The Darkest Hour

Winston Churchill was a bent over old man, who smoked constantly, had a hair trigger temper and was so obnoxious that he couldn’t get selected Prime Minister for years.

Franklin Roosevelt was a crippled man, retritcted to a wheelchair who could drag himself around on braces that weighted over 30 pounds. Not healthy by any stretch of the imagination.  Getting him to a podium was a trial.  And most people knew the old man couldn’t walk.

Both leaders voices were shrill when excited, even annoying and did not work well in the new radio medium that leaders like Mussolini and Hitler used.

Hitler and Mussolini were like reality T.V. Stars,  their speeches were crafted by public relations experts using media, fire, masses of troops; etc to create an alternative reality of power and courage.

Propaganda had been used  in WWI, with mass delivery system of radio especially film, to convey the messages of propaganda all over the world.  The enemy was depicted with powerful stereotypes, war was made into a glorified adventure to get recruits; who were chewed up like mincemeat in the trenches of France.

And this was used by Hitler and Mussolini to destroy democracy and establish a totalitarianism based on war.  War was to be worshipped.  Both used makeup artists to embellish their features.  They jutted out their chins in a power mode, speaking to the camera....like reality T.V.

And the “lighting war” Hitler meant no more trench warfare, modern war was fast, decisive, and easy to win......at least at first!

The Darkest Hour stands in stark contrast to that.  It shows the reality of war.  It shows the reality of leadership.

Leadership is not easy.  And it is not always glorious.  Churchill was lousy speaker, Roosevelt was hiding a disability.  They were pitted against two of the greatest showmen on earth.

And what both of them had was the people on their side.  And not a people fooled or manipulated, but who through democracy was able to accurately predict the public consensus the public interest.

And that saved England...And that saved us all.

Look, leadership is not hoopla and staged demonstations of outlandish and sometimes funny statements.  Leadership is NOT telling people what they WANT to hear.

Leadership is telling people what they DON’T want to hear....of telling them the truth.

Churchill did it by getting on a subway and visiting with ordinary people.  His war cabinet was ready to quit, to surrender.  The Army was trapped at Dunkirk, the war was lost.  And he talked to some ordinary people, told them what the DIDN’T want to hear; that the war was lost and surrender or die was basically the choice.  And to a man/woman they chose fighting on....and that is what turned it.

55 million died in WWII.  And it was a DIRECT PRODUCT of a thing like reality T.V.  Experts in mass communication fooled millions into believing that Jews caused the Great Depression.  And Propagandists convinced the Germans to kill 6 million innocent people as a “cure” for the ills of Germany.

Of course it was all about power.

And Trump is all about power.  Trump can rip people apart in his staged, partly rehearsed public talks to the people, his Tweets, where he tells them what they want to hear, not what they don’t want to hear.

And our nation’s survival hangs by that thread!