Talks · 23 May 2026NEO-FASCISM AND THE IDEOLOGY OF DESIRE: Is Michel CLOUSCARD still relevant? - with Dominique PAGANI- 1:05:33If the whole were in power, that would be democracy; true totalitarianism is the domination of a part over the whole.
Totalitarianism
Worked through in 17 videos · 24 passages.
What Dominique Pagani says
Dominique Pagani regards totalitarianism as an ideological notion, which he calls abject. He attributes it to Arendt, Heidegger's student, and dates it to the beginning of the Cold War. In his view, it puts Nazism and communism on the same level in order to discredit Marxism and any opposition to capitalism12. In Arendt's work it would not be a concept: she would be unaware of the lineage of the total state of Schmitt and Mussolini3. He reverses its meaning: the crime is not the whole crushing the individual, but a part (race, party, class, clan, single thought or single market) crushing the whole. If the totality were in power, that would be democracy realized45. He answers the postmoderns who see Hegel as a source of totalitarianism: Nazism hunted Hegel down, and he reads §185 of the Philosophy of Right as an anti-totalitarian text6. In 2020, he also uses the word for primitive society, where every centimetre of the village is coded.
- 1L'île du Peuple : le débat23 Jun 2015 · 4:43
- 2D. Pagani / Réponse de M. Clouscard à C. Morilhat (1987)23 Aug 2019 · 1:31:31
- 3Arendt et Heidegger : la destruction de la pensée24 Sept 2020 · 1:09:24
- 4#1.6 Entre crise et guerre : Philosopher ?10 Dec 2015 · 52:54
- 5Dominique Pagani "Sur Marx"6 Oct 2018 · 39:40
- 6Hommage à Jacques D'Hondt (3)2 Aug 2016 · 25:09
Summary produced automatically from 24 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.
Talks · 23 May 2026NEO-FASCISM AND THE IDEOLOGY OF DESIRE: Is Michel CLOUSCARD still relevant? - with Dominique PAGANI
Season 14 · 4 Feb 2026The return of fascism- 13:24It is an abject concept that puts communism and nazism on the same plane, those who liberated Europe and the Nazis; it is one of the causes of the rise of the far right.
Season 13 · 29 Aug 2025STATE AND STATE APPARATUS - The conflict between public and private- 13:59The abominable thing is not that the whole rules, but that a part, a class, a family or a clan, rules over the whole.
Season 13 · 6 Feb 2025On the anti-Sovietism of the Khmer Rouge-Greens- 16:10The notion brings together Nazism and communism in the same nebula, which removes Hitler from his historical isolation.
Season 12 · 14 Aug 2024TOO LATE?- 2:27:09Beware of the word "anti-totalitarian": the notion comes from the groupie of the most Nazi of philosophers.
Series · 3 Dec 2020Musicosophy 3. What is called modern music?- 38:49The modern individual emerges from the totalitarianism of primitive society, where every inch of the village is coded.
Talks · 6 Oct 2020Calves and Things (3): The dictatorship of the bobotariat- 32:25Anti-totalitarianism of Arendtian inspiration is only a new paradigm for designating anti-communism.
Talks · 24 Sept 2020Arendt and Heidegger: the destruction of thought- 11:26For Arendt, its mainspring is fear; adherence to Nazism through enthusiasm makes no sense to her.
- 52:31What is frightening is not totality in power but a part that takes itself for the whole.
- 1:09:24In Arendt it is not a concept: she ignores the lineage of the total state from Schmitt and Mussolini.
Season 6 · 23 Oct 2019#6.1 • The Logic of the Subject • season 6 / 2019-20- 18:05A notion invented by those who voted full powers in order to whitewash themselves; it in fact deals only with the Soviet example.
Talks · 21 Sept 2019Pagani without detours- 43:51The totality in power would be the most democratic regime; anti-totalitarian thought refuses any meaning to history.
Series · 23 Aug 2019D. Pagani / M. Clouscard's reply to C. Morilhat (1987)
Talks · 6 Oct 2018Dominique Pagani "On Marx"- 39:40Totalitarianism is a part that crushes the whole; if the totality were in power, it would be democracy realized.
Talks · 2 Aug 2016Tribute to Jacques D'Hondt (3)- 4:11The post-moderns condemn grand narratives and totality because they see in them the source of totalitarianism; they oppose fragmentation to them.
- 5:23The first totalitarian power, Nazism, hunts down Hegel, and Stalin condemns the negation of the negation: the accusation of totalitarianism against Hegel is turned back on itself.
- 25:09§185 of the Philosophy of Right is read as an anti-totalitarian text: the strong unity lets contradiction develop instead of censoring it.
Series · 2 Feb 2016Hegel on the Beach 5/5- 2:24:41Totalitarianism is not the rule of the whole but the dictatorship of a part over the whole, like a cancer.
Season 1 · 10 Dec 2015#1.6 Between crisis and war: Philosophising?
Talks · 23 Jun 2015L'île du Peuple: the debate
Series · 27 Sept 2014#5 Libertarian liberalism, libidinal consumption and music...- 11:02The most abject notion, which allowed all reversals; coined by Arendt, a student of Heidegger.