more on Manipulating common people to support wars

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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 for
> lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
>
> -- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials/proceedings


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