I have not started watching it again yet, but did want to comment that there is something mystical, something compelling, about night and flame. The night rallies became more than political: they partook of the religious, of the rite, of the initiation.
You work 8 to 5 or whatever, then go home. That is your day life. By asking people to come out at night, to stay out at night, and to bring torches, they got into people’s innermost recesses. They got into their homes and families. They broke the separation between public and private.
This is a provocative thought, but I can conceive of ways in which the methods of totalitarianism could potentially be turned to the good. We need to know why what they did worked, how it worked, and what the long term effects were, both good and bad.