PBS' American Experience: "The Man Behind Hitler" (Goebbels)- 9pm EDT

[Bozita]

Times may vary. It's a new 90 minute documentary.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goebbels/

More about the film The Man Behind Hitler

A symbol of Nazi cruelty and a master of cynical propaganda, Joseph Goebbels was the mastermind behind Adolf Hitler's disturbing success.

Goebbels, called the "genius of spin" and the "Reich-Liar-General," was a complicated man whose attitudes fluctuated between extremes of self-pity and grandiose excess. This American Experience program, produced by Lutz Hachmeister and Michael Kloft, shows how Goebbels constantly reinvented himself through the years of his greatest success, and allows the man to speak for himself through the diaries he kept. Actor Kenneth Branagh reads the diary excerpts, revealing a chilling personality whose words justified racism, the Holocaust, and total war.

Rare historical footage from German archives traces the path of the second most powerful man in Nazi Germany, exploring his initial attraction to the Nazi party, his adoration of Hitler, his wild extermination fantasies, and, ultimately, his tragic self-delusions and suicide in 1945.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Years from now, will PBS (if it still exists) show a documentary

called "The Man Behind Bush," which will be all about Karl Rove? Not that Bush is anything like Hitler, of course...

[Benhurst]

11. No, he's more like Charles Manson, only on a larger scale. NT

[UncleSepp]

2. Any chance I could get anyone to tape this for me?

I'd be very interested, but I don't have television.

[AlienGirl]

34. It looks like it repeats a few times this week

Thursday, May 25, 6:00pm, Thursday, May 25, 9:00pm, Friday, May 26, 1:00am on KCTS. Want to watch it at my place?

Tucker

[AllieB]

3. It will be like a documentary of Rove's playbook

I can't wait to watch-thanks for the reminder! :-)

[lyonn]

4. Thanks for info. nt

[brentspeak]

5. Far-fetched that the Karl Roves study the techniques of Goebbels?

Not far-fetched at all: Conservative con-man Grover Norquist is famous in Washington for advocating that Communist and anarchist propaganda techniques be used by Republican operatives. Norquist even has a large portrait of Lenin above his mantel place.

[XOKCowboy]

10. Rove says his mentor/idol is Machiavelli

another "misunderstood" political theorist.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Zorra]

42. The American Enterprise Institute gathers and analyzes

data for Karl Rove and the fascists.

The growth, devices, and talking points of the American fascist propaganda machine, the use of electronic voting devices and other means for perpetrating election fraud, and the development and use of malicious government socioeconomic policies to polarize wealth and dumb down the country, are some of the nasty slime that come out of the hell's kitchen known as the AEI.

The AEI is very well funded by private interests whose goal is to institute a permanent fascist corporate totalitarian state.

[Postman]

7. Hateful asshole...

eom

[Gabi Hayes]

8. thanks for this headsup.....from Bernays to Rove:

Karl Rove & the Spectre of Freud's Nephew

.......................

The Triumph of “Turd Blossom”
Karl Rove—given the above nickname by our jocular President—is an extraordinarily keen student of American psychology and history. He is well aware of the back story to contemporary political fixtures like the focus group—a technique innovated by Edward Bernays. Consequently, it doesn’t take too much effort to discern the afterimage of Bernays’s teachings in Bush’s rhetoric.

In Crystallizing Public Opinion, Bernays related how governments and advertisers can “regiment the mind like the military regiments the body.” This discipline can be imposed because of “the natural inherent flexibility of individual human nature.” He also instructed that the “average citizen is the world’s most efficient censor. His own mind is the greatest barrier between him and the facts. His own ‘logic proof compartments,’ his own absolutism are the obstacles which prevent him from seeing in terms of experience and thought rather than in terms of group reaction.”


...............


Bernays and Rove both recognized the need for Americans in particular to feel as if they belong to something larger than themselves. We are after all by far the most religious post-industrial society on the planet. The American people want to embrace something that provides clarity, something that plays to their vanity and hence self-understanding. Having won the “leadership” and “individual initiative” battles, Rove delivered victory to George W. Bush for an additional underlying reason.

Rove very cleverly marketed the President’s message via easily digestible catch phrases that elicited in the consumer a deep connection. The Republicans stand for “security,” “strong defense,” “individual liberty” and “moral values.” The Democrats stand for…well; it depends on who you ask. The Democratic Party means many things to many people, often based on very personal—and hence disparate—notions of identity. The Republican Party appropriated the bedrock symbolism of “American togetherness” and thereby again cleaned the Democrats’ clock.

Bernays underlined the importance of such symbols in Crystallizing Public Opinion. “Mental habits create stereotypes just as physical habits create certain definite reflex actions… these stereotypes or clichés are not necessarily truthful pictures of what they are supposed to portray.”

...................

lots more

http://www.americanidealism.com/articles/karl-rove-and-the-spectre-of-freuds-nephew.html

[nytemare]

9. He seemed like he had borderline personality disorder

Or bipolar. Obvious highs and lows.

The similarities in the tenor and the use of language with the current administration is compelling.

Equating the aryans to underdogs, "stay the course", etc..

