Totalitarian theory derived authority from racial right rather than universal law

Evidence

The core of totalitarian theory, Marcuse continued, was irrational formalism. The source of authority was no longer grounded in universal law or social preeminence, but was understood instead to be derived from “natural” or racial right. The substance of totalitarian theory was entirely without positive content; all its concepts were counterconcepts, such as antiliberalism or anti-Marxism. The bourgeois preserve of internal, “negative” freedom had been liquidated, leaving only obedience to heteronomous authority. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 425

Categorization

• XREF: Marcuse’s diagnosis of totalitarian thought as purely negative counterconcepts prefigures his analysis in One-Dimensional Man and connects to the general Frankfurt School thesis that liberalism’s collapse generated its fascist successor. — connects to: Race and class justifications of totalitarian mass organization are functionally interchangeable — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 749; Imperial racism and bureaucracy supply the elements of totalitarian rule — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 567; Racial historicism and the rule of law co-evolved as instruments of dominance — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 78 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Race and class justifications of totalitarian mass organization are functionally interchangeable #expands (0.85) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 749
• Imperial racism and bureaucracy supply the elements of totalitarian rule #expands (0.80) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 567
• Nazi legal theory shifted from subjective intent to racist essentialism #exemplifies (0.80) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 498
• Totalitarian legal theory replaces juridical accountability with fate and life-laws #corroborates (0.78)
• Racial historicism and the rule of law co-evolved as instruments of dominance #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 78
• Naturalist law legitimizes repression while historicist law constitutes racial order #complicates (0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 78