Rachel Bellum

Everybody wants power but not everybody knows how to get it. Leaders can use power for good or for evil. For example two opposite ends of the spectrum that show how people obtain power are Martin Luther King Jr. and Adolf Hitler.

Martin Luther King Jr. gained power by rallying with impassioned speeches his oppressed people into starting the non-violent civil rights movement. He saw injustice and stood up and spoke out against it and formed a plan to protest and make change. People were attracted to his non-violent approach which was in contrast to the way African Americans were treated in the 1960s.

German chancellor Adolf Hitler was a charismatic and talented speaker who spoke for the right wing German Workers’ Party which later became the Nazi party. One of the reasons he was able obtain power was because Germany just lost World War I, which was a shock to the German people because they were being told for four years that they were winning the war. One day, they were told that they lost the war. Millions of Germans were killed and wounded and there was a food and coal shortage. Because of this people started creating conspiracy theories on who’s to blame for the lost of the war. Hitler used the most popular theory which was that the Jewish people of Germany betrayed the Germans on the home front. Hitler then used this hatred to his advantage to rally the people behind him and against the Jews.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s power came from rallying his people to stand up against racism and violence with non-violent protests that led to the Civil Rights Movement and ultimately Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. Adolf Hitler obtained power by charm and rallying a broken German people to a unified hatred and blame of the Jews. This movement led to the death of 6 million Jews in the holocaust.

In conclusion, there are many ways that people in history obtained power. Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Adolf Hitler obtain power by being a talented, charismatic communicator who appealed to a common cause.