Totalitarianism Essay

Karl Popper launched a scathing attack towards Plato’s Republic in his 1945 book The Open Society and Its Enemies, suggesting that the Ancient Greek philosopher was the root cause of totalitarianism in the west. It can’t be denied that there are similarities between Plato’s ideas in Republic and the Communist, Fascist and Nazi regimes we saw for much of the early 20th century. But what we see in Republic is Plato describing a very theoretical ideal state with very little interest in the physical implementation of this, so was Plato just a Utopian thinker where totalitarianism is a by product or was he a true totalitarian?

Before I can consider whether Plato is a totalitarian, I first need to define what a totalitarian actually is. We tend
The first type of totalitarianism that Taylor identified is “Orwelian” named so because George Orwell’s Oceania state fits into this. Under this type, individuals have no intrinsic value but instead serve the interests of the state. Only the well-being of the state has any importance under this system, the individual serves to increase this well-being which is measured in terms of prestige and power. This is where Nazi Germany places and incidentally also what Popper was talking about when he called Plato a totalitarian. The second type he calls “organic” totalitarianism. The aim of the state is still the same but the role of the individual is slightly different. In this case “the good of the individual is identified as his/her contribution to the state” meaning that the individual has some intrinsic value unlike under “Orwelian” totalitarianism. It’s important to note however that the individual still serves the state as this is the “ultimate good.” The final kind, according to Taylor, is “paternalistic” totalitarianism. There is a change from the other two in this type because the state is there to provide it’s citizens with everything necessary to improve their individual well-being, similar to a democracy but totalitarian rule is