Personalized leader propaganda substitutes psychological imagery for objective discussion

Evidence

Fascist agitation is centred in the idea of the leader, no matter whether he actually leads or is only the mandatory of group interests, because only the psychological image of the leader is apt to reanimate the idea of the all-powerful and threatening primal father. This is the ultimate root of the otherwise enigmatic personalization of fascist propaganda, its incessant plugging of names and supposedly great men, instead of discussing objective causes. … The follower’s reawakened irrationality is, therefore, quite rational from the leader’s viewpoint: it necessarily has to be ‘a conviction which is not based upon perception and reasoning but upon an erotic tie’. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 186

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s own Culture Industry interest: personality cults and celebrity as pseudo-individuation of the leader image.

Related

• Fascist propaganda succeeds by reproducing rather than challenging the existing mentality. (similarity 0.83)
• Fascist leaders are focal points of citizens’ reactions, not supermen (similarity 0.83)
• The leader must resemble the follower to gratify a twofold wish (similarity 0.82)
• Fascist followers do not truly believe but perform their own enthusiasm. (similarity 0.80)
• Fascism exploits psychological tendencies rather than being caused by them. (similarity 0.79)
• Fascist personalities substitute a group ego for their own super-ego (similarity 0.78)
• The modern leader image is a collective self-projection, not a father figure (similarity 0.78)