Re: Order, Authority, and Authoritarianism -- RSQUBF discussion forum

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Date Posted: 14:15:35 10/22/04 Fri
Author: Chris
Subject: Re: Order, Authority, and Authoritarianism
In reply to: bruce 's message, "Order, Authority, and Authoritarianism" on 09:38:37 10/22/04 Fri

The result was that after WWII Germany embarked again on being a democracy. The result has generally been very good. I don't think many Germans would trade their republic for an authoritarian regime anymore, is this right Chris and Mike?

Only some idiotic neonazis would do so, but nobody who is able to think rationally.

I want to add more reasons why the democracy in the Weimar Republic failed. Of course, one reason was that people first needed to learn and that the system allowed too many splinter parties. In our current democratic system we have a "five-percent hurdle" as a lesson we learned from history. Only parties which have got more than 5% of the votes are admitted to the Bundestag (parliament).

Another important problem was the worldwide economic crisis, depression and inflation. This created instability.

But I think the most important problem was the Versaille Treaty which gave Germany the alone guilt for WWI and imposed drastic sanctions and high compensation payments on Germany. This was so much the worse because Germany was ruined through WWI and the economic crisis anyway. Most of all, these sanctions and the lost war hurt the national pride of the Germans. It was regarded as a national dishonor. What the Germans wanted was to become great and respected as a nation again. They wrongly believed that all of the problems were caused by the democracy, so they were looking for the one strong man, for authoritarism. It was easy for Hitler to appeal to the national pride, promise them a restoration of the national honor, glory, law and order under one strong man. We all know what happened when Germans believed in a strong man and followed him absolutely. (Maybe you will understand, why we Germans are "cured" from the idea of nationalism meanwhile, though there are a few die-hards.)

Hitler was a genius in manipulating people. He carefully practiced his speaches with all of the gestures in front of a mirror. (I was reminded of that when we had "message training" in UBF. Kaleb tried to make us practice in front of a video camera even.) He also carefully orchestrated the whole course of actions during these nazi propaganda events. People were heated up with a bombastic environment of flags, torches, music, flyflots, uniforms etc. The F�hrer would be late, on purpose, everybody waiting for him. Then suddenly his airplane would appear in the sky, illuminated by flood light. Another Nazi leader would speak, and then, when the tension culminated, "Ladys and Gentlemen - The F�hrer!" (It had some similarities with the way UBF conferences were orchestrated, the messages are prepared with singspiration, prayer etc. - who would not swallow everything that was said in these messages in such an environment?)

There was one motto in the movement: "F�hrer befiehl - wir folgen dir!" (Leader command - we will follow you!") It was not only a motto, it had a melody even. A professional composer with the name Schulze (famous for the song "Lili Marleen") had been ordered to create the melody, just like in modern marketing they invent jingles for products, but at that time it was an ingenious idea. Hitler and his propaganda minister Goebbels were geniuses in manipulating people. I once saw a TV documentation where Mr. Schulz told about a meeting with Goebbels, where he preseted to him his melody for "leader command - we follow you." Mr. Schulz's melody was like "we fo-o-o-low-you" (with 5 different notes). Goebbels listened, then he said: "That's good, but you shouldn't make it so complicated. Let's do it that way: 'we fo-low-you'" (with 3 notes). Mr. Schulz said he was impressed. It was even "better" than before. Thousands of soldiers went into the war with that melody in their ears. Can you imagine Goebbels even cared for little details like the last 5 notes of a "jingle"? But I think he knew very well that you can manipulate people with a short melody even more than with a long rational explanation. It's so easy to manipulate people, and some people know it so well.

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Thank You -- bruce, 16:11:39 10/22/04 Fri