Hitler is a meme
Yeah, it’s Hitler. Yeah, it’s funny. Yeah, those things aren’t supposed to go together. But I think this is a terrific piece. Brilliant, even.
Now let the pre-emptive defense begin [SPOILERS AHEAD]: Would the Internets have brought down Hitler? Nah. But that’s the overstatement that makes this video provocative and funny. And the statements revealed by the overstatement I think are true: The Internet is able to trivialize everything, for better and for worse. E.g., The connected culture of the Internet makes it harder to take demagogues (or at least a certain style of demagogue) seriously.
Or, as Barry Goldwater once didn’t say: Trivializing the self-aggrandizing is no vice, although aggrandizing the trivial is not much of a virtue.
FWIW, I can’t find a way to take the reference to “6 million views,” with its obvious call to the 6 million members of my family who were murdered, that isn’t disturbing.
I’ve seen another version of this where hi is given the news that his investment accounts have been wiped out.
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“The connected culture of the Internet makes it harder to take demagogues (or at least a certain style of demagogue) seriously.”
“Certain style”, yes. But then we just get a new style of demagogue.
I’m sure you know that Hitler was in fact a very popular politician, who had a populist appeal.
Remember, the Nazis were masters of propaganda, and technologically innovative with film and radio. I’m quite sure they could have found or created someone to direct the “conversation” in WWII Germany.
Here’s the investments one I mentioned: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....argin-call
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I’m with Seth on this one: Radio, and the mass reach of the public address system, corresponded then, to the person-to-person “feel” that the internet has for us today. The effect of radio was a certain intimacy, with the voice emanating from the box speaking directly to you. The Third Reich (y’mach sh’mam) were indeed masters of media, and had the internet existed, it would have been used quite effectively to propagandize and mobilize. Additionally, as we are seeing in repressive regimes around the world, dissenting voices are relatively unable to effect substantive change; witness China, for example, even with the eyes of the world focused on the Olympics spectacle. And certainly, with the nearly unlimited ability for all of us to distract ourselves with funny stuff on the internet (ironically, like this video and its embedded cultural references), genocides are largely ignored, paid only lip service, or otherwise consciously avoided, unless pro-western-interest economics are involved (read: oil).
I disagree with your conclusion, that “the connected culture of the Internet makes it harder to take demagogues (or at least a certain style of demagogue) seriously.” Lots of demagogues are spawned on the ‘net. Many of them can be parodied quite easily. That doesn’t prevent their achieving broad support, winning elections, or wreaking havoc on the rest of the world (a certain type of bush, and the associated shady backers come to mind here…)
Hi,
I just came across your post of my video — thanks for the kind words! And the “6 million” reference has stirred some controversy, but it was purely meant as a historical reference point, and certainly with no disrespect to those affected by the tragedy of the Holocaust.
–SEAN O