The social psychology techniques inherent in advertising, the organs of the mass media, and the spectacle of political campaigns were fully integrated in the West in the wake of the First World War. Public sphere language thereafter became an empirically measurable, psychologically seductive weapon. It was and is used assiduously against the publics in dictatorships just as surely as in democracies – our own in particular.
In its more benign form, propaganda bombards the public with all manner of rosy scenarios, a litany of uniquely impressive national feats, and the leader’s attributes. Invariably, these are: resoluteness, strength and a “vision thing” in tune with destiny. Although it’s all a matter of the contrived “engineering of consent,” as Edward Bernays called it, the sheer mind-numbing repetition overcomes most human wills to resist.
In its malignant variant, propaganda scapegoats unpopular minorities. Domestic repression is justified by the opaque exigencies of “security,” and national myths are mobilized to justify aggressive war. Historical comparisons are inherently tenuous, but they do provide at least a theoretical cautionary tale as we attempt to understand the present, and make educated guesses about the course of future events.
In presenting the juxtaposing quotes below, the notion is to dramatize the American public’s ongoing receptivity to deceptively emotive messaging, nothing more. This is a long-standing problem in the land of alleged individuality.
Although the ultimate ends obviously differ – there is no “final solution” in the works, there is no eliminationist lebensraum settlement agenda afoot – the appeal, the psychological manipulation inherent in the propaganda still rings too familiar for comfort. And besides, the number of corpses in Iraq has passed the threshold of 100,000 in this, the government’s latest war for “democracy.” At the bottom, please find citation information on the below quotes.
“‘Fascism’ is only the organized political expression of the structure of the average man’s character, a structure that is confined neither to certain races nor to certain parties, but is general and international… ‘Fascism’ is the basic emotional attitude of the suppressed man of our authoritarian machine civilization and its mechanistic-mystical conception of life.”
~ Wilhelm Reich, from The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1942)
Contrast & Compare: I Report, You Decide
“Strength lies not in defense but in attack.”
“WE WILL STAY ON THE OFFENSIVE, WE WILL NOT WAVER. WE WILL FIGHT THEM OVER THERE SO WE DON’T HAVE TO FIGHT THEM OVER HERE.”
“[Our] people are not a warlike nation. It is a soldierly one, which means it does not want war but does not fear it. It loves peace, but also its honor and freedom.”
“Germany is prepared to agree to any solemn pact of non-aggression, because she does not think of attacking but only acquiring security.”
“WE ARE A PEACEFUL PEOPLE – YET WE’RE NOT A FRAGILE PEOPLE, AND WE WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED BY THUGS AND KILLERS. IF OUR ENEMIES DARE TO STRIKE US, THEY AND ALL WHO HAVE AIDED THEM, WILL FACE FEARFUL CONSEQUENCES.”
“The leader of genius must have the ability to make different opponents appear as if they belonged to one category.”
[Notice below that each individual statement is arguably accurate. However, the cumulative effect of these isolated statements make Saddam and Osama appear almost indistinguishable. Plausibly lurid, if unlikely, scenarios are presented to the public made suggestible by the onslaughts of 9/11. This dual approach comprises the latest, most advanced, form of propaganda. To my knowledge there is no name for it yet; although, I haven’t been keeping up my reading of PR trade journals lately.]
“WE KNOW THAT IRAQ AND THE AL QAEDA TERRORIST NETWORK SHARE A COMMON ENEMY – THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. WE KNOW THAT IRAQ AND AL QAEDA HAVE HAD HIGH-LEVEL CONTACTS THAT GO BACK A DECADE. SOME AL QAEDA LEADERS WHO FLED AFGHANISTAN WENT TO IRAQ. THESE INCLUDE ONE VERY SENIOR AL QAEDA LEADER WHO RECEIVED MEDICAL TREATMENT IN BAGHDAD THIS YEAR, AND WHO HAS BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH PLANNING FOR CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL ATTACKS. WE’VE LEARNED THAT IRAQ HAS TRAINED AL QAEDA MEMBERS IN BOMB-MAKING AND POISONS AND DEADLY GASES. AND WE KNOW THAT AFTER SEPTEMBER THE 11TH, SADDAM HUSSEIN’S REGIME GLEEFULLY CELEBRATED THE TERRORIST ATTACKS ON AMERICA.
