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Totalitarianism In The 20th Century

Decent Essays

The World State’s methods of achieving uniformity parallel the various practices that totalitarian government’s practiced throughout the 20th century. Totalitarianism became popular practice around the world throughout the 20th century. Totalitarianism is defined as ‘to designate a political regime whereby the government controls the totality of social life’ (Maier, 311). The World State’s government falls under this definition of totalitarianism because the World State exercised control over the totality of its citizen’s social life in order to maximize the citizen’s consumption, loyalty, and productivity. For example, hypnopaedia, a kind of “sleep-teaching” used by the World State instructed citizens to believe in the value of society over the individual. A common …show more content…

It was their job to be consumers and workers for the World State in order to keep their economy stable.
One of the various ways that totalitarian governments controlled their subjects throughout the 20th century was with the use of mottos as an instrument to help build an illusion of a community and unified society. During the reign of Nazi Germany, Nazi concentrations camps used mottos to keep control over their prisoners. “Arbeit Macht Frei” was used over the main gates at a number of Nazi concentration camps. In English, the slogan means, "work sets you free" (Diamond, 306). The intention of Nazi mottos such as “arbeit macht frei” was to influence the attitude of the subjects by creating a false impression that maximized the subject’s productivity and performance. Likewise, the World State’s motto was “Community, Identity, Stability.” This motto strove to implement the idea that all subjects of the World State must work together in order to maximize their happiness for the society as a whole. The World State has already artificially created their class system composed of alphas, betas, and gammas. Stability is the

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