The totalitarian mindset
The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.
The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. Revelation 13
Transitions
For many years, I've been interested in, even fascinated by, what happened in Germany just prior to the Nazi takeover in 1933 and up to the current time. The transitions caught my attention. How was it that in the east they went from the right-wing totalitarian world of Hitler's National Socialist Party to that of the left-wing totalitarian world of Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker’s Socialist Unity Party? And how was it that in the west they moved from the totalitarian dictatorship of the Nazis to life as a liberal democracy?
I think my awareness of it first came in Mr. Peters history and civics classes at Frankfurt High School in Philadelphia. At Penn State, I was preparing to become a high school social studies teacher. There were many history and political science courses including modern and recent European history, international relations, and national security. In seminary, I studied Bonhoffer and the experience of the church in Nazi Germany. I think it all served as a backdrop to why I ended up getting a masters degree in organization development, and doing a lot of work in that field. I wanted to understand institutions and methods that could democratize and humanize life within them.
(Related - The American Church Conflict, The Ministry of the Laity as Agents of Institutional Change” [1], Understanding from Within: Working with Religious Systems, Quality & Empowerment: Organization Development at WomenRising 1992 – 2016.)
East Germany and West Germany
How was it that East Germany went from the right-wing Nazi totalitarian world to a left-wing totalitarian world? And West Germany moved from the totalitarian dictatorship of the Nazis to life as a liberal democracy?
I see two primary factors: The occupation in the east by the Soviet Union and in the west by the Americans, British and French and how different mindsets took hold in each area. The USSR imposed a socialist one-party system in the East, while the Allies fostered democratic institutions and market reforms.
West Germany was educated to democracy through Allied led re-education programs, the dismantling of Nazi institutions, and writing a new democratic constitution. A new political culture was nurtured. There was a limited German experience of democracy to build upon in the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) which had universal suffrage, a bill of rights, and proportional representation. Some of the flaws of that government were corrected in the new post-WW2 constitution. West Germany can be said to have developed into a democracy because it had some democratic ideas and values in its history and the occupation required it. And then there was the Marshall Plan that helped create a strong free market economy.
The issue presents itself in history again and again. For example, what happens in Gaza in the coming years is likely to depend on the shaping of a more democratic, or at least freer culture, among people that have not ever really experienced it and don’t have a religious or ethnic culture that nurtures it. If such a process is undertaken there will be some degree of external control over military, police, and judicial operations and an infusion of financial support.
In East Germany we saw Communist totalitarianism take hold. The Socialist Unity Party was installed to create a centrally-planned economy and a police state. They created a “foundation myth” drawing Communist acts of resistance to the Nazi government. The authoritarian and collectivist mindset that developed among Germans between 1933 and 1945 persisted under the Communist regime in East Germany from 1949 to 1990. While the ideologies of Nazism and Communism were fundamentally opposed in racial and class matters both fostered a state-dependent mentality. Both asserted a collective good that was to be defined by the ruling party. Both regimes relied on an ”us vs. them” view of the world. Both had a large network of informants to maintain control and watch the citizens. The Nazi concept of Volksgemeinschaft or “people’s community” wanted to erase class divisions The Communists continued this by enforcing “solidarity” and social unity. Ethnic nationalism was replaced with ideological conformity. In any case the end result was that people existed to serve the state. In both systems the daily life of citizens was deeply enmeshed within the government’s system. All leisure and cultural activities were under state control. People were nurtured in a mentality characterized by a desire for a paternalistic state that would provide stability. It was all made easier as former Nazis were brought into the Communist Party structure. Authoritarianism simply seemed normal. In many ways a totalitarian mindset continues to have more sway in the east part of Germany where the far-right and the far-left parties do well in elections.