IRAQ COULD DECIDE ON ANY GIVEN DAY TO PROVIDE A BIOLOGICAL OR CHEMICAL WEAPON TO A TERRORIST GROUP OR INDIVIDUAL TERRORISTS. ALLIANCE WITH TERRORISTS COULD ALLOW THE IRAQI REGIME WITHOUT LEAVING ANY FINGERPRINTS.
SOME HAVE ARGUED THAT CONFRONTING THE THREAT FROM IRAQ COULD DETRACT FROM THE WAR AGAINST TERROR. TO THE CONTRARY; CONFRONTING THE THREAT POSED BY IRAQ IS CRUCIAL TO WINNING THE WAR ON TERROR. WHEN I SPOKE TO CONGRESS MORE THAN A YEAR AGO, I SAID THAT THOSE WHO HARBOR TERRORISTS ARE AS GUILTY AS THE TERRORISTS THEMSELVES. SADDAM HUSSEIN IS HARBORING TERRORISTS AND THE INSTRUMENTS OF TERROR, THE INSTRUMENTS OF MASS DEATH AND DESTRUCTION. AND HE CANNOT BE TRUSTED. THE RISK IS SIMPLY TOO GREAT THAT HE WILL USE THEM, OR PROVIDE THEM TO A TERROR NETWORK.
TERROR CELLS AND OUTLAW REGIMES BUILDING WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ARE DIFFERENT FACES OF THE SAME EVIL. OUR SECURITY REQUIRES THAT WE CONFRONT BOTH. AND THE UNITED STATES MILITARY IS CAPABLE OF CONFRONTING BOTH…
IF THE IRAQI REGIME IS ABLE TO PRODUCE, BUY, OR STEAL AN AMOUNT OF HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM A LITTLE LARGER THAN A SINGLE SOFTBALL, IT COULD HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON IN LESS THAN A YEAR. AND IF WE ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN, A TERRIBLE LINE WOULD BE CROSSED. SADDAM HUSSEIN WOULD BE IN A POSITION TO BLACKMAIL ANYONE WHO OPPOSES HIS AGGRESSION. HE WOULD BE IN A POSITION TO DOMINATE THE MIDDLE EAST. HE WOULD BE IN A POSITION TO THREATEN AMERICA. AND SADDAM HUSSEIN WOULD BE IN A POSITION TO PASS NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY TO TERRORISTS.
SOME CITIZENS WONDER, AFTER 11 YEARS OF LIVING WITH THIS PROBLEM, WHY DO WE NEED TO CONFRONT IT NOW? AND THERE’S A REASON. WE’VE EXPERIENCED THE HORROR OF SEPTEMBER THE 11TH. WE HAVE SEEN THAT THOSE WHO HATE AMERICA ARE WILLING TO CRASH AIRPLANES INTO BUILDINGS FULL OF INNOCENT PEOPLE. OUR ENEMIES WOULD BE NO LESS WILLING, IN FACT, THEY WOULD BE EAGER, TO USE BIOLOGICAL OR CHEMICAL OR A NUCLEAR WEAPON.
KNOWING THESE REALITIES, AMERICA MUST NOT IGNORE THE THREAT GATHERING AGAINST US. FACING CLEAR EVIDENCE OF PERIL, WE CANNOT WAIT FOR THE FINAL PROOF – THE SMOKING GUN – THAT COULD COME IN THE FORM OF A MUSHROOM CLOUD.”
“The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.”
“I’M THE COMMANDER – SEE, I DON’T NEED TO EXPLAIN – I DO NOT NEED TO EXPLAIN WHY I SAY THINGS. THAT’S THE INTERESTING THING ABOUT BEING THE PRESIDENT. MAYBE SOMEBODY NEEDS TO EXPLAIN TO ME WHY THEY SAY SOMETHING, BUT I DON’T FEEL LIKE I OWE ANYBODY AN EXPLANATION.”
