Doing (Cult)ural Studies: Hitler on (Cult)ural Studies Seminar

By Yongky

            Hail Hitler!

            Adolf Hitler, the president of Germany at once the general of Germany’s army, is just 155cm height. He has really funny moustache that can tickle people to laugh if he’s not president. I’m sure that the Nazi’s armies prefer laughing to hailing him if he’s not speaking. But what happens in reality? Most people recognize his greatness. The great Germany is the great Hitler. What makes him to be great? He’s not good looking person and small one. The system has made him to be the great person in Germany at that time.

            If we look Hitler and his greatness we will see how the Nazi’s armies bend on knees on him. We will see how Hitler is hailed everywhere in Germany at that time. According to biography, Hitler is not someone well educated but the only thing which is important is that he is a good orator. He can make people convince on his speech. Who is not quaking hearing him speak. The army will hail him absolutely so do people.

            Let’s look how this makes. In particular case such as ceremony, it is one of the more important things to make this. Hitler is placed in the higher level and he becomes the center of looking. Everyone who looks him must take his face up. Another thing is that Hitler will enter to the podium after the armies waiting so long. So the presence of Hitler is something looked forward. The people are being blind and just taking the speech for granted. When Hitler is speaking everyone is not allowed to speak but HAIL HITLER!

            We catch the point which is the system that makes Hitler to be great. The greatness of Hitler has hypnotized people to hail on him and to cult on him. Let see what happens in the seminar on Monday-Tuesday, 5-6 November 2012 held by Media and Cultural Studies program with Prof. Chua Beng Huat and Prof. Khrisna Sen as the speakers. The system of organizing the seminar is almost the same with the cult of Hitler.

            The system will be placed the speaker in the center of looking. So everyone there looks them as the center of truth. The center of looking has made sense that the speaker has become the only one speaking actively and the audience has become passive. The audience as if only allows to focus on the speaker not someone else. They will be the people hailing the speaker. But I think it is not the important thing. The second is that the audience does not have paper about what is talked by the speakers in the seminar. This will be the important effect that makes people such kind of hypnotizing. How does everyone become active if they just only listen what the speaker says. How does audience become critical if there is no description topic to criticize at least the writings. The blind audiences will lead them into the thought that the speaker is very diligent person. They don’t know that the system has made them blind. There is wise words said that teacher can teach you because the world has taught him first. In this case the speaker has understood the topic first but not the audience. One quotation that is also important from Prof. Khrisna Sen is that “According to psychology, adult can focus on something told only in 20 minutes.” She forgot the detail. Focus in 20 minutes by language he understands comprehensively, in this case language of his mother tongue. When speaker is speaking in English which not all the audience understands comprehensively, it is different case moreover  no paper will help. Nothing to say but hail speaker.

            This is what Gramsci calls hegemony. People are not aware that they are being colonized. Gramsci has the term common sense which is the values made by the oppressor to obey. This common sense always needs repression to maintain the values. People who will not bend on knees on the value will get punished. In this case Gramsci explains the repression ideologically. The values will be maintained cohesively not coercively. This will be called the cultural hegemony. No violence but attacking ideologically.

            Coming back to the seminar, the audience gets colonized by the system. The system is common sense imparted to the audience. The values are in the audience’s mind and these must be taken for granted. When I ask to my friend, ”Is there something strange during the seminar?” he said “nothing strange”. This will be an evidence that the system has made them blind. They are not aware that they are headed to hail on the speaker.

            The archetype of the system has been repeated in many different forms. The cult event of Hitler in ceremony reforms in the cult in seminar. These events become rituals that make transcendental relation between people and one true person.

            But on the other hand, I appreciate the events. Media and Cultural Studies program has successfully invited the important people in this field of study. I wish that the system would be better in making audience enlighted. These events are important to upgrade our knowledge and to share our idea with other people in other culture. I personally really thank to Prof. Khrisna in doing research on Indonesian media especially Indonesian film. Moreover she wants to know Indonesian film more from the audience’s references. This will be such kind of satire which says we as Indonesians should know much better than her. A part of stanza from Rendra’s poem will be the words to close this writing.

Kita mesti berhenti membeli rumus-rumus asing

Diktat-diktat hanya boleh membeli metode

tetapi kita sendiri mesti merumuskan keadaan

………

Kita mesti keluar ke jalan raya

keluar ke desa-desa

Mencatat sendiri semua gejala

dan menghayati persoalan yang nyata

(Rendra-Sajak Sebatang Lisong)