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Gage Lopez

Doctor Johnson

Writing 2

4/24/18

The Inculcation of a Nation¶

(Rough Draft)

We are surrounded by rhetoric. All people use rhetoric in some way, shape, or form, to

sway an audience in favor of their desires or will. So beautiful it be, that such a tool exists and

can be used to manipulate any situation given the proper set of actions. Every waking moment,

you pass by advertisements, beggars, and businessmanthe average person, all of which have a

self- directed purpose that they can choose to impose onto others for one -reason or -another.

Unfortunately, it seems to be that there are also slightly uglier forms of rhetoric than these...

Powerful rhetorical situations need to be addressed via formulaic responses. Over time we can

see a simple pattern of structurally identical responses for a repeated genre of situations. It is in

these ways that genres are produced. Take perhaps, Adolf Hitler, the oh so passionate leader of

Nazi Germany for a some time. This “man” was presented with a situation such that he felt

responsible for ensuring the longevity/rebuilding of Germany, and he went on to achieve such

goals by blaming the Jewish people for Germany’s defeat in WW1 and hindering its current

recovery.

Hitler moved to respond to this sequence of events quite tactfully.Because of these two

desired objectivessituations, he felt that a response was necessary. and did so in a vast number of
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ways. Hitler was aware of the landslide influence that could follow with a large enough voice,

and consequently employed a labyrinthine plan to project his will onto the German people.

diligent plan offelt that Mm Being that mass communication was behis ultimatethe remedy, he

chose toand utilizeemployed two mediums of response within the genre of public relations. More

specifically, Adolf Hitler’s speech to the Reichstag on January 30th, 1939 and the infamous Nazi

propaganda poster “Long Live Germany” by F. Stauber in 1932 (image provided on page 4)

reflectwere two types of genres, each with similar goals. Mass communication and

propagandapropaganadaublic outreach/notoriety.

Hitler’s speech to the Reichstag employed a number of rhetorical strategies and

conventions in order to persuade his primary audience (the German people) to followmeet his

set of beliefs. In this speech he ironically repeats the word “peace” and actually goes as far as

advocating for it. Stating that “Germany desires to live in peace and friendship with all

countries...” (Preuss, 2003, p. 63). This strategy initially allows him to draw in a very broad

audience of people and garner some level of trust. By using a foot-in-the-door tactic, he first gets

his audience to agree to something completely reasonable and desirable:. pPeace. Yet aAfter

capturingachieving both the audience's ears and trust with a logos -type strategy, he goes on to

progressively demand for more. For example, he exclaimssays that “The nations of the world

will soon realize that Germany only desires peace!” (Preuss, 2003, p. 64) but later

continuescontinues along to call for some twisted form of unification through violence

exclaiming, "Workers of all classes and of all nations, recognize your common enemy!" (Preuss,

2003, p. 66). Hitler could look anybody in the eye and lie with the utmost sincerity. He did so via
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speeches, radio broadcasts, and propaganda, endlessly spouting off his desire for peace. His

infatuation withlove of peace. In actuality he was preparing for yet another

dismantlingdissmantalingestructive war. Still, one would expect the shock value of such a

request to be large enough to turn the average person off from the situation, but the audience may

not have felt this way. And so, war ensued.

Hitler's dehumanization of the Jewish people ensures his will to opressthis and proves to

be quite hard to miss. For instance, he refers toreferences their actions as acts of “Jewry” by the

“Jewish race” and blames themthese people for being filled with greed, and “only [to have been]

created by God for the purpose of being a certain percentage of a parasite living on the body and

the productive work of other nations.””. This is a very common, yet flawed, strategy, used by

many. Hitler crafts a strawman approach by using such slang terms with negative connotations,

going as far as to call the Jewish peoplethem a “race” and a “parasite.””. Instead of naming the

Jews as a culture or people, he already begins to separate them from being “human” in the minds

of Hitler's disciples by ascribing nonhuman/animalistic traits to them. By taking zoomorphicthis

approach, the limit of foul treatment that the audience deems logical or permitted for people,

shifts towards the limit of foul treatment we deem “humane” for animals. The extinction of a

people, and the heinous acts to achieve a goal as such, then became less heinous and therefore

“okay” in the eyes of the Nazi’s and German populus.

