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September 8, 2024 at 2:32 PM

Propaganda Under a Dictatorship

QuietPI
@Quietpi

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The following is quoted from Chapter 5 of Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited, published in 1958. The chapter's title appears above. It's the first paragraph of the chapter. Note that after the introductory sentences, the entire paragraph is Huxley quoting Albert Speer. We begin:

At his trial after the Second World War, Hitler's Minister for Armaments, Albert Speer, delivered a long speech in which, with remarkable acuteness, he described the Nazi tyranny and analyzed its methods. "Hitler's dictatorship," he said, "differed in one fundamental point from all its predecessors in history. It was the first dictatorship in the present period of modern technical development, a dictatorship which made complete use of all technical means for the domination of its own country. Through technical devices like the radio and the loudspeaker, eighty million people were deprived of independent thought. It was thereby possible to subject them to the will of one man. . . . Earlier dictators needed highly qualified assistants even at the lowest level - men who could think and act independently. The totalitarian system in the period of modern technical development can dispense with such men; thanks to modern methods of communication, it is possible to mechanize the lower leadership. As a result of this there has arisen the new type of the uncritical recipient of orders."

Huxley foresaw the state in which we find ourselves today. When he wrote Brave New World, he said he thought that the world he was describing would come about in six centuries. Instead, in writing "Revisited," save for some things like decanting babies, the world had come striking close in a mere six decades.

I've settled on crediting Santayana with originating the phrase, "Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it." How many times have those of us on "the Right" tried to point out the parallels between the practices of the Third Reich and the state of current affairs, only to be shouted down by those on the left, who cover their ears? They don't know, and they're making sure that they don't find out. And here we are.

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    Stad@Stad·2y
    QuietPI (View Post):
    “Hitler’s dictatorship,” he [Albert Speer] said, “differed in one fundamental point from all its predecessors in history. It was the first dictatorship in the present period of modern technical development, a dictatorship which made complete use of all technical means for the domination of its own country. Through technical devices like the radio and the loudspeaker, eighty million people were deprived of independent thought. It was thereby possible to subject them to the will of one man. . . . Earlier dictators needed highly qualified assistants even at the lowest level – men who could think and act independently. The totalitarian system in the period of modern technical development can dispense with such men; thanks to modern methods of communication, it is possible to mechanize the lower leadership. As a result of this there has arisen the new type of the uncritical recipient of orders.”

    Ain't it the truth.

    Still, our would-be dictators need the MSM to keep them propped up. Otherwise, we'd throw the Sierra-Oscar-Bravos out on their rears . . .

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    QuietPI@Quietpi·2y

    Speer makes clear how important the control of information (propaganda) is. Huxley, now in 1958, goes on in that chapter about how far mass communication had come already since WW II. He showed how much easier it would be already (in 1958) for the tyrant to work his evil. I reckon that he had envisioned the coming of something like the internet when he wrote Brave New World. He saw clearly the danger it brings.

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    Old Bathos@OldBathos·2y

    The consistent lesson is that not opposing lies, censorship, and usurpation of rights and powers at the outset is a fatal mistake.

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    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill@CarolJoy·2y
    ReplyingtoOld Bathos

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    The consistent lesson is that not opposing lies, censorship, and usurpation of rights and powers at the outset is a fatal mistake.

    Ah that is true.

    But currently since traditional media is hostage to forces so powerful we can only guess at their strength, those who oppose the official narrative of any story are:

    1. Ignored
    2. Stripped of all relevant titles such that even if they once were a doctor or held other credentials, they now are mere "nobodies."
    3. Made the victims of some scandal (See: Trump and his Russian collusion, Dr Simone Gold and her "fraud of misappropriating monies," and the recent life histories of the dozens and dozens of people imprisoned for "being important players in a conspiracy to cause insurrection on Jan6th 2021."

    It was not a mere fluke in ""mistaken reasoning" that caused COVID protocols to include banning people from assembling at places of worship, at taverns and bars, and at various celebrations that bring about large gatherings.

    The ban on assembly was brought about so that people had fewer opportunities to exchange information on their personal thoughts about what was going on. This left isolated individuals who did not spend time on alternative internet sites to fall for the endless propaganda about COVID such that they would use ski poles to beat up other people for not wearing masks.

    Such hostility to "the outliers" came about in only 9 months. When a person considers that it took the Third Reich some 5 and a half years before they could round up 60,000 Jewish males, and that activity required getting Germans to understand it was "for their safety as the Reich did not have the ability to stop the brown shirts from hurting them," Herr Fauci et al must have had Hitler in his grave spinning with envy over this accomplishment.

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