Repository: UIHistories Project: Convocation - 1942 Winter-Spring [PAGE 57]

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n meant I MI M. | RU8|> • , h a j „ ls l *™ M « « to H nature and impli .,, "• totalitarian philosophy and the aims and metl t) an states I otalitai ianism" is a word of man yllabh im than meanii It stands, in its ordinarj i wc mean t rotrasl sharph with the method and tin • < - mething which is t oundl) IK.side to our den ,11 wd i Bui sine* it is a word f strong emotiv< contei n als used is an epithel to arouse honest but ill-defined ani sit) linst | vernmental pr< hues that are both pi per and ss 5 ' the defense oi democracy. In fact, like other abstr; t s that combine emotive potencj with vagueness of reference, it w rd i njure with, and then fore peculiarl) liable to misinter•n. rhat - no! mean thai we ought not to use such words; uit< the i ntrary. It" we are to refer to long run aims and purposes ill. we must use terms that stand for principles and ideals, and - -tit ether proper that our attitude to such ideals should IK itionalh emphatic. It" the time ever comes when men cease to can

really : r what the w o r d " f r e e d o m " stands for, as an ideal in politiil nization. it will be a had day for the h u m a n race. What i: d - m e a n is that we ought to take particular pains in such cases to n ike o u r w o r d s precise and o u r ideas clear, SO that slogans and

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•uncled in th< title is , , m c r c | lo lw a l bl( n thi i ul, ,,,.,,

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will he reliable tools in thinking, not its masters, and

50 that our talk of " i s m s . " aims, and ideas may lead to the shaping of m p r e h e n s i v e p u r p o s e s , commonly u n d e r s t o o d , and to actions in which

pur] ses can find their reasonable satisfaction. It is this work

clarification, p r e l i m i n a r y yet necessary for intelligent action, that

I invit

\ou. as cooperating members ^i the University community,

This is not, for our purposes, a

to share with me this evening. W h a t . then, is t o t a l i t a r i a n i s m ?

problem of laying down a dictionary meaning for a word but oi using

th< w o r d in such a way that it accurately identities something which is at present, and rightly, an object oi our common concern. 1 shall use the t e r m "'totalitarian s t a t e " to designate the type oi political organization now e x i s t i n g in G e r m a n y and Italy, and " t o t a l i t a r i a n i s m " to refer

to tic ideology or philosophy in whose terms this sort oi political organization i justified by its adherents. 1 take it that Japan shares the

main c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s which we shall he able to discern in this sort ^^i , •- though it has not developed an " i s m " to justify them which

.mparable in its scope and pretensions with the Nazi and Fascist

loctrin* , W h e t h e r Russia is also in this sense a " t o t a l i t a r i a n " state is a question w shall need to a n s w e r later. Finally, we shall have to