Terror and ideology

An analysis of the foundations of totalitarian regimes in the perspective of Hannah Arendt

Abstract

All the “sources” that compose the scenery of the 20th century empty into a “common river”: the totalitarian regimes in their Nazi and Stalinist versions. To understand such phenomenon in its integrity it becomes necessary involving ourselves in the understanding of the two pillars that give to the totalitarian regimes, mainly in its Nazi version, their sustentation: terror and ideology. However, reflecting about the paper of the ideologies in the totalitarian scenery is to try to understand the paper of the invisible in the visible, that is, to analyze how an invisible force possesses a capital importance so that the Nazi logic could reach its objectives. Understanding the characteristics and the importance of the ideologies in the totalitarian regimes, mainly in its Nazi version, is the objective of this article.