Quote by Hannah Arendt, The Origins of To

It was characteristic of the rise of the Nazi movement in Germany and of the Communist movements in Europe after 1930 that they recruited their members from this mass of apparently indifferent people whom all other parties had given up as too apathetic or too stupid for their attention. The result was that the majority of their membership consisted of people who never before had appeared on the political scene. This permitted the introduction of entirely new methods into political propaganda, and indifference to the arguments of political opponents; these movements not only placed themselves outside and against the party system as a whole, they found a membership that had never been reached, never been

Summary

This quote, by economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek, highlights a common approach used by both the Nazi and Communist movements in Germany and Europe during the 1930s. These movements were adept at recruiting individuals who had previously been overlooked by other political parties due to their perceived apathy or lack of intelligence. As a result, a significant portion of their memberships comprised individuals who had never before been involved in politics. This allowed these movements to employ innovative propaganda tactics and disregard political opponents' arguments, positioning themselves as an alternative to the established party system and attracting previously untouched demographics.