Opinion | The theory of 'Inverted Totalitarianism' and the US today

By Tom Fowdy

In 2003, the late Sheldon Wolin (1922-2015), a famous political philosopher and theorist, established a theory of American politics known as "Inverted totalitarianism". The theory explores how the United States, while obviously not a centralized and all-encompassing "totalitarian state" in the light of let's say, Nazi Germany, nonetheless maintains an indirect means of all-encompassing control over its population in such a way that although the US is a democracy, is nonetheless "managed". This control is utilized through its use of ideology, its weaponization of mass hysteria and paranoia in relation to foreign "enemies", the power of corporate interests over the state, a de-facto control over the press and public debate, and the promulgation of apathy and cynicism to prevent real dissent.

Exceptionalism & Fear

American exceptionalism is the ideology that depicts the United States as a chosen country that has a god given a mission to evangelize and spread its values to the rest of the world. As former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently tweeted: "The United States of America is the greatest country in the history of civilization". While for many, this is laughable, the ideology of American exceptionalism is very much real in US collective political culture, and is cynically used as a vehicle not just for manipulation of opinion at home, but aggression abroad.

The US government uses the rhetoric of American exceptionalism in order to misrepresent global affairs into a binary "good vs. evil" battle of ideologies, and frames America as a heroic nation dedicated to saving others as an effective guise for hegemony. In doing so, American politicians constantly weaponize a climate of fear, paranoia and mass hysteria at home in order to legitimate these aggressive foreign policies, framing every single foreign policy challenge or interest as a critical and omniscient threat to the United States which will ultimately undermine its values.

As just some recent examples, one can look at the hysteria over the Chinese Spy Balloon, stories such as the one in the Wall Street Journal today talking about "spy cranes", but also the constant Cold War-laden rhetoric of spying, infiltration, subversion, influence and the impending negativity of "doom". Such as "Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction", "North Korea will launch a nuclear strike at the United States", "Russia is interfering in our elections" and so on. The US political culture is laden with fear, extremities and hysteria about everything, which allows the US state to drive all democratic processes in the direction it so desires.

Corporatism and apathy

In doing so, while the United States by constitution has a "free press", the theory of inverted totalitarianism explores how the US is dominated by a corporate media monopoly who sustains limits over public opinion and follows the narratives of the state. While obviously this is not true for intra-partisan political conflict, between Democrats and Republicans, these are merely trivial issues such as "personality" or "culture wars" and the space for actual meaningful dissent within the democratic process is in fact non-existent, hence why both parties follow a bi-partisan foreign policy. The electoral system and the focus on "personalities" subsequently locks the democratic process into the binary choice. This system aims to keep people opposed to the system in a state of apathy and disillusionment, believing real change is impossible.

In conjunction with this, the theory of inverted totalitarianism explores how the US state is effectively captured by private interests, who impose their will upon it. The most explicitly obvious and well-known example of this is the Military-Industrial Complex, which for financial gain and procurement has an influence over American foreign and defense policy, and thus embeds itself in the fearmongering above. The complex funds networks of think tanks, see financial gain in the creation of conflict and the selling of weapons, one recently infamous example being the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). Why for example, did NeoConservative politician Nikki Haley once sit on the board of Boeing, she doesn't have any skills in aerospace engineering, or why Llyod Austin was on the board of Raytheon before he was appointed as Secretary of Defence.

When all is considered, the theory of "inverted totalitarianism" explores how a decentralized system, is nonetheless used to maintain absolute control, in a way that is tactfully manipulative, as opposed to coercive. While of course it is not the same as absolute totalitarianism, it nonetheless remains the case that America's leaders pursue a regime of absolute deception and as noted in the theory, a constant pursuit of global hegemony. This is how the United States has so readily cultivated public opinion against China, and not only at home, but in allied countries too. It is a theory of oligarchy and monopoly, yet misleadingly depicts itself as a global force for good and exceptionalism.

The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

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