Brilliant Application of Rhetoric

Burke examines the way in which Hitler applies rhetoric in his attempt to rid his nation of Jews.

Before I begin to break down the ways in which he uses rhetoric brilliantly, but for the wrong reasons in my opinion, we must begin at the core of the motivation. Burke says that Hitler had a “spontaneous rise of his anti-Semitism” on page 197, but this statement is contradictory. Hitler explicitly explains how he came to gradually hate the Jews. Hitler’s hate spurred mostly from the way in which, the way they lied with ease and frequency. He says “One did not know what to admire more: their glibness of tongue or their skill in lying. I gradually began to hate them.” (p. 197) I feel that his encounter with the Jews, and the misery he encountered in Vienna propelled him into a state of rage. In rhetorical practices, the message to the audience must be clear. Hitler was clear in his dislike for the Jews. He was also clear that if they continued to poison his beloved Germany she would become victim to prostitution, syphilis, bad democracy and ‘anything else of thumbs-down sort”.

The Holocaust was an attempt to cure Germany of their sickness brought upon by the Jews; this was the core message to which he brought about to his people. There was a shift in rhetoric for a moment in history, where people believed that their thoughts and ideas they had been directly from God. They believed that their knowledge was divine and therefore valid. “I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator: By warding off Jews I am fighting for the Lord’s work” The motivation for his next set of strategies appeal to the basic human commonalities.

The famous rhetorician, Gorgias played on the human need for reason. Because Hitler understood his hate that esteemed motivation for a movement, he was able to subject the same ideals on the un-sick people of his country. The cleansing of Germany was “a function as medicine for him personally and as medicine for those who were later to identify themselves with him” (p. 199). The people of that time were extremely vulnerable. Hitler capitalized on the nations vulnerability. Similar to the way in which a person with several sub-personalities are at odds with each other; the people did not know what they wanted exclusively. Under the hypnosis of Hitler, only then was the turmoil put to rest. During his speeches, Hitler alluded his ideas to the images the people of Germany could easily associate with. The use of that rhetorical appeal developed a trustworthy relationship and made the content memorable. Through his speeches he established a common enemy: the Jewish. “The more uniformly the fighting will of a people is put into action, the greater will be the magnetic force of the movement and the more powerful the impetus of the blow.” (p. 193)

I do not understand the context of the word ‘material’ in the essay. “So, we have, as unifying step No. 1, the international devil materialized, in the visible, point-to-able form of people with a certain kind of “blood,” a burlesque of a contemporary neo-positivism’s ideal of meaning, which insists upon a material reference.” (p. 194) what does this mean?