Matthew Royal’s Reviews > The Origins of Totalitarianism > Status Update

Totalitarianism grows out of absolutism. Nazi leadership believed: "The more accurately we recognize and observe the laws of nature and life, ... so much the more do we conform to the will of the Almighty. The more insight we have into the will of the Almighty, the greater will be our successes." This sounds disturbingly familiar to me, living in the USA today.

The Nazis asserted that so-called "scum of the earth," like Jews or other "stateless peoples" had no protections -- were "less than" humans -- because membership in a nation state is what grants rights. This directly conflicts with the idea of unalienable human rights. It's startling because that is the idea implicitly accepted in the US when we talk about suspected terrorists at Gitmo and illegal immigrants.

Comprehensive historical review of the roots of antisemitism. There's a lot of interesting stuff here about why some people were paranoid about the Rothschild family controlling things behind the scenes. Long story short: people can't imagine others having different motivations than themselves.