Totalitarianism: Hannah Arendt's Insight on Hitler's Rise to Power - Essay Example

Introduction

Hannah Arendt gives her idea on how totalitarian regimes pay more attention to laws that aim at protecting the regime and ensuring that the totalitarian regime remains by making the people obey the laws that keep the regime in office (Arendt, 2005). Hannah explains how totalitarian leaders use their powers to acquire more power than they later use to remain in power. Hannah gives the example of Adolf Hitler and how he managed to remain in power by changing the law and appointing key allies and friends to protect his interests. Hitler also intimidated and threatened the people. He believed that they did not agree with his actions.

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Totalitarian Regimes

Totalitarianism is characterized by leaders restricting the independence of government institutions that are supposed to be independent and using the institutions for self-benefit and discriminating against other individuals, such as opposition from carrying out their mandate to oversight the government. Hannah Arendt explains how Hitler committed crimes that were determined to silence them and instill fear in them. Dictators want to rule until they die (Arendt, 2005). Hannah Arendt argued that totalitarian regimes have ended up causing trauma and suffering to the people because the leaders are less focused on providing services to the people. People always oppose dictatorship leadership; hence many totalitarian regimes usually end up with conflicts among the people as they try to fight for their freedom.

Totalitarianism has evolved over the years, where the modern leader is using new tactics to secure power and control the people without causing conflicts. Modern dictators, I have encountered use the divide and rule tactic to acquire power and remain in power for a given period of time. Leaders such as President Donald Trump have used the divide and rule tactic to win the votes on Native Americans who wanted a change in leadership. Heidegger also explains how societies are formed and how dictatorship of the leaders influence the growth and development of the countries. Heidegger explains that people live as communities; hence communities need to grow as one community where the rights of all the people are respected.

Humanism

Heidegger's theme of humanism seeks to encourage and educate the people on the importance of being human when one is in a leadership position. Heidegger draws attention to the positive and negative efforts that leaders cause, depending on their kind of leadership. Leaders that focus on bring positive change to the people reduce conflicts because the people feel that the leaders are doing the right thing (Heidegger, 2008). Leaders that want to remain in power and dictate what the people must do because conflicts as people with different ideas want to be heard. Dictatorship denies the people the opportunity to be heard, leading to the formation of criminal terror groups among the people who feel that they are being discriminated by people in leadership positions.

Conclusion

People live by helping and relying on their colleagues, and the leaders provide the leadership in terms of guiding the direction that the community takes towards development and other factors that influence the communities. Leaders need to serve by example to make other people embrace them and the direction that the community needs to take (Heidegger, 2008). Heidegger believed that if leaders and the people were humane, the world would be a better place. Leaders become dictators because they only focus on their interests as opposed to the interests of the people.

References

Arendt, H. (2005). Essays in Understanding, 1930-1954: Formation, Exile, and Totalitarianism. Amazon.com. Retrieved from
https://www.amazon.com/Essays-Understanding-1930-1954-Formation-Totalitarianism/dp/0805211861

Heidegger, M. (2008). Basic Writings (Harper Perennial Modern Thought). Amazon.com. Retrieved 22 July 2020, from
https://www.amazon.com/Writings-Harper-Perennial-Modern-Thought/dp/0061627011