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Propaganda


    
Propaganda
Propaganda

   

Propaganda is the art of making nonsense seem desirable.

          It is a very old art: the Greek Sophists were already practicing it 2,500 years ago, and they were by no means* Its inventors.
      However, the technique has been developed to such an extent* during the past fifty years or so that it is easy to acquire. No matter how big the lie that you want people to accept as truth, you can put it over* successfully if you observe a few elementary rules: firstly, tell your lie loudly; secondly, tell it in the simplest language, which even the mentally subnormal* (they are your best allies) can grasp; thirdly, tell it again and again, at frequent intervals, without introducing any confusing variations in the formulas you use; fourthly, make sure that your propaganda involves hating somebody (it does not matter particularly who, but hate is a very pleasurable and a very binding emotion); fifthly, make sure that you enlist the support of the parasites of your society ـــpickpockets, sneak-thieves, pimps, bullies, blackmailers, extortioners, and in fact everybody who is too lazy to work, and therefore preys on those who do. Such people are very useful to you, because they hate and are jealous of the intelligent and competent people, who are your chief danger. You can use them to intimidate and beat up your opponents among the latter.
       To achieve quick results, make full use of radio-vans: send them around the town and countryside, each with its hoarse voiced announcer shrieking your slogans in an urgent, excited voice. Intelligent people will think it is a running dogfight and not even look out of the window, but the mass of the people will be drawn. Use the radio too: have gramophone records of people shouting short slogans in chorus; have songs with easily remembered words and tunes which the children will pick up* and sing in. the streets; and have these songs and slogans repeated at least once an hour on the radio.
Organize mammoth rallies: be sure to provide the masses with free transport, free flags and banners and free refreshments (they themselves pay in the end, because the money comes from the public treasury, but they will think they are getting something for nothing, and come along for the ride and the refreshments).

 Make violent, emotional speeches (remember that it is not to the people's reason but to their emotions that you are appealing; avoid reason: it is a dangerous, double-edged weapon,* and can often get you mixed up with the truth, which is something you must avoid like the plague*).

Fill all the newspapers with your lies: it doesn't matter very much whether they are credible or not; you will gradually build up an atmosphere of belief* by sheer repetition. But to do this, you must suppress all opposition. Newspapers that tell the truth about you must be banned as traitors to the people. Individuals who speak up against you must be imprisoned (if you have not yet got enough power to do this without trial,

Frame them: accuse them of corrupt practices, or of immorality, or anything else. You will be able to appoint plenty of 'witnesses' from among the parasites who support you). If you fail to get them imprisoned, see that some of your parasites beat them up so severely that they are unable to oppose you further. It will be excused by the public as a playful excess of zeal* in the cause of 'the people'.

 Always speak in the sacred name of 'the people'.  No one will be able to prove that you do not in fact represent them, because the idea that "the people" have a voice is a myth provided you control the army (which, as you know, means having the generals and colonels in your pocket*) you are 'the voice of the people', and woe to* any of these 'people' who challenge you. It will be easy for you to 'prove' that they are in the pay of foreign countries (they must be if they oppose you!) and that you are protecting 'the people' against them.

Take a few lessons in arithmetic (the amount you need to know will not be difficult to acquire): then you will know how to multiply a group of twenty students demonstrating outside a foreign embassy by ten, or perhaps a hundred, in the newspapers and on the radio.

A mob of 2,000 students staged a spontaneous demonstration against ــــــ outside the ــــــ  Embassy yesterday morning ' sounds much better than 'twenty" professional" students paid by the government and provided with military transport and rations demonstrated etc. Incidentally, a narrow-lens camera is invaluable for photographs of such 'mobs because it is then possible to take a solid mass of people, however few, and make it look as if they are only a small part of a crowed. Also, if the photographs purport, for example, to show students, see that they are slightly blurred so that inquisitive people cannot see that they are far too old and far too moronic-looking to be genuine students.

      Be careful about making speeches to University students; unless you have already managed to make University entry dependent on membership of your party, you will find that a considerable number of students are intelligent and will not be able to swallow your usual line of talk. This means that you will have to use your brain for once. If (as is probable) you are not confident of your ability to do this, don't make speeches to University students; attack the problem in a different way, e.g. by seeing that students who are too intelligent for your purposes fail to pass their examinations and thus have to leave the University.

Become an expert in double-talk by reading the speeches and writings of famous and successful propagandists. Language is a wonderfully imprecise tool, so that it is quite possible for you to claim that you are building up your country when you are in fact- ruining it or to make yourself out to be a great champion of liberty and independence while you are crushing the liberty of your people and the independence of minorities in your country. You can rant about respect for the sovereign rights of a nation (your own of course) while at the same time encroaching on the rights of neighbors. There is a vast and profitable field for you in such double talk. It can get you out of any corner.* For instance, if your people are starving because you refuse foreign aid in building up industries in your country, nothing is easier than to blame the food-shortage on foreign interference.

        Be bold and self-confident! Don't pay any heed to people who warn you against rashness and recklessness! If you know how to play the propaganda game, you are safe! But remember: the truth is disastrous> Once the white light of truth shines into your hates and your slogans< beware!
(about 1.250 words)

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