Political Rhetoric

This is a very large topic so I am going to make only some sketchy comments about it here.

What strikes me is that the two greatest orators of political history were both evil men -- though neither really intended evil as far as I can see.

There have been many great political speeches. President Reagan's speech that he gave after the first loss of a space shuttle still moves me to tears. And several of Churchill's speeches are rightly remembered and revered. But Abraham Lincoln and Adolf Hitler are undoubtedly the two Greats.

That I dare to say anything at all about Lincoln is very bold. Untold books have been written about Lincoln and his ghastly war so there is no chance that I can add anything original to all that. So I will simply say what I think no man will dispute: That no man of his time could talk the talk like Lincoln could. His fine words are remembered and treated as inspiring to this day. Yet, as I set out briefly here, there was a very large gap between Lincoln's words and deeds. The revered Gettysburg address is of course a prime example of that. In it he describes his policies as a defence of self-government when their whole point was in fact to deny self-government to the South! Dr. Goebbels never managed a "big lie" as successful as that!

And Hitler was amazing. He left Lincoln for dead. He would arrive half an hour or more late for a rally and when he ascended the podium would do nothing at first. He would just stand there and look around -- thus building up incredible expectation and tension. And when he stepped up to the microphone there was also a pause before he said anything. Then he would say in a calm, deep and serious voice: Deutsche Maenner; Volksgenossene (German men; Racial comnrades). And then there would be another pause. And from that very restrained but very emotional beginning he would steadily wind up to an utter pitch of excitement, usually ending with a virtual scream of something like Unsere teure Deutsches Reich, Sieg Heil (Our dear German nation -- Victory!). My description does no more than capture 10% of it, of course. You have to see and hear it in the original German.

And where Lincoln grabbed the ideals of his day to use, Hitler did something much more basic. He used love. He loved his people and they loved him back. Whether he REALLY loved his people is open to dispute but he certainly conveyed love of them. And they returned it with near hysterical adulation and followed him to the death for it.

It is almost worth learning German to hear and understand the greatest rhetoric the world has ever seen.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and DISSECTING LEFTISM. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

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