Thursday, November 21, 2013

The fight for morals in Churchill's and Goebbels' speeches

Moral rightness is commonly used as a call to unite a group of people against a common enemy. Both Churchill and Goebbels use this technique in their speeches. Even though these two men are complete opposites of each other in their beliefs, it is odd that they have the same major point, about fighting a moral war against an enemy that mirrors the devil, however they have different enemies which they feel are a threat to the world.

Churchill uses very strong language especially pathos to support his claims that the British must unite against the "Monstrous Tyranny" of Nazi Germany (1). By using the word monstrous that provides the image of a demon like monster attacking and destroying anything in its past, which Churchill uses to label the Nazis. He explains what the point of fighting is to the British, which is achieving victory by all the strength "God can give us (1)." He states that God is on the Side of the British, and how they are fighting a moral war in order to protect what is right. Goebbels speech is very similar when it comes to moral rightness. He even explains how the Germans are trying to achieve a "European mission (6)." This shows how he views the Nazi mission in the war, almost as a religious mission in ridding Europe and the world, from the tyranny of Bolshevism. He describes the Bolshevists as "the incarnation of evil, as the plastic demon of decay (6)." This is certainly a very strong pathos filled statement that again just like Churchill brings in the image of fighting the Devil. He calls the Jews a "Culture destroying chaos," which also emphasizes how the Germans are the good people in the war who are fighting for what is morally right.

While Churchill is talking about fighting the tyrannous Nazis, Goebbels is talking about fighting Bolshevism in the East. It is quite odd that both Goebbels and Churchill use the same moral tactics in both of their speeches, especially because their view of enemy differs, as well as what they are actually fighting for. Churchill throughout his speech describes the British responsibility to ridding Europe of Nazi control, while Goebbels talks about the moral responsibility of Germany to Free Europe from Bolshevism, and Jewry. Both men are talking about freeing Europe in some way, however the tactic Goebbels applies uses much more violence in order to achieve his goal. Even though Churchill talks about fighting with as much force as possible, Goebbels talks about Fighting not only Russia, but in simple terms exterminating the Jews from the European continent. Churchill only talks about getting rid of Nazi control, not exterminating the entire Nazi German population. Yet both men still use the tactic of moral rightness, even though it may not seem right to say that any war can be moral whatsoever.

It is very odd that two men with entirely different political views, use the same tactic of fighting a war for what is morally right. Through Goebbels speech he emphasizes the Nazi objective to exterminate the Jews and Bolshevism, which is very unlike the speech of Churchill. Churchill only focuses on fighting the Nazis in order to get rid of Nazi power, not to exterminate all Germans. Is it even right though to say that fighting for any war is supporting a truly moral cause. If that is the case then in future wars should the moral cause tactic even be used, just as it has been used by leaders of all nations for hundreds of years?

3 comments:

  1. Hey, Joe! Really nice blog post.

    I liked all of your ideas but I wish I could have heard your voice more in this, especially when you pose the question at the end. You did a great job of going back and fourth on Churchill and Goebbels, but I would have liked to hear you as well. An opportunity for this would have been your question at the end, so this is an easy fix.

    Also, something that will help your writing is to experiment with different sentence structures. Maybe try to combine some sentences or try new lengths or variations?

    Overall, great writing.

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  2. Nice job, Joe. I like your quotes, I like your relevant ideas. I really don't have many suggestions except for one.

    You explained Churchill and Goebbels very well but you didn't consistently go back and forth. You do it very well in the second para. but the first and third kind of divide both ideas into half the para. Try to create more dialogue between them in those paragraphs. Other than that, nice job as always!

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  3. Joe, I agree with Olivia and Purvi! This is a clear, nicely written blog. Your focus is useful, and you talk about both sides in plenty of detail, although I do agree with Purvi that a little more Joe in the conversation would help frame and guide it for us. Give us the "so what?" What should we think of this similarity? Is it fair use by one, both, or neither? You start to get there in the last paragraph, but you could definitely follow that line of thinking throughout the post. But overall, very solid!

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