Goebbels & The Art of Propaganda
Goebbels’ brilliance resides in his grasp of the essential truth that the most successful propaganda is to be applied in the simplest of terms within the fewest basic concepts possible.
The Goebbels Principles:
#1 The BIG LIE: Keep it simple. Tell it often. Tell it at every opportunity, in every venue possible. Poison the public well with the BIG LIE until it becomes axiomatic, buried deeply in the public subconscious. The bigger the lie, the easier it is to sell.
#2 Select the few facts that support your case; discard the others, or simply indulge in a brazen reversal of their contents. Distort the facts that don’t quite fit without some creative reshaping. From that base add inference and conjecture. And, follow the techniques of the BIG LIE to drive the point home.
#3 Control the Press (today we would say “The Drive-bys”). For Goebbels this was easy. Anyone who did not follow orders, found himself, at best, on extended vacation in one of the many “resorts” scattered about Germany, or, at worst, in the basement of a government building with a bullet in his head. For 0bamatrons, control has been only a little more difficult (from time to time something will slip out, but an occasional faux pas can be buried under the BIG LIE). For some reason, those who are simultaneously attracted to the BIG LIE and to militant advocacy, also tend to be attracted to journalism.
#4 Accuse your opponent of the very activity in which you are engaged (guess we know where Alinsky got his ideas).
#5 Bury any opponent, who rises in protest, under a mountain of slander, invective and vilification. This technique serves two purposes: it drowns out what the target has to say; it warns away others who might otherwise entertain the same thoughts. And it can be employed in a variety of ways for other means, such as being used against an innocent who has been subpoenaed to testify before a Congressional committee.
#6 Build up a firestorm of hatred to divide people. For Goebbels (and the modern Arab/Islamic terrorist, and 0bamatrons), this provided a target upon which the disaffected could vent their rage, while precluding any possibility of reasoned debate. For Democrat/Socialists it has the added benefit of building coalitions of voting blocs for the aggrandizement and maintenance of political power.
#7 Assemble an SA (popularly known today as a “Rent-A-Mob,” and more lately the SEIU). Although not employed in such a brutal fashion, RAM is used for much the same purposes as were Röhm’s SA . . . the ultimate future of the SEIU remains problematic at this time.
#8 The difficulty the BIG LIE presents its target is that in order to disprove the slander, the target is obliged to prove a negative. To prove a negative (a virtually impossible task) requires a good deal of explanation, involving the summoning of a number of facts (many of which may be arguable, and all of which are subject themselves to other BIG LIES), and extensive use of logical reasoning. The BIG LIE, conversely, can be uttered in but a few seconds or written in a sentence or two. So, while Truth is marshaling its forces and ordering its counter arguments, the BIG LIE can be told and retold, and spread far and wide. The most effective BIG LIE is one that comes the closest to the truth without quite touching the truth.
#9 Change the subject.
Compounding Truth’s difficulties, the BIG LIE fits perfectly the eight second sound bite for much of what passes in the news media today as reporting, while the response, if mentioned at all, will be reported only as a brief summary. That is why the BIG LIE is called what it is, the BIG LIE. It is BIG in its spectacular scandalousness, and it is BIG in its impact when used in a format friendly to its structure.
Anyone, with bad intentions to disguise, may make efficient use of the Goebbels Principles, if they approach the problem with intelligence.
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The following are excerpts from Herr Goebbels’ speech at the great Nuremberg rally of 1934. The brackets contain my comments, some recently updated, and other observations. These excerpts demonstrate how the 0bamatrons have adapted Herr Goebbels’ propaganda principles to such brilliant effect in their drive to achieve undeserved political domination.
Goebbels at Nuremberg — 1934 Source: Der Kongress zur Nürnberg 1934 (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., Frz. Eher Nachf., 1934), pp. 130 141.
“The cleverest trick used in propaganda against Germany during the war was to accuse Germany of what our enemies themselves were doing.”
[Goebbels # 5 Accuse your opponent of the very activity in which you are engaged. It’s obvious that Goebbels learned this early on in his career.]
“Political propaganda in principle is active and revolutionary.”
[The famous Clinton White House Instant Response Team, successfully emulated by 0bama’s Chicago Mafia.]
“It is aimed at the broad masses. It speaks the language of the people because it wants to be understood by the people. Its task is the highest creative art of putting sometimes complicated events and facts in a way simple enough to be understood by the man on the street.”
[Goebbels #1 The BIG LIE: Keep it simple. Tell it often. Tell it at every opportunity, in every venue possible. Poison the public well with the BIG LIE until it becomes axiomatic, buried deeply in the public subconscious.]
“Propaganda is a means to an end. Its purpose is to lead the people to an understanding that will allow them to willingly and without internal resistance devote themselves to the tasks and goals of a superior leadership. If propaganda is to succeed, it must know what it wants. It must keep a clear and firm goal in mind, and seek the appropriate means and methods to reach that goal.”
[Goebbels #2 Select the few facts that support your case; discard the others, or simply indulge in a brazen reversal of their contents. Distort the facts that don’t quite fit without some creative reshaping. From that base add inference and conjecture, and follow the techniques of the BIG LIE to drive the point home.]
“The great wealth of ideas and never failing creativity of our propaganda, proven during our struggle for power, was perfected to the last detail. Now we turned it to serve the state itself to find meaningful ways and flexible forms to immunize the people's thinking.
Political propaganda, the art of anchoring the things of the state in the broad masses so that the whole nation will feel a part of them, cannot therefore remain merely a means to the goal of winning power. It must become a means of building and keeping power.”
