The Germans didn’t invent the original microphone and the P.A., but they perfected them.
Hey, Jack Dorsey! A quick hypothetical for ya: what if it were 1936, and Hitler (the elected leader of Germany at the time) had a Twitter account? Would you block him?
Before you answer, let’s remember what happened back then: a technological innovation in media allowed the most toxic of voices to break the news cycle and enthrall the masses. Sound familiar?
From a technological standpoint, the legacy of the Nazis lives on most audibly through modern sound amplification and recording. Hitler’s party never could have created the modern totalitarian state without two major innovations: the modern condenser microphone (specifically the Neumann CMV3A, a.k.a. the “Hitlerflasche” or the “Hitler bottle”) and the P.A. (public address system).
The Germans didn’t invent the original microphone and the P.A., but they perfected them. We hear the consequences of this every day, everywhere, anytime you listen to amplified sound — live or recorded.
Any musician who has spent time in a recording studio knows that the best mics are from Neumann, Telefunken, Gefell, Sennheiser, Schoeps and AKG (Akustische und. Kino-Geräte). These are the same folks (and their progeny) who gave a loud, booming voice to fascism way back when. Hitler needed a way to project his ranting to the masses in high fidelity, and the ingenious engineers delivered.
Previous to these 1930s innovations, you could Sturm und Drang only to as many people who were within earshot of your naked voice, give or take a megaphone.
Old-school orators were virtuosos at projecting their voices out to large audiences in market squares or auditoriums. But no way could anyone reach hundreds of thousands of folks from an acoustic soapbox.
And since this amplification invention was new, the novelty added to the mesmerizing effects of a little man shouting atop the biggest soapbox that had ever existed. The quality of sound had a mystical effect upon listeners. It imbued Hitler with godlike powers, making him a deity who could project himself everywhere at once, whether one was standing amid a vast audience or sitting in one’s living room listening to the radio. Sometimes the voice was live; sometimes the voice was recorded in life-like clarity by another cutting-edge German innovation — a reel of magnetic tape.
Nazi magnetic-tape-recording technology was kept a secret until after the war — allied forces found the tape machines and finally understood how the Germans had been “live” broadcasting orchestras, Hitler’s voice, etc., mid-war. The company that made the magnetic-tape technology — BASF — went on to make those cassettes that many of us used to make sexy mixtapes.
BASF also made Zyklon B gas for the extermination camps.
The key technical components in the “Hitler Bottle” CMV3A microphone went on to become the U47, which, 70 years later, is still considered by many to be the best vocal mic ever made. Here’s one on sale for $15,000.
So whether you’re bumpin’ at the club, listening to classic Beatles (George Martin’s favorite microphone!) or pretty much doing anything that has to do with live sound amplification or recording, the fact that it all sounds so good (or at least loud) can be attributed to Georg Neumann and the Nazis.
Rather than be subservient to the 24-hour news cycle, Twitter has allowed him to hijack the news cycle to do his bidding. Pro or anti, we’ve all become fixated by the message.
Perhaps since Hitler, no one has utilized a new technology to drill nationalist sound bites into the minds of the masses such as the Twitter feed of our newly elected president. Whatever dog whistle he transmits to his 21.8 million followers at any hour, its reverberant echo eventually reaches the furthest reaches of our planet.
Going “viral” isn’t even a good metaphor anymore because viruses can’t spread this fast. “Decrees” are sent from atop a Mar-a-Lago golden toilet throne at 3:oo a.m., and I hear about it on NPR the next day. Or I see it in the headlines as I walk past the newspaper box. Or when I hear randos talking about it on BART. I’ve never actually looked at this guy’s Twitter account (just the parody ones, thank you), but it doesn’t matter. Most of what he types gets flushed into the cesspool of the media and, by force of gravity, leaches into the aquifer of my consciousness. Rather than be subservient to the 24-hour news cycle, Twitter has allowed him to hijack the news cycle to do his bidding. Pro or anti, we’ve all become fixated by the message. Shocked when a pathological liar lies. Taken aback when a racist is racist. Incensed when a bully bullies. Smug and gratified when our worldview is affirmed by the evil villain following the evil-villain narrative down to every cliched detail.
More time, energy, thought and commentary have been given to his minute-by-minute inane bullshit than any other issue of the last two years. And a lot of important things happened in the last two years.
A New York Times editorial standing up to one of his various tweets is as useful as physically rolling up a paper New York Times to swat at an infestation of flies. It doesn’t matter what anyone says about what he’s saying — commentary, analysis, whatnot; as long as the statement is repeated, then it will get repeated again until the next one takes its place.
With Twitter, every moment is a Trump rally. Everyone in the connected world knows what this unhinged narcissistic compulsive liar is thinking at any given moment. More time, energy, thought and commentary have been given to his minute-by-minute inane bullshit than any other issue of the last two years. And a lot of important things happened in the last two years.
It’s ironic that this ultimate platform of free speech would end up threatening so much of our freedom.
I’m not saying anyone is like Hitler —no one should ever flatter our current capo with such a lofty comparison. But Twitter seems to me to be an awful lot like the P.A.-and-condenser-mic combo in its ability to enable the demagogue to new frightening heights—not just because of its effectiveness in spreading the message, but also because there’s something about the rhythm of the message that keeps us entrained, keeps us wanting more, keeps us wanting to itch the itch, regardless of whether we love it or hate it.
It’s ironic that this ultimate platform of free speech would end up threatening so much of our freedom.
Sooo…if Twitter is as concerned about being a bastion for free speech as they claim they are, someone, please free us from this speech! Let the news be filtered through the New York Times and Breitbart and CNN and FOX and NPR and Drudge. That archaic system, flawed as it is, actually worked better. Block him. Block the White House account too. Let the rest of us tweet freely.
Twitter blocks trolls and terrorists all the time. Why make an exception for the biggest one of all? Jack Dorsey, you tweeted the following last week:
Why don’t you give us some love and back up that meaningless, unattributed BS with a little action? Take it down.
