Every dictator should possess the qualities of being power hungry, fascist, and totalitarian. Totalitarianism is important in dictators to keep the way of thinking among the people to still gain support from the people. Fascism is important in spreading propaganda and fear using military and violence. This is done to keep people under control. Power hunger makes a good dictator by giving them more power. If crisis occurs, dictators will rise because of propaganda and hope spread to the people.

Hitler

• Cruel, strict, manipulative, and confident. His supporters viewed him as passionate.
• Stood out as a leader. Germany was in debt after losing the WWI. Everyone went to communism. He established new laws that turned Germany into Nazi Germany. He joined the small German workers party. He was very skilled in propaganda and he was very persuading.
• Very skilled in speech and propaganda. He punished the terms of the versailles treaty. He was also obsessed with ethnic purity. He went against the current leader. He became the chancellor and president. He later became the commander of all armed forces.
• Became a dictator because of the rise of the Nazi party. Everything fell under the power of Hitler.

Stalin

• Good at speaking. He’s not intellectual/able to organize meetings. He would do anything necessary to get what he wanted. He was very deceptive and power hungry. He would even control others. He was very suspicious and didn’t trust allies. He was bullied when he was little. He kept trying to get into power.
• Wanted greatness and respect. He went into communism and became the leader of the communist party. He took total control. He would execute anyone that might rise up to him. He stole farms, factories. Everybody was working for him. Many died from labor and food shortage. Signed the non-aggression pact with the Nazis.
• Was bullied a lot when he was a kid and that allowed him to want power and lots of respect. He was good at deceiving.
• Got rid of his rivals. He killed people that went against him. He got total power. He helped start WWII because of the pact. He deceived people into giving him their power. He wouldn’t let anyone stop him. He served for life.

Mussolini

• Mussolini joined the socialist party, but left because he wanted to get involved with WWI. He created the Fascist party, and was also invited to the coalition government.
• Mussolini came from Italy and in 1925 made himself dictator. He supports going to war shown when he left the socialist party and declared war on France and britain. This was due to his self-confessed “thirst for military glory”
• Mussolini was influenced by Hitler and worked with him. He later implemented anti-jewish laws that was inspired by hitler.
• Family was very humble and he grew up poor. Wanted to go into war and drafted the italian army in 1915.

Tojo

• Was aggressive, patient, and a killer. He murdered 200,000-350,000 chinese. He was very demanding because he demanded to go to war with US.
• Went to the army cadet school, and went to the Japanese military academy. He went to the army staff college. He became a captain. He was later appointed the prime minister.
• His father wasn’t a good person. War gave him a thirst for killing. He was called a Hero but really was a killer. He became power hungry and started committing mass atrocities.
• In his time as dictator he took the livesTojo and others failed to come up with a peaceful solution.He rejected the American proposal for peace. He was responsible for Pearl Harbor 1941. He was hesitant in forming an alliance with Italy and Germany.

The Role of Propaganda

Hitler stated, “Propaganda works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea and makes them ripe for the victory of this idea.” The Nazis were determined on spreading their message in everything. This included radio, art, newspapers, and books. For example, children were reading an anti-Jewish book called DER GIFTPILZ (poisonous mushroom). Hitler also created an organization called Hitler’s youth to convince kids at a young age to join him. This propaganda was so powerful that the European Great Powers were convinced that Nazi Germany was making fair decisions. This propaganda appealed to not only political people, but also to civilians, police officers, and other countries. In conclusion, propaganda is the dangerous tool that Germany, led by Hitler, used to regain power.

Not only was Hitler a terrible killer but he was also an expert of propaganda. He would convince people that the violent use of the military was necessary to “protect” people from WW2 and also that Jews were spreading dangerous diseases throughout Germany. In the article, it said, “...seek to justify the use of military violence by portraying it as morally defensible and necessary.” Hitler needed his military to get rid of people who defied him. “When Hitler took power in 1933, the Nazis controlled less than 3% of Germany’s 4,700 papers.” Hitler took control of almost all news outlets and he filled the newspapers with lies about Jews violence and lots of propaganda. Everything that the people believed was because of the media and with hitler in control of the media he was in control of the people’s thoughts. Hitler only had to make a few steps to be in power.

The Nazis had full control over the media. Then took control of the newspapers. “The Nazi Propaganda Ministry, directed by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, took control of all forms of communication in Germany: newspapers, magazines, books, public meetings, and rallies, art, music, movies, and radio.” With help the Nazis made a list of book that should not be read, then banned and burned the books. “During the spring of 1933, Nazi student organizations, professors, and librarians made up long lists of books they thought should not be read by Germans. ” The Nazis heavy influenced German education. “While some books were removed from classrooms by censors, other textbooks, newly written, were brought in to teach students blind obedience to the party, love for Hitler, and antisemitism.”

