Thursday, November 04, 2004
Beware the Charismatic Drummer
Charismatic rule has long been neglected and ridiculed, but apparently it has deep roots and becomes a powerful stimulus once the proper psychological and social conditions are set. The leader's charismatic power is not a mere phantom - none can doubt that millions believe in it. ~ Franz Neumann, 1942.
[CHRIS] MATTHEWS: How much does personality matter here? Is it Bush's charm that makes him difficult to beat because even if he isn't the expert on something, he seems to have that facility to sort of win.
[JOHN] MCCAIN: I'm not sure it is his charm as much as it is the belief that this guy really believes what he says. And when he says it, I can take it to the bank. And he's my leader. - Hardball/MSNBC/Sept. 22, 2004
Behind Bush were two banners. 'King of Kings', proclaimed one. 'Lord of Lords', said the other. - The Observer (UK), Sunday November 2, 2003.
*****
The personality "leadership" cult is an interesting critter. Especially with respect to authoritarian movements which have historically depended upon such theatrical mass appeal to unquestioning faith, obiedience, authority, and moral absolutes. So, I decided to make a comparrison using an extreme example, namely the Fuhrer cult model, as described by Ian Kershaw, author of Hitler, Hubris, and Philip Gourevitch's Sept. 2004 New Yorker contribution titled Bushspeak.
Anyone who has ever witnessed the Bush campaign's carefully stage managed and theatrically orchestrated political rallies will recognize Gourevitch's descriptions below. But what is creepy are the paralells to Kershaw's descriptions of Hitler's rise to power in Germany. The repetitious emphasis on "leadership" and "moral authority", "certitude" and the imagery of warrior protector redemer of the homeland. In any case, it's altogether eerie in too many respects, and I have no doubt personally that Karl Rove keeps a copy of "My Struggle" tucked carefully away in an nightstand drawer. Right there next to his Gideon.
But, you be the judge: Excerpts below from Ian Kershaw's "Hitler 1889-1936:Hubis", pages 279- 282, and Philip Gourevitch's 2004 New Yorker piece linked above.
THE TOUGH GUY IN THE BUBBLE:
{Kershaw} Journalists might be permitted to see him for a few minutes, if an interview had been prearranged. But scarcely anyone else was allowed an audience.
{Kershaw} ...his heroic self-image of 'greatness', the necessity of upholding the aura increasingly attached to him by his supporters, and the olympian detachement from the intrigues and in-fighting of his subordinates demanded a high degree of isolation. Beyond this, the distance he deliberately placed between himself and even high-ranking members of his movement was calculated to emphasize the sense of awe and admiration in those admitted to his presence, or encountering him at a theatrically staged mass meeting or rally. At the same time, it enhanced the enigmatic in him.
{Gourevitch} Four years ago, Bush ran for President as a champion of compassion at home and humility abroad. After the September 11th attacks, he recast himself as a man of action, a warrior, whose basic message to the world is: They messed with the wrong guy.
{Kershaw} He was above all a consummate actor. This certainly applied to the stage-managed occasions - the delayed entry to the packed hall, the careful construction of his speeches, the choice of colorful phrases, the gestures and body-language. Here, his natural rhetorical talent was harnessed to well-honed performing skills. A pause at the beginning to allow the tension to mount; a low-key, even hesitant, start; undulations and variations of diction, not melodious certainly, but vivid and highly expressive; almost staccato bursts of sentences, followed by well-timed rallentando to expose the emphasis of a key point; theatrical use of the hands as the speech rose in crescendo; sarcastic wit aimed at opponents: all were devices carefully nurtured to maximize effect.
{Gourevitch} Bush’s voice has a surprising range: he can get a shouting attack going, and he can fall suddenly quiet to create emphasis and declare his seriousness. But the most effective quality is the harsh staccato that overcomes him when he speaks about his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the boundless, all-encompassing, and perhaps eternal war on terror. He acquires a drill sergeant’s punctiliousness—pro-noun-cing ev-er-y syl-lab-le, hit-ting ev-er-y con-son-ant, singing out the sibilants, and bending words, drawing them out, or isolating them between stark silences, [...] He leans in over the microphone, and to make no mistake about his message he reads from a script: "See, our—our fu-ture de-pends on our willing-ness to lead in the world. If America shows uncertainty and weak-ness in this decade, the world will drift toward" —pause— "tragedy" —pause. "This will not hap-pen on my watch." Bush’s right hand, held out flat, beats steadily up and down, patting the lectern in accompaniment to his robotic rhythm. He is nothing if not insistent.
