Propaganda and the Public, A Historical Perspective
[This item comes via email, thus no URL is attached.]
Have you noticed that as 2003 drew to a close a great many news stories were
making direct references to Fascism, Hitler and other symbols of the Third
Reich? Do a Google News Search for various Reich-related terms, as I did
moments ago, and you might be very surprised by the number of hits you'll
find. For example, who'd have imagined that on January 1, 2004 there'd be
over 70 new hits referencing Hitler's long-dead Propaganda Minister,
"Goebbels"???
I've pasted below one such story that is making the rounds. It is titled,
"The Left's Nazification of Bush". Pasted below that is an excerpted version
of Joseph Goebbels' New Year speech --- the year was 1934.
And though I offer these without any comment, I strongly encourage you to
read them both. Think of these as something Old and something New with
which to welcome in the New Year.
The Editor
"[T]he rank and file are usually much more
primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must
therefore always be essentially simple and
repetitive. In the long run basic results in
influencing public opinion will be achieved
only by the man who is able to reduce problems
to the simplest terms and who has the courage
to keep forever repeating them in this
simplified form, despite the objections of the
intellectuals."
-Josef Goebbels
[[RGD commments: Isn't it interesting how the vague threat alerts all seem to have a very simple and easily understood theme, i.e. the swarthy foreign bad guys are planning to hurt us, and we must take more and more militaristic precautions, or else..... Also, the simplistic color coded threat level alerts are too silly for those of us who read and think, but may well be considered the sort of thing that will register and resonate with simpler minds.]]
---- begin quoted ----
frontpagemag.com
The Left's Nazification of Bush
By John Leo - Townhall.com | December 16, 2003
The hard left decided long ago that George W. Bush is Hitler. In maddened
corners of the Internet and at swastika-choked antiwar marches, Bush is
shown with a Nazi uniform or a Hitler mustache. But does everyone on the far
left believe this? Not at all. Some think that Dick Cheney is the real
Hitler (he commands America's "storm-trooper legions," said former
right-wing crackpot and current left-wing crackpot Lyndon LaRouche). Others
think Don Rumsfeld is Hitler (both men favored mountaintop retreats, the
Action Coalition of Taos points out). These comparisons are still being
argued. Air Force veteran Douglas Herman, writing an op-ed piece in Florida,
says Rumsfeld is more like Goering, since both men were fighter pilots,
while LaRouche decided that Cheney isn't just Hitler -- he's Lady Macbeth as
well.
Many on the left believe that either Ari Fleischer or Karl Rove is Nazi
propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Or maybe Richard Perle is related to Goebbels.
The September issue of Vanity Fair suggested that Perle could be Goebbels's
twin (side by side photos, headlined "Separated at birth?").
Another vexing question about Rove: Is he Goebbels or Josef Mengele?
Goebbels is the top choice among antiwar commentators, but a writer to the
MetaFilter site said: "Karl Rove made up stories about John McCain, just as
Josef Mengele conducted medical experiments on children in Auschwitz."
One Internet site referred to Tom Ridge as Heinrich Himmler; another calls
him head of "Homeland Security, the new Gestapo." Colin Powell is Nazi
Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, according to a posting on the
Democratic Underground site. And Frank Rich of the New York Times managed to
work a famous Nazi filmmaker into the mix. He wrote that the recent Showtime
docudrama, DC 9/11: Time of Crisis, was so pro-Bush that it is "best viewed
as a fitting memorial to Leni Riefenstahl."
The common charge that Bush is Mussolini is controversial -- many leftists
insist that the Mussolini role is reserved for Tony Blair, the junior
partner of Bush's Hitler. Cartoonist Aaron McGruder said on TV that
Condoleezza Rice is a murderer but failed to give her any Nazi
designation -- a big mistake by prevailing standards. On the same show,
NAACP Chairman Julian Bond said, "I generally agree with [McGruder] 100
percent," but he too failed to offer a good Nazi comparison.
