A totalitarian government claims total control over the society. But for what? For the perpetuation of this regime, or his regime as often is the case. No doubt, the control is for the enjoyment of power and resources. However, a dictator is not simply a hedonist, although he may be. More importantly, the control is for the security of the ruler or the ruling few. The desire for a total control is based on a universal instinct of man – self-preservation. He does not want anything or anyone out of his immediate control, so that nothing or nobody could threat his dictatorship. He is eager to tie a rope on everyone’s neck because he senses an existential crisis that everyone else may do that to him if he does not do it to them first. At the bottom of his heart, a dictator does not feel safe. There is no way he feels safe since he would not be a dictator if he finds a normal level of safety. Dictatorship lives on crisis, real or imaginative, which are not easily distinguishable in him. A dictator is by definition psychologically paranoid, paralyzed, and dysfunctional, as we have found throughout history. He is not an ordinary person, and this is not a compliment. He is sick to the bone and diseased to the inner heart.
A totalitarian government must impoverish its people by taking resources from people and making the government the only source. When you control the bread, you control the mouth, and then you control the person who opens the mouth. A totalitarian regime destroys the self-dependence of the people and the mutual support amongst the people, as both are undermining the monopoly of the government, thus undermining the dictatorship. You must depend upon the government, and if you need help, this help must come from the government. Behind the monopoly of resources is the monopoly of love. With the former, you can have slaves; but with the latter, you can have loving slaves supporting you fanatically. The art of totalitarianism is to mass produce the latter, and we see the success of this in modern age. Countless people willingly die for the very person despising them and executes them. Even more heartily defend the very person directly responsible for the unspeakable misery they have endured or are enduring.
That is why a totalitarian government must eliminate all civic organizations not under its control. This is why it is always suspicious of religious institutions, because they by default are voluntary assemblies with an integral function of mutual support, above all, in the name of God or a god. This is why in a totalitarian society there is no social charity, as all charity is governmental support/subsidy if not political propaganda. It works against a very basic sense of humanity, that is loving sympathy. When you see another person is suffering, you would like to offer help. This love is spontaneous and most free. But the government does not want that because “free” is a most horrible idea. Your sympathy must be shut off, and your love must remain in your heart. Your love needs permission from the government, the request of which is the anti-human and below the level of a beast. A beast does not ask permissions to help each other.
A totalitarian government aims to control man, not just people but also the humanity in each person. You can only be the kind of person they want you to be. Anything else is a rebellion. Probably the best slaves would be dehumanized people since slavery is dehumanizing. This culture is impoverished as humanity is being caged, tortured, and depleted. Totalitarianism is culturally destructive. It is not just about creativity, which is no doubt suppressed; it is about humanity. Not about how to be a creative man, but how to be a man, an ordinary man. Not about the distinct between an artist and a brick layer, but between a man and a machine, and a man and a beast. To be a real man, a real person takes courage under a totalitarian society. Again, that alone is rebellion.
Totalitarianism scorches over the field, burning the plants, the roots, and the soil.
