Total ideological closure makes small alternatives disproportionately powerful.
Evidence
Ideologies are harmless, uncritical, and arbitrary opinions only as long as they are not believed in seriously. Once their claim to total validity is taken literally they become the nuclei of logical systems in which, as in the systems of paranoiacs, everything follows comprehensibly and even compulsorily once the first premise is accepted. The insanity of such systems lies not only in their first premise but in the very logicality with which they are constructed. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1028 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 8; Ideology works by framing alternatives within a range rather than dictating thought.; An ideology becomes totalitarian only when its total validity is taken seriously — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1028 (+3 more)
Related
- Pervasive ideological closure makes small alternatives disproportionately powerful (similarity 0.87)
- Capitalist realism’s own totality makes small alternative experiments disproportionately powerful. (similarity 0.84)
- An ideology becomes totalitarian only when its total validity is taken seriously (similarity 0.83)
- Ideology works by framing alternatives within a range rather than dictating thought. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- An ideology becomes totalitarian only when its total validity is taken seriously
#expands(0.82) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1028 - Ideology works by framing alternatives within a range rather than dictating thought.
#qualifies(0.80) - Intense polarization persists over a policy affecting only a small minority
#exemplifies(0.78)