In the middle of the 20th century, philosopher-in-exile Hannah Arendt identified loneliness as a key factor in the ideologies that brought about so much of the time’s devastation. Now, in the 21st century, social media algorithms foster echo chambers that amplify misinformation and create a sense of mistrust within already isolated citizens.
In her book “The Origins of Totalitarianism” (1951), Arendt, who fled Germany in 1933, defined ideologies as “isms,” the appeal of which originated in their power to “explain everything and every occurrence by deducing it from a single premise.”
A totalitarian ideology creates a logic so unquestionable and rigid that it resists any competing facts or ideas. People’s susceptibility to ideological thought is fostered by isolation, which these ideologies only exaggerate. Arendt’s role in identifying loneliness makes her thesis relevant today.
A vital part of how ideology takes root is isolation and today ideology is rising and its consequences loom.
In a recent symposium titled “Fascism and Authoritarianism According to the Frankfurt School” hosted by the UO’s Department of German and Scandinavian, Professor Kenneth Calhoon included Arendt in a broader discussion of theoretical accounts of twentieth-century fascism.
Describing isolation as “both a tactic and outcome of modern repression,” Calhoon echoed Arendt’s statement that the “members of mass movements cannot be reached by experience, the very capacity for experience having been destroyed by the ‘self-coercion of totalitarian logic.’ The sheer rigidity of this logic, Arendt claimed, ensures that “even the slim chances that loneliness may be transformed into [reflective] solitude and logic into thought are obliterated.”
The structure of totalitarianism, in Arendt’s account, is an opposition of logic to thought, which exploits the loneliness of modern life to separate individuals from one another and themselves.
Various systematic processes disconnect people from the social and emotional structures — community, family, etc. — on which their identities are founded. Propaganda and related practices, Arendt explained, dissolved familial and communal bonds by seeding suspicion among friends, siblings and neighbors.
Today, we see 1 in 3 people (ages 18-34) describe themselves as feeling lonely every day or several times a week, according to the American Psychiatric Association’s latest “Healthy Minds Monthly Poll.” Isolation is fundamental for ideology, which halts growth, and any opportunity for change: of one’s opinion, perspective, life experiences and character.
Much like the fabrication of facts and the state of confusion totalitarian leaders employed in the 1950s, social media echo chambers reinforce similar ideas.
A Campaign Asia-Pacific article states, “Imagine a world where your beliefs and opinions are endlessly reinforced, where your perspective is never challenged, and alternative viewpoints are virtually non-existent…in the media world, we call this the echo chamber.”
The parallels between Arendt’s theoretical understanding of “ideology” and today’s echo chambers are apparent and frightening. Social media and news outlets are so abundant with different facts, stories and data that distinguishing what is correct has become difficult.
Let me be clear that ideology exists everywhere. Our social media echo chambers reinforce what we want to believe because engagement with platforms is where companies profit. It is a simple process that we, as consumers, are subject to.
Ideologies, however, do not exist without being applied by powerful leaders over a mass group of people. George Kennan, diplomat and historian, stated, “Ideology is a product and not a determinant of social and political reality.” Ideology served as a justification for an action powerful leaders already took.
Arendt and Kennan would attest that ideology is not the reason for actions but an excuse for them. Ideology and echo chambers convince the masses of how and what to think. The algorithm just reinforces them.
