The Threat of Totalitarianism

what's one of the marks of the totalitarianism of the 20th century a strict censorship of ideas a strict limitation in what could be said or written publicly how come how come because any appeal to the objectivity of truth and value is a threat to tyrants [Music] [Applause] i'm currently making my way through dc schindler's wonderful book called the politics of the real for anyone interested in the relation between religion and politics it's a marvelous very rich book but i want to draw attention to the epigram that he chose really for his entire book a kind of motto that's meant i think to haunt the mind of the reader as he or she makes their way through the various arguments and i'll confess it it haunted my mind it stayed very much in my imagination it's a quote from the 20th century philosopher the german jewish philosopher hannah aaron whom i've admired for a long time her great book the human condition but she's probably best known for her meditations on the issue of totalitarianism especially as it manifested itself in the 20th century so here's the quote i want to read it to you and i want this now to sink in she said the ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced nazi or the convinced communist but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction that is the reality of experience and the distinction between the true and the false that is standards of thought no longer exist okay who's the subject of totalitarianism don't look right away to the convinced nazi or communists but rather the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction the distinction between the true and the false have evenest they've ceased to exist now why should this be true well think about totalitarianism for a second you might define it as the you know dominating control of all aspects of life by the will the arbitrary will of an individual or a group it's the dominance of the entire society it's the imposition of an authority of a group or individuals on the whole of society in classical philosophy the true and the good in their objectivity have a kind of intrinsic authority they command the attention of the mind and the will they if you want impose themselves on the receptive mind and the receptive will think for example of someone discovering a great mathematical truth or being convinced by a philosophical argument or taking in clear scientific data what's happening well the mind isn't inventing its own truth rather it's accepting the authority of the objective truth which is imposing itself mind you in a liberating way upon the receptive mind or consider ethical and moral values when the ethically good and objective moral value appears before the will the will rejoices in its acquiescence to the authority of that objective good the will is not imposing itself it's not inventing its own values it's accepting the authority of the objectivity of the good now i've talked a lot about this i think the primary problem in our culture today in the west is what i've called this culture of self-invention our tendency now to say no no i mean don't don't impose any truth or value on me don't appeal to objectivities rather i in the depth of my freedom i invent my own truths my mind makes up their own truth my will invents moral value and you say well that's that's good isn't it sort of tolerant and it respects people's integrity and and it gives them their own proper authority in point of fact everybody this is an enslaving move this is a finally denigrating move our culture believes if i can borrow from that famous movie title in the shape of water in other words it has no shape except the one that i impose upon it what's being denied there do you see is the authority of the objectively true and the objectively valuable now why should this worry us so much well because as hannah aaron intuited long ago it opens the door toward totalitarianism why well if the objectively true and good have even s they've disappeared there's no objective criterion to which we can appeal together to which together we can submit ourselves all that's left is the struggle of will against will am i right i mean look anywhere in the culture today and you'll see evidence of it what we're left with is well look i got my truth you got your truth no no this is my value that's your value a will tolerate each other but what's going to happen is since no appeal to the objective is possible the wills will clash inevitably and at the end what the most powerful will will assert itself now go right back if you want to the 19th century friedrich nietzsche one of the most important philosophers who is influencing our culture today what do you find the uber mensch the the superman expressing his great will to power that's the fundamental thing don't give me these these objective truths and and moral values no no i invent my values i invent my truth and it's the one who has the greatest will to power who will emerge i wonder if any of that sounds familiar because look in the 20th century when some of the worst totalitarianisms in human history obtained notice something too please what's one of the marks of the totalitarianism of the 20th century a strict censorship of ideas a strict limitation in what could be said or written publicly how come how come because any appeal to the objectivity of truth and value is a threat to tyrants it always has been whenever you appeal to an authority outside the will of the most powerful you are limiting that totalitarian instinct so of course these governments have imposed strict limitations on speech i wonder if any of that sounds a little bit familiar in our culture today can i draw attention finally to a hero of mine from the 20th century the great vatslav havel you know watsonville who was a czech poet and writer a playwright literary figure who in the depth of the soviet dominance of his home country when he was living under a totalitarian society began to write truths about the human condition right against the oppression of the soviet system he was imprisoned you bet many times time and again he and his friends were thrown in jail limited they couldn't speak couldn't write but hobble said once the soviet union collapsed and once he had found some political freedom he said what happened was every time he wrote the truth he opened up a space for the truth and then into that space more could come and that made the space bigger and then more could enter it and made the space bigger and before you knew it he said that space was so big that the totalitarian society could no longer endure i want you to notice something too he didn't say i opened up a space for my personal opinion i mean bore me to death with that you hear it in every aspect of our culture today i'm doing it's my will it's my freedom yeah but what if my freedom is all misguided what if what if my mind is all off kilter what matters is not my little puny will and self-assertion what matters is the truth and habel said in speaking the truth he opened up a space for truth you want to see the best example of this john paul ii 1979 victory square in warsaw he's got the polish government behind him which is under the thumb of the totalitarian dictatorship in moscow and john paul began speaking the truth about god and about human beings and about our freedom and about creation and about salvation and remember the people famously began to shout we want god we want god we want god and on it went for 15 minutes what did he do at that moment he opened up a space for truth into which about a million people came and that was by any account the beginning of the end of the soviet totalitarian dictatorship it's when we bracket the objectivity of the true and the good when we can no longer make those distinctions we no longer care about the difference between fact and fiction truth and falsity that's when the door opens for totalitarianism hannah aaron knew it long ago i do fear everybody that as our culture sort of lurches in that direction away from the authority of the true and the good and toward the supreme authority of the individual will it puts ourselves in a rather powerless condition thanks so much for watching if you enjoyed this video i invite you to share it and to subscribe to my youtube channel

Channel: Bishop Robert Barron

Views: 111,877

Keywords: Bishop Barron, Totalitarianism, Morality, Catholic, Catholic Commentary, Bishop Robert Barron, Truth, Falsity, threat of totalitarianism, word on fire, catholic, bishop robert barron, censorship, objective truth, totalitarianism lecture, religion and politics, catholic view on totalitarianism, objective good, will to power, objective truth philosophy, censorship of ideas, limitations on free speech, Hannah Arendt

Id: 4EU0Zt4MX2E

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 09 2021