Ideology is the fuel that feeds these totalitarian systems. When fully fuelled it may obtain enormous power only perishes if met by a more powerful system (Germany '45) or fuel runs dry (Soviet Union). In a totalitarian system the art performs the function of transforming the raw materials of dry ideology into the fuel of images and myths intended for general consumption.

  There is a striking similarity of totalitarian art from different cultures for example Maoist China and Fascist Italy. The similarity is due to the political leaders guided not by personal taste but by political instinct and the demands of the ideological struggle.

  From the beginning, the totalitarian state will start constructing a new culture according to its image and totalitarian art becomes an ideological weapon. The power of this can be very great and the Third Reich demonstrated this most clearly. Germany had to be thoroughly smashed before it was able to shake off the ideological faith it was convinced with through Nazi propaganda, which totalitarian art played a large part. Hitler had stated that the art was the propaganda to the inner self revolution.

  The Nazi phenomenon was due to their ability to penetrated through the conscious and subconscious of the human mind and harness the human capacity to obey and be led.

  The NSK are also aware that it is part of the human instinct to obey commands as demonstrated in a psychological experiment where people were ordered to give someone an electric shock. The person receiving the electric shock was not wired up properly and only acting, but the people ordered to give the shock did not know. It was found that a high majority would increase the electric shock rather than disobey despite the actor's display of pain. The experiment was one of a series to show that the German in World War II were basically doing what any other race would do in the same situation.

  As well as realising that the art would be an important weapon, Hitler was also very interested in art having been an artist himself though failed to enter Vienna's School of Art and therefore hampering the original ambition to be a painter. He then intended to become an architect but events led to Hitler becoming a politcian instead. Stalin on the other hand had no real personal interest and left it to the Communist Party. Mussolini was easily bored when he accompanied Hitler in art galleries. The art of Fascist Italy came from the ideology of the Italian Futurist.