Do you think it is possible for someone to gain massive amount of power in today's more educated world?

[Mur3]

To me it just seems utterly impossible to trick as many people to follow you (as lets say Hitler?) in today's world. People are so opinionated now and self thinking that it doesn't seem like you could get them to trust you. Am I overestimating society?

[Mr.PoGo]

yes you are overestimating society there are so many people that are looking for a place to belong one good example are street gangs some have members reaching hundreds and they all do what there told or cults that praise there leaders no matter how they are treated there will never be another hitler but if you had the right funding putting a small army together is not impossible you just need carisma and leadership quailtys

[hardboiled]

I wouldn't say it's complete trickery but all politicians influence us to vote for them, which gives them a lot of power.

Obama is similar to Hitler as they are both great inspiring charismatic orators that understood peoples' needs and motivations. Of course Obama saw peoples' positive motivation for change while Hitler saw peoples' negative motivation for change. Either way, lots of people voted for them because they tapped into the emotions of the people through their inspiring speeches. We are all human and are not necessarily smarter than people of the past.

For example, how is it that ancient greeks and asian civilizations were lightyears ahead of our thinking? They are the foundation for much of our government and society. MOST people in America couldn't compare to the critical thinking done by ancient Greek philosophers who were at their height in 500 BC. They had so many creative thinkers. So I wouldn't overestimate people in society. If anything our society has a lot of work to do.

In fact, I have heard that they recently done an experiment similar to Stanley Milgrams psychology experiment from the past you could look up. Milgram wanted to see if people would blindly follow an authority figure because most of the Nazi/Germans scapegoated their superiors, which of course wasn't the only reason. So in the study it was shown that people DO usually blindly follow authority. And to me if you have an authority that can tap into the emotions of people with the proper propaganda you can make anyone do anything.

That's on a macro level of politics. BUT just think about it on the romantic level. Do you think men have the ability to seduce women and vice versa? It seems they do and it will always be that way. So in that case someone uses the power of trickery to get with someone. As seduction is about making yourself appealing to people, which on a larger scale is what politicians do to voters. Teachers "trick" students into learning what is deemed important to them through their personality and teaching ability. Parents "trick" their kids to follow their rules and norms. Gangs trick kids into joining them.

They may believe what they they are teaching and doing is right, but in the end people are seducing you to believe what they do. I believe Obama and Hitler were both honest in what they believed though both have very different ideas. The convincing is "trickery" more or less because in reality all life is subjective. The individual should make up their own reality. But that it is immpossible to create your own reality because you are interwoven with society, family, and other people. Our CULTURE does more to create our beliefs and who we are than our own "intellect." That's why we can't just go to another country and "fit in" right away. If I sent you to the Amazon with a group of hunters and gatherers you'd be needing a whole lot of their help to survive and pretty helpless. You'd have to relearn or adapt new habits and behaviors to fit in and flourish. Another influence in culture is propaganda in the media like tv, movies, and music. We take in those things and are "tricked" into believing that is the way things should be. We buy certain clothes, listen to certain music, and watch certain shows because they get us to do so through marketing. Through influence and social proof or sex appeal they get us to become their consumers and take in their ideas subconsciously.

So the patterns of people following and being "tricked" by other people and society is and always will be around and observable.

[rob_harwell]

Hitler did not try to trick people, he was dead serious.