totalizing
Subsuming every particular
Totalizing describes something that seeks to encompass or explain everything within a single framework, often at the cost of nuance or individual difference.
The term appears frequently in academic criticism of ideologies, theories, or systems that claim comprehensive authority: a totalizing narrative of history, totalizing ideologies that leave no room for dissent.
The word carries skeptical connotations—what totalizes typically oversimplifies.
Dominant group's control
- ideologyStructured belief framework
- metanarrativeAll-encompassing explanatory framework
- universalizingExtending to all cases
- absolutismUnrestricted governmental authority
Foucault · critique · reductionism · essentialism · determinism · monolithic · grand narrative · systematizing
Favoring absolute control
- regimeSystem of governance
- controlAuthority to direct
- dominationSupreme authority held
- oppressionUnjust exercise of power
state · surveillance · propaganda · coercion · power · subjugation · conformity · centralized
Adding quantities together
- aggregatingCollecting into a total
- calculatingColdly self-serving in strategy
- tabulatingRecording data systematically
- tallyingSumming items systematically
computing · adding · accumulating · reckoning · invoicing · billing · ledger · balance
hegemony
Dominant group's control
- ideologyStructured belief framework
- metanarrativeAll-encompassing explanatory framework
- universalizingExtending to all cases
absolutism · Foucault · critique · reductionism · essentialism · determinism · monolithic · grand narrative · systematizing · homogenizing
authoritarian
Favoring absolute control
- regimeSystem of governance
- controlAuthority to direct
- dominationSupreme authority held
oppression · state · surveillance · propaganda · coercion · power · subjugation · conformity · centralized · dictatorial
summing
Adding quantities together
- aggregatingCollecting into a total
- calculatingColdly self-serving in strategy
- tabulatingRecording data systematically
tallying · computing · adding · accumulating · reckoning · invoicing · billing · ledger · balance · summation
totalizingpartial
Favoring one side
fragmentary · piecemeal · limited · localized · narrow
totalizingperspectival
Relating to point of view
situated · contingent · provisional · humble · open-ended
totalizingpluralist
Believer in diverse coexistence
multicultural · decentered · heterogeneous · postmodern · localist
total, totality, totals, totaled, totalitarian, totalitarianism, subtotal, totalize, totalism