Are dictators able to maintain power because of brainwashed militaries?

Question

Obviously, one man cannot stop people from throwing him out when he tries to abuse him. But if there is a culture who is trained to think it's moral to submit to whatever claims to be an authority, then you have masses of men with guns who will kill anyone who tries to stop the dictator. In the United States, these folks are called Neocons. What were they called under Hitler? He was only one man too. Who were all those mindless followers with guns who protected the Nazi state?

Answer 1

Dictators maintain power by giving only people he trusts absolute power answering only to him then these "generals" hand pick a relatively small but very powerful "police" force to enforce the will of the dictator
This police force is kept loyal to the dictator by being equipped,treated and paid very well this can also be considered the dictators bodyguard.

The dictator usually then hand picks a secret police force to keep tabs on his "generals" and generally keeps an ear to the ground for any dissenter in the country ,dissenters then disappear in the middle of the night never to be heard from again.
Then as fear spreads among the general population some will then begin to report questionable activity to the government and these whistle blowers are then rewarded while the reported are imprisoned or disappear.

so basically he has a small trusted ring of people around him that keeps him from being assassinated while he keeps the population in line by keeping them in fear

Answer 2

After World War 1 Germany was left with little in its treasury and starving people.

Recap on events that occured in Africa: (Even though this is miles away from Germany, bear with me)

1. Big bad war between feuding peoples causes starvation and political anarchy.
2. The guy they threw in prison twenty years ago is released.
3. He comes back on the scene and promises to give the people rice.
4. Well? No one else has said that in a while, and the people don't want to die, so logically they'd like someone with a vision for their dying country.

Same thing happened in Germany with Hitler. Hitler was a part of WW1. He knew what the people were going through because of the war. He also had enough time to right Mein Kamph with his ideas of a thousand years for Aryan peoples. That sounded pretty good, right?

Hitler knew what the people wanted to hear, and he warped that so it would fulfill his desire to rule the world. There are many ways to manipulate a people who have been ostricized and beaten by war and famine.

Now with a prosperous nation, that would be an interesting topic....

Answer 3

Well, now. Not all dictators abuse his people. You don't know this, but most of North Korea loves Kim Jong Ill and in Germany, in WWII, most everybody loved Hitler. Because he was a good leader. It's the Jews that did not like him because he was out to kill them. But other than that, the Germans that were non-Jews were OK. Of course, some dictators like Saddam Hussein brainwashed his people, and Hitler did brainwash some of his, but the Nazis fought to protect Hitler cause they loved him.

Answer 4

The SA was the workingmans gaurd and the SS were the upperclass, educated nazi's.

similar to say the police vs the fbi.

or the evangelicals are the SA and the corporate interests ie haliburton are the SS.

Answer 5

I do not think so. I think that it is only fear and corruption that keep dictators in power. The dictators (sadly) are very smart and cunning. They can keep people in check and promote general fear very easily, making it even easier for them to keep/maintain near totalitarian control. For example, in the Harry Potter series, Lord Voldemort does not do anything by himself to control fear. He uses his minions to promote fear. If it were only to be one person (say Lord Voldemort had no death eaters) he could not do anything to promote the fear that holds that type of government together.

Answer 6

I don't think Hu Jintao (Chinese President) is a dictator and they have the military fully controlled, i think.

Answer 7

Ever hear of North Korea, Cuba, or Venezuela ????