When the distinction between true and false no longer exists ...

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between the true and the false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”

~ Hannah Arendt, from her book The Origins of Totalitarianism [hat tip Stephen Hicks]