RAYMOND AftON
The Essence of Totalitarianism
According to Hannah Arendt
Mme. Arendt's book is an important one. Despite its flaws, which are
at
times irritating, the reader, even if ill-willed, will feel, little by little,
be–
witched by the strength and subtlety of some of its analyses. Let us
fint
briefly note a few reservations of secondary importance, and then go on
tl
essential matters. The book's title in English,
The Origins of Totalitarianism,
does not correspond to its contents. Arendt demonstrates precisely that
the anti-Semitism and imperialism of the late nineteenth century are only
in a limited sense the origin of modem totalitarianism. At most, one finds
there only the seeds of phenomena that were to bloom in our own time.
Rather than being a well-ordered discussion of one and the same
problem, the book is made up of three juxtaposed studies, and its
unity
stems from the author's style as much as from the real or forged connec–
tions it makes among anti-Semitism, imperialism, and totalitarianism.
Historical figures, countries, parties, and events that appear in the book
share a familial likeness, much as do Velazquez's children or Daumier's or
Goya's personages. Mme. Arendt's style resembles Orwell's in 1984. The
mediocrity or inhumanity of
all
those who play a role in the drama are
such that, in the end, one sees the world as the totalitarians present it, and
one risks feeling mysteriously attracted by the horror or the absurdity that
is described. I am not sure that Mme. Arendt herself is not in some way
fascinated by the monsters she takes from reality but which her logical
imagination, in some respects comparable to the imagination of the ideo–
logues she denounces, brings to their point of perfection.
In order to find the sense or the absurdity she seeks, Mme. Arendt is
often quick to justify in a small stroke, whether true or false, a general
proposition which is doubtful to say the least. The Dreyfus Affair ended
not, as she says, by a decision of the Court of Appeals, but by a decision
of the Court of Cassation. The illegality of this decision is at least open to
discussion. Her portrait of Captain Dreyfus is borrowed from anti–
Dreyfusard writing and, to the best of my knowledge, does not conform
to reality. A few lines from his book
Pleins Pouvoirs
do not prove that Jean
Editor's Note: This essay originally appeared in the French journal
Critique
in
1954, as part of Aron's lengthy review of analyses of totalitarianism. It was re–
published in
Commentaire
(no. 28 and no. 29, 1985) as "The Essence of
Totalitarianism According to Hannah Arendt." The version here omits a section
ofAron's essay dealing with Arendt's treatment of anti-Semitism.
