Gesammelte Werke

high spots of their performance when they mention and deride the Jews. It is an indisputable fact that wherever and in whatever form anti-Semitism occurs, it is indicative of more or less articulate wishes for the destruction of democracy itself which is based on the inalienable principle of human equality.
    A number of scientific investigations shed light on the relation between stimuli and susceptibility which marks the starting point of our approach. As to the stimuli, the techniques of American fascist agitators – defined by openly expressed sympathies for Hitler and German National Socialism – were scrutinized by the Institute of Social Research 3 . These studies clearly show that American fascist agitators follow a rigid, highly standardized pattern which is based almost entirely on its
psychological
content. Positive programs are conspicuously absent. Only negative measures, mainly against minorities, are recommended, since they serve as an outlet for aggressiveness and pent-up fury. All the agitators' speeches, monotonously similar to each other, are primarily a performance with the immediate purpose of creating the desired atmosphere. While the pseudopatriotic surface of these communications is a medley of pompous trivialities and absurd lies, its underlying meaning appeals to the secret urges of the audience: it spells destruction. The intelligence between the would-be
Führer
and his prospective followers rests upon the hidden meaning which is hammered into their heads through incessant repetition. The ideational contents of the agitators' speeches and pamphlets can be boiled down to a small number – not more than twenty – of mechanically applied devices. The agitator does not expect the audience to be bored by the endless repetition of these devices and hackneyed slogans. He believes that the very intellectual poverty of his frame of reference provides the halo of self-evidence, and even a peculiar attraction for those who know what to expect, just as children enjoy the endless literal repetition of the same story or ditty.
    The problem of subjective susceptibility for antidemocratism and anti-Semitism was examined in the
Research Project on Social Discrimination,
a joint venture of the Berkeley Public Opinion Study Group and the Institute of Social Research 4 . The main theme of the study is the interconnection between psychological traits and motivations on the one hand, and social attitudes and political and economic ideologies, on the other. The findings amply support the assumption of a clear-cut separation between antidemocratic, authoritarian personalities and those whose psychological make-up is in harmony with democratic principles. Evidence of the existence of a »fascist character« is offered. Although very definite variations of this character can be found among its representatives in the population, there is nevertheless a concrete, tangible kernel, an overall syndrome common to all of them, which may best be defined as authoritarianism. It combines adulation of and submissiveness to strength, with sadistic punitiveness and aggressiveness against the weak. This fascist character syndrome is more strongly related to discriminatory, antiminority attitudes than to overt political ideologies; in other words, susceptibility to fascist stimuli is established on a psychological, characterological level rather than through the subjects' surface credo.
    Comparison of the results of the two studies supports the theoretical hypothesis that a close affinity exists between the meaning of fascist politico-psychological devices and the characterological and ideological structure of those at whom the propaganda aims. The fascist agitator is, after all, likely to be also a fascist character. What has been observed in regard to Hitler – that he was a keen practical psychologist and despite his apparent lunacy very much aware of his followers' dispositions – holds true for his American imitators who, incidentally, are no doubt familiar with the recipes so cynically offered in
Mein Kampf.
A few illustrations of the harmony which exists between stimuli and susceptibility may suffice. The agitators' overall technique of ceaselessly repeating rigid formulas chimes in with the fascist character's compulsive leaning toward stereotypical, rigid thinking. For the fascist character as well as his prospective leader the individual is a mere specimen of its kind. This accounts in part for the intransigent,