Totalitarianism as Religion: State Power as Faith and Resistance

Carl Jung famously stated, "The State takes the place of God…the socialist dictatorships are religions and State slavery is a form of worship." This perspective highlights a crucial, often overlooked aspect of totalitarianism: it is not merely a political system but a fanatical religion. This "religion" is currently experiencing a global resurgence.

The Religious Nature of Totalitarianism

Political scientist Waldemar Gurian, shortly after fleeing Nazi Germany, observed that totalitarian movements are fundamentally religious. Their ambition extends beyond altering political and social institutions; they aim to reshape human nature and society itself.

Totalitarianism shares several characteristics with organized religions:

• Utopian Visions: Just as Christianity and Islam envision a future golden age, totalitarian movements promise a similar utopia. However, instead of a divine figure, they believe humanity can construct this new golden age under the direction of an all-powerful, all-controlling State. Carl Jung noted that with the decline of traditional religion, religious projections have shifted to the human sphere, leading to "tin gods with totalitarian pretensions who call themselves State."
• A Movement, Not Just a Government: Hannah Arendt described totalitarianism as a "movement" rather than a traditional government, driven by the belief that a centralized, all-powerful State can radically improve society.
• Past and Present Utopias: Historically, totalitarian "golden ages" have included racial purity or communist utopias of equality and prosperity. Today, these visions often involve harmony with nature or the merging of humans with machines to transcend biological limitations.
• The Peril of Utopia: Karl Popper warned that "The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell." These utopian visions, while never realized, effectively stimulate religious fervor among the masses, convincing them that the utopian end justifies any means, including mass surveillance, censorship, oppression, imprisonment, or even extermination. Barry Goldwater emphasized that those seeking absolute power to enforce their version of heaven on earth invariably create the most hellish tyrannies.

The Chosen and the Sinners

In the totalitarian religion:

• The Chosen: These are the naive believers in a paradisal future and the State's ability to achieve it. They are the pious who obey the State's commands without question.
• The Sinners: These are the non-believers, the heretics who obstruct the "greater good" and the march of history. Zygmunt Bauman used the analogy of a garden: totalitarians see themselves as cultivators and sinners as "human weeds" that must be segregated, contained, or even eliminated to achieve their utopia.

Controlling Minds and Hearts

Beyond eliminating "weeds," totalitarian movements aim to transform remaining citizens into true believers who inwardly conform and obey. Outward compliance is insufficient; like all fanatical religions, totalitarianism seeks to control the innermost thoughts of its followers. Giovanni Amendola, referring to Mussolini's fascism, stated that it aimed to "monopolize the control of Italian consciences," demanding the "conversion" of citizens and promising no happiness to those who did not convert.

Methods of Proselytization

Totalitarian regimes employ various methods to achieve this religious transformation:

• Demagogy: Spreading State propaganda through art, literature, music, plays, and festivals.
• Pedagogy: Ideological indoctrination of youth through compulsory schooling.
• "Terror and Love" Strategy: Citizens are subjected to terror through ongoing wars, fear-mongering, false flags, and threats to livelihood, property, imprisonment, or death. This terror is interspersed with displays of "love," such as ceremonial rituals honoring leaders and propaganda assuring citizens of the regime's care and protection. Alexandra Stein explains that this creates a "trauma bond," where the abuser becomes the perceived safe haven, similar to Stockholm Syndrome. This alternation of fear and love, especially within an isolating environment, leads to a "dissociated, loyal and deployable follower" who acts in the leader's interest rather than their own survival. Brainwashing relies on creating stress or threat with no escape other than compliance to the apparent safe haven of the totalitarian regime.

Unwavering Loyalty

Persistent fear-mongering combined with promises of salvation through compliance creates true believers who will obey any command, even if it means disowning family, economic ruin, imprisonment, or death. Examples include Nikolai Vilenchik, who remained loyal to the Soviet regime despite 17 years in the gulags, and political officials who cried "Long Live Stalin!" even as they faced execution. Hannah Arendt noted the "amazing fact" that totalitarian true believers are unlikely to waver in their loyalty, even when the regime turns on them, becoming victims of persecution, imprisonment, or execution. They may even assist in their own prosecution, provided their status as a movement member remains intact.

The Modern Revival and Resistance

Totalitarianism, a religion that promises a new world but delivers hell on earth, is experiencing a modern revival. Politicians and global power figures openly express desires to "re-make, re-build or re-set the world," expecting mass obedience. If voluntary compliance is not given, force is increasingly used.

Thomas Sowell warned, "They want to be our shepherds. But that requires us to be sheep." In these times, individuals face a choice: accept the false gods of the state and enter what Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn called the "land of smothered opportunities," or resist. Solzhenitsyn urged, "There is but one choice: to rise to the task of the age."

Carl Jung, witnessing totalitarianism sweep across Europe, called for action: "Where are the superior minds, capable of reflection, today? If they exist at all, nobody heeds them…the individual must consider by what means he can counter the evil."

Tactics to counter this evil include:

• Preventing the indoctrination of children with totalitarian ideas.
• Ostracizing those who blindly obey immoral state commands, as ostracism is a powerful social influence.
• Mocking and ridiculing the "priestly" class of politicians and bureaucrats, exposing their hypocrisy and propaganda.
• Creating and supporting technology, art, memes, videos, books, merchandise, or music that promotes freedom.
• Building and participating in the "counter economy," which involves voluntary exchange outside the State's control.
• Striving to live as freely as possible, recognizing that personal liberation creates ripples and serves as an example for others.

The choice is not between compliance for an easy life versus resistance and hardship. Compliance with totalitarianism is the riskiest choice, based on the naive hope that "this time will be different," that power won't corrupt, and that the totalitarian monster won't devour its children. As Solzhenitsyn warned, "There always is this fallacious belief: 'It would not be the same here; here such things are impossible.' Alas, all the evil of the twentieth century is possible everywhere on earth."