Hitler use of propaganda of the Nazi party was very important. First, many people were left in crisis after the Treaty of Versaille, and the American stock market crash. This allowed for Hitler to step up as someone who was viewed to help fix crisis. Next, Hitler blamed Jews for the problems. He would spread the blame and create propaganda making the government look strong. Last, different methods of propaganda were used. Propaganda came in the forms of television, radio, movies and books. Hitler’s propaganda made him more powerful.

Q & A

Why do people follow Dictators?
People follow dictators because of pressure and honor. People also follow dictators because of brainwashing and propaganda. People could be tortured too.

Would you follow A Dictator, and Why?
No, I wouldn’t follow a strong dictator unless I can’t escape, or I could easily be punished. I would follow a dictator if they had good reputation and had power. I would kill someone so that I wouldn’t die.

What if they asked you to hurt someone else?
I would probably do it because the dictator would punish me if I didn’t do it. If there is no direct punishment, I obviously wouldn’t do it.

Stanley Milgram's Experiments

• Shock Experiment
  • This is Stanley Milgram’s most famous experiment. A teacher (the person being experimented on) would shock the learner everytime they got a question wrong and increase the shock level more. The learner was an actor and would intentionally get the wrong answer to get a fake shock. If the teacher did not continue, they would be told to continue. Most teachers would shock and increase the level until the learner would get a shock so strong that it could have killed them. This shows that people will be willing to kill someone if they are told by authority.
• Conformity Experiment
  • The conformity was a social experiment where people would answer which line was longer than the others. Actors would pretend to intentionally guess the same wrong answer. The goal of the experiment was to see if the person being tested would follow along with what everyone else says or to say the correct answer.The experiment shows that people will follow others, even if they know it’s wrong.
• Chain Letter Experiment
  • The letter experiment involved people sending letters starting a chainmail. The goal was to try to get the letter to end up to a random person. If the person mailing it did not know who the person was to send it to, they would have to send it to a contact that might know who to send it to.

A Warning About Dictators

It is very important to resist the influence of these dictators because to be obedient to dictators means losing your freedom. Dictators only have as much power as we give them so if everybody just follows a dictator blindly into danger who knows what could happen. People could get hurt and even die if the dictator has all the power and if people are cruel and cold-hearted we are no better than the Nazis. The Stanley Milgram Experiment was all about how people could hurt someone just because they were told to. Nobody passed this experiment because they all just hurt someone blindly without any regard to the person being hurt. Actors are everywhere in America and if a dictator takes over with actors working with him nobody can know who to follow. In the time of dictatorship the only person that you can trust is yourself. This is why we should resist the influence of leaders.

People follow dictators because sometimes they want to have a leader they can look up to. In dark times, people want someone to blame for their struggles. Sometimes, they don’t realize that their leaders are dictators. For example, in the Stanley Milgram Experiment, they tested how far someone would go to hurt a person they don’t know. Just because they were being slightly nudged by the “experimenter”, they continued until 450 volts were administered. Another example is the line experiment. The actors would say the incorrect answer, and the test subject also said the wrong answer, though they knew it was incorrect and this shows how peer pressure can cause someone to do something if others are doing it. All in all, people can follow dictators without realizing what they are really doing.

Not only do people follow authority, but also follow their peers shown in multiple experiments conducted in the 60’s. First, the line test experiment had everyone say which line was the same length on a series of boards. Everybody but one person was instructed to say a wrong answer, and the test was to see if the remaining person would follow along with everyone else. The other person decided to say a wrong answer because everyone else did. Next, This concept is also shown when 5 people went into a elevator; four of them were told to stare at the wall away from the entrance/exit. The fifth person was shown to follow everyone else and look at the other wall. Last, through these experiments, people tend to copy other people because of peer pressure. This concept can be applied to dictators. If everyone else follows a dictator, people will be pressured into following them which keeps the system together longer. Peer pressure can be very powerful and lead to more power for a dictator.

There are many ways that you can prevent a dictatorship some of them simple and other are harder. The first thing you can do is not follow orders that make you hurt other innocent people. You might think that you would never do this the Milgram experiment proved that people would hurt others because they seemed like a powerful figure. Next remember your rights. In the milgram experiment, most people forgot that they could leave and didn’t need to continue the experiment. Don’t fall prey to peer pruster. You get to make your own choices and don’t need to go with the crowd. Many experiment have proved that people will try to fit with the group. Never give up your rights. Dictators can be dangerous so prevent them.