

### NAZIS AT THE DOOR – Mein Kampf Comes to Washington DC

By Eva L. Frankenberger

Copyright 2018 Eva L. Frankenberger

In editing the quotations from Mein Kampf, minor changes in tense, capitalization, punctuation, and so on, were done without brackets: all other changes are in square brackets. Because of the amount of material removed, paragraphs are punctuated beginning and end with quotation marks. Copyright protection applies to editing and original authorship exclusive of text from Mein Kampf. All Rights Reserved

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Table of Contents

Dedication

Preface

*How to Use this Book

Chapter 1 Patriots and Heroes

Chapter 2 General Political Considerations

Chapter 3 Propaganda

Chapter 4 Theoretician and Politician

Chapter 5 The Press

Chapter 6 Religion

Chapter 7 Organization and Leadership

Chapter 8 Political Faith and Religion

Chapter 9 The State and Education

Chapter 10 Citizens, Subjects, and Aliens

Chapter 11 Personality

Chapter 12 Philosophy and Organization

Chapter 13 The Printed Word vs. Oratory

Chapter 14 Persistence

Chapter 15 The Strong Man is Mightiest Alone

Chapter 16 Authority

Chapter 17 Christian Unity

Chapter 18 Confederacy

Chapter 19 Propaganda and Organization

Chapter 20 Trade Unions

Chapter 21 Establishing Foreign Policy

*Peace Treaties

Chapter 22 Foreign Policy and Natural Resources

Chapter 23 The Right to Forcibly Remove Oppression

Conclusion

Appendix A: Suggested Homework

Appendix B: Riding the Tiger

Appendix C: Community

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all the women, and men, who celebrated and participated in the Women's March on January 21, 2017. It was the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.

The hundreds of rallies held across the nation and around the world advocated for legislation and policies on human rights, women's rights, immigration reform, healthcare reform, reproductive rights, the environment, LGBTQ rights, racial equality, freedom of religion, and workers' rights.

We protested Donald Trump's inauguration as President of the United States, and his anti-women and other offensive and disgusting statements and positions. Please give someone who participated in the Women's March a copy of this book.

WE ARE NOT FINISHED!

Eva L. Frankenberger

Preface

How to use this Book: _Nazis at the Door_ is a reference book addressing the philosophy, tactics, and psychology used by Trump's far right. Skim the book for an overview of their political strategy and then go to the Appendix for suggestions on what you can do.

_Mein Kampf_ , sold over ten million copies, and transformed an established democracy into a dictatorship. You may be shocked to see how much is already being woven into the fabric of our society.

Democracy: the citizens exercise power, majority rule.

Oligarchy: small group of people controlling a country, organization, or institution.

Dictatorship: rule by one person.

The United States is no longer a democracy - it is an oligarchy. Here are three examples: the people overwhelmingly want sensible gun control but a small number of people control that issue. This is also true for campaign finance reform and the ridiculous gerrymandering that bars large groups of people from the electoral process.

In this book I do not use the title of "President" when referring to Mr. Trump.

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"Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside"

\- President John F. Kennedy

Hitler's Game Plan: Chapter 1 Patriots and Heroes

Hitler began the first volume of Mein Kampf by dedicating it to fallen patriots.

**From Mein Kampf** : "ON NOVEMBER 9, 1923, at 12.30 in the afternoon, in front of the Feldherrnhalle as well as in the courtyard of the former War Ministry eighteen men fell, with loyal faith in the resurrection of their people. As its blood witnesses, may they shine forever, a glowing example to the followers of our movement."

We all respect heroic deeds. But, to those who practice Mein Kampf politics, human sacrifice is a means to create an emotional connection to the masses, set an example for followers and vilify opponents.

The emotional connection to a heroic event is a political asset that is virtually unchallengeable. Protected by the shield of opportunistic flag waving, an attack on the political movement can be interpreted as an attack on the heroic deed itself.

In Mein Kampf politics, the emotional connection to the masses is the end that justifies the means. Many historians are highly suspect of Hitler's orchestration of events leading up to 11-9-1923 and of his actions on that day, but regardless, that day, 11-9-23 belonged to Hitler.

**Rule 1. Heroic** deeds (accompanied by the political leader's flag waving) can emotionally connect the populace to the political movement.

**Rule 2. Patriots are an example for followers**.

**Rule 3. Critics of the movement can be vilified as unpatriotic**.

[This (wrapping in the flag) technique can also be used to promote: white supremacy, imaginary moral superiority, class or economic entitlement, nationalism, racism, etc.]

