Hitler on Propaganda.
Vizier Letter - Adolf Hitler
Notes from Mein Kampf:
Ignore the elites and intellectuals and focus directly on the masses, the seat of real power:
“The movement must avoid everything which may lessen or weaken its power of influencing the masses ... because of the simple fact that no great idea, no matter how sublime or exalted, can be realised in practice without the effective power which resides in the popular masses.”
The masses care little for abstract ideas, reason or scientific knowledge—it is emotion that guides their allegiances:
“The broad masses of a people do not consist of professors or diplomats. Their weak ability to understand abstract ideas makes them driven by the world of emotion rather than intellect... The driving force behind the most tremendous turnovers on this earth has never resulted from an intellectual insight directing the masses, but instead from a fanaticism dominating them and hysteria hurling them onward. He who wishes to win the broad masses must understand that the key to the gates of their hearts is not objectivity, which is nothing more than weakness, but a determined and strong will...”
Will is strengthened by faith rather than knowledge; it is less important what you know than how deeply you believe in what you know. That is why the leaders of revolutions are always men of faith: they rouse the emotions of ordinary people, induce them to project their hopes and wishes onto their movement, and inspire a loyalty akin to religious veneration.
“All propaganda must appeal to the common people in tone and in form and must keep its intellectual level to the capacity of the least intelligent person at whom it is directed. In other words, the intellectual level must be lowered as the mass of people it is intended to reach grows. If it is necessary to reach a lot of people, as in the case of national propaganda for the continuation of a war, you can never be too careful about controlling the intellectual level of the propaganda. The less science is involved and the more emotions are involved, the more complete the success will be.”
When you have carefully controlled the intellectual level of your propaganda, the next step is to ensure your message is forceful and uncompromising. There can be no doubt in the righteousness of your stance:
“Above all, never hesitate, never qualify what you say, never concede an inch to the other side, paint all your contrasts in black and white. This is the ‘very first condition which has to be fulfilled in every kind of propaganda: a systematically one-sided attitude towards every problem that has to be dealt with.... When they see an uncompromising onslaught against an adversary, the people have at all times taken this as proof that right is on the side of the active aggressor; but if the aggressor should go only halfway and fail to push home his success ... the people will look upon this as a sign that he is uncertain of the justice of his own cause.”
Hitler explains further:
“Propaganda must constantly endeavour to present only the aspect of the truth that is favourable to its own side... The moment our own propaganda admits even the faintest glimmer of justice is due to the other side, the seeds of doubt have been planted and they will begin to question whether our own side is just...”
Single message, single audience, single purpose: remove everything superfluous and repeat your core message to your target audience. You must force your message into their memory through the time-tested method of repetition:
“All the brilliant presentations in the world will not lead to the success of propaganda unless one fundamental principle is always kept clearly in view. Propaganda must limit itself to saying a very little, but saying it a lot... Any variations in the propaganda message must never change the purpose of the propaganda, but should always reinforce the same conclusion. The main slogan must be highlighted from various angles, stated in different ways, but every discussion must end with the conclusion itself. Only then can and will propaganda produce a unified and concentrated effect.”
Hitler exemplifies this principle as applied to National Socialism:
“For me and all true National Socialists, there is only one doctrine: Folk and Fatherland. We must fight to assure the existence and the growth of our race and our nation. We must feed our children and keep our blood pure. We must fight for the freedom and independence of the Fatherland so that our nation may grow and fulfil the mission given to it by the Creator of the Universe. Every ideal and every idea, every teaching and all knowledge must serve this purpose. It is from this perspective that we must judge everything and use it or discard it according to its suitability for our purpose.”
When your message is clear, the next step is to vilify a single enemy. An enemy unites a group more than any ideal, as the human mind has a negativity bias: threats and dangers capture the mind’s attention more than benefits and opportunities.
“In any age of history, the qualities of a truly great and popular leader consisted of focusing on a single adversary and not distracting the people’s attention. The more unified the people’s will to fight a single object, the greater the magnetic attraction a political movement will have and the more tremendous its impact. It is part of the genius of a great leader to make even widely separated adversaries appear as if they belonged to just one category. Weak characters who have difficulty making decisions will begin to doubt whether their own side is right when they see a variety of enemies... Therefore, a number of opponents must always be lumped together so that in the eyes of one’s own followers, the battle is fought against one single enemy.”
This notion explains the far-reaching influence Hitler ascribed to the Jews. The Marxists, Liberals and globalists, Hitler’s ideological foes, were all said to emanate from a Jewish conspiracy—a single enemy.
Hitler goes on to stress the importance of intolerance towards other beliefs, asserting that the success of a movement or faith largely depends on its rigid rejection of differing views:
“The future of a movement depends on the devotion, or more correctly, the intolerance for other beliefs that its followers exhibit in defence of it as the only true cause. They must be convinced and enforce the belief that their own cause, as opposed to other similar causes, is the only just cause.”
Lastly, Hitler places supreme importance on the spoken word over the written word:
“I know that men are more rarely won over by the written word than they are by the spoken word and that every great movement in this world owes its growth to great speakers, not to great writers...
... One thing all the champions with ink-stained fingers and fools of today should take to heart is that the great upheavals in this world have never been guided by a pen. The only job of the pen has been to explain them in theory. Since the beginning of time, the force that started the great religious and political landslides of history has been the magic power of the spoken word alone. The great masses of a people yield only to the force of speech. All great movements are people’s movements. They are volcanic eruptions of human passions set off either by the cruel Goddess of Desperation or by the torch of the word as it is thrown to the masses...
... Only a storm of hot passion can change the “Fate of a People”. Passion can only be aroused by a man who feels it inside himself. Only the possessor of passion can give the words that will open the gates to a people’s heart like a hammer. A man who has no passion and whose mouth is closed has not been chosen by Heaven as a Messenger of its Will. Let writers stick to their ink-pens and do “theoretical” work if their intelligence and ability will let them. He has not been born or chosen to be a Leader...”