Posted February 17, 2011, on a Keith Oberman facebook tribute page
Agreed that Glenn Beck is a lot of manipulative misinformation and trashy talk. But it is fascinating to me.
If you have studied history and wondered how it is that people have followed maniacal leaders into destruction, this is an opportunity to see the magnetism and artistry of manipulation in real life. So much of power is theatrics and projection. Beck works it. I don’t accuse him of being horrific like a Hitler character, because I know nothing about him, but we wonder what were people thinking in Hitler’s day, causing the barbarous destruction of Europe in the passionate belief in a man and his ludicrous ideas.
Beck is the conspiratorial thread-line that constructs a world where all the fears and troubles are projected and blamed on a conspiracy of others. It plays into that fundamental aspect of human nature that is to attack when feeling threatened.
Germany was a place of great intellectual achievement and social development in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but post-WWI and Depression era bad socio-economic conditions harmed and threatened the public. Hitler took advantage, constructing a world view that blamed others for German fear and suffering. Many people resisted or at least refused to buy in, but Hitler turned ideas into state power and destruction resulted.
Many people feel disenfranchised in our society. I hope our democracy can improve peoples’ options so that most people are empowered to participate in achieving their own goals and pursuing their own happiness, rather than feeling threatened and buying into conspiratorial fantasies. However, people are not immune to following the pied piper, even in modern times.
yeah nice