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Chapter 2 General Political Considerations

**From Mein Kampf** : "Concepts and ideas, as well as movements with a definite spiritual foundation, regardless whether the latter is false or true, can, after a certain point in their development, only be broken with technical instruments of power if these physical weapons [have the] support of a new kindling thought, idea, or philosophy."

**Rule 1. Force must have a spiritual foundation**. "The application of force alone, without the impetus of a basic spiritual idea as a starting point, can never lead to the destruction of an idea and its dissemination."

"Indeed, nearly all attempts to exterminate a doctrine and its organizational expression, by force without spiritual foundation, are doomed to failure, and not seldom end with the exact opposite of the desired result".

**Rule 2. Force requires persistence**. "The very first requirement for a mode of struggle with the weapons of naked force is, and remains, persistence. In other words: only by the continuous and steady application of the methods for repressing a doctrine, etc., is it possible for a plan to succeed."

**Rule 3. Violence must spring from a spiritual base**. "Only in the steady and constant application of force lies the very first prerequisite for success. This persistence, however, can always and only arise from a definite spiritual conviction. Any violence which does not spring from a firm, spiritual base, will be wavering and uncertain. It lacks the stability which can only rest in a fanatical outlook."

**Rule 4. Change is more offensive than defensive**. "Any philosophy, whether of a religious or political nature - and sometimes the dividing line is hard to determine - fights less for the negative destruction of the opposing ideology than for the positive promotion of its own. Hence its struggle is less defensive than offensive."

"Thus, in summing up, we can establish the following: Any attempt to combat a philosophy with methods of violence will fail in the end, unless the fight takes the form of attack for a new spiritual attitude. Only in the struggle between two philosophies can the weapon of brutal force, persistently and ruthlessly applied lead to a decision for the side it supports."

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Chapter 3 Propaganda

**From Mein Kampf** : "The first decisive question: Is propaganda a means or an end? It is a means and must therefore be judged with regard to its end."

"The second really decisive question is this: To whom should propaganda be addressed? To the scientifically trained intelligentsia or to the less educated masses? It must be addressed always, and exclusively, to the masses."

"What the intelligentsia - or those who today unfortunately often go by that name - what they need is not propaganda but scientific instruction. The content of propaganda is not science any more than the object represented in a poster is art. The art of the poster lies in the designer's ability to attract the attention of the crowd by form and color. A poster advertising an art exhibit must direct the attention of the public to the art being exhibited; the better it succeeds in this, the greater is the art of the poster itself. The poster should give the masses an idea of the significance of the exhibition, it should not be a substitute for the art on display. Anyone who wants to concern himself with the art itself must do more than study the poster; and it will not be enough for him just to saunter through the exhibition. We may expect him to examine and immerse himself in the individual works, and thus little by little form a fair opinion. A similar situation prevails with what we today call propaganda."

**Rule 1. Focus the masses' attention**. "The function of propaganda does not lie in the scientific training of the individual, but in calling the masses' attention to certain facts, processes, necessities, etc., whose significance is thus for the first time placed within their field of vision."

"The whole art consists in doing this so skillfully that everyone will be convinced that the fact is real, the process necessary, the necessity correct, etc. But since propaganda is not and cannot be the necessity in itself, since its function, like the poster, consists in attracting the attention of the crowd, and not in educating those who are already educated or who are striving after education and knowledge, its effect for the most part must be aimed at the emotions and only to a very limited degree at the so-called intellect."

**Rule 2. Simple message - simple slogan**. "All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be. But if, as in propaganda for sticking out a war, the aim is to influence a whole people, we must avoid excessive intellectual demands on our public, and too much caution cannot be exerted in this direction."

**Rule 3. Emotion is the lowest common denominator**. "The more modest its intellectual ballast, the more exclusively it takes into consideration the emotions of the masses, the more effective it will be. The art of propaganda lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the great masses and finding, through a psychologically correct form, [this is] the way to the attention and thence to the heart of the broad masses.

**Rule 4. Repetition**. "Once we understand how necessary it is for propaganda to be adjusted to the broad mass, the following rule results: It is a mistake to make propaganda many-sided, like scientific instruction, for instance. The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan."

"As soon as you sacrifice the slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away, for the crowd can neither digest nor retain the material offered. In this way the result is weakened and in the end entirely cancelled out."

**Rule 5. Psychologically reliable**. "Basic tactics must be psychologically sound. Propaganda must follow a simple line and correspondingly the basic tactics must be psychologically sound."