[Goebbels #1, the BIG LIE, and Goebbels #5, Bury any opponent, who rises in protest, under a mountain of slander, invective and vilification. This technique serves two purposes: it drowns out what the target has to say; it warns away others who might otherwise entertain the same thoughts. The 0bamatrons have adapted Herr Goebbels’ propaganda principles to brilliant effect in their drive to gain undeserved political domination.]
“The nature of propaganda remains the same, whatever the technical means, but the means nonetheless are becoming ever broader and far reaching. One need only consider the revolutionary impact of the invention of radio, which gave the spoken word true mass effectiveness. This has had great effects on the technical apparatus of propaganda, but the art of propaganda has remained the same.”
[Goebbels #3 Control the Press (today it would be “The Drive-By Media”)].
“Good propaganda does not need to lie, indeed it may not lie. It has no reason to fear the truth.” [A “lie” is that which does not serve the cause. A “truth” is that which does serve the cause]
“It is a mistake to believe that people cannot take the truth. They can. It is only a matter of presenting the truth to people in a way that they will be able to understand. It must be presented properly if it is to win.”
[Being “presented properly” in a modern setting, necessitates many active and proficient talking heads]
“But a good idea is itself the best propaganda.”
[Employ a lot of polling activity to discover what words and phrases best resonate with the people]
“Such propaganda is successful without being obnoxious. It depends on its nature, not its methods. It works without being noticed. Its goals are inherent in its nature. Since it is almost invisible, it is effective and powerful. A good cause will lose to a bad one if it depends only on its rightness, while the other side uses the methods of influencing the masses.”
[Goebbels #2 Select the few facts that support your case; discard the others, or simply indulge in a brazen reversal of their contents. Distort the facts that don’t quite fit without some creative reshaping. Add inference and conjecture. Follow the techniques of the BIG LIE to drive the point home.]
“The organizational union of mass demonstrations, the press, film, radio, literature, theater, etc., is only the mechanical side to the matter. It is not so much that all these means are in one hand. The important thing is that this hand knows how to master and control them.”
[Goebbels #3 Control the Press. Goebbels #7 Assemble an SA (since known as a “Rent-A-Mob,” and more lately the SEIU)]
“Only when all means of propaganda are concentrated and their unified application assured will it be possible to carry out major educational and propaganda battles as we did before 12 November 1933 [the referendum Hitler called to approve Germany's withdrawal from the League of Nations] or 19 August 1934" [The referendum called to ratify Hitler's absolute power after the death of Hindenburg]
[Goebbels #6 Build up a firestorm of hatred to divide people.]
“If such an art of active mass influence through propaganda is joined with the long term systematic education of a nation, and if both are conducted in a unified and precise way, the relationship between the leadership and the nation will always remain close.”
[The shape of things to come.]
“There are no parliamentary parties in Germany any longer. How could we have overcome them had we not waged an educational campaign for years that persuaded people of their weaknesses, harms and disadvantages? Their final elimination was only the result of what the people had already realized. Our propaganda weakened these parties. Based on that, they could be eliminated by a legal act.”
[Find ways to eliminate the opposition’s influence on the operation of government]
“The positive national discipline of the German press would never have been possible without the compete elimination of the influence of the liberal Jewish press. That happened only because of the years long work of our propaganda.”
[Eliminate the opposition’s voice in the media]
“Or consider economic policy. Does anyone believe that the idea of class struggle could have been eliminated only by a law? Is it not rather the fact that the seeds we sowed in a hundred thousand meetings resulted in a new socialist structure of labor?”
[Goebbels #6 For Democrat/Socialists it has the added benefit of building coalitions of voting blocs for the aggrandizement and maintenance of political power]
“We could eliminate the Jewish danger in our culture because the people had recognized it as the result of our propaganda. Major cultural achievements such as the unique "Kraft durch Freude" are possible only with the powerful support of the people. The prerequisite was and is propaganda, which here too creates and maintains the connection to the people.”
[Goebbels #6 Build up a firestorm of hatred to divide people]
“Each situation brings new challenges. And each task requires the support of the people, which can only be gained by untiring propaganda that brings the broad masses knowledge and clarity. No area of public life can do without it. It is the never resting force behind public opinion. It must maintain an unbroken relationship between leadership and people. Every means of technology must be put in its service; the goal is to form the mass will and to give it meaning, purpose and goals that will enable us to learn from past failures and mistakes and ensure that the lead National Socialist strength has given us over other nations will never again be lost.”
[No comment necessary]
Conservatives, believing they have the better case on the issues, are eager to enter into substantive discussions, respond to serious questions, and engage their opponents in genuine debate. 0bamatrons and other Democrat/Socialists, knowing they have the worse case if they allow their true agenda to be substantively aired, have resorted to the use of the Goebbels Principles of propaganda and character assassination, and, in gaining complete control of political power, have succeeded brilliantly.
As the 1937 definition following demonstrates, there was a time when the idea of Propaganda enjoyed a reasonably respectable reputation until Goebbels & Co (Stalin, Mussolini, Franco, the Socialist Intelligentsia of New York City and Hollywood, etc) got their hands on it.
Propaganda, n. [L., gerundive of propagare, to propagate.] 1. A society in Rome, charged with the management of the Roman Catholic missions, and styled Societas de Propaganda Fide. 2. [p--] Any society or means used for advocating or teaching a particular doctrine or system.
propagandism, n. The art or practice of propagating tenets or principles.
Propagandist, n. A person who devotes himself to the spread of any system of principles.
. . . . . Webster’s Universal Dictionary of the English Language, unabridged, 1937
As opposed to "toying with" them?