Anzac Day cometh...
Gustave Gilbert, a German-speaking intelligence officer and psychologist who was granted free access by the Allies to all the prisoners held in the Nuremberg jail during the period of the Nuremberg Trails, kept a journal of his observations of the proceedings and his conversations with the prisoners, which he later published in the book Nuremberg Diary. Gilbert recorded Goering's (Nazi Reichsmarshall and Luftwaffe-Chief) observations that the common people can always be manipulated into supporting and fighting wars by their political leaders:
Gilbert: "We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction."
Goering: "Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."
Gilbert: "There is one difference. In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."
Goering: "Oh, that is all well and good, but, 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 danger. It works the same way in any country."
So there you have it, the full context for Goering's famous quote.
Source: Snopes
Gilbert: "We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction."
Goering: "Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."
Gilbert: "There is one difference. In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."
Goering: "Oh, that is all well and good, but, 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 danger. It works the same way in any country."
So there you have it, the full context for Goering's famous quote.
Source: Snopes
posted by The Editor at
11:08 AM
3 Comments:
Thanks, Ron. I've mirrored it here
There should be a shock of recognition, certainly in the US, at the cynical and murderous wisdom of Goering...I am just floored by it and have repeated it often in ET. It bears any amount of repeating. I hope that recognition isn't peculiar to beaten up old souls like Jerry who have seen the end product of these manipulations up close and personal.
And what do they get out of it these war-mongering "liberators"?
What's been the real costs of the Iraq war (for instance) and how will they ever make good the economic imperatives that drove those maniacs to their decisions.
And if anyone thinks that this war was not motivated primarily by the warped economic perceptions of the current bunch of lunatics in the White House, then I'll be a monkey's uncle.
But as Goering so succinctly puts it, the people are just simply and easily manipulated by the media to back this current bunch of murderous war criminals. You can be sure this bunch will not have to face any Nuremberg Trials.
If I wasn't a pacifist, I could easily have become a "terrorist". I certainly understand the monumental sense of injustice they must feel.
This is a very dark period indeed in the history of our respective nations, GS.
And I still say that your mob have bullied our current bunch of moral cowards into backing them to the hilt!
The fact that our mob are a bunch of racist white supremacists still bonded to the warped thinking of their colonial and imperialist forefathers is what made it so easy for your mob.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
And now I have to put up with a week of wallowing in the glory of Gallipoli so Howard can hoodwink a few more gullible idiots into joining his military machine. Oh how patriotic it all is...
Sing along with me now, everybody... "Workin' fo' da Yankee dollah..."
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