"For instance, it was absolutely wrong to make the enemy ridiculous because actual contact aroused an entirely different conviction of the enemy's resistance By contrast, the war propaganda of the English and Americans was psychologically sound. By representing the [enemy] to their own people as barbarians and Huns, they prepared the individual soldier for the terrors of war, and thus helped to preserve him from disappointments. After this, the most terrible weapon that was used against him seemed only to confirm what his propagandists had told him; it likewise reinforced his faith in the truth of his government's assertions, while on the other hand it increased his rage and hatred against the vile enemy."

**Rule 6. One-sided and subjective**. "The very first axiom of all propagandist activity: to wit, the basically subjective and one-sided attitude it must take toward every question it deals with."

"What, for example, would we say about a poster that was supposed to advertise a new soap and that described other soaps as 'good'? We would only shake our heads. Exactly the same applies to political advertising."

**Rule 7. Propaganda is not the same thing as truth**. "The function of propaganda is, for example, not to weigh and ponder the rights of different people, but exclusively to emphasize the one right which it has set out to argue for. Its task is not to make an objective study of the truth, in so far as it favors the enemy, and then set it before the masses with academic fairness; its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly".

"The broad mass of a nation does not consist of diplomats, or even professors of political law, or even individuals capable of forming a rational opinion; it consists of plain mortals, wavering and inclined to doubt and uncertainty."

**Rule 8. Trivialize, or better yet ignore, the opposition point of view**. "As soon as our own propaganda admits so much as a glimmer of right on the other side, the foundation for doubt in our own right has been laid. The masses are then in no position to distinguish where foreign injustice ends and our own begins."

**Rule 9. Emotion trumps reason**. "The people in their overwhelming majority are so feminine by nature and attitude that sober reasoning determines their thoughts and actions far less than emotion and feeling. And this sentiment is not complicated, but very simple."

**Rule 10. Black and white**. "[Propaganda] does not have multiple shadings; it has a positive and a negative; love or hate, right or wrong, truth or lie never half this way and half that way, never partially, or that kind of thing."

**Rule 11. Persistence**. "The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success."

**Rule 12. Patience**. "The purpose of propaganda is not to provide interesting distraction for blasé young gentlemen, but to convince, and what I mean is to convince the masses. But the masses are slow moving, and they always require a certain time before they are ready even to notice a thing, and only after the simplest ideas are repeated thousands of times will the masses finally remember them."

**Rule 13. No change in direction**. "When there is a change, it must not alter the content of what the propaganda is driving at, but in the end must always say the same thing. For instance, a slogan must be presented from different angles, but the end of all remarks must always and immutably be the slogan itself. Only in this way can the propaganda have a unified and complete effect."

"All advertising, whether in the field of business or politics, achieves success through the continuity and sustained uniformity of its application."

"At first the claims of propaganda are so impudent that people think it insane; later, it gets on people's nerves; and in the end, it was believed."

**Rule 14. Tell big lies not little ones**. "Since the great masses of the people in the very bottom of their hearts tend to be corrupted rather than consciously and purposely evil, and that, therefore, in view of the primitive simplicity of their minds they more easily fall a victim to a big lie than to a little one, since they themselves lie in little things, but would be ashamed of lies that were too big. Such a falsehood will never enter their heads and they will not be able to believe in the possibility of such monstrous effrontery and infamous misrepresentation in others; yes, even when enlightened on the subject, they will long doubt and waver, and continue to accept at least one of these causes [lies] as true."

[Trump is especially good at dismissing his lies with, "What about..." i.e. Hillary's emails, the Clinton Foundation, etc.]

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Chapter 4 Theoretician and Politician

**The theoretician**. **From Mein Kampf** : "It is not the task of a theoretician to determine the varying degrees in which a cause can be realized, but to establish the cause as such: that is to say: he must concern himself less with the road than with the goal."

"The theoretician of a movement must lay down its goal, the politician strive for its fulfillment. The thinking of the one, therefore, will be determined by eternal truth, the actions of the other more by the practical reality of the moment. The greatness of the one lies in the absolute abstract soundness of his idea, that of the other in his correct attitude toward the given facts and their advantageous application."

"The more abstractly correct and hence powerful the idea will be, the more impossible remains its complete fulfillment as long as it continues to depend on human beings. Therefore, the stature of the theoretician must not be measured by the fulfillment of his aims, but by their soundness and the influence they have had on the development of humanity."

"If this were not so, the founders of religion could not be counted among the greatest men of this earth, since the fulfillment of their ethical purposes will never be even approximately complete. In its workings, even the religion of love is only the weak reflection of the will of its exalted founder; its significance, however, lies in the direction which it attempted to give to a universal human development of culture, ethics, and morality."

**The Politician**. "The enormous difference between the tasks of the theoretician and the politician is also the reason why a union of both in one person is almost never found."

