Totalitarian Origins and Outcomes of Political Orthodoxy

DEMANDS FOR POLITICAL ORTHODOXY seem to appear, at least in the twentieth century, in thirty-year cycles. Thus, in the 1930s, we witnessed the rise of Hitlerism and Stalinism, both of which were aimed as much on purging their respective parties of differences as providing the “masses” with ideological guidance. In the 1960s, politics shifted its ground from parties to movements, and hence the demands for political orthodoxy were of necessity more covert, or simply amorphous. In the 199Os, political extremism abandoned the fields of parties and movements alike, and took to the universities as the foci, a source of organizational strength. As a result, political orthodoxy has increasingly centered in the very places that presumably are dedicated to open and unfettered freedom of speech.