A B S T R A C T
The Abyss
of Freedom and the Totalitarian Lure
Iivi Masso
D. Soc. Sc., researcher
Website (under construction)
The goal of this paper is to revisit
Arendt’s peculiar vision of freedom as a mental
condition, a human capacity and a political space; and of
the totalitarian mindset that in its merciless determinism
strives to destroy every one of those aspects of freedom.
In Arendt’s view, “freedom as the inner
capacity of man is identical with the capacity to begin,
just as freedom as a political reality is identical with a
space of movement between men”. As a possibility of
“new beginnings” in individual lives as well as
political spaces, freedom in Arendt’s view defies
both logic and determinism, which she describes as the
mental tools of totalitarian ideologies. It is exactly
because of freedom’s inherent connection to
unpredictability that Arendt also talks about “the
abyss of freedom”. Because freedom is connected to
radical contingency, thinkers as well as political actors
have seen it as a source of not only hope and inspiration
but also fear. The fear of insecurity has made some of them
ambiguous about embracing freedom fully or even enticed
them to prefer the safe and predictable logicality of
totalitarian thinking to “the abyss of
freedom”. Discussing Arendt’s view of the
relationship between freedom and contingency, I also
reflect on its implications on more recent political theory
debates about the foundations and conditions of liberal
democracy.
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