The (not so gentle-)man on the right,Joseph Goebbels, was the living example* of contagion theory and how to put it to 'best' possible use.As Hitler's right hand man and propaganda minister and no less an orator than Hitler himself,he instigated many a mob violence against helpless Jews, most infamous being the one at Kristallnact which 'started it all' (Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht) . The most infamous quote of his " If the lie ,however big and audacious, is told repeatedly and in convincing manner, will eventually be accepted by the masses" underscores how a few can instigate many to put their brains/rationality 'at rest'.
*See the video of his boss and see closely how he casts a spell on audience..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGhdX1SI3KY
(wanted to post here only but it wont work :-(
7 comments:
Joseph Goebbels most infamous quote is the fact of life for most of us. We can see in our daily life and analyse how many time have we decided to trace the veracity of statements of others before forming any opinion or acting upon them? During fieldwork I saw villagers fighting among each other just because they heard something about someone. Even in organisations we can observe how fast the information spreads through grapevine or informal source.
SHASHVAT SINGH (30044)
I suppose this is the most powerful tool used by the leaders since time immemorial. And the irony is that, most of the time masses fail to realize that they are fooled by the leaders. For example, a large corporate in Mundra (near my fieldwork village) claimed that they did minimal environmental harm by erecting a port in the region. This was accepted by everybody. But, I witnessed that this claim was totaly false and baseless!
But,Abraham Lincoln,former president of United States and a great supporter of democracy said-"You can make fool some of the people all of the time,all the people some of the time;but cannot make fool all the people all of the time".
Agreed . I think the difference between them is their constituency ..
Lincoln's people would have asked for explanations after the end of his tenure whereas Hitler never bothered to give explanations and no one dared to question(if any of the same people survived i.e. )
whether it is right or wrong, it totally depends on the person to whom this is spoken. If someone has no idea about the topic being spoken, he generally accepts the statements spoken in the manner they are spoken.
Taking the Example of terrorist caught during 26/11 in Mumbai, he said that his life will be luxurious if he does the planned activity.
I don't know how he was convinced to do this by saying right or wrong about India but by forming a group and working collectively he succeeded in his mission to attack on India.
well said.
I wonder how can u prove the truth to a person who believed that whatever u r saying is false. Even a person wants to believe false statements which are soothing rather the harsh true statements said repeatedly. Take the example of the election promises by the political parties and their agendas, how many think about the practical implementation or the success. Does anyone dare to ask about the implementation after they won except ending in a debate in the house without solving the purpose, wasting the resources.
the contagion approach also largely depends on the target audience,their state of mind,values and their susceptibility etc.So what Lincoln said abt "fooling people" is when the person appeals to conscious,rational mind.What we have in the contagion is more at the subconscious level through persistence,persona and charisma of the leader rather than reason.
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