Wednesday 3 April 2019

Totalitarian Rulers

We looked at 5 beliefs or philosophies that a totalitarian ruler has... extreme nationalism, racial purity, devotion to a leader, creation of a scapegoat and use of violence/war.  Which of these do you think a successful dictator would rely most heavily on and which one do you think could be removed from the list... explain your thoughts.

13 comments:

  1. The most important belief that creates a successful dictator is enforcing the devotion to a leader. This means a leader has supporters; people who believe in the same cause as you and have the same reasoning. Having these supporters and devotion puts momentum behind not only your belief as a ruler but influences other communities or people in society who aren't quite on board with their idea. A factor that could be removed from the list would be the need of the creation of a scapegoat. If a ruler has gained enough power and influence across their nation or even world wide, they would have no need to explain the crimes they may have committed. They would have no need to pin the blame on someone else in hopes of covering up for themselves if they know they cannot be over-ruled or already have extremely loyal supporters. Although, history has shown that in order to be a successful totalitarian ruler you would need these 5 philosophies to gain full domination. Abby Ellis

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think a government leader's best friend is extreme nationalism, because the first step to winning people over is letting them know that your on their side, if people truly think your looking after their countries best interest you'll have their support. Racial purity is something i personally think isn't all that necessary. By having a scapegoat and devotion to a leader you already have something people can rally under. Although i can see how racial purity might be a good way to help your people feel more elite. -NS

    ReplyDelete
  3. i believe that a dictator would heavily rely on the use of violence and war because they would want to strike fear in there followers so no one would justify against them and do exactly as they say or else there will be more consequences. racial purity would be something i would remove and have no problem with because even though my followers have there own religion my power through force and violence would still proviel yes i might not be liked that much but id still have control over a country- piper

    ReplyDelete
  4. I believe that Racial Purity is the item that could be removed from the list. While providing people with a common goal and action, this can also be provided through scapegoats or wars. In these ideas a common goal/enemy is also gained, for this reason the focus does not necessarily need to be a racial one. I would say that the most valuable trait above is Devotion to a leader. Without a substantial amount of people following you the other values become empty. With no support you cannot complete the other goals or follow through with other beliefs in a way that affects others. You must have a devotion strong enough to compel others to project your views and beliefs alongside you in order to be successful. For this reason I believe that devotion to a leader is most important.

    ReplyDelete
  5. For a dictator to be successful, they would have to rely on extreme nationalism. If they promise pride for their country, that could tap into the pride of the people, and humanity is a race of very prideful people. They could also have to rely on the creation of a scapegoat. If the country were to be suffering at the time, blaming a race of people or another country would help to get their country on their side. But, when it comes to being a successful dictator, they shouldn't leave any of these beliefs or philosophies. All of them have the qualities to get the people on their side, or to keep them in line.
    - Rylee

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think a successful dictator would rely most on extreme nationalism. Extreme nationalism can blind people to what's really happening and make them more willing to follow.Devotion to a leader can be brought about through extreme nationalism because all nations need a leader to follow. Scapegoats are easier to make when people are super loyal to their country and don't want to believe it was something they did wrong to make it bad. Extreme nationalists are more willing to fight and don't really care who they're fighting. Extreme nationalism can be used to make the other beliefs of a totalitarian ruler easier to enact. I think racial purity is the least important. A common enemy and probable cause for action is already created through the scapegoat so i don't see why its necessary. -Zaylee

    ReplyDelete
  7. i think a successful dictator would use violence/war the most since its what keeps people from fighting back no one is going to publicly appose him if the first word they say about over throwing them leads to them being silenced though having a scapegoat can be just as helpful since its something to blame its some thing to be united against . i think the thing that can bee taken off the list is racial purity it doesn't do anything to help the dictator unless its a scapegoat it doesn't help them achieve anything

    :braden

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think a successful dictator would rely most heavily on the fact of having people support them, which is the devotion to a leader. For the Dictator to have a strong army, strong government, strong industry, strong anything, you wouldn't be a successful dictator. You need people that is loyal to you by your side, or else you might seem weak and not very clever. People tend to follow the majority, which if you have people following you, you will probably have more people coming on to your side. However, I can not choose which one it can be removed because every fact about a totalitarian ruler needs those in order to "succeed". You need the extreme nationalism for people to follow what you are doing, you need the racial purity to prove the nationalism for others, and to blame all the problems to others just to show the people that the country is great and that their country is the greatest and never make mistakes. And you need fear factor in order for people to follow the leader. Amy kim

    ReplyDelete
  9. i think war/violence would be the most relied on by a totalitarian ruler because people would fear him and have no choice to follow them as a leader. without the fear factor of death more people would go against their ruler if the future wasn't looking bright for them. The creation of a scapegoat is what can be removed because the truth comes out eventually and people would still support these leaders just because how scared they are of them and wouldn't want them or their families being punished. These may not have been the methods of the most SUCCESSFUL rulers but they will work for awhile and i think most people dont want war and death. -S.G

    ReplyDelete
  10. I feel that a successful dictator would need to rely heavily on devotion to a leader. This being that they have many supporters and people that believe in them greatly. To be a totalitarian ruler you will need many followers to approve of what you are doing, they also need to recognize what other people believe in and persuade them into following them. Maybe with fear, maybe with rewards or something else. It would be hard to gain full power if nobody or even just a small portion of people support you. Also I feel that to be a totalitarian ruler you need all five beliefs or philosophies to be in total control. All five points contribute one way or another that could show you believe greatly in your country, your race or nationality is the most superior, you can trust and follow your ruler, everything they do if its for the country is alright and they will be supported and to show that they are strong together. They need all aspects to convince the population to follow to get to greater things.
    R.M.

    ReplyDelete
  11. to be a successful dictator one of the most important philosophies to have is devotion to leader and extreme nationalism. i say this because if one wants to hold onto power they must have loyal followers that agree with their plan. and extreme nationalism is needed because the people won't follow a person who isn't willing to help the country, also being an extreme nationalist will get extreme nationalists on your side, people who are eager to do anything to help their country. One thing that i believe is not necessary is the use of violence and war, violence and war is not a fun thing and people don't like it and so people will start revolting. with Hitler, he was successful at the start but then started to commit genocide and a resistance was formed, he went to war and was defeated, same for Mussolini. even in modern day, in Venezuela a few peaceful protests were held and the dictator responded with violence and now the counties practically in a civil war. -LandonN

    ReplyDelete
  12. The most important one out of the five is devotion to the leader. A strong leader needs strong followers to support them and their cause. As well as carry out the rulers plans and keep the rest of the population following along. A totalitarian ruler needs to create a common enemy and unite people. They can do this through a scapegoat without racial purity so I'd say that is the least important one. You can be a strong ruler with out genocide.
    -EMK

    ReplyDelete
  13. I personally think that a successful dictator would most heavily rely on extreme nationalism because if the people of a nation believe that their leader is working for the betterment of the country then they will support that leader. Which creates devotion to the leader, and if the leader has his whole country thinking he is a saint that is making their nation the best then the people will blindly follow. I think you could get rid of racial purity because unless you use that to prove your nationalism or using it as a form of scapegoat it doesn't really help the leader
    -Eric

    ReplyDelete