Do we live in times of the Weimar Republic?
#231
My Dear Friend of Democracy,
One of the critical reasons for the rapid rise and support of Adolf Hitler and his party, the NSDAP, and the even faster abolition of democracy in Germany in 1933 was the Nazis' brilliant use of the newly emerging mass media.
Convincing speeches and fascinating images appealed to most of the population who knew little about politics in detail.
The result was the greatest man-made disaster that Europe (and beyond) has ever experienced.
Post-war Germany (and many other countries) learned from this horrific experience. A public broadcasting service was introduced, in which almost all social groups had a say. And when the newspaper landscape was created and controlled, care was taken to ensure that pro-democratic forces had a say.
This system was far from perfect. This system protected democracy.
Because there was little room for the form of communication that people are receptive to: the shortened, distorting, denunciatory argument. Propaganda and fake news remained the exception.
Technological progress has almost abolished these structures. Today, everyone can say almost anything and watch and listen to whatever they want.
The old media world that protected democracy has disappeared.
In this sense, history repeats itself. In a certain sense, we are back in the Weimar Republic: Technological progress is creating new forms of mass communication, and extremists are using them to try to win over a majority of people and threaten and abolish democracy. There are many examples: Donald Trump coming back to the White House; Vladimir Putin strengthening anti-democratic forces with the new opportunities of mass disinformation.
So what to do?
On the one hand, we all have to become more competent at exposing propaganda and fake news for what they are: nothing that helps society as a whole but instead something that only strengthens particular interests, making the powerful more powerful and richer. We have to rethink our education system for this. The subject of "mathematics" is important. In a dictatorship, mathematics will do no good.
Secondly, we must find ways to ensure that propaganda and fake news gain as little ground as possible. With new laws and new technology, we have to create a social communication space that protects freedom of expression as much as possible and fights enemies of democracy as hard as possible. This is a field of tension.
✊ My firm conviction: We have to expose ourselves to this tension. And we have to rethink and rebuild our education system. Otherwise, we will lose democracy — like the people in the Weimar Republic did.
See you in Europe,
Johannes