Space (motif)
A common motif in Arendt's work is the concept of "space" between men. This can be an obscure concept because it is a very abstract way of describing human spontaneity. According to Arendt, a functioning society where individuals are free would have more "space" between men, while a totalitarian regime with little or no freedom would have no "space" between men. In fact, a totalitarian regime would make men into "One Man" by compressing them together in space. The motif is more straightforward when describing free men: if you have "space" to move amongst men, you have room to make a spontaneous action. The imagery of the motif, while taking language from her mentor, Heidegger, also evokes the image of the concentration camp, where people are literally pushed together so much they cannot move spontaneously. When the space is removed and men become "One Man," the motif describes a two-sided process.
On the one hand, it refers to the atomization of man: each individual person exists only as one man and does not have relations with anyone else. This could be seen as a distorted and warped disintegration of an individual. On the other hand, it refers to the attempt to make humanity into a god. It is the supremacy of the collective, which is referred to in Arendt's historical example as either the race or the class, that becomes an embodiment of the laws of history. This could be seen as a distorted and warped disintegration of society. Both sides of this metaphor are a loss of space. The atomized individual exists in a complete void and has lost "space" in the sense that space only really exists because of our relation to other objects—one cannot take an action in a void because the absence of anything at all means that there is nothing to act upon. The collective-turned-god removes space for humans by putting them so close to other humans that they can no longer move as individuals in space.
