As I ate and talked to the people around me I sensed a feeling of great conspiracy, like we were about to commit some incredible crime. I still cringe when I think back on it. The key feature, I realized later, was the conspiratorial thrill. It's us vs them. When our leaders urge us to all pull together they want the audience to feel that thrill.
Skilled speakers can work large audiences into a frenzy of enthusiasm.
The lesson from Hitler, drugs, and alcohol is that the intensity of the thrill is not connected to the goodness of the acts. The thrill is just as real for genocide, generosity, or getting drunk. Just because a speaker or writer thrills you doesn't mean their ideas will work. It's especially easy to get enthusiastic about benevolent goals such as feeding the hungry, saving the children, or making the streets safe, without questioning what impact your actions have in the real world. These examples are all symbolic political acts designed to give people that thrill, the thrill the Nazis felt, the herd thrill.