A few biblical thoughts
Totalitarian thinking in the Bible is usually seen in human rulers or systems seeking absolute control over the lives of people. We see it in Pharaoh, the people’s desire for a king, the royal officials in Daniel 6 seeking a law criminalizing praying to anyone other than the king, and the figure of the beast in revelation. The Bible consistently contrasts these totalitarian tendencies with the need for limited government. For example, the time of he Judges, Gideon refusing to make himself king and saying, "The LORD will rule over you," Shiphrah and Puah refusing the order to kill all newborn Hebrew boys, and when Jezebel wanted to kill the Lord’s prophets Obadiah hide 100 prophets in caves. Then there is Samuel warning that a strong monarchy would take away freedom and lead to the confiscation of property, forced labor, and heavy taxation.
He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 1 Samuel 8
The totalitarian mindset
The totalitarian mindset is a rigid submission to a state or group driven ideology. It can be expressed differently on the political right or left but in both cases will enforce ideological conformity, demanding absolute moral certainty, and utilizing coercive tactics to suppress any dissent from the preferred ideology or narrative. Both are likely to have a binary worldview that tells you who are the oppressors and who are the oppressed or who is the victim and who is the persecutor?. Both have underlying utopian visions that lead to attempts to control language and social behavior in a manner that forces conformity. Reality is distorted to fit the vision and related narrative. They thrive on fear. We can see that in the attempts to police language and impose new terminology. It’s about creating a social reality and enforcing the group’s ideological stability. It’s in words and slogans a true believer is to use if they are to be part of the tribe. On the left we see systemic oppression, privilege, microaggressions, intersectionality, equity, safe space, undocumented immigrants, the unhoused, occupier, colonizer, genocide, apartheid, “it’s not antisemitism to criticize Israel,” “Globalize the Intifada!,” “Zionism is racism.” On the right we have bad elites, Red Pille, snowflake, globalist. the homeless, Cosmopolitan Elite, ZOG, white genocide, alien, parasite, degenerate, dual loyalty, Holohoax, “the Jewish lobby,” “Jewish money;” “they killed Jesus;” “the ‘Holocaust’ is Zionist propaganda.”
What might we do in the parish church?
Worship lifts the soul out of its preoccupation with itself and his activities and centers its aspirations on God. - K. Kirk
We might begin with some clarity about the purposes of a parish. Sister Michelle and I see three intrinsic purposes of any parish church.
The worship of God
The formation of the People of God for the sake of the world
Being a sanctifying presence in the broader community
Formation includes our teaching and preaching. So maybe we need more of that directed in ways that helps parishioners understand core issues for the Christian in matters of social ethics, e.g., obey your conscience and inform your conscience, ground your action in worship and prayer, humility, and how we can manage the tension within God’s invitation to freedom and responsibility.
(Consider joining Social Ethics Lent 2026)
Another area of teaching might be about ideologies and ways to see the totalitarian mindset in our society and within ourselves. Pope Leo appears to be taking a leading role in addressing the dangers of ideologies. Here’s a recent address -
In the end, ideology undermines human dignity. “He argued that ideologies reduce the richness of human life to a single idea, offering a false sense of clarity by oversimplifying the world. For the ideologue, this illusion of certainty replaces the ongoing pursuit of truth, and the uncertainty through which faith must guide Catholics.” (in South Bend and the Holy See). The Pope has critiqued the rise of modern, especially Western, ideologies that undermine human rights and religious freedom. He takes a rather standard Christian approach that sees social doctrine, or social ethics, as a “way of seeing reality illuminated by faith and reason” rather than a set of slogans or political programs. The church’s concern is with the nature of God, the dignity of human beings and the virtues and gifts of faith. The task is to base our social teaching on those things rather than a utopian ideological scheme. In his January 2026 “State of the World” address, Pope Leo spoke of an “Orwellian-style” language being used in support of ideologies that claim inclusivity while excluding those who do not conform with the ideology. That leads to a condition in which basic freedoms around conscience and speech are restricted.
Pope Leo sees the need for spaces in which “people can meet and talk.” Certainly the parish might play such a role.
