of an alarmist fatalism

and a starry-eyed state of denial.

On the one hand, the events of the past few years

in our country are grim.

On the other, history does not work like a machine

and many factors are at play here.

I do not claim to know the future

and I do not believe in historical determinism.

In the end, whether the United States

is headed for totalitarianism or not is largely up to us

and whether or not we resist these trends.

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