In this paper I try to contrast the sense of the term “persuasion”, as defined by Aristotle in his Rhetoric, with the sense of the term “fascination”, proposed by Hannah Arendt in her Origins of Totalitarianism. I illustrate such contrast through references to the relationship between Albert Speer and Adolf Hitler. By considering the use of the two terms and the references, I reach a conclusion that shows why, in what I call “degraded social orders”, there is no place for rhetoric.