"Totalitarianism: Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed," (dictionary.com). Essentially, totalitarianism is a type of government in which the person or people in power seek to maintain absolute control over every person under their authority, with virtually all importance eliminated from the concept of an individual. The term was characterized by Hannah Arendt, the German-American political theorist who wrote The Origins of Totalitarianism, inspired by Hitler and Stalin of the just-finished World War II and just-starting Cold War. Responding to the terrors of WWII that she experienced firsthand, Arendt describes the evils of totalitarianism as she saw them. George Orwell, an author living at the same time as Arendt, responded similarly to the widespread war and terrifying totalitarianism.
English: Grave of Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell...
Orwell's former home at 77 Parliament Hill, Hampst...
English: George Orwell in Hampstead On the corner ...In his 1984, Orwell creates a strictly totalitarian society, offering an alarming glimpse into a possible future. Orwell's society shows every characteristic named above in the definition of totalitarianism, its government's sole goal to maintain power.
The society of 1984 functioned on the belief that control over the human mind is control over reality. As O'Brien, an important member of the Orwellian government referred to as the Party, says, "Reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes; only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party," (205). The Party is not concerned with objective facts. They argue that reality can only become...