The author of the book raises the question of what commonalities exist between totalitarian regimes such as Bolshevism, National Socialism, and Putinism. All of these totalitarian systems have sought and continue to seek to dismantle universal principles of human morality, replacing them with group-based (class, racial, or "traditional") values.

The direct result of this substitution of values has been class terror, the Holocaust, and brutal violence against both their own populations and other peoples. The author argues that crimes against humanity are committed solely on the basis of group morality, rather than universal morality.