The freer such a 'politician' keeps himself from great ideas, the easier and often the more visible, but always the more rapid, his successes will be."

"The execution of such aims, which have value and significance for the most distant times, usually brings little reward to the man who champions them and rarely finds understanding among the great masses. Thus, from a certain vanity, which is always a cousin of stupidity, the great mass of politicians will keep far removed from all really weighty plans for the future, in order not to lose the momentary sympathy of the great mob. The success and significance of such politicians lie exclusively in the present, and does not exist in posterity. Small minds are little troubled by this; they are content."

"With the theoretician conditions are different. His importance lies almost always solely in the future."

**Combined**. "In long periods of humanity, it may happen once that the politician is wedded to the theoretician. The more profound this fusion, however, the greater are the obstacles opposing the work of the politician. He no longer works for necessities which will be understood by the shopkeeper, but for aims which only the fewest comprehend."

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Chapter 5 The Press

**From Mein Kampf** : "Journalistic circles in particular like to describe the press as a 'great power' in the state. As a matter of fact, its importance really is immense. It cannot be overestimated, for the press really continues education in adulthood."

"Its readers, by and large, can be divided into three groups: First, into those who believe everything they read; second, into those who have ceased to believe anything; third, into the minds which critically examine what they read, and judge accordingly."

"Numerically, the first group is by far the largest. It consists of the great mass of the people and consequently represents the simplest-minded part of the nation. It cannot be listed in terms of professions, but at most in general degrees of intelligence. To it belong all those who have neither been born nor trained to think independently, and who partly from incapacity and partly from incompetence believe everything that is set before them in black and white. To them also belongs the type of lazybones who could perfectly well think, but from sheer mental laziness seizes gratefully on everything that someone else has thought, with the modest assumption that the someone else has exerted himself considerably. Now, with all these types, who constitute the great masses, the influence of the press will be enormous. They are not able or willing themselves to examine what is set before them, and as a result their whole attitude toward all the problems of the day can be reduced almost exclusively to the outside influence of others. This can be advantageous when their enlightenment is provided by a serious and truth-loving party, but it is catastrophic when scoundrels and liars provide it.

"The second group is much smaller in number. It is partly composed of elements which previously belonged to the first group, but after long and bitter disappointments shifted to the opposite and no longer believe anything that comes before their eyes in print. They hate every newspaper; either they don't read it at all, or without exception fly into a rage over the contents, which in their opinion consist only of lies and falsehoods. These people are very hard to handle, since they are suspicious even in the face of the truth. Consequently, they are lost for all positive, political work.

"The third group, finally, is by far the smallest; it consists of the minds with real mental subtlety, whom natural gifts and education have taught to think independently, who try to form their own judgment on all things, and who subject everything they read to a thorough examination and further development of their own. They will not look at a newspaper without always collaborating in their minds, and the writer has no easy time of it. Journalists love such readers with the greatest reserve.

"For the members of this third group, the nonsense that newspaper scribblers can put down is not very dangerous or even very important. Most of them in the course of their lives have learned to regard every journalist as a rascal on principle, who tells the truth only once in a blue moon. Unfortunately, however, the importance of these splendid people lies only in their intelligence and not in their number - a misfortune at a time when wisdom is nothing and the majority is everything!

**Rule 1. Control the education of the masses**. "Today, when the ballot of the masses decides, the chief weight lies with the most numerous group, and this is the first: the mob of the simple or credulous. It is of paramount interest to the state and the nation to prevent these people from falling into the hands of bad, ignorant, or even vicious educators. The state, therefore, has the duty of watching over their education and preventing any mischief."

**Rule 2. The press is the instrument of education**. "It must particularly exercise strict control over the press; for its influence on these people is by far the strongest and most penetrating, since it is applied, not once in a while, but over and over again. In the uniformity and constant repetition of this instruction lies its tremendous power." [Access to information is another way to control the press. Has Fox News become the Trump instrument of education?]

**Rule 3. The means must serve the end**. "If anywhere, it is here that the state must not forget that all means must serve an end; it must not let itself be confused by the drivel about so-called 'freedom of the press' and let itself be talked into neglecting its duty. With ruthless determination [we] must make sure this instrument of popular education, [is] placed in the service of the state and the nation."

**Rule 4. Focus the masses' attention on one small part of one problem**. "In all cases where the fulfillment of apparently impossible demands or tasks is involved, the whole attention of a people must be focused and concentrated on one question, as though life and death actually depended on its solution. Only in this way will a people be made willing and able to perform great tasks and exertions. [Focus attention, then limit disclosure as the neocons did with the supposed "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) fanfare building up to the War in Iraq. The WMD scare was later debunked, but