Hayek said, "Totalitarian governments make everyone strive for their totalitarian system, and an important method is to make ordinary people see the goals that the government wants to achieve as their own goals."
So, how can we "educate" the people to "align" with the goals of totalitarian rule?
That requires "ideological uniformity," making the ideology uniform and aligned with the ruling plan. As E.H. Carr said, ideological uniformity is everywhere, just like the nationalization of industry, which is worth pondering. The nationalization of ideology often accompanies the nationalization of industries, "controlling millions of people, making them unable to move." If it is called "monopoly," what is even more terrifying is the monopoly of ideology. The ideology of the nationalization of totalitarian rule represents the supreme social ideology, which cannot be questioned or debated, and there can be no different voices.
Why does totalitarian rule attach such importance to the nationalization of ideology?
Totalitarianism seeks uniqueness, self-centeredness, intelligence, and strength, while the nature of thought is "freedom." Therefore, for totalitarian rulers, the freedom and diversity of thought are potential threats. As Solzhenitsyn said, in a country, having a mind with free thinking is equivalent to having another government.
The self-centered cannot tolerate you "setting up another faction" and promoting "heretical ideas." Free thinking is contrary to the dictatorship of totalitarian rule, so totalitarian rulers will never tolerate it.
Therefore, Qin Shihuang had to take a great risk and "burn books and bury Confucian scholars"; Emperor Wu of Han had to "dismiss all schools except Confucianism"; Kangxi and Qianlong had to promote the persecution of intellectuals; Hitler wanted to completely eradicate "heretical ideas" from the minds of the German people... Whether it is imperial power, Nazi dictatorship, or cultural control, they all belong to the political spectrum of "nationalization of ideology."
Conversely, from the attitude of rulers towards ideological consciousness, one can generally see the direction of power: totalitarian or decentralized, autocracy or constitutionalism.
Totalitarian rulers attempt to control everything for eternity and ensure the perpetuity of their regime: from bows and knives to the right to migrate, from the physical bodies of the people to the thoughts and consciousness in their minds, even including sexual life. Orwell depicted the survival state of totalitarianism in "1984": "The sexual instinct creates its own world, which cannot be controlled by the Party, so it must be destroyed as much as possible. It is particularly important that the deprivation of sexual life can cause hysteria, which is a good thing because it can be transformed into war fanaticism and leader worship."
Nazi leader Hitler was well aware that repression alone was not enough; he had to further capture the souls of the people for his use. Once the masses were anesthetized by nationalized ideology, they would willingly serve the purposes advocated by the totalitarian government, even to the point of sacrificing their lives.
Hayek's conclusion is, "For a government to make everyone serve a single social plan, the most effective method is to make everyone agree with the goals of this social plan."
Therefore, totalitarian governments prescribe beliefs for the people and also find ways to make ordinary people believe that these beliefs are their own. If the people unanimously accept the beliefs that the government wants them to accept, each individual will voluntarily follow the path planned by the planners.
So, how can we achieve the goal of "making people think as we want them to think"?
Hayek said, "To control thought, totalitarian governments must use various forms of propaganda. All propaganda made by totalitarian governments tends toward a single goal, and all propaganda tools are used to influence everyone and attempt to make everyone have the same qualities in their minds."
Klepper described Hayek's theory in "The Language of the Third Reich": "The language of the Nazi Party is a language of faith, with a religious form of shell but empty inside. They are accustomed to using a series of simple and crude slogans to maintain uniformity, but these brainwashing slogans have no substantive content. They only strengthen the ideological control through countless repetitions, turning lies into truth. The hollow slogans of Nazism are full of unquestionable violence, and any opposing voices will be drowned in the plan of the uniform dictatorship of the leader."
On the surface, totalitarian systems attach great importance to theory. However, it is precisely these "closed-door" theories that lead to the end of truth.
Hayek pointed out that under totalitarian rule, the so-called "theory" is just a modified "myth" and is often adorned with newly invented mystical terms. Totalitarians need to create various doctrines to provide strong defense for their totalitarian rule.
In a totalitarian society, false scientific theories often appear, and these false scientific theories become official dogma. They use these dogmas to control the actions of every individual, using these official theories as tools to guide and encourage the people, directly or indirectly forcing them to regard every detail of government plans and every measure of the government as sacred and unquestionable, and not subject to debate or criticism.
These "mythical" theories of totalitarian rulers have long been seen by various theorists in totalitarian systems. Plato's "noble lie" and Sorel's "myth" can be used to defend Nazi racial superiority or Mussolini's theory of cooperative federations.
When most people lose the ability to think independently, even if a few people retain the ability to criticize, they will be forced to remain silent. Even if someone raises questions, the totalitarian government will not address the problems themselves but will spare no effort to suppress the person who raises the questions, so that there will be no dissenting voices in society. At the same time, under totalitarian rule, supporting the official view is the only goal of all research. The so-called history, economics, culture, and other disciplines become factories for producing a large number of official myths, vigorously embellishing the wisdom of the government.
For a normal society, there will always be various ideological concepts that clash and overlap with each other. If there is no clash, it means that society is rigid and stagnant; if there is no overlap, then cooperation becomes difficult, and there is no vitality. Various ideological concepts exist and compete with each other through freedom of speech, attracting and influencing different people with their own discourse, and people form different communities and interactions based on this.
When "mythical" thinking appears, society becomes abnormal and neurotic. Society without diverse thoughts is like a solid piece of iron or stagnant water; there is only one thought and one ideology. This is no longer thinking but domination.
Hayek believes that in a free society, individuals interact and influence each other, gaining different knowledge and perspectives, forming the intellectual life of thought. Rational growth depends on individual differences, and individuals promote the growth of individual rationality through mutual programs. If we control reason with any premise, sooner or later, thought and reason will become rigid.
Only with the spirit of "independence and freedom of thought" can society seek common ground while reserving differences and make progress.