CODPIECED FLIGHTSUIT to COATTAILS to ROLLED UP COTTON SHIRT SLEEVES:
{Gourevitch} He wore no tie, and his sleeves were rolled up, and the simplicity of the proposition, the easy conversational forthrightness, seemed so natural, so obvious and reassuring, that it was easy to forget, as he wound on through his stump speech, that he had promised to lay out a plan for the future. He offered no such plan, or even any new initiatives. He just declared the past four years a success, and said that more and better was to come.
{Kershaw} As in the meticulous attention to detail in the preparations for the party rallies at Weimar in 1926 and Nuremberg in 1927 and 1929, Hitler was preoccupied with impact and impression. His clothing was also selected to match the occasion: the light-brown uniform with swastika armband, belt, attached diagonal strap crossing over the right shoulder, and knee-high leather boots when among the faithful at big party meetings and rallies; dark suit, white shirt, and tie, when appropriate to conveying a less martial, more 'respectable', appearence to a wider audience.
THE MASK of the FOLKSY REGULAR GUY:
{Kershaw} 'He could play the parts as required. 'He was a kindly conversationalist, kissing the hands of ladies, a friendly uncle giving chocolate to children, a simple man of the people shaking the calloused hands of peasants and workers.' He could be the model of friendliness in public to someone he was privately castigating and deriding. The play-acting and hypocrisy did not mean that he was solely a cynical manipulator, that he did not believe in the central tenets of his 'world-view'. This fervent belief, coupled with the strength of his domineering personality , carried conviction among those drawn to his message. But for one perceptive and critical observer, the one-time Gauleiter of Hamburg, Albert Krebs, Hitler's ability to sway the masses rested essentially on a 'very conscious art' of manipulation - cool calculation, 'without inner sympathy and truthfulness'. Krebs summed up: 'The art of the mask and dissimulation should not be forgotten. It made it so difficult to grasp the core of Hitler's being.' (kershaw page 280-281)
{Gourevitch} Bush spends a good deal of time on the stump deriding his rival, and the rest of the time he projects the attitude of a man who is running unopposed—which he could be forgiven for thinking if the election depended simply on who is the better campaigner.
{Gourevitch}"I'm sorry Laura's not here," he told the breakfast-hour crowd in Las Cruces, and they moaned in sympathy. "I understand," he said, and got a big laugh. "I kissed her goodbye in Crawford this morning and said, 'I've got to go to work.'" More laughter. "She said, You git over to New Mexico and you remind 'em that her kinfolk were raised right here down the road in Anthony. I'm proud of Laura. She's a great mom, a wonderful wife." Loud yips and applause. He continued in a deadpan: "I'll give you some reasons why I think you ought to put me back in. But perhaps the most important one of all's so Laura's the first lady for four more years."
{Gourevitch}When Bush appeared in person, moments later, he seemed surprisingly ordinary. "I'm here to ask for the vote," he told the audience. "I believe it's important to get out and ask for the vote. I believe it's important to travel this great state and the country, talkin' about where I intend to lead the country." He made this sound like an original idea, and perhaps a controversial one, and the way he repeated the words "I believe" carried an air of defiant conviction: I'm not here offering myself to you because that's how it's done in a democracy but because that’s just how I am, and I don’t give a damn who says different.
MANLY CHARACTER and STEELY RESOLVE:
{Kershaw} The irresistible fascination that many - not a few of them cultured, educated, and intelligent - found in his extrordinary personality-traits boubtless owed much to his ability to play parts. As many attested, he could be charming - particularly to women - and was often witty and amusing. Much of the time it was show, put on for effect. The same could be true of his rages and outbursts of apparently uncontrollable anger, which were in reality often contrived. The firm handshake and 'manly' eye-to-eye contact which Hitler cultivated on occasions when he had to meet ordinary party members was, for the awestruck lowly activist, a moment never to be forgotten. For Hitler, it was merely acting; it meant no more than the reinforcement of the personality cult, the cement of the movement, the bonding force between Leader and followers. In reality, Hitler showed remarkably little human interest in his followers. [...] The propaganda image of 'fatherliness' concealed inner emptiness. Other individuals were of interest to him only in so far as they were useful.
