Inverted Totalitarianism

While the Nazi totalitarianism strove to give the masses a sense of collective power and strength, Kraft durch Freude (“Strength through joy”), inverted totalitarianism promotes a sense of weakness, of collective futility. While the Nazis wanted a continuously mobilized society that would not only support the regime without complaint and enthusiastically vote “yes” at the periodic plebiscites, inverted totalitarianism wants a politically demobilized society that hardly votes at all. Recall the President’s words immediately after the horrendous events of September 11: “Unite, consume and fly,” he told the anxious citizenry. Having assimilated terrorism to a “war,” he avoided doing what democratic leaders customarily do during wartime: mobilize the citizenry, warn it of impending sacrifices and exhort all citizens to join the “war effort.”

I believe that this paragraph spoke about the generalized concept of totalitarianism and how it was used regarding the Nazi. It also compared the action America took after September 11 and how it's forms and ways were very direct and demanding. Action was made right away in a firm form. These techniques represent control over people. When control and action is taken it may cause individuals to make certain actions even when they do not agree with the decisions that are being made.

I chose this paragraph because the text decided to give examples of totalitarianism. The two example showed different way in which people can take control of other people or how the government can take control of their country. War seem to always start because of peoples actions. I believe that everyone may not agree with their leader, or president but follow the law in order to avoid problems. This is a great concern because groups of people, like I've said in other texts, may influence an individual to do something they may not want to do.