Apparently it’s the oldest trick in the book. This is from an interview between US miliary chaplain and psychologist Gustave Gilbert and Hermann Goering, held at Goering’s cell in Nuremberg before he killed himself.
We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.
“Why, of course, the people don’t want war,” Goering shrugged. “Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that 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 in America, 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.”
“There is one difference,” I pointed out. “In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.”
“Oh, that is all well and good, but, 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 pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
It’s working now in Russia, and other places, too. (And yes, there was an attack on Russia, but nothing to merit what Putin’s doing there.)
The basic formula can also be applied to our own president — no, he is not stripping the country of liberties as is Putin, but he’s managed to get the country to follow him anywhere under the excuse that we were attacked. That’s why the No. 1 Republican talking point is to never, ever mention the invasion of Iraq without first tying it to 911; listen carefully to how all answers to questions on Iraq are couched: “After 911, we had no choice but to…”
The Goering quote makes an interesting contrast with a famous passage from Orwell’s 1984:
“In accordance with the principles of double-think it does not matter if the war is not real. For when it is, victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, but it is meant to be continuous. A hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance, this new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia but to keep the very structure of society intact.”
It’s as if they knew bush was coming.
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By Kevin #1
This is scary stuff. You’d think the media might latch onto this as a reason to be far more critical of the Bush administration and its use of a Sep. 11th as a political tool. Unfortunatley, the US media is incapable of being intelligently critical. Let’s instead concentrate pointless energy on Bush’s national guard service and whether or not those documents are forgeries!
(I’ve noticed there is another Kevin posting on your site, so I am now dubbed Kevin #1)
September 14, 2004 @ 1:13 pm | Comment
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By ACB
Denouncing moderates who don’t want to resort to extreme measurese as being unpatriotic has always been the resort of an extrem left or right wing leadership. We all remember the Macathy witch hunts and the damage that they did to Aemerica.
If somebody doens’t want to smash their enemies then they can’t love their own country!!, this is obsurd.
Sometimes it takes greater patriotism to admit that a war is unwinnable or that an enemy is too resilient or too scattered for you to utterly destroy.
It is the Bush style of patriotism which tells everybody that America is infallable and unbeatable, and that if somebody speaks out against you you should crush them utterly, that created this whole mess and turned so many countries against America.
Maybe America should have a few terms with a pacafistic president. A few terms with a dove rather than a hawk and America will become safer, not because it has destroyed its enemies, but because many of its enemies will reaslise that America is not really their enemy.
If America gave up its move towards world hegemony and stopped trying to use aid or a gun to force everybody to change to its perspective then the extremists would run out of verbal amunition and thus run out of new recruits.
Right now America is doing all of the things that the extremists have accused it of doing over the last twenty years and this is making recruitment of new terrorists extremly easy, the lunatics don’t need to make things up any more because ‘partiots’ are doing the recruitment themselves by making America hated.
When a leader uses the word ‘unpatriotic’ to describe a pacafist, then you know that it is time to vote fo rthe other guy.
September 14, 2004 @ 7:11 pm | Comment
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By sp
The Bush Administration had not only prove itself to be an international tyrant, it also try to gradually purge its political opponents in a scary manner. By branding opponents who criticises its foreign policy as un-American, unpatriotic, it reminds as of Maoist and Stalinist terror. Political opponents were given labels like collaborating with fascist, reactionary elements, for being “revisionists”, or “bourgeois liberals”. So Bush’s mini “Cultural revolution” has begun, and he proved to be a rather quik learner of the Soviet and Chinese autocrats. The US Patriotic Act is nothing less evil than the draconian laws in totalitarian societies. The Bush dream is to turn America into an Orwellian society with his reign of terror beginning with purging and smearing the Democrats for being “unpatriotic”.
September 14, 2004 @ 7:46 pm | Comment
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By rosignol
Nice to see people around here are so fond of fine literature.
Since the topic seems to have drifted to doublethink, would anyone mind defining the words ‘unilateral’ and ‘multilateral’ for me?
September 15, 2004 @ 6:40 pm | Comment
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By Warmonger
“Naturally the common people don’t want war. But after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag 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. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”
–Herman Goering, Nazi
November 6, 2004 @ 2:10 pm | Comment
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By Warmonger
“Naturally the common people don’t want war. But after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag 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. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”
–Herman Goering, Nazi
November 6, 2004 @ 2:10 pm | Comment
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By Joseph Goebbels
“The rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious.”
“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly…it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”
-Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister
November 6, 2004 @ 2:13 pm | Comment