Oration

I meet with a student from China once a week so that I can help her with her Western Civilization class. For her class she's required to read over some primary source documents and then write a paper on them based on a question prompt. Every week that we go over her history, themes and ideas from it leak into my posts. Today we talked about Hitler. The document we read was written by a German man who was a Nazi but eventually left the Nazi party and later in life wrote about his experience listening to Hitler give a speech when he was in his early thirties. He talks about how Hitler would start quiet, and then let the speed and strength of his speech build over time. He was like a fanatic, a passionate and expressive patriot who invoked the deepest loyalty to the Fatherland by calling for a revival of German honor and manhood through his ideals. He had a way of leaning into the crowd, feeding on their energy, and implanting his ideas and emotions straight into their souls. They felt as though he was a second Luther: the gospel that he spoke was compelling, good, and truthful. His passions were clear, his convictions pure, and in a time where the German people were looking for a hero to lead them in their love of country, Hitler took the plate and swept them off their feet with his sarcasm, bravery and charisma. His fire and his humility gave off an unforgettable impression.

Hitler had power. It makes me wonder, if his life had been different, and if his ideas really had been pure and in the best interest of his country, people and God, would things have been different? If he had stepped up to the plate and fought for peace and justice, would the people have followed him? My original thought was that no, people followed him because he was easy to follow. His words dripped honey and his actions were concise and beneficial for the Aryans and therefore they followed him with ease. But it's much harder to follow someone who asks you to do good, and in asking you to do good, asks you to sacrifice and cause yourself harm. My original thought was that if he had called them to arms, so to speak, for the cause of peace and equality, his following would not have been so extensive.

I talked to the girls in my house about it and one of them disagreed with me to the extreme. She pointed out people throughout history that were passionate for a cause, a good cause, and how people really had taken up their cross in throws to do what was right. And then Martin Luther King Jr. popped into my head. Here is a speaker that uses his actions and voice inflections much the same way that Hitler had. Here's a man who also stood in front of thousands of thousands of captivated souls hanging on his every word as the truth of God, ready to leap when he said leap, kill if he said kill, and sacrifice when he said sacrifice. But Martin Luther King Jr., with all of his power, compelled the people to walk and to talk and to love and fight through peace.

Human nature is strong, but the powers of oration are stronger. I formerly thought that the masses were more inclined to take the easy route, which would more than likely be the selfish and destructive route, no matter how a leader would try to convince them. But I find that looking back on history, the human race has been more than willing to fight for a good cause if they had a leader irresistible enough in his passion and charisma to do so. People are empathetic and emotional. We are easily caught up in passions and pleading, in truth and temerity. If you can speak with those things, you can manipulate the collective will of the masses. If you can speak well than you have the power, and it doesn't matter what your cause is, it's who you are and what your cause is to the crowd. And once you've sold yourself to the people, and once you've sold them on the purity of your idea, they've sold themselves to you.

The people were sold on Hitler and Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophies, and it makes me wonder if it was less what they stood for, and more the way they stated it, that influenced the mindset and beliefs of their followers. There is power in the art of oration. Presentation is everything. Charisma is everything. Passion is everything. We lift up the doctors and helpers of society onto a pedestal, but I think there is something to be said for the philosophers and actors who are the masters of words, emotions, and control. Oration is control, presentation is control, and anyone who can master the art of acting, of words and motion, has control.

I just makes me wonder how the world would be different and how history would change if what Hitler stood for was Good; because he certainly had mastered the art of control.

3/29/11