{Gourevitch} Bush's performance on the stump is more a rap than a speech, a sequence of talking points strung together by applause lines. In style and substance, his discourse is saturated in churchiness: he touts the rights of the unborn, pooh-poohs same-sex marriage, speaks of marshalling the "armies of compassion" and transforming America into a "culture of responsibility" and an "ownership society" by changing "one heart and soul, one conscience at a time." But, for all his God talk, he is remarkably lacking in humility. No fault, no blame, no regret, no room for shame attends him as he goes about changing the world. Nor does he appear to entertain the possibility that the changes he is imposing could be anything but improvements. To hear him tell it, the economy is terrific, public education is thriving, health care is better than ever, terrorists are on the run, democracy is spreading throughout the Middle East, and everywhere America is living up to what he describes as its "calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom." Because Bush does not appear able to recognize his own errors, much less admit them, he is incapable of self-correction. Indeed, he boasts tirelessly of his resolve and steadfastness, making a virtue of rigidity. Like it or lump it.
I'm not suggesting that George W. Bush is another Adolph Hitler. Although I do think he is attended to by people who posses such qualities and employ a good deal of the same rhetorical bark and bluster and ambitions. But I don't think Bush is interested in such responsibilities himself. Maybe I'm wrong about that but I don't even think he makes most of the decisions that his administration advances. George W. Bush, I'm convinced, is little more than a front man, a useful Jeremy Diddler raising the big wind. What does worry me however is that the Right in this country, especially the theocratic/dominioist religious faction, could (and is)advancing a hybrid variety of Falangist Franco Way (Monarchy/theocracy) corporatist governance. As a matter of fact I think that's exactly what they are doing. And that, I believe, is one to keep a careful watch upon. But that's another post.
*
[CHRIS] MATTHEWS: How much does personality matter here? Is it Bush's charm that makes him difficult to beat because even if he isn't the expert on something, he seems to have that facility to sort of win.
[JOHN] MCCAIN: I'm not sure it is his charm as much as it is the belief that this guy really believes what he says. And when he says it, I can take it to the bank. And he's my leader. - Hardball/MSNBC/Sept. 22, 2004
"We did not believe that Bush would be as disciplined as he was. He was extremely disciplined," recalls George Shipley, who was then [Ann] Richards' campaign adviser. "Karl gave him 10 index cards and said, 'This is what you are going to say. Don't confuse yourself with the issues.' It's the model for the presidency." - Guardian UK
Behind Bush were two banners. 'King of Kings', proclaimed one. 'Lord of Lords', said the other. - The Observer (UK), Sunday November 2, 2003.
The personality "leadership" cult is an interesting critter. Especially with respect to authoritarian movements which have historically depended upon such theatrical mass appeal to unquestioning faith, obiedience, authority, and moral absolutes. So, I decided to make a comparrison using an extreme example, namely the Fuhrer cult model, as described by Ian Kershaw, author of Hitler, Hubris, and Philip Gourevitch's Sept. 2004 New Yorker contribution titled Bushspeak.
Anyone who has ever witnessed the Bush campaign's carefully stage managed and theatrically orchestrated political rallies will recognize Gourevitch's descriptions below. But what is creepy are the paralells to Kershaw's descriptions of Hitler's rise to power in Germany. The repetitious emphasis on "leadership" and "moral authority", "certitude" and the imagery of warrior protector redemer of the homeland. In any case, it's altogether eerie in too many respects, and I have no doubt personally that Karl Rove keeps a copy of "My Struggle" tucked carefully away in an nightstand drawer. Right there next to his Gideon.
But, you be the judge: Excerpts below from Ian Kershaw's "Hitler 1889-1936:Hubis", pages 279- 282, and Philip Gourevitch's 2004 New Yorker piece linked above.
THE TOUGH GUY IN THE BUBBLE:
{Kershaw} Journalists might be permitted to see him for a few minutes, if an interview had been prearranged. But scarcely anyone else was allowed an audience.