“WE ARE HEROES IN ERROR. AS FAR AS WE’RE CONCERNED WE’VE BEEN ENTIRELY SUCCESSFUL. THAT TYRANT SADDAM IS GONE AND THE AMERICANS ARE IN BAGHDAD. WHAT WAS SAID BEFORE IS NOT IMPORTANT. THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS LOOKING FOR A SCAPEGOAT. WE’RE READY TO FALL ON OUR SWORDS IF HE WANTS.”
“Success is the sole earthly judge of right and wrong.”
“How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.”
“THIS WOULD BE A WHOLE LOT EASIER IF IT WAS A DICTATORSHIP, JUST SO LONG AS I’M THE DICTATOR.”
“It is always more difficult to fight against faith than against knowledge.”
“HE [GEORGE H.W. BUSH] IS THE WRONG FATHER TO APPEAL TO FOR ADVICE. THE WRONG FATHER TO GO TO, TO APPEAL TO IN TERMS OF STRENGTH. THERE’S A HIGHER FATHER THAT I APPEAL TO.”
“What we have to fight for is the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may be enabled to fulfill the mission assigned to it by the creator.”
“Who says I am not under the special protection of God?”
“GOD TOLD ME TO STRIKE AT AL QAIDA AND I STRUCK THEM, AND THEN HE INSTRUCTED ME TO STRIKE AT SADDAM, WHICH I DID…”
“Sometimes it will turn out that men inconspicuous in themselves must nevertheless be regarded as born leaders. But it would be absolutely mistaken to regard a wealth of theoretical knowledge as characteristic proof for the qualities and abilities of a leader. The opposite is often the case. The great theoreticians are only in the rarest cases great organizers, since the greatness of the theoretician and program-maker lies primarily in the recognition and establishment of abstractly correct laws, while the organizer must primarily be a psychologist.”
WHO WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE A BEER WITH? OLE GEORGIE BOY OR THAT STUFFED SHIRT OUT OF TAXACHUSETTS?
“But it was not until the [First World] War that it became evident what immense results could be obtained by a correct application of propaganda. Here again, unfortunately, all our studying had to be done on the enemy side…”
FREEDOM KRAUT, FREEDOM FRIES
“The aim for which we were fighting the War was the loftiest, the most overpowering, that man can conceive: it was the freedom and independence of our nation…and – our national honor…”
“I ALSO HAVE THIS BELIEF, STRONG BELIEF, THAT FREEDOM IS NOT THIS COUNTRY’S GIFT TO THE WORLD; FREEDOM IS THE ALMIGHTY’S GIFT TO EVERY MAN AND WOMAN IN THIS WORLD. AND AS THE GREATEST POWER ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH, WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO HELP THE SPREAD OF FREEDOM.”
“The second really decisive question was this: to whom should propaganda be addressed? To the scientifically trained intelligentsia or to the less educated masses? It must be addressed always and exclusively to the masses.
RED MEAT FOR THE BASE: GOD, GAYS AND GUNS
“All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be…and too much caution cannot be exerted in this direction. The more modest its intellectual ballast, the more exclusively it takes into consideration the emotions of the masses, the more effective it will be. And this is the best proof of the soundness or unsoundness of a propaganda campaign, and not success in pleasing a few scholars or young aesthetes.”
I’M A PLAIN SPOKEN MAN, WORKED OUT ON THE OIL PATCH, RAN A BASEBALL TEAM, OWN A RANCH WHERE I LIKE TO CUT BRUSH.
“It is a mistake to make propaganda many-sided, like scientific instruction, for instance. 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 in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.”
UNITED WE STAND; MESSAGE DISCIPLINE; LET’S ROLL; TALKING POINTS; FLIP FLOP; FOCUS GROUPS; SWIFT BOAT VETERANS FOR TRUTH; OPINION DYNAMICS; GOD & COUNTRY; GOD ON OUR SIDE.
