Hitler’s Doctrines on the Masses

In the tranquility of his imprisonment, Hitler developed new methods for his propaganda. His observations on the masses, mass psychology, the peculiarities of the masses' perspectives, and the art of influencing public opinion can be found in Mein Kampf.

Hitler's simplified opinion goes as follows: "The masses are like an animal that obeys its instincts. It does not think with its intellect... I have never done anything that contradicted the laws of life and the feelings of the masses... I can only rule over them because I take into account the laws of their lives."

He understood that the less deserving of recognition someone is, the more recognition and respect they demand for themselves. The more acutely someone feels their inferiority, the more their vanity craves admiration and overestimation. He sought to rouse the masses from indifference, knowing he could only work with an inspired crowd. Hitler elevated people above themselves, giving meaning and substance to their lives.

At mass gatherings, he avoided rational arguments, believing the masses would not comprehend them. Instead, he evoked appropriate emotions and promoted slogans. He counted on the fact that phrases spoken to a crowd in a state of frenzy would remain indelibly imprinted as truths, rendering individuals resistant to any rational counterarguments.

Hitler was the leader of a great mass movement. He emphasized that he himself emerged from the masses and always remained an integral part of them. Yet, he was more than the masses—a peculiar mass phenomenon but also an impersonal personality. He was both a product and an expression of mediocrity, which created him, while simultaneously becoming the outstanding, even unique representative of this mediocrity.

He spoke in the voice of the average person, with decisiveness that propelled him to victory. This mediocrity is even more dangerous than the triumph of the exceptional, for it always seeks more. Hitler was the genius of this mediocrity. His rise was also a consequence of the emotional surges and momentum of the time.

In public life, he did not act solely on rational considerations; his activities always took into account both emotions and the impact on the emotional world of the masses. He demanded obedience from the multitude of his followers. First comes the leader, then his followers. A small central core surrounded by enormous masses.

Anything diverging from the direction defined by fundamental ideas must be suppressed; unique individual traits are undesirable. People must be educated into mediocrity and forced into a herd mentality. A person must not be an individual but an impersonal component of the masses.

Dusan Hamsik "A középszerűség géniusza", Kozmosz könyvek 1968