The Propagandas of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic by Randall L Bytwerk

Author:Randall L Bytwerk [Bytwerk, Randall L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-09-11T07:03:16+00:00

Moreover, propaganda presented facades of overwhelming public acceptance. The media, the arts, the schools, everyday activities—all suggested that nearly everyone else was in general sympathy with the state.

Not only did such unanimity discourage actively hostile opinion and This content downloaded from 198.91.37.2 on Sun, 05 Jun 2016 03:34:59 UTC

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The Failure of Propaganda

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encourage ostentatiously approved behavior, the pressure it produced to conform led citizens gradually to shift their internal opinions to be consistent with their public behavior. One cannot say “Heil Hitler” a dozen times a day without being affected. Even in a democratic state repetition works, as advertisers know when they build frequency into their campaigns.

It was further impossible to live a normal life without regularly bending to the party. A socialist observer within Germany thought in 1937 that the Nazis had given up trying to persuade every citizen. Instead, their system was so extensive that “no one can get anything done in Germany without depending on some National Socialist organization.”8 Little happened in the GDR without some involvement or support from the party. To live a relatively normal life, people simply had to bow to the system, to say and do what was expected of them.

And the consequences of public disbelief were unpleasant. Life became more difficult. One’s career—or worse, the future of one’s children—could be damaged by opposing the massive structures of society. As Havel observes: “Most people are loath to spend their days in ceaseless conflict with authority, especially when it can only end in the defeat of the isolated individual. So why not do what is required of you? It costs nothing, and in time you cease to bother about it.”9 Both systems wanted to be taken for granted, to be seen as a realities that had to be accepted. One may not like a thunderstorm but still takes out the umbrella.

The mental processes are not unique to those living under totalitarian states. Pressures to conform are strong in any society. Timur Kuran’s work on preference falsification argues that apparent public consensus encourages people to overdo their public performances as a way of demonstrating that they “really” believe.10 Ellul argues: “The aim of modern propaganda is no longer to modify ideas, but to provoke action.”11 Actions change attitudes at least as much as attitudes change actions. Propaganda builds habits of belief and expression. Both Nazism and Marxism-Leninism worked mightily to get people to vote, to join the expected organizations, to say the right things, to avoid behaviors that might prove troublesome.

The sanctions for violating norms have power. GDR journalists later spoke of “the scissors in the head,” or self-censorship. Authors noted that censorship stopped some books from being published, but self-censorship prevented even more from being written at all. Again, this is not limited to totalitarian states. A survey of American journalists published in 2000

found that a quarter of them had avoided newsworthy stories because they anticipated professional difficulties.12 Whatever the merits of the brouhaha This content downloaded from 198.91.37.2 on Sun, 05 Jun 2016 03:34:59 UTC

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