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FROM TOTALITARIANISM TO THE CONSUMER SOCIETY: HAS ONE-DIMENSIONAL POLICY COME TO AN END?

N. Sokolova, A.A. Pylkin, A.S. Safanova, O.A. Stroganova

Abstract

Two types of state ideology are analyzed in the article: ideology of totalitarian regimes, which existed in Italy, Spain, Germany, the USSR and China in the 20th century, and modern ideology of the “consumer society”. Both of them result from ideas of the Enlightenment (rule, based on reason, omniparity, freedom and justice) and have common features. The peculiarities of the totalitarian regime, which had a tendency for suppression of dissent, and the so-called “one-dimensional society”, controlling the man as strictly as the totalitarian one by means of generating false needs and fear in the face of artificially created dangers, are considered. In both cases freedom and justice are enunciated, but in fact are not implemented. In the totalitarian state everyone turns out to be equalized in the face of the leader’s abuse of power, deprived of civil rights, such as freedom of speech, press etc. In the consumer society, the equality of the rights and duties of all the citizens is guaranteed by law, but, at the same time, such situation of equality is no longer an ideal one – on the contrary, each person tries to stand out among his fellow countrymen, and “caring society” seems to give a person such an opportunity, granting him a complete freedom of choice. This choice, for the greater part, is limited by external features and does not deal with the essence of the human being. Analyzed in historical dynamics, these types of ideology reveal growing totalization of social being. The modern Western society saw a triumph of a more effective type of social organization based on diffuse control. In addition, some phenomena of modernity, not fitting in with the consumer culture and delineating the boundaries of the society of this type, are indicated in the article.

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