{Kershaw} ...his heroic self-image of 'greatness', the necessity of upholding the aura increasingly attached to him by his supporters, and the olympian detachement from the intrigues and in-fighting of his subordinates demanded a high degree of isolation. Beyond this, the distance he deliberately placed between himself and even high-ranking members of his movement was calculated to emphasize the sense of awe and admiration in those admitted to his presence, or encountering him at a theatrically staged mass meeting or rally. At the same time, it enhanced the enigmatic in him.
{Gourevitch} Four years ago, Bush ran for President as a champion of compassion at home and humility abroad. After the September 11th attacks, he recast himself as a man of action, a warrior, whose basic message to the world is: They messed with the wrong guy.
{Kershaw} He was above all a consummate actor. This certainly applied to the stage-managed occasions - the delayed entry to the packed hall, the careful construction of his speeches, the choice of colorful phrases, the gestures and body-language. Here, his natural rhetorical talent was harnessed to well-honed performing skills. A pause at the beginning to allow the tension to mount; a low-key, even hesitant, start; undulations and variations of diction, not melodious certainly, but vivid and highly expressive; almost staccato bursts of sentences, followed by well-timed rallentando to expose the emphasis of a key point; theatrical use of the hands as the speech rose in crescendo; sarcastic wit aimed at opponents: all were devices carefully nurtured to maximize effect.
{Gourevitch} Bush’s voice has a surprising range: he can get a shouting attack going, and he can fall suddenly quiet to create emphasis and declare his seriousness. But the most effective quality is the harsh staccato that overcomes him when he speaks about his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the boundless, all-encompassing, and perhaps eternal war on terror. He acquires a drill sergeant’s punctiliousness—pro-noun-cing ev-er-y syl-lab-le, hit-ting ev-er-y con-son-ant, singing out the sibilants, and bending words, drawing them out, or isolating them between stark silences, [...] He leans in over the microphone, and to make no mistake about his message he reads from a script: "See, our—our fu-ture de-pends on our willing-ness to lead in the world. If America shows uncertainty and weak-ness in this decade, the world will drift toward" —pause— "tragedy" —pause. "This will not hap-pen on my watch." Bush’s right hand, held out flat, beats steadily up and down, patting the lectern in accompaniment to his robotic rhythm. He is nothing if not insistent.
CODPIECED FLIGHTSUIT to COATTAILS to ROLLED UP COTTON SHIRT SLEEVES:
{Gourevitch} He wore no tie, and his sleeves were rolled up, and the simplicity of the proposition, the easy conversational forthrightness, seemed so natural, so obvious and reassuring, that it was easy to forget, as he wound on through his stump speech, that he had promised to lay out a plan for the future. He offered no such plan, or even any new initiatives. He just declared the past four years a success, and said that more and better was to come.
{Kershaw} As in the meticulous attention to detail in the preparations for the party rallies at Weimar in 1926 and Nuremberg in 1927 and 1929, Hitler was preoccupied with impact and impression. His clothing was also selected to match the occasion: the light-brown uniform with swastika armband, belt, attached diagonal strap crossing over the right shoulder, and knee-high leather boots when among the faithful at big party meetings and rallies; dark suit, white shirt, and tie, when appropriate to conveying a less martial, more 'respectable', appearence to a wider audience.
THE MASK of the FOLKSY REGULAR GUY:
{Kershaw} 'He could play the parts as required. 'He was a kindly conversationalist, kissing the hands of ladies, a friendly uncle giving chocolate to children, a simple man of the people shaking the calloused hands of peasants and workers.' He could be the model of friendliness in public to someone he was privately castigating and deriding. The play-acting and hypocrisy did not mean that he was solely a cynical manipulator, that he did not believe in the central tenets of his 'world-view'. This fervent belief, coupled with the strength of his domineering personality , carried conviction among those drawn to his message. But for one perceptive and critical observer, the one-time Gauleiter of Hamburg, Albert Krebs, Hitler's ability to sway the masses rested essentially on a 'very conscious art' of manipulation - cool calculation, 'without inner sympathy and truthfulness'. Krebs summed up: 'The art of the mask and dissimulation should not be forgotten. It made it so difficult to grasp the core of Hitler's being.' (kershaw page 280-281)
{Gourevitch} Bush spends a good deal of time on the stump deriding his rival, and the rest of the time he projects the attitude of a man who is running unopposed—which he could be forgiven for thinking if the election depended simply on who is the better campaigner.
