SOME ITEMS YOU SHOULD KNOW WHEN CREATING A TOTALITARIANISM FOR YOUR STORY
Is your story a dystopian universe but you don’t know how to begin? Are there some things missing or you feel your totalitarian government is not 1984-ish enough?
Well! I am here to give some tips based on my own experience living under a regime of this kind and reading about these systems. These are some tips for writers and roleplayers who want to create their own totalitarian worlds. So, here we go!
The ideology is the base of the new order of a totalitarianism. Depending on the beliefs of the regime, the way they see the world and how it works, the nation will transform differently.
That’s why in A Brave New World, which pillar is genetics engineering, is built as a society divided in different genetical castes; or the reason why The Handmaid’s Tale world is based in a radical religious ideology that dominates women and punishes those who sin; or why The Man In The High Castle follows the nazi’s philosophy on superior races and idolizes Hitler’s figure; or why Fahrenheit 451’s books prohibition influences the roles of firefighters.
There are plenty of fictional and real (unfortunately) examples. An ideology usually has rules and laws, perspectives, a determined political and social system, a deity or figure it admires and an official truth.
One of the main goals of a totalitarian system is changing completely the reality as it is known. For this reason, the absolute truth of certain events is a threat for the system.
For a totalitarian government, the truth expressed by the “official sources” is the only and absolute truth. Anything that comes from another voice is a lie or even a delusion. Working hard on building their own reality is the reason why they take over media and spread their own version of a story just to make the rest of the versions look fake.
An innocent man was killed by the system because he was protesting against the crisis? According to the government, “the person was killed because he was a menace to the people, he was an assassin and was trying to foster anarchy within the country. That’s why the brave authorities were obligated to shoot him”. With this version, the government is seen as the hero, conveniently. Because yes, conveniently, the official truth never soils the reputation of those in power. It usually spreads hatred on its enemies (those who oppose the totalitarianism ). The official truth’s goal and function is to change reality completely in order to achieve the absolute anchorage of the people on power. Take this always in mind because it’s probably the most important thing a totalitarianism does to stay in power. The stakes are too high to let people know the truth.
As a consequence of the official truth, spreading the painted version of a current event is not enough. It’s also necessary to change the past and rewrite history. And, of course, with the same and convenient goal: making the system on power look like a hero and savior. So, any symbol, event or element that says the contrary or represents a confusion of this understanding, is erased from history books, removed from town squares (statues and sculptures are victims of the government if they don’t fulfill the new order’s values) and are eventually forgotten by future generations. Everything that belongs to the past and threats the totalitarianism ideology, even the slightest littleness, will be erased from the collective consciousness to reconfigure the thoughts of society about the past.
Is there a hero from the past of the nation who doesn’t follow the ideology of the regime? Their name will be erased from history books and their statues will be replaced by a more convenient hero that follows the government thoughts. Eventually, the first hero is forgotten and never named again.
Words are powerful weapons and totalitarianisms well know that. For this reason, they’ll always opt on adopting the “new language” that will be part of the new order with the objective of killing the unnecessary past and controlling the society even in the way they speak and what they hear.
As it’s perfectly and clearly stated in Orwell’s 1984, the Newspeak replaces the Oldspeak so the regime can dominate people’s thought. When creating a totalitarianism, it’s important to have that in mind: they will always want to control what their people say, do and think. Because that’s the safe way to stay in power, if nobody thinks different, nothing different will happen.
The new language, in many regimes, is shown as a war one. Always using words such as fight, battle, soldier, comrade, brigade or troop to make their people believe there’s a constant war, that peace can only be found through battles and that those who think different are enemies.
The totalitarianism needs to show a face, the face of a savior who will replace God or any other idol of the people. Even if it’s real or not, dead or alive, it’s the face of the government and its’s an obligation to pay respects to it. Propaganda fuels the omnipresence of this character, even if it’s human, they make sure the people think otherwise: that it is a deity, the hero of the society. The ideology of the regime seeks for the exaltation of this leader and make it be loved by people.
The official truth, the new order and the exaltation of the Big Brother of the system is diffused exclusively through propaganda. It is the precious tool of every totalitarianism and is always used to the point of being abusive and invasive. It will be on billboards, television, newspaper (if there are), bulletins, everywhere. And of course, this propaganda is designed with the new language of its governors. It’s supposed to have the same personality of the whole system. And the goal is evident: brainwashing. The propaganda of a totalitarianism has one or several messages to send to the people, and eventually, make them repeat it and believe it.
For example, the famous 1984’s phrases “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength” are meant to send that precise message to their people and make them believe these statements are actually true (official truth).
