Totalitarian ideology is transmitted through practice, not teaching

Evidence

For totalitarian purposes it is a mistake to propagate their ideology through teaching or persuasion. In the words of Robert Ley, it can be neither “taught” nor “learned,” but only “exercised” and “practiced” (see Der Weg zur Ordensburg, undated). — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2650

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the distinctive totalitarian relation to ideology: it is exercised, not learned — a key concept to carry into understanding how totalitarian regimes substitute action for belief.
• XREF: Connects to Arendt’s broader scaffolding concept that totalitarianism replaces persuasion with a kind of performative conformity. — connects to: Half-education becomes objective spirit enabling totalitarian delusion — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 157; Totalitarian uniformity could be enforced through soothing medicalized re-education — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 893