A Political Paradox

“Totalitarianism,” Myth, and Norman Mailer’s Left Conservatism

Abstract

In The Armies of the Night, Norman Mailer described himself as a Left Conservative. But what is Left Conservatism and how does a Left Conservative think like and become one? Drawing on Mailer’s The Presidential Papers and also on Reflections on Violence by Georges Sorel (who is viewed as a kindred spirit of Mailer’s in this respect) this essay demonstrates how the perplexing position in question results from the two men’s attempt to grapple with the problematic of ‘Totalitarianism’ and, in particular, to mobilize the power of political mythmaking against a perceived totalitarian threat. In the process, the concept of Totalitarianism itself is investigated along with its actually rather paradoxical relation to the force activated against it, Myth.