Two Adjectives

Widespread & Swaying

          “Swaying” is one adjective that fits the course, and the impact of mass media on Western Civilization, in reference to how propaganda was so much of a driving force of power in the 20^th century, especially in Germany. In order to gain what Hitler and Nazism strived for, oftentimes, they enlisted the use of swaying propaganda. They were able to use artwork as a tool to depict Jewish people in a cruel manner. Nazis were able to insert Hitler’s white face, and black hair, with a jet-black background onto his campaign poster, in order to depict Hitler in a way that showed absolute authority. They also did this by making posters of Hitler in a authoritative Renaissance pose, with a caption of “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer!” Translated, this phrase means, “One People, One Nation, One Leader!” Certainly, the intention of this poster was to assert Hitler’s supreme rule over the German state.

           

           It is important to note that prior to the dawn of Johannes Gutenberg (1398 – February 3, 1468), and his venerated Gutenberg Press, there was an absence of widespread media available to the general European public. Gutenberg’s printing press is widely regarded as one of the most important inventions/events of the 2^nd Millennia, A.D.

At the time of Gutenberg, for the common European man, media, higher education, and widespread knowledge were fundamentally inaccessible because these concepts were essentially only accessible to those who spoke Latin. Those particulars that spoke Latin were, for the most part, ordained members of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who were scholars. For those who spoke different vernaculars other than that of the Church, knowledge, and media (at the time, a few books, and the Bible) were not widespread, by any means. In fact, they were inaccessible for others before Luther’s Bible, translated from Hebrew & Ancient Greek texts into German. The Church was able to take advantage of the superstitions and ignorance of the common European around the time of Gutenberg & Martin Luther, due to the overall lack of books, literature, and recorded (up-to-date) knowledge within the common European languages at the time. Indulgences, one of the Church’s biggest hoaxes that involved paying a sum of money to a clergyman in order for forgiveness of one’s sins, were only able to occur because the Church had taken advantage of the general lack of higher education within Europe. It was a direct result of the lack of widespread knowledge, education, and material media amongst commoner Europeans, who were not able to speak Latin, the language of the Church and scholars at the time. Although Gutenberg’s press is only known to have printed copies of the Bible in Latin, (ironically) a few copies of indulgences, and a German poem, it paved the way for the popularization of printing presses within Western Civilization over the upcoming centuries. I think “widespread” fits the Gutenberg course because the ideas, and history we have been learning about, were all brought about as a direct result of Gutenberg’s printing press, which made knowledge widespread. It could be argued that without the invention of the printing press in Western Civilization, history would not have been recorded so well, and it would have been as eventful as the Dark Ages in terms of progress.