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more on Manipulating common people to support wars
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 11:41:06 -0700
Begin forwarded message: From: Keith Dawson <kadawson () mac com> Date: September 8, 2006 9:08:49 AM PDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] Manipulating common people to support wars Mark Twain wrote this in "Chronicle of Young Satan": [*] "The loud little handful -- as usual -- will shout for the war. The pulpit will -- warily and cautiously -- object... at first. The great, big, dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, "It is unjust and dishonorable, and there is no necessity for it. "Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing and be applauded, but it will not last long; those others will outshout them, and presently the antiwar audiences will thin out and lose popularity. "Before long, you will see this curious thing: the speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech strangled by hordes of furious men... "Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience- soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self- deception." -- KDawson [*] Twain began this manuscript in 1897 but never finished it. He later worked on two other versions of this material under the working title "The Mysterious Stranger." After his death a bowdlerized edition of these three manuscripts was published, under the title "The Mysterious Stranger," by his literary executor. http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/1165.html
This reminds me of how to manipulate people to support war: http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.htm"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, 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 pacifists forlack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." -- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials/proceedings
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