Why? Hitlere blamedfelt the Jews to be responsible for Germany’s defeat. This point is

accentuated in his speech when he says, “If the international Jewish financiers in and outside

Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will
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not be the Bolshevization of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the

Jewish race in Europe! ….” Hitler outright calls for a mass genocide… and people cheer. Now

this- this charm, or may it be charisma?.... tThis is what Ii’m getting at, because this is genius.

To be able to harness the art of persuasion to such a magnitude that one man can make thousands

kill in his name. That takes genius.

Hitler’s success cannot is not to be attributed to a single speech. In actuality the “fuel” to

this movement largely consisted of propaganda posters. One such image titledexample called,

“Long Live Germany” was one of the most widely distributed and most powerfully influential

posters during the entirety of the Naziis movement (image attached). Hitler appears to be leading

a unified army with a clenched fist and a Nazi flag in the other. Also arguing via ad verecundiam,

Hitler Adolf yet again demonstratesachieves demonstration of a logical fallacy. This propaganda

poster depicts an eagle soaring in the halo of light that splits the overcast sky and shines down

upon Hitler. Building off of the Christian iconographic symbol of the dove or holy spirit that

sheds blessings upon that which it soars above is an appeal to higher authority. By insinuating

that Ggod’s blessing is given, (who is somebody that should be an expert in this topic of

debate)(who is somebody that should be an expert in this topic of debate) many of the questions

or manifestations of doubt that would have lead to a weakened or slowed pace of this explosive

movement are snuffed out.

When comparing these two different mediums of outreach within for the genre of mass

communication, we can see a multitude of similarities. The most obvious is HitlerAdolf ’s

repetition of the use of logical fallacies. HisI believe that his decision to go about this route came
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with the realization thatis because these types of argument can be surprisinglyextremely

exhilarating as they appear to be extremely powerful/logical points (or perhaps just a cocaine-

fueled mode of thought). Both of these pieces also have a consistent message of movement

forward… a call-to-action if you will. One of his largest tools was not increasing the acceleration

of movement, but by keeping a constant acceleration, a steady unwavering force. Energizing

these ideas in patriotic speeches and claiming religious backing allowed the Nazi party to

become tightly unified, just as he foresaw. The repetition of strategies/structures as such reveals

that any form of response in the genre of mass communication follows a generalized formula.

Energizing tones, calls-to-action, dehumanization, logical fallacies, ad verecundiam and logos

itself are the most prominent and influencing variables in the pool of responses that are possible

for ensuring the longevity/rebuilding of a nation by imposing “revenge” through genocide.

Rhetoric is utilized in a number of ways for the ultimate purpose of achieving a goal;, in

this case being, mass communication to the people of Germany. Persuasive public speaking and

propaganda through art were two of the most significantbiggest ways that Adolf Hitler achieved

the inculcation of an entire nation. Uses of dehumanization of the Jewish people, extreme

calls-to-action, and logical fallacies were abundant in doing so, while seemingly lying to the

German people by advocating for peace. This initially drew attention and misdirected his early

followers substantially. I don’t however believe that Adolf Hitler was at all lying about wanting

to achieve peace. I do however believe that his definition of peace was not aligned with ours.

Peace to Adolf Hitler meant unification, control, and revenge. Not peace of a nation, but peace of

an individual… that individual being him and himself only.

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Works Cited

“Nazi Propaganda of the Machtergreifung 1930-1932.” Long Live Germany, www.bc.edu/bc_¶

org/avp/cas/his/CoreArt/prop/ns_long.html.

“Hitler Reveals War Plans.” The History Place - Triumph of Hitler, 2001, www.historyplace.

ccom/worldwar2/triumph/tr-hossbach.htm.

“Long live Germany 1939” F. Stauber, image.

“Nazi Propaganda of the Machtergreifung 1930-1932.” Long Live Germany, www.bc.edu/bc_

org/avp/cas/his/CoreArt/prop/ns_long.html.
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