Machiavelli And Arendt

3 Pages 637 Words

Machiavelli and Arendt

“Totalitarian policy claims to transform the human species into an active unfailing carrier of a law to which human beings otherwise only passively and reluctantly be subjected.” A statement in Hannah Arendt’s Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government, in this essay she outlines and defines totalitarianism. Her explanation includes many variables that can be misrepresented as those ideals set forth by Niccolo Machiavelli in his 1513 working The Qualities of the Prince.
According to Arendt totalitarianism is made of several qualities. She describes an end state of “world domination” accomplished by tyranny. In this lawless government, a single individual will have power that is provoked in his own interest rather than that of the people. Under this action, there will be no “general agreement” as to laws that will be implied, rather, there will obedience and humans will follow the “laws of nature”. Hence, totalitarianism is a movement by mankind to become “One man” states Arendt. Thus, this statement alone is not congruent with Machiavelli’s idealistic values of a prince.
Within his work, Machiavelli outlines and defines those qualities and assumptions that a leader, a prince, must possess in order to succeed or for that matter, fail.
In recounting the essay, the Prince first has a duty to become a master of war. In doing so he will be prepared in the time of adversity. By enduring personal sacrifice in peacetime, he will in turn learn to be proactive when facing famine, restlessness and pain.
Arendt’s totalitarianism describes the need for a military to destroy all those opposed to the movement. Her use of force is for the destruction of those not in the movement, as Hitler did to the Jewish. Machiavelli’s battle would rather be compared to an Army protecting it’s borders from foreign invasion.
The act of a person being generous can often be taken for granted. ...