The Origins of Totalitarianism

In Chapter 6, Arendt suggests that race-thinking is not the same thing as racism. Race-thinking, she says, is a set of opinions one might have about race. Individuals have opinions that are sometimes even prejudiced and discriminatory, but these opinions are not ideologies. Racism differs from race-thinking in that it is an ideology that can be weaponized to achieve a goal. Arendt also claims that racism and nationalism are not closely connected. In fact, racism destroys the body politic of the nation. Rather, racism is an ideology more likely used by imperialists and, therefore, totalitarian movements.

Arendt also suggests that racism is more closely aligned with imperialism because imperialism employs rule over subject peoples, and racism perpetuates ideas of superiority and inferiority. When imperialist colonizers entered nations, they perceived them as being inferior or less evolved. They saw themselves as superior and as saviors, ideas rooted in racism.

Arendt states that race and bureaucracy are devices of imperialist rule. Looking at these concepts as ideologies allows for an understanding of their political implications, as well as their influence over people. Racism was able to transcend boundaries as an international ideology. She emphasizes again that racism is not related to nationalism, although the rhetoric can often sound similar.

Arendt claims that Darwinism is also an ideology born out of the idea that society is a struggle between the weaker and the stronger. Darwinism, too, can be weaponized, used to justify domination and the idea of eugenics. She relates Darwinism to polygenism, a brand of scientific racism which categorizes humans as having two ancestral types. Darwinism, however, was largely neutral except that it was misused to perpetuate a racist ideology. According to Arendt, both racism and Darwinism capitalize on pre-existent race-thinking, but they are neither the causes nor the effects of race-thinking. 

Bureaucracy is a key component to imperialist and totalitarian rule. Lord Cromer developed the philosophy of the bureaucracy when the British statesman colonized and violently ruled in Egypt. Colonial bureaucrats reject law and instead use bureaucracy, meaning that exert power through regulations and decentralized offices rather than Parliament. In this way, bureaucracy becomes a type of shadow government through which violence can be enacted. Bureaucracy also means that no single person is at fault when regulations resulted in terror; rather, it perpetuates a pseudo-mysticism that cannot be touched. Arendt states that “bureaucracy was the result of a responsibility that no man can bear for his fellow-man and no people for another people” (207). Bureaucracy is a means to further advance capital gains without being bothered by ethics or morality.

Arendt uses the Dutch Boers as an example of colonial bureaucracy. The Boers viewed Africans as less civilized. The Dutch saw themselves as a savior, chosen to civilize the inferior African peoples which they colonized. They believed it was their divine duty and right to civilize and rule the people of Africa. Racism became the ideology which justified their embrace of bureaucracy and the terrible massacres of African tribes by the Boers. Arendt emphasizes that bureaucracy is an inhumane force. It removes individual accountability because responsibility is diffused across a decentralized administration. Bureaucracy operates in shadows where the decisions and consequences rarely meet face-to-face. The Boers also directed their racism toward the Jewish people and were perturbed , Arendt claims, by the Jews identification as the chosen people, a qualifier the Boers held for themselves.

Imperialism in Africa and the racism of colonizers led to breeding ground of Nazi elite. Here, members of the mob who carried out the functions of the imperialist elite were able to witness the effects of bureaucracy while employing the ideologies of superiority. In this environment, the mob was no longer the bottom rung of the social ladder.