Hannah Arendt's pre-totalitarian signs

Here is a short list of Arendt’s pre-totalitarian signs that we see very strongly in our society:

  • Widespread loneliness and social atomization.
  • Loss of faith in institutions and hierarchies
  • A desire to transgress
  • A rise in the power of ideological thinking
  • The increased use of propaganda
  • The value of loyalty – to a person or to an ideology – more than expertise
  • The politicization of everything

Rod Dreher

I could see totalitarianism coming from the Right, though cancel culture, which overlaps several signs, is mostly a Left phenomenon.

My main blog is the Tipsy Teetotaler, http://intellectualoid.com.