Michael Walker argues that liberalism, far from being the antithesis of totalitarianism, is itself a totalising system: it elevates the individual’s “right to choose” above the collective right of peoples to determine their own destiny, imposing a single worldview in the name of “freedom.”
This essay was first published in The Scorpion, issue 10, autumn 1986.
We often hear totalitarianism condemned. Even those of the ‘extreme left’ or ‘extreme right’, whose programmes are totalitarian in the commonly accepted sense of the term, do all in their power to deny the charge. To be ‘totalitarian’ in politics is to be undemocratic, power-mad, inhuman, to be evil made flesh; but we are in danger of slipping into a futile syllogism when we talk about totalitarianism. It is this: “all totalitarian systems and ideologies are evil; all that is evil politically stems from totalitarianism; therefore totalitarianism is the term given to all manifestations of evil in politics.” Such reasoning helps no one to understand totalitarianism. The term becomes void of content, but a useful term of abuse against those who seek to organise a ‘revolutionary’ opposition to a given philosophical, scientific, economic or political system.
So far as totalitarianism is concerned, it is important to identify the phenomenon objectively, in terms of precise criteria, if we wish to be able to recognise it. It is a ‘form of polity’ (O.E.D.) which brooks no opposition, which seeks to occupy the totality of life of all, from cradle to grave. In order to achieve this totality it seeks to reduce all aspects of life and all variation in life to a single phenomenon, one total truth, immutable and which cannot be questioned. It is naturally easier to identify totalitarian systems from totalitarian thought. A thinker proposes and by doing so places himself in opposition to other thought. For the outside reader or listener it is easy to see two arguments or propositions as mere alternatives which can be evaluated in a way that by definition excludes a totalitarian perspective. Systems, the putting into effect of proposals, are more easily identified as seeking to become totally powerful and brooking no opposition. The power of a system enables totalitarianism to be realised. Where the power is obviously oppressive in a direct physical sense, shored up by secret police, death squads, executions without trial, torture, concentration camps, the political control of the judiciary and even the medical profession, then the ‘totalitarian’ nature of the regime becomes evident. Physical intimidation by the state, a sense of physical insecurity, induces the great majority to acknowledge the ‘truth’ which the government imposes. The logic of this is the silencing of the dissident.
