Why Totalitarianism Failed

“Totalitarianism is patriotism institutionalized” - Steve Allen. When one looks back to history for guidance in their future, they tend to ask themselves, “What can I do better this time, that I or others failed to accomplish back then?”. This is what the members of the Party asked themselves when they developed the ideology of their new totalitarian government. They developed this ideology as they looked upon the failures of past totalitarian governments and wondered how those failures could have been altered for better results. Just before Winston Smith is tortured, O’Brien explains why previous totalitarian governments have failed as opposed to the success of Party. O’Brien points out how the Spanish government preserved heresy instead of expelling it. He also explains how the Soviet Union, who attempted to learn from the mistakes of the Inquisition, failed to prevent martyrs. He states that the Party is successful compared to totalitarian governments of the past because the Party doesn’t try to destroy heresy in its state of resistance, …show more content…
It is difficult to separate these rules into three parts because they all have heavy connection with one another. For example, the prevention of the dead being a reason to revolt all depends on the ability to prevent martyrs. And preventing martyrdom depends on the ability to pull out a truthful confession from heretics. However, the main idea that O’Brien was getting across to Winston was the importance of preventing martyrdom. It’s the idea of not killing the heretics, and rather converting them to believe in the ideology of the government. It is this idea that the previous totalitarian governments failed to realize yet the idea that made the Party of 1984 so