Totalitarianism and Modernity

Paper Summary:

This paper argues that Hilton Kramer's concept of totalitarianism as simply the natural result of modernity is all wrong. The paper maintains that, while technology may have helped certain totalitarian regimes advance their causes, it is much more than just over-the-top modernity. The paper asserts that totalitarianism is instead a disease of an individual soul, a sundering of a human from his humanity in such a way that a concept of modernity is carried out with ruthless exactitude and disastrous results.

From the Paper:

"Hilton Kramer, who usually critiques arts and culture, has nonetheless published a significant body of work on cultural issues that have transcended that superficial arena to become sociological issues of abiding importance, such as, for example, the Holocaust. In 1999, Kramer wrote convincingly about "the end of this murderous and unrepentant century, in which a greater number of human beings has been violently put to death in the name of criminal political ideas than in any other century of recorded history" (1999, p. 4). He laments, also, that there was no hint of change on the horizon, and he contended that "our technological capabilities have long ago outdistanced our powers of moral discrimination" (1999, p. 4), a statement that suggests that he, at least, believes that totalitarianism-the "criminal political ideas"-are far more serious than a mere miscarriage of science. Science-modernity-is neutral until men of ill will co-opt it to achieve nefarious goals."

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• Book Review # 93293 : "'The Ego and its Own'"

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