Wooden Blog

Friday, April 16, 2010

Hitler, Master of Rhetoric

I enjoyed the presentation about Hitlers speech. After reading several books involving coercion, neuro linguistic programming, and body language, I remember Hitler being mentioned many times using of these persuasive tactics. Hitler didn't use overly complex and flowery messages, he kept his messages very simple and focused. Instead of mentioning multiple issues he focused on a select few topics for his entire speech. He used a great deal of repitition, persistently covering these points over and over. Instead of addressing multiple facets and sides of an issue he chose to take a very black and white approach in order to promote zealotry. He also heavily emphasized body language, spending hours practicing hand gestures for his speeches. This is the first class I've been in that analyzed Hitlers speaking techniques, which is odd considering him being one of the most infamous villianous world leaders of all time. One would think that his propaganda techniques would be heavily emphasized in high school and college world history classes. Those who cannot learn from history...

1 Comments:

Blogger The Mighty Kat said...

I appreciate this feedback, also great to hear more about Hitler's techniques. I feel extremely underqualified to be analyzing his speeches at all, yet there's so much there to work with that nearly anyone can get something out of it, especially when it comes to rhetoric. I'm surprised this is the first time you've had him brought into class for speech consideration, yet actually I never had him come up, either, and one of my degrees is speech communication. There is indeed something wrong with that picture.

April 19, 2010 at 6:15 PM  

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