A caution: If you're one of the clergy who think you are some direct descendent of the prophets - and have a responsibility to proclaim justice to your resistive congregation or even better to reinforce the ideological views of your congregation - then I urge you to listen to the Pope again and again until you find within yourself the virtues of patience and humility, Prudence and temperance. Consider giving more attention to providing the tools necessary for praying and thinking through complex social issues, instead of telling your parishioners what you believe to be the right answer.
The first purpose of a parish is the worship of God — in Eucharist, daily office and reflection in the presence of God. We are to nurture adoration and awe for a hungry people. John Orens captured the tone of it as he spoke of his Anglo Catholic tradition.
Ours is the vocation of enchantment, restoring to humanity the divine image which sin has hidden but cannot destroy. It is a ministry of holy responsibility as well as delight. We must teach the truth to an age that does not believe in truth, preach hope to men and women bereft of confidence in the past or the future, and labor for justice in a time of ideological bankruptcy and political cynicism. But what will ultimately win souls--drawing human beings out of despondency to embrace their true selves, their brothers and sisters, and their God--is wonder: the spontaneous love and joy which lures us to Mass Sunday after Sunday
We see the same in Kenneth Kirk, in his The Vision of God, is the understanding that worship is the key to our ethical problems. Pope Leo might say, to our confusion about ideology.
the doctrine…has throughout been interpreted by Christian thought at its best as implying in practice that the highest prerogative of the Christian, in this life and the next, is worship; and that nowhere except in this activity will he find the key to his ethical problems.” Kirk wrote, “The first practical question for Christian ethics is, therefore, how is this interestedness, unselfishness, to be attained? Once grant that moralism, or formalism, cannot bring the soul nearer to it, and there remains only one way – the way of worship. Worship lifts the soul out of its preoccupation with itself and his activities and centers its aspirations on God.
Finally, we are called to be a sanctifying presence in the broader community. A small part of that may be done as a corporate activity. A few members might observe how migrants are being treated, others might collect canned goods for the hungry. “The primary sanctifying relationship of any parish is through the presence of the baptized members scattered into the arenas of daily life—family and friends, workplace, and civic life. Evelyn Underhill said, ‘You are the Body of Christ....That is to say; in you and through you the method and work of the Incarnation must go forward. You are meant to incarnate in your lives the themes of your adoration. You are to be taken, consecrated, broken, and made a means of grace; vehicles of the Eternal Charity.’ The people of God are sanctified so they might sanctify the people and institution that are in relationship with; so, they might be ‘a means of grace; vehicles of the Eternal Charity.”’
The parish’s primary role in helping people cope with a world pressing them toward ideologies and often a totalitarian mindset is worship and prayer. And it would help if we could also offer more occasions of basic teaching about Christian social ethics.
(For more on the purposes of the parish church see An Energy Not Its Own: Three cycles of parish life and the purposes of the parish church.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. - Revelation 21
This abides,
Brother Robert, OA
[1] The Ministry of the Laity as Agents of Institutional Change”, Robert A. Gallagher, 1972, was published by various groups throughout the world: for example, in the UK and the USA as an “Audenshaw Document,” and in “Asia Focus” by the East Asia Christian Conference. In “Asia Focus” it was printed on one side of the page while the other side told the story of lay formation groups in Calcutta (Kolkata) meeting to relate the Christian faith to the concrete dilemmas of life.
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Mob Rule Comes for My Yoga Studio - The totalitarian mindset can also appear in the mob. We saw one of his most dangerous expressions in the January 6 attack on the Capital in 2021. This article in The Free Press is an example of it appearing in a yoga studio in Minneapolis. The writer talks about her experience of the spirit taking over the city. “In Minneapolis, it’s 2020 again. Or rather, it’s been 2020 for a long time, and it never stopped. It was only that summer that most of America began to behave this way: calling out, compelling language, ceding more and more public space to mob rule. If you live elsewhere in America, you’ll recognize the spirit of 2020 in the confrontation. ‘Let’s hear it, Delaney—loud and proud, baby. You want to say it? Let’s fucking say it.’ Every day in Minneapolis for the past decade has been this—the personal drama of entitled ideologues eating away at all decency and peace.”