Activity 4: Obedience

Since childhood, most of us are brought up to believe it is good to be obedient. We are told to obey our parents and guardians, our teachers and the authorities. Those people who are disobedient are often seen to be rude and anti-social.

Fascism exploits the value of obedience. Fascist systems demand TOTAL OBEDIENCE to the leadership. There is no room for debate. There is no room for a different viewpoint.

Look at the picture below. It shows the Nazi party’s propaganda expert, Joseph Goebbels giving a speech to a crowd in Berlin. He is encouraging them to boycott Jewish owned businesses.

[Photograph 44203]

One of Joseph Goebbel’s famous ideas was that when you tell a lie, you should tell it again and again and again so eventually the people will have heard it so often, they come to believe it.

• What were the lies told by the Nazi party? [Look at section 1 An Enquiry into Racism/ Antisemitism  / Racism and Science]
• What does this image tell you about how the Nazis communicated their lies?
• What do you observe about the crowd listening?