This kind of governments eventually create their own police. And the goals of this service is not to protect people even if that’s the “official truth”. The reality of this agency is to safeguard the system and get rid of anyone who means a threat to it.
Murders will be covered as accidents or suicides, prison will be filled with protestants and detractors, there will be torture centers to make people confess valuable information for the police. This is how they act. They are hitmen, feared by the people because, sooner or later, society learns the real function of that police. Being a cop of this service turns you into the guard dog of the government, and of course, betrayal is also punished within the members of the secret police.
The Gestapo, KGB and Thinkpol are clear examples of how the secret police of a totalitarianism work. Of course, it’s not an ethical duty. On the contrary; they only care about those who order and pay them, not the people. For example, the Thinkpol’s duty wasn’t to protect the citizens of Oceania, but arresting those who attempted against the Inner Party.
In order to spread only, but only the messages the totalitarianism needs, there has to be a censorship of the media and people. This kind of regimes will aim on media because of its influence on people. They’ll take newspapers, TV channels and radio stations and regulate what they say. There’s usually an official (TV or radio) channel from the government that announces bulletins of news and the propaganda of the regime.
Not all totalitarian governments have total control of media, some clandestine and rebel mass media outwit the regulations and censorship. But, of course, depending on how effective is the secret police, those acts will have consequences.
Regarding political parties, the definition of totalitarianism doesn’t allow the existence of opposition parties, for there can be only one, the unique political party.
BRAINWASHING & INDOCTRINATION
A totalitarian regime always needs to maintain the sheep inside the farm, and it doesn’t want questioner sheep. That’s why they recur to brainwashing, to avoid any risk that could overthrow their government.
The main reason of propaganda and censorship is precisely brainwashing. Propaganda exists to spread what the government wants their people to think and censorship exists to eliminate any tergiversation and “lie” that could confuse them. If the totalitarianism is well established, their people will be completely brainwashed.
Another way this kind of regime use to indoctrinate is schools. Spreading the messages to the youth when they still haven’t built their own opinions it’s a key strategy for totalitarianisms. This is how they secure the brainwashing of new generations.
There are many ways to indoctrinate a society, and it’s always a priority for the regime. Because people who think, will eventually oppose you. They can’t let that happen.
How does a society under a totalitarian system behaves? It all depends on how strict is the system, what they promote through their new order and laws and how established are they on people (brainwashing). What we have to understand it’s that these regimes do not recognize human dignity and the person as an individual. They are just tools for their system and objectives. And, for this society, freedom doesn’t exist.
In a totalitarianism, the people blend with the rest of the collective, becoming idiot masses that just repeat the propaganda they consume. They are a collective, a mass, a medium for the government. They have no rights, they are just instruments with no dignity nor individuality. That’s why the duty of the society it’s to obey and never complain.
Do not limit yourself on making one kind of society, they all react differently to these regimes. Depending on how well established is the new order, it will be harder for people to think by themselves, and become slaves of the system, obeying the regime.
Nevertheless, if you want to create a conflict, there’s always exceptions: citizens who still think for themselves, understand there’s something wrong with the system and will fight it.
And that conclusion bring us here: the main conflict of a totalitarianism it’s a —usually clandestine— group of resistance. Even the toughest totalitarianism has a resistance counterpart, because that’s how human nature is: always looking for a little hole to freedom even in the deepest caves.
Again, the size and quality of the resistance movement depends of how strict it’s the totalitarianism and how efficient it’s their secret police. However, there’s always, ALWAYS, someone who thinks differently and becomes the enemy of the regime. If you want a conflict for the government, there needs to be a resistance group, even if it is small. Also, there are many types of groups, they can be violent, pacifistss, anarchists, etc.
If your story doesn’t involve a coup against the totalitarianism, I suggest you to equally include this group, because they always tend to exist. Besides, a totalitarianism feeds itself from the drama of having enemies, so even if there’s not a big resistance group, they’ll create their own fictional enemy and blame all their problems on them.
As a final suggestion, if you want to get involved into dystopian worlds and totalitarianisms, read a lot about them, especially I recommend you to read George Orwell’s 1984, for he portrayed a totalitarianism perfectly clear and it’s probably the most emblematic example. Also read a lot of history and real totalitarian regimes! Learn a lot from reality! It’s more akin to 1984 than you think.
Reminder: use this knowledge and write stories to always condemn totalitarianisms! Because we need to use power of literature to fight against what’s unfair. And believe me, as a person who lives in a regime like this, it’s not funny to see a story glorifying a totalitarianism.
Hope these tips are helpful for your stories!
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