The art of “fooling” masses
Prices of basic commodities have risen sharply in last decade, which includes fuel, Gas cylinder, refined oil, vegetables, fruits, clothing and what not. Yet, the people tend to keep on supporting the current regime and barely ask questions on massive price hike.
Why is that? What makes people NOT to question their Govt on fundamentals? What makes them keep on supporting the very same Govt over and over again? OR
How is the Govt convincing its people for their vote despite “failure” at, almost, all fronts?
The hidden art of convincing
When Hitler came to power in Germany, he, slowly convinced entire country that Germany was in a middle of a storm and Hitler was their ONLY saviour. But it didn’t happen overnight!
The famous Philosopher, Aristotle, defines the “art of persuasion” which Hitler, and now many corporates, and political leaders use to gain massive following. Aristotle says that to convince or pursuade masses, one can use these 3 tactics
- Ethos
- Pathos
- Logos
Ethos : It is the art of showing the authority over the others. Authority pleases masses and gives them a sense of superiority.
The terms “Vishwa Guru”, “World Power”, “World’s power engine” are used to assert authority and showcase themselves as the world leader.
Remember this fake picture of Putin, where it is showed that everyone big leader is trying to talk to him, shows “authority” of Russia.
Likewise, Hitler used to call Germans as “pure blood” and rest of them, especially Jews, are of inferior or impure blood. This gave a huge sense of superiority to Germans over Jews.
Pathos: It is a form of invoking emotions or anger, and gaining sympathy of the masses. Our politicians massively use this tactic to gain a lot of followers.
Remember “I was a tea seller”, “I am from a poor family”, “Ham to fakeer aadmi hain”, such phrases invoke emotions and our leaders gain sympathy from audience.
Like wise, it is very common these days “if you love our Army, vote for me”, or “those who don’t vote for me are against our army and our nation”, or “they are against me because I am from poor background”, or “our religion is in danger”, or “they want to convert us to their religion”
These kind of statements invoke emotions and anger in the masses and they forget all the logics and show their full support to their leaders.
Logos: It is an art of convincing based on “logic”. Remember, politics, mostly, don’t have logic. So, politicians around the world use fake or incorrect or artificial “logics” to convince their audience.
Our politicians keep on saying “the opposition is united because they know I am very honest leader who has the capacity to change the world”
Remember, in Hitler’s Germany they made Jews as their enemy with forged facts and stories. With the direct control over mass media, it wasn’t a difficult job for Hitler. Once an enemy is declared, all he needed was to keep on fuelling baseless facts and stories against their enemy which adds to hatred.
These 3 tactics are frequently used in politics around the world.
All we need to do is NOT to get trapped with these tactics. Make our own sensible decisions after thorough study.
Read. Read. Read. Read
(Views expressed are personal and do not intent do harm or insult anyone)