“For instance, it was absolutely wrong to make the enemy ridiculous, as the Austrian and German comic papers did. It was absolutely wrong because actual contact with an enemy soldier was bound to arouse an entirely different conviction, and the results were devastating; for now the German soldier, under the direct impression of the enemy’s resistance, felt himself swindled by his propaganda service. His desire to fight, or even to stand firm, was not strengthened, but the opposite occurred. His courage flagged.
By contrast, the war propaganda of the English and Americans was 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. For the cruel effects of the weapon, whose use by the 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.”
WE’RE GOING TO SMOKE THE EVIL DOERS OUT OF THEIR CAVES… THERE’S A POSTER IN THE OLD WEST, WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE. WE CANNOT APPEASE SADDAM. WE CANNOT APPEASE SADDAM. WE MUST LEARN FROM HISTORY. WHEN A TYRANT IS LEFT UNCHECKED, TRAGEDY WILL FOLLOW. HE’S ATTACKED HIS NEIGHBORS. HE GASSED HIS OWN PEOPLE. THERE ARE MASS GRAVES. THERE WERE RAPE ROOMS.
“What our authorities least of all understood was the very first axiom of all propagandist activity: to wit, the basically subjective and one-sided attitude it must take toward every question it deals with…
What, for example, would we say about a poster that was supposed to advertise a new soap and that described other soaps as ‘good.’?
We would only shake our heads.
Exactly the same applies to political advertising.
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.”
“FROM A MARKETING POINT OF VIEW, YOU DON’T INTRODUCE A NEW PRODUCT IN AUGUST”
“It was absolutely wrong to discuss war-guilt from the standpoint that Germany alone could not be held responsible for the outbreak of the catastrophe; it would have been correct to load every bit of the blame on the shoulders of the enemy, even if this had not really corresponded to the true facts, as it actually did.
And what was the consequence of this half-heartedness?
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.”
CHEESE-EATING SURRENDER MONKEYS. MORAL EQUIVALENCE, ISLAMO-FASCISM. THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOM. YOU’RE EITHER WITH US OR AGAINST US.
“The people in their overwhelming majority are so feminine by nature and attitude that sober reasoning determines their thoughts and actions far less than emotion and feeling.
And this sentiment is not complicated but very simple and all of a piece. It does not have multiple shadings; it has a positive and a negative; love or hate, right or wrong, truth or lie, never half this way and half that way, never partially, or that kind of thing.
English propagandists understood all this most brilliantly and acted accordingly. They made no half statements that might have given rise to doubts.”
“SOME WORRY THAT IT IS SOMEHOW UNDIPLOMATIC OR IMPOLITE TO SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF RIGHT AND WRONG. I DISAGREE. DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES REQUIRE DIFFERENT METHODS, BUT NOT DIFFERENT MORALITIES. MORAL TRUTH IS THE SAME IN EVERY CULTURE, IN EVERY TIME, AND IN EVERY PLACE… WE ARE IN A CONFLICT BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL, AND AMERICA WILL CALL EVIL BY ITS NAME. BY CONFRONTING EVIL AND LAWLESS REGIMES, WE DO NOT CREATE A PROBLEM, WE REVEAL A PROBLEM. AND WE WILL LEAD THE WORLD IN OPPOSING IT.
AS WE DEFEND THE PEACE, WE ALSO HAVE AN HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY TO PRESERVE THE PEACE. WE HAVE OUR BEST CHANCE SINCE THE RISE OF THE NATION STATE IN THE 17TH CENTURY TO BUILD A WORLD WHERE THE GREAT POWERS COMPETE IN PEACE INSTEAD OF PREPARE FOR WAR.”
“Particularly in the field of propaganda, we must never let ourselves be led by aesthetes or people who have grown blas: not by the former because the form and expression of our propaganda would soon, instead of being suitable for the masses, have drawing power only for literary teas; and of the second we must beware, because, lacking in any fresh emotion of their own, they are always on the lookout for new stimulation. These people are quick to weary of everything; they want variety, and they are never able to feel or understand the needs of their fellow men who are not yet so callous. They are always the first to criticize a propaganda campaign, or rather its content, which seems to them too old-fashioned, too hackneyed, too out-of-date, etc. They are always after novelty, in search of a change, and this makes them mortal enemies of any effective political propaganda.”