[UncleSepp]

29. Bipolar depression, anxiety, also early childhood trauma

The sleepless mania cycling with the deep lows seems like bipolar depression, and there was also anxiety verging on panic. Part of that was most likely organic, but also there was the depression that comes with inadequately treated chronic pain and the sequelae of repeated episodes of childhood trauma. Self-loathing, too, from the same causes. Pretty much, the exact kind of person who gets stuck to a narcissist and can't get loose.

[formercia]

38. He also had a birth defect

a stunted leg that forced him to wear a prosthesis. Perhaps self-loathing was at the root of extermination of defectives.

[UncleSepp]

44. It wasn't a birth defect - it was acquired

It was osteomyelitis (not polio) and the resulting deformities were made worse by a botched surgery. His mother was ashamed of that for whatever reason, and would lie about it.

[nytemare]

43. Sounded very whiny in some parts of the special.

Very Rovian, indeed.

[bdamomma]

12. there seems to be very chilling similarities in what

happened in Germany to what is happening now in the US. Very chilling indeed.

[StellaBlue]

13. This is FASCINATING.

I must've never actually seen Goebbels before. Weaselly, little man, isn't he? I pictured him very differently.

"So - you're Bush's brain. I was expecting a much smaller man."
~Triumph the Truth Dog, to Karl Rove

[Doctor_J]

39. He was a weak, puny little loser, just like Rove

proabaly ridiculed, picked on, and dateless, just like the pudgy pink pansy that runs this country.

[orwell]

14. Who?

Karl Rovvels?

I didn't know he was that old...

[tabasco]

15. Dang. Just catching the last ten minutes.

Hope they show it again.

[pinniped]

32. They are definitely airing it again.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goebbels/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/schedule_customize.html

[tabasco]

40. Thanks!

I definitely appreciate help finding anything good on TV.

[malaise]

16. An amazing documentary

reading about Hitler and his goons is one thing but watching Goebbels thinking with film is something else. No doubt he is Rove's mentor

[StellaBlue]

17. The rally in the "Sports Palace" they just showed was scary

Especially reading the subtitles

"Do you want TOTAL AND RADICAL WAR?"

And they all respond, loudly, practically jumping up and down, thousands of them

"JA!!!!!"



WTF?! What kind of minds do we humans have that we can so easily be led to jumping up and down, making weird arm gestures, and cheerleading mass murderers? Who really wants "total and radical war"? That's INSANE.

And Germans are supposed to be serious and logical. :shrug:

[Bozita]

18. Should be viewed back to back with "Bush's Brain"

A real double feature.

[JVS]

19. I would think that "The American Experience" would retain a focus on...

things that are more American. Sounds interesting though

[Connie_Corleone]

21. Maybe it's a warning to America. nt

[New Government]

35. Actually....

He had a great impact on our "American Experience." The man who made Hitler must take great responsibility for the loss of almost a half million American lives.

[XOKCowboy]

20. This is freaking scary and fascinating...

The parallels to Rove are so obvious.

[New Government]

36. Wow

This is freaking scary and fascinating...The parallels to Rove are so obvious.

Amazingly so.

[bdamomma]

22. and they all committed suicide

they always do, when they know they screwed so many people huh?

could our illegal immigrants be our "Jews", just food for thought.

[paparush]

24. Are you saying, "There is Hope" :- )

I know that's what your saying! Or at least thinking! :-)

[Oeditpus Rex]

23. Thanks for the reminder

I saw a promo for this last week, but I'd forgotten about it.

Maybe by 9 the Dodgers will have a bigger lead. :D

[Octafish]

25. They're doing a show about Prescott Bush?

Gee. That's great!

http://oldamericancentury.org/bb/index.php?showtopic=2570

PSYCHO NAZI

[iconoclastNYC]

26. Cheeky title in light of those homosexual rumours

[UncleSepp]

30. Cheeky, eh? Enough of the wisecracks...

"He gave me flowers! Roses!"

Bah. It's so obvious. Magda was a beard.

[Wheezy]

27. Bless you!

I am writing a novel relating to this subject, and didn't hear about this but for you. It starts in 25 minutes here in AZ. Thank you!!

[UncleSepp]

37. A novel? Please tell me more!

I've had my head stuck in this subject for years. PM me, let's talk!

[Hamlette]

28. was "propaganda" a more neutral word pre-Hitler?

it's so odd they openly admit what they are doing is propaganda, no one would dare do that now. Did the word get its bad rap from Hitler? Was it okay to talk about it before, as though it meant something more like "educate the masses" or "project our image"?

Anyone know?

[Cocoa]

31. I heard Hitler called him "Turd Blossom"

but in German, of course.

[bridgit]

33. Bush: "You Have To Keep Repeating Things To Catapult The Propaganda"...

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/may2005/260505newbushism.htm

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” - The Craven, Joseph Goebbels

[leftyladyfrommo]

41. Proably the only true thing he has ever said to us.

[Raine]

45. Thanks

I want to catch this one.

[Selatius]

46. The REAL men behind Hitler were and still are...

those who make a profit off of human misery and war. I'm sure plenty of bankers and businessmen who supported Hitler's rise to power made their fortunes off the blood of millions of innocent people in that war.

[savemefromdumbya]

47. Yeah Rove

[high density]

48. Thanks for the heads up

PBS has a lot of great programming but it often falls below the radar for me. I found an airing of it tomorrow on NH Public TV.