In an interview with Gilbert in Hermann Göring’s (the Nazi) jail cell during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials (18 April 1946)
Göring: “…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.
Gilbert: “There is one difference. 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.”
Göring: “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.”
I thought this was an interesting quote for two reasons:
1. It seems to support my post the other day about fear, and how people need and want fear, to a certain extent.
2. The way he talks about convincing people that they are being attacked, in order to make them submit. I guess this is how a lot of people would view the role of the “war on terror”. It’s interesting to see how ideas have been around for so long, but we often forget. It’s easy to fall into “Oh, the world must be getting worse”, or “look at all these new terrors” when that may not be the case. Not that I am saying the world isn’t getting worse…
In a similar vein, I was watching a film from the 80’s, and the director was talking about technology taking over our lives. And now, 20 years on, we are still talking about technology taking over our lives, like it is a brand new thing.
Perhaps at our core humans never really change…
I think this particular quote accurately portrays how power can be gained through the fear felt by another individual, how certain political regimes feed on this unfortunate weakness of a human’s character. The astonishing thing is that people have not yet learnt that history has repeated itself time and time again. Regimes that declare to oppose one another, such as Fascism and Communism, are scarily similar - especially in their propaganda and the resulting effects of their time in power. Yet people have failed to recognise the signs of corruption and the totalitarian power. Perhaps we are right to say that humans do not truly evolve - leaders have essentially always sought the same goal and the ‘masses’ have been repeatedly deceived by such leaders, or have let themselves be deceived. How can we know that a revolutionary moment is truly happening? Only with hindsight can we observe any kind of evolution or change, and by that time it is too late.
Just like to point out that these fear techniques were also used in Russia before the Nazis came along. And yes the driving force of these techniques is ignorance and the governments use of very intelligent propaganda.
I do see where your coming from, but I think with such good commuications such as the internet it makes propaganda very hard, also it helps open our eyes to the full story, which helps us see when the moment is true all this means we often are not ignorant to the facts. With the true facts a picture can be put together. Although we would never know what are true facts are without seeing them ourselves. How are we to know what we are seeing is true if we know the government is trying to convince us?
In the end these totalitarian dictatorships have used desperate situations to gain power, I dont think you could convice people in a time of stability to vote for a Fascist or Communist regime. To stop this from happening we have to help the countrie s in need. Another point thats been said for 50 years.