“TO THOSE WHO PIT AMERICANS AGAINST IMMIGRANTS, CITIZENS AGAINST NON-CITIZENS, TO THOSE WHO SCARE PEACE-LOVING PEOPLE WITH PHANTOMS OF LOST LIBERTY, MY MESSAGE IS THIS: YOUR TACTICS ONLY AID TERRORISTS FOR THEY ERODE OUR NATIONAL UNITY AND DIMINISH OUR RESOLVE… THEY GIVE AMMUNITION TO AMERICA’S ENEMIES AND PAUSE TO AMERICA’S FRIENDS. THEY ENCOURAGE PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL TO REMAIN SILENT IN THE FACE OF EVIL.”
“In this they proceeded on the sound principle that the magnitude of a lie always contains a certain factor of credibility, since the great masses of the people in the very bottom of their hearts tend to be corrupted rather than consciously and purposely evil, and that, therefore, in view of the primitive simplicity of their minds, they more easily fall a victim to a big lie than to a little one, since they themselves lie in little things, but would be ashamed of lies that were too big. Such a falsehood will never enter their heads, and they will not be able to believe in the possibility of such monstrous effrontery and infamous misrepresentation in others; yes, even when enlightened on the subject, they will long doubt and waver, and continue to accept at least one of these causes as true. Therefore, something of even the most insolent lie will always remain and stick…”
THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOM
“But what food did the German press of the pre-War period dish out to the people? Was it not the worst poison that can even be imagined? Wasn’t the worst kind of pacifism injected into the heart of our people at a time when the rest of the world was preparing to throttle Germany, slowly but surely? Even in peacetime didn’t the press inspire the minds of the people with doubt in the right of their own state, thus from the outset limiting them in the choice of means for its defense? Was it not the German press which knew how to make the absurdity of ‘Western democracy’ palatable to our people until finally, ensnared by all the enthusiastic tirades, they thought they could entrust their future to a League of Nations? Did it not help to teach our people a miserable immorality? Did it not ridicule morality and ethics as backward and petty-bourgeois, until our people finally became ‘modern’? Did it not belittle the army with constant criticism, sabotage universal conscription, demand the refusal of military credits, etc., until the result became inevitable?
The so-called liberal press was actively engaged in digging the grave of the German people and the German Reich. We can pass by the lying Marxist sheets in silence; to them lying is just as vitally necessary as catching mice for a cat; their function is only to break the people’s national and patriotic backbone and make them ripe for the slave’s yoke of international capital and its masters, the Jews.”
“MY ONLY REGRET WITH TIMOTHY MCVEIGH IS HE DID NOT GO TO THE NEW YORK TIMES BUILDING.”
“WHEN CONTEMPLATING COLLEGE LIBERALS, YOU REALLY REGRET ONCE AGAIN THAT JOHN WALKER IS NOT GETTING THE DEATH PENALTY. WE NEED TO EXECUTE PEOPLE LIKE JOHN WALKER IN ORDER TO PHYSICALLY INTIMIDATE LIBERALS, BY MAKING THEM REALIZE THAT THEY CAN BE KILLED, TOO. OTHERWISE, THEY WILL TURN OUT TO BE OUTRIGHT TRAITORS.”
“WE SHOULD INVADE THEIR COUNTRIES, KILL THEIR LEADERS AND CONVERT THEM TO CHRISTIANITY. WE WEREN’T PUNCTILIOUS ABOUT LOCATING AND PUNISHING ONLY HITLER AND HIS TOP OFFICERS. WE CARPET-BOMBED GERMAN CITIES; WE KILLED CIVILIANS. THAT’S WAR. AND THIS IS WAR.”
“THESE RATS FROM NEW YORK, THESE LAW-YUHS, THESE RED DIAPER DOPER BABY LAW-YUHS, THEY SHOULD BE INDICTED UNDER RICO STATUTES AND DEPORTED, THROW ‘EM IN JAIL, THE SOBS. I CAN’T SAY WHAT I REALLY FEEL, OR I’D BE OFF THE RADIO.”
