In the "New 'Long' War on Terrorism"
To Haunt and Undermine the New Millennium
And the New Generations
The Treacherous Agenda Under the Hoo Ha
(Helped Along by the New Tool of the Century
The Corporate Media)
Revealing quotes on war, power and propaganda by five seasoned minds: Winston Churchill, Reichmarshall Hermann Goering, Adolf Hitler, Julius Ceasar and Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.
“Corruption at home, aggression abroad to cover it up. Sentiment by the bucketful, patriotism by the imperial pint; the open hand at the public exchequer, the open door at the public house; dear food for the millions, cheap labour for the millionaire “ – Winston Churchill
“Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? “
“Naturally the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood.”
“But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.”
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.”
“That is easy.”
“All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. “
“It works the same in any country” – Reichmarshall Hermann Goering
"All this was inspired by the
principle - which is quite true in itself - that in the
big lie there is always a certain force of credibility;
because the broad masses of a nation are always more
easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional
nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the
primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily
fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since
they themselves often tell small lies in little matters
but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale
falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to
fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe
that others could have the impudence to distort the
truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove
this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds,
they will still doubt and waver and will continue to
think that there may be some other explanation. For the
grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it,
even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is
known to all expert liars in this world and to all who
conspire together in the art of lying. These people know
only too well how to use falsehood for the basest
purposes"
–
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
"The function of propaganda does not lie in the scientific training of the individual, but in calling the masses' attention to certain facts, processes, necessities, etc., whose significance is thus for the first time placed within their field of vision. The whole art consists in doing this so skilfully that everyone will be convinced that the fact is real, the process necessary, the necessity correct, etc. “
“But since propaganda is not and cannot be the necessity in itself, since its function, like the poster, consists in attracting the attention of the crowd, and not in educating those who are already educated or who are striving after education and knowledge, its effect for the most part must be aimed at the emotions and only to a very limited degree at the so-called intellect. The more modest its intellectual ballast, the more exclusively it takes into consideration the emotions of the masses, the more effective it will be.”
“The art of propaganda lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the great masses and finding, through a psychologically correct form, the way to the attention and thence to the heart of the broad masses. The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand [or believe].”
“The war propaganda of the English and Americans were psychologically sound. By representing the Germans to their own people as barbarians and Huns, they prepared the individual soldier for the terrors of war, and thus helped to preserve him from disappointments. After this, the most terrible weapon that was used against him seemed only to confirm what his propagandists had told him; it likewise reinforced his faith in the truth of his government's assertions, while on the other hand it increased his rage and hatred against the vile enemy he now came to know, gradually came to confirm for him the 'Hunnish' brutality of the barbarous enemy, which he had heard all about; and it never dawned on him for a moment that his own weapons possibly, if not probably, might be even more terrible in their effects.”
“The function of propaganda is, for example, not to weigh and ponder the rights of different people, but exclusively to emphasize the one right which it has set out to argue for. Its task is not to make an objective study of the truth, in so far as it favors the enemy, and then set it before the masses with academic fairness; its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly...”
“The broad mass of a nation does not consist of diplomats, or even professors of political law, or even individuals capable of forming a rational opinion; it consists of plain mortals, wavering and inclined to doubt and uncertainty. As soon as our own propaganda admits so much as a glimmer of right on the other side, the foundation for doubt in our own right has been laid. The masses are then in no position to distinguish where foreign injustice ends and our own begins”
– Adolf Hitler,
Mein Kampf
“War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I
believe, as something that is not what it seems to the
majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what
it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very
few at the expense of the masses”
–
Major General Smedley Butler, USMC
“Beware of the leader who bangs of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double edged sword. It emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind.
“When the drums of war have reached a fervor pitch, and the blood boils with hate and the mind is closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader, and do it gladly so.”
“How do I know? I know, for this is what I have done”
– an anonymous script on
Julius Caesar
