Totalitarianism fused liberal naturalism with irrationalism to deify nature against history

Evidence

Both a reaction to liberalism and a continuation of one of its assumptions was the totalitarian apotheosis of nature. Liberal economics, Marcuse pointed out, had always been based on the premise of “natural laws.” “Here,” he wrote, “in the center of the liberalist system, society is interpreted through its reduction to `nature’ in its harmonizing function: as the evasive justification of a contradictory social order."" What was new in totalitarianism, however, was the combination of naturalism with irrationalism. Nature had been elevated in volkisch thought to a mythic status; the Volk was transformed into the central natural reality. Nature, with all its brutality and incomprehensibility, was transformed into the “great antagonist of history,"" absolutizing the irrationalities of the present order. One of its results was the ethic of self-sacrifice and ascetic denial characteristic of heroic realism. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 405

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘great antagonist of history’ nature theme prefigures Dialectic of Enlightenment’s account of myth and enlightenment. — connects to: Liberal ideas evolved into totalitarianism through logical stages governed by external circumstances and emotions. — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2337; Bureaucratic chaos and anti-Western irrationalism emotionally prepared Europe for totalitarianism — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 626; Marcuse’s dialectical method treated totalitarianism as both reaction and continuation of liberalism — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 404

Broader Connections

• Liberal ideas evolved into totalitarianism through logical stages governed by external circumstances and emotions. #expands (0.82) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2337
• Marcuse’s dialectical method treated totalitarianism as both reaction and continuation of liberalism #expands (0.80) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 404
• Bureaucratic chaos and anti-Western irrationalism emotionally prepared Europe for totalitarianism #corroborates (0.78) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 626