“Parallel to the training of the body, a struggle against the poisoning of the soul must begin. Our whole public life today is like a hot house for sexual ideas and stimulations. Just look at the bill of fare served up in our movies, vaudeville and theaters, and you will hardly be able to deny that this is not the right kind of food, particularly for the youth. In shop windows and billboards the vilest means are used to attract the attention of the crowd. Anyone who has not lost the ability to think himself into their soul must realize that this must cause great damage in the youth. This sensual, sultry atmosphere leads to ideas and stimulations at a time when the boy should have no understanding of such things. The result of this kind of education can be studied in present-day youth, and it is not exactly gratifying. They mature too early and consequently grow old before their time. Sometimes the public learns of court proceedings which permit shattering insights into the emotional life of our fourteen- and fifteen-years-olds. Who will be surprised that even in these age-groups syphilis begins to seek its victims? And is it not deplorable to see a good number of these physically weak, spiritually corrupted young men obtaining their introduction to marriage through big-city whores?
No, anyone who wants to attack prostitution must first of all help to eliminate its spiritual basis. He must clear away the filth of the moral plague of big-city ‘civilization’ and he must do this ruthlessly and without wavering in the face of all the shouting and screaming that will naturally be let loose. If we do not lift the youth out of the morass of their present-day environment, they will drown in it. Anyone who refuses to see these things supports them, and thereby makes himself an accomplice in the slow prostitution of our future which, whether we like it or not, lies in the coming generation. This cleansing of our culture must be extended to nearly all fields. Theater, art, literature, cinema, press, posters, and window displays must be cleansed of all manifestations of our rotting world and placed in the service of a moral, political, and cultural idea. Public life must be freed from the stifling perfume of our modern eroticism, just as it must be freed from all unmanly, prudish hypocrisy. In all these things the goal and the road must be determined by concern for the preservation of the health of our people in body and soul. The right of personal freedom recedes before the duty to preserve the race.”
“WHAT WE SAW ON TUESDAY [SEPTEMBER THE 11TH], AS TERRIBLE AS IT IS, COULD BE MINISCULE IF, IN FACT – GOD CONTINUES TO LIFT THE CURTAIN AND ALLOW THE ENEMIES OF AMERICA TO GIVE US PROBABLY WHAT WE DESERVE…. I REALLY BELIEVE THAT THE PAGANS, AND THE ABORTIONISTS, AND THE FEMINISTS, AND THE GAYS AND THE LESBIANS WHO ARE ACTIVELY TRYING TO MAKE THAT AN ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE, THE ACLU, PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY – ALL OF THEM WHO HAVE TRIED TO SECULARIZE AMERICA – I POINT THE FINGER IN THEIR FACE AND SAY ‘YOU HELPED THIS HAPPEN.'”
“The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.”
How does it feel to live in a proto-fascist country run by a rhetorically fascist regime?
*The lengthy quotes from Hitler were excerpted directly from Mein Kampf, predominantly from two chapters which dealt specifically with propaganda. Most of the shorter quotes are known to have been uttered by Hitler, but are not sourced specifically. One or two could, admittedly, be apocryphal.
As for the Bush & Co. quotes, all of those with quotation marks were confirmed on the White House website; those few without quotation marks go to general rhetoric and amount to paraphrase.
Otherwise…
Ahmed Chalabi, the noted crook and Iranian intelligence asset, sees himself as among the “heroes in error.”
Andrew Card, the White House Chief of Staff, made the remark about the timing of rolling out a new product – the Iraq War. Just two months before the Congressional elections of 2002.
John Ashcroft reassures us about “phantoms of lost liberty…helping the terrorists.”
Anne Coulter made the first three comments in that revolting four pack; Michael Savage consistently reiterates the final point.
Jerry Falwell made the horrendous comment blaming 9/11 on unpopular American minorities on Pat Robertson’s 700 Club in the days right after 9/11.
Otherwise, it’s all Dubya, all the time.
February 18, 2005
Stephen Bender [send him mail] is a writer based in San Francisco. You can find more of his work at his website.
