Why does fear work? Especially in the twenty-first century, how is it that political figures can still use scare tactics to win votes? In this paper, I will be using work from Hanna Arednt, Walter Benjamin, and Emile Durkheim to explain how, even in a society striving towards equality, fear can cause progress to unravel. To do this, I will begin by assessing Nazi Germany through the lens’ of Arendt four pillars of work to analyze how such an evil man managed to accumulate so many devoted followers. Following this, I will be applying these same four pillars to a popular television show in North America, American Horror Story (2011). The logic behind this comparison comes from the famous quote ‘life imitates art, ’ and the most recent season …show more content…
Totalitarianism and law of movement examines the importance of law, and the power it holds over society. However, these laws are not positive; in fact, Arendt claims that “totalitarian lawfulness pretends to have found a way to establish the rule of justice on earth-something which the legality of positive law admittedly could never attain” (1953, p. 307). What Arendt is trying to say is that the law of a totalitarian state is one of ‘super-human’ authority; it cannot be challenged because, according to those in power, the law is based on nature and history. Its sole purpose is to move along intent of the leaders, creating a society that is entirely dependent on totalitarian …show more content…
Hitler had seen how individuals react to fear, as well as how they react to rationality (despite the fact that much of what the people were supporting was built on lies Hitler had sold), and used it to create his army. Using logic from Darwin’s evolutionary theory, Hitler was able to create an ideology that race naturally separated human beings into categories, and that some of these races did not possess the necessary genes needed to reproduce; thus, these races should be eliminated (Arendt, 1953). Due to the time frame in which Hitler came to power, race as a social construction was not a well-known concept; it was viewed as a scientific fact. As it was told to the people of Nazi Germany, Jewish people were naturally meant to die out, as their race (which based off of science) did not possess the qualities needed for the survival of the fittest.
The final pillar discussed by Arendt discusses the idea of a “new humanity” (Arendt, 1953). This is what Hitler preached to his followers; upon removal of lesser races, the Aryan race would be able to live in a peaceful and fruitful version of Germany. The idea of a new humanity is one that comes straight out of the previous three pillars; this new humanity follows the law of nature and history, there is no need for the Aryan’s to be afraid, as they have a confident leader who brought