Paul Wolfowitz is a challenge to lefty analysts, some of whom think his
intellectual background is fascist (Jeffrey Steinberg in Executive
Intelligence Review), while others believe he has Bolshevik roots (he is
Trotsky's ghost, according to Canadian journalist Jeet Heer).
Anyone who calls the Bush people fascists will get no argument from
Princeton Prof. Sheldon Wolin, who says, "We are facing forms of domination
that exceed the old vocabulary." So if you feel like calling somebody a
fascist, go right ahead. Historian Eric Foner of Columbia compared Bush to
the Japanese warlords of World War II who launched a pre-emptive war at
Pearl Harbor. Since other name-callers on the left are so Nazi-minded, this
qualifies as a fresh idea.
By last fall, most of the outstanding villains of history had been pressed
into service as forerunners of George Bush. Napoleon is a heavy favorite.
"The only difference between George W. Bush and Napoleon Bonaparte is 10
inches," Debby Morse wrote in the San Francisco Examiner. She compared John
Ashcroft to Napoleon's ruthless police chief Joseph Fouché. History Prof.
David Applebaum of Rowan University compared Bush to Robespierre as well as
to Napoleon. And many have speculated on whether Laura Bush seems like
Josephine. Radical journalist Alexander Cockburn wasn't sure about Bush as
Napoleon, "though surely Josephine's heart beats beneath Laura's delicious
bosom."
Bush is Dr. Frankenstein, according to the cartoon "Bushenstein" featured on
the Democratic National Committee Web site. Anti-Bush columnist Paul Krugman
apparently disagrees. The cover on the British edition of his current book
of columns shows Bush as Frankenstein's monster, not as Frankenstein
himself. The frontier for Bush insults keeps shifting. One day the president
is Attila the Hun, the next day he is Ted Bundy. A posting on The Unknown
(an apparently unhinged news site) said that Bush is a charming lunatic,
just like Hitler, Ted Bundy, Mussolini, and Hannibal Lecter. One lefty said
Bush is Caligula, while another insists he is the new Nero ("Nero burned
Rome, Hitler burned the Reichstag, Bush burned the World Trade Center"). Don
't you love the way these people argue?
===================
calvin.edu
The New Year 1934
by Joseph Goebbels
My fellow German citizens! ...
Is there any reason to doubt that we will return this people to its just
place among the nations of the world? We have had the courage to break with
the unacceptable methods of international post-war diplomacy and claim the
absolute right of the German nation to national honor and equality. We knew
from the beginning that it would take a tough battle. Today we think we can
say that we will win if we keep our nerve.
The year 1933 ends under this happy sign. With nostalgia we look back once
again. It was a proud and manly year. It was a year of beginning and
renewal, the first since the end of the war of which we can say that it
ended for Germany better than it had begun.
As always, we stand at the helm even more firmly after the battle. The new
year is before us, with its new challenges and tasks. Nothing will be given
to us; we will have to seize it. Hard and challenging problems await us. We
will need all our strength and intelligence to hold the ground that we have
won, to increase it, to build on it, for only from it can we make the leap
to new territory...
The tasks before us are large and difficult, almost discouragingly so. Only
our strong and fanatic faith will give us the strength to solve them. If the
German people stay united and work together, they will master fate and build
a new future. Peoples never lose because of inadequate weapons, only through
a lack of self- confidence and will.
Let us then stand together and enter the new year with courage. The whole
people should be confident of the government's thanks. Each of us is proud
that we serve the people in a high position. We are all members of the
people, we express its spirit and its will. The lowliest of our people is
dearer to us than the king of another nation. And we would rather be the
lowliest citizen of our nation than the king of another...
In these last hours of the year, we join in humble thanks to the great God
who gave us the gift of doing our work loyally and industriously. We ask his
blessings for the coming year, and promise that we will not be unworthy of
his blessings.
The year of revolution is over. The year of construction is beginning.
We give our respectful greeting to the General Field Marshall and Reich
President, who in the past year was once more the loyal Ekkehard of his
people. May fate preserve him for us for many years to come. We give our
loyalty and eternal allegiance to the Führer, who never wavering bore the
flag through storms and dangers. May he stay strong and healthy, and
complete his work... |
