Becoming Caring Christian solutions to life's tough problems Programs of Family Life, Personal & Spiritual Growth, Study Skills, & Educational Enrichment 600 North 7th Street Crockett, TX 75835
		Is Democracy Safe? Don Mize © 2005, Don Mize Is democracy, once established, automatically sustained?   Perhaps in the day of pervasive mass media and the Internet, examining Hitler's rise to power will help answer that question. Historians generally agree that Hitler's great innovation was the skillful use of propaganda to attain power lawfully in a constitutional democracy.  Once in power, he manipulated the elected officials into suspending all constitutional guarantees of freedom, enticed the legislature into passing a law that gave him dictatorial power, and legally eliminated all organized opposition. Following those steps to power, he set in motion events that led to the merging of the chancellorship and the presidency, giving him supreme command of the armed forces.  Once supreme commander, he required that all officers and men take an oath of allegiance to him personally.  Throughout his career, loyalty to him trumped every other consideration.  Unbelievable to most Americans, Hitler then won 90% of the votes in what we would call a referendum, demonstrating to the world his popular public support.  Equally unbelievable was the wide public support he maintained to the end. Hitler turned a constitutional democracy into a dictatorship by consolidating his power gradually, over a twenty-year period.   One essential factor was the skillful use of mass propaganda by applying principles that are still effective today.  However, before we look at the propaganda techniques he innovated, let us clarify the difference in propaganda and education.   Education presents all sides of an issue while propaganda is selective.  Propaganda may present an untruth with no basis in fact, or propaganda may merely distort the truth by presenting selective "facts."  Education encourages a free dissemination of information, but propaganda seeks to limit information sources. Hitler was the great innovator of mass propaganda.  One of his most effective insights was to aim propaganda at the least intelligent and the undereducated.  The lie, skillfully told, was designed for the unthinking.  Simple answers are to be preferred when designing propaganda. Hitler also understood that propaganda must focus on only one enemy.  He blamed the Jews for everything that was wrong in Germany.  Thus, Hitler included diverse issues and opposition groups in one emotionally labeled category: Jews.  He understood that if the propaganda named more than one enemy, even the less intelligent and the undereducated might start to think, which would be anathema.  The enemy, in effective propaganda, must be labeled as one traitorous gang in order to keep the people focused. Perhaps his most effective insight was to understand that the truth did not matter.  He understood that if a lie was repeated often enough, the lie would be accepted as a fact.  Thus, managing the mass media was essential.  Imagine today every newspaper, radio station, TV station, movie, television show, and popular song presenting the same message.  Imagine also local organized followers who aggressively challenge any deviation from the party line.  Add the Internet as a cheap way to disseminate the agreed on message and to spread negative stories about the labeled enemy.  If you can imagine such a thing in our information environment, you can feel the pervasive power of Hitler's domination of the media of his day. In addition, Hitler turned the fear of communism into justification for suspending constitutional guarantees of individual freedom.  A terrorist attempt by a communist gave Hitler his opportunity to rule lawfully by decree.  After constitutional guarantees were suspended, people who opposed him simply disappeared in the middle of the night.  Many non-Jewish Germans also died in the concentration camps, something most of us forget.  Hitler created a society in which neighbors and family informed on one another for thoughts expressed in casual conversation.  Simply being different sealed one's fate.  Thus, the recurring lie beating a cadence of hate became the marching truth in the minds of the people. Hitler transformed Germany, one of the best-educated nations of the day, into a nation that worshipped the lie.  To be a good German you were to hate with all your heart the evil enemy.  A constitutional democracy had become a dictatorship, all lawfully done with elected officials passing the laws that made it possible.  Nevertheless, like morning fog, all lies dissipate before the light of day and reveal the carnage left on the claw-tracks of the father of lies (John 8:44).  Before the light dawned on the German people, the world had suffered a terrible war that also left Germany divided and in ruins. Is a constitutional democracy, once established, automatically safe?  The answer is "no."  Only a people aware of propaganda techniques can maintain their liberty.  Simple answers aimed at the less intelligent and the undereducated ought to trigger alarm bells.  Messages that bombard us with one enemy ought to make us wary, whether that enemy is the liberal, the conservative, the fundamentalist, the Christian, the Muslim, the Jew, the Black, the Anglo, the Hispanic, or any other group, race, or religion. We must seek education in the midst of a propaganda barrage, considering all sides of an issue.  Emotional appeals should make us aware that someone is seeking to punch our fear or greed button.  Thus, we must refuse to limit our sources of information, and we must seek out other points of view. Hitler stands as a warning sign in history to remind us that a constitutional democracy can lawfully disappear when two things occur: (1) elected officials must suspend constitutional rights in the name of expediency; and (2) people must prefer easy answers, sink into hate, and listen to only one point of view.  Propaganda techniques should make us vigilant, no matter which political party or organized group (religious or secular) is using Hitler's menacing innovation.
				Home Page
			Comments