{Gourevitch}"I'm sorry Laura's not here," he told the breakfast-hour crowd in Las Cruces, and they moaned in sympathy. "I understand," he said, and got a big laugh. "I kissed her goodbye in Crawford this morning and said, 'I've got to go to work.'" More laughter. "She said, You git over to New Mexico and you remind 'em that her kinfolk were raised right here down the road in Anthony. I'm proud of Laura. She's a great mom, a wonderful wife." Loud yips and applause. He continued in a deadpan: "I'll give you some reasons why I think you ought to put me back in. But perhaps the most important one of all's so Laura's the first lady for four more years."
{Gourevitch}When Bush appeared in person, moments later, he seemed surprisingly ordinary. "I'm here to ask for the vote," he told the audience. "I believe it's important to get out and ask for the vote. I believe it's important to travel this great state and the country, talkin' about where I intend to lead the country." He made this sound like an original idea, and perhaps a controversial one, and the way he repeated the words "I believe" carried an air of defiant conviction: I'm not here offering myself to you because that's how it's done in a democracy but because that’s just how I am, and I don’t give a damn who says different.
MANLY CHARACTER and STEELY RESOLVE:
{Kershaw} The irresistible fascination that many - not a few of them cultured, educated, and intelligent - found in his extrordinary personality-traits boubtless owed much to his ability to play parts. As many attested, he could be charming - particularly to women - and was often witty and amusing. Much of the time it was show, put on for effect. The same could be true of his rages and outbursts of apparently uncontrollable anger, which were in reality often contrived. The firm handshake and 'manly' eye-to-eye contact which Hitler cultivated on occasions when he had to meet ordinary party members was, for the awestruck lowly activist, a moment never to be forgotten. For Hitler, it was merely acting; it meant no more than the reinforcement of the personality cult, the cement of the movement, the bonding force between Leader and followers. In reality, Hitler showed remarkably little human interest in his followers. [...] The propaganda image of 'fatherliness' concealed inner emptiness. Other individuals were of interest to him only in so far as they were useful.
{Gourevitch} Bush's performance on the stump is more a rap than a speech, a sequence of talking points strung together by applause lines. In style and substance, his discourse is saturated in churchiness: he touts the rights of the unborn, pooh-poohs same-sex marriage, speaks of marshalling the "armies of compassion" and transforming America into a "culture of responsibility" and an "ownership society" by changing "one heart and soul, one conscience at a time." But, for all his God talk, he is remarkably lacking in humility. No fault, no blame, no regret, no room for shame attends him as he goes about changing the world. Nor does he appear to entertain the possibility that the changes he is imposing could be anything but improvements. To hear him tell it, the economy is terrific, public education is thriving, health care is better than ever, terrorists are on the run, democracy is spreading throughout the Middle East, and everywhere America is living up to what he describes as its "calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom." Because Bush does not appear able to recognize his own errors, much less admit them, he is incapable of self-correction. Indeed, he boasts tirelessly of his resolve and steadfastness, making a virtue of rigidity. Like it or lump it.
"You know I could run for governor but I'm basically a media creation. I've never done anything. I've worked for my dad. I worked in the oil business. But that's not the kind of profile you have to have to get elected to public office." - George W. Bush, 1989
I'm not suggesting that George W. Bush is another Adolph Hitler. Although I do think he is attended to by people who posses such qualities and employ a good deal of the same rhetorical bark and bluster and ambitions. But I don't think Bush is interested in such responsibilities himself. Maybe I'm wrong about that but I don't even think he makes most of the decisions that his administration advances. George W. Bush, I'm convinced, is little more than a front man, a useful Jeremy Diddler raising the big wind. What does worry me however is that the Right in this country, especially the theocratic/dominioist religious faction, could (and is)advancing a hybrid variety of Falangist Franco Way (Monarchy/theocracy) corporatist governance. As a matter of fact I think that's exactly what they are doing. And that, I believe, is one to keep a careful watch upon. But that's another post.
*
