A-Infos (en) France, Monde Libertaire - Ideas and Struggles: The Spirit of Totalitarianism (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

George Orwell to Help Us Understand ---- Always cited and little read as 
a political thinker, even a philosopher, George Orwell deserves a more 
in-depth approach. Even if his method of analysis relies on facts and 
evidence, like a journalist, even if he knows how to write while holding 
his reader's attention, Orwell is not a writer of dystopia, or even 
science fiction. The derivatives of 1984, the films, the comics, while 
undoubtedly sympathetic, miss the profound reflection of this freedom 
fighter. His words find a favorable audience in libertarian circles. 
They should also inspire people to fight for freedom. Thus, in June 
1949, he declared about his novel: "The moral to be drawn from this 
dangerous nightmare is simple. Don't let it happen. That's up to you." 
In these times of social apathy, in the eyes of some, this call must 
reach them and mobilize them.

Jean-Jacques Rosat, professor of philosophy, is a specialist in Orwell's 
work. I had the opportunity to appreciate his book, As I Like It, 
published in 2008 by Agone. He offers us a work devoted to a major point 
of Orwellian thought, the title of his book, The Spirit of 
Totalitarianism, published by Hors d'Attachment. As his editor Marie 
Hermann points out, Jean-Jacques Rosat draws on 1984 and links it with 
letters, articles, and essays to invite us to discover the heart of 
power according to Orwell, the motivations of leaders, and the dizzying 
effects of that same power. Let's quote the author: "According to 
Orwell, the primary motive of totalitarian regimes should be sought 
neither in the economic sphere nor in ideology, but in politics and the 
will to power." Each of them has built an economic and social system, 
but if their continued power requires it, they can undo it and rebuild 
another. As for ideology, they remodel it as they see fit." Obviously, 
Orwell has before his eyes the totalitarianisms of his time, Nazism, 
Communism. And if Nazism did not have time to remodel itself in 1945, it 
can still return more sophisticated; Communism has thrown away its 
Marxist trappings to rise again today, in the form of an 
authoritarianism devoid of any ideology in Russia. Nicolas Nicolas 
Werth's book, A State Against Its People. From Lenin to Putin (Ed. Les 
Belles lettres, coll. Le gout de l'Histoire, 2025), easily demonstrates 
this. Orwell also feared that other countries would adopt this type of 
regime, as was the case with China and Cambodia (Anne-Laure Porée, The 
Language of Angkar, Khmer Rouge Lessons of Annihilation, Ed La 
Découverte, coll. A la Source, 2025). He worried about the improvement 
of propaganda and communication techniques, and therefore their 
dangerousness. Jean-Jacques Rosat takes up this approach and establishes 
a direct link with Xi Jinping, Putin, and Kim Jong-un. He questions the 
mind-control efforts at work in liberal democracies. Yes, Orwell writes 
for the future, "it is time today to read Orwell as a thinker for the 
21st century."[...]From 1936 to 1940, he was convinced that two 
fundamental trends inherent in modern industrial societies-the 
concentration, nationalization, and collectivization of the economy and 
social life, on the one hand, and the exponential development of 
propaganda, surveillance, and information control techniques, on the 
other-provided eminently favorable conditions for this new type of 
dictatorship."

Fragile Democracies

For Orwell, democracies are fragile. He draws this observation from the 
procrastination and hesitation of Western democracies during the Spanish 
Civil War, the beginnings of the Second World War. Let us recall the 
cowardice of European leaders during Munich (Maurizio Serra, Munich 
1938, The Impossible Peace, Ed. Perrin, 2024). Upon his return from the 
Spanish Civil War, the source of his book Homage to Catalonia, he noted 
with dismay the submissiveness of European minds. He denounces, with 
supporting evidence, the use of double-talk. This Newspeak can be found 
in 1984 and in the speeches of the leaders of totalitarian states, but 
not only in their own countries. Orwell investigates through the novel, 
as in Animal Farm. "He saw it as the most appropriate instrument of 
knowledge and thought to pursue his investigation and bring it to a 
successful conclusion." He also denounces the charade of the Moscow 
trials, and 1984 echoes this.

Totalitarianism at its peak

In this latest novel, he seeks to describe a type of political regime 
unprecedented in history and to understand its fundamental principles. 
Knowing the similarities and differences between the two regimes, Hitler 
and Stalin, he searches for "elementary and matrix" invariants, refining 
his work on nuances. In the first two parts of the novel, Orwell studies 
the totalitarian system and imagines a regime that future totalitarian 
leaders could devise and build within a generation. It is 
totalitarianism taken to its extreme. In the third part, he questions 
the leaders and their impulses. He creates the character of O'Brien, who 
embodies the totalitarian mentality taken to its extreme.

Orwell's thinking is based on facts, a realistic fiction. As such, it 
provides food for thought because any reader can "concretely see 
themselves in it." Continuing his work, which is committed to the 
concept of objective truth so dear to George Orwell, Jean-Jacques Rosat 
offers us a fascinating journey and a rereading of these novels to 
enlighten us and open our eyes to the future. Orwell, always relevant!

* Jean-Jacques Rosat
The Spirit of Totalitarianism
Ed. Out of Reach, 2025

https://monde-libertaire.fr/?articlen=8463
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en