Fool me twice: The power of words to deceive

It didn?t take long after last week?s column for people to start taking potshots at me. It?s OK, folks ? I?m used to it. I?ve spoken my own mind since I was a wee lad, and I?ve long since developed a thick skin. Insults and epithets don?t really bother me too much.

?Consider the source,? as my mother used to say.

But I do have to worry a little bit about the resistance of some people to new ideas, or ideas which may challenge them to look at their own shibboleths and dearly held beliefs in a new way.

Last week I wrote a column about the power of words ? the power of words to inspire, the power of words to exploit, and the power of words to deceive. Based on the reaction, you would think some people had never heard of P.T. Barnum (?A sucker is born every minute.?) or for that matter the serpent in Genesis, who tempted Eve by telling her that she and Adam ?shall be as gods? if they ate the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden.

Words matter, and uncritical acceptance of words at face value is not only foolish; it is dangerous. Words reveal the intentions of those you can trust, but they conceal the intentions of those you cannot. So we have an obligation to make sure we don?t put our trust in the wrong words.

That?s why I wrote my column last week, and why certain bullies tried to silence me almost immediately by calling me names or questioning my motives.

Ninety percent of the column (see it here: http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2008/08/09/columns/columns01.txt) was an examination of how the people of Germany and Cuba were fooled by the words of two famous orators ? Hitler and Castro. The inspiration for my little essay was Sen. Barack Obama?s recent speech in Berlin at the foot of the Victory Column where he tried to rouse the world to join him in a crusade to save the world. Forget the fact that Hitler himself spoke under the shadow of the Victory Column when he delivered his address in front of the Reichstag after being named chancellor. That?s just a pungent irony. Let?s just consider the words of Barack Obama as he himself spoke them.

?This is the moment when we must come together to save the planet,? he said without a hint of humility. ?This is the moment to give our children back their future.?

And as if the words themselves didn?t adequately prove the hubris of Obama, he made a blatant comparison of his speech to one made at the battlefield in Gettysburg, Pa., when Abraham Lincoln famously (and incorrectly) said, ?The world will little note nor long remember what we say here.? Obama gave himself a bigger vote of confidence when he said, ?Now the world will watch and remember what we do here ? what we do with this moment.?

Clearly, Obama is inviting scrutiny and attention, and should not be surprised when his tendentious homilies attract an audience of both acolytes and opponents. But the very nature of his message, his invocation of a ?noble struggle to bring justice and peace to our world,? makes it hard for his followers to broach any criticism of the great man.

As I wrote in my previous column, ?it?s no surprise that Hitler?s proselytes were both confused and hurt by those who doubted their leader, or questioned his motives.? The same obviously goes for Obama?s supporters, as demonstrated by the tone of many of the reader comments that appeared online last week.

I will point out again that I compared Obama?s WORDS to Hitler?s and Castro?s WORDS. There was no comparison of the deeds of Hitler to the deeds of Obama (which would have been impossible anyway since Obama has no deeds of any significance). It was all about WORDS, and how pleasant-sounding words can lead a country astray, just like pleasant-tasting candy can lead a child astray.

It was not about left and right politics, since Hitler veered to the right and Castro turned sharply left. But they most decidedly shared a common center, a place where left and right were not as important as the ability to inspire. Like Obama, both Castro and Hitler at the start of their careers spoke passionately of the need for peace and justice.

For my money, Castro is the best speaker of the bunch ? but Hitler certainly understood the power of propaganda, too. One presumes that Barack Obama does as well, even though his followers may not. The point of last week?s column wasn?t to predict the future with a crystal ball; it was to illuminate the present with the help of a bollixed past. Don?t make me drag out the Santayana quote one more time to make it clear. Oh, all right, by popular demand: ?Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.?

It should be evident to anyone who thinks about the recent past that the German people were not applauding Adolf Hitler when he was appointed chancellor because they knew he was going to kill 6 million Jews, cause the deaths of more than 60 million other people, and bring Germany to ruin. No, they were applauding him for his message of ?peace and justice,? for his promise to fix the mess caused by the politicians who had preceded him, and for their own hope that a new and better day was dawning. Heck, even Hitler may have trembled if he knew in 1933 what death and despair he was going to cause.

So it behooves us to ask, not idly but intently, what the German people should have done better in 1933 to spot the wolf in sheep?s clothing. And to ask ourselves why we think we do not have the same responsibility to posterity that we so assiduously ascribe to the poor German schnooks who didn?t protect us from Hitler.

As I very pointedly said in the column, ?Of course, no one can claim to know Barack Obama?s motives or intentions as he seeks the presidency of the United States. He may be entirely well-intended.? But to start with the assumption that he IS well-intended, and to ignore any dangers of a potential cult of personality, is to abrogate the basic responsibilities of the citizen to be informed, skeptical and alert.

? Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake and writes a weekly column. E-mail responses may be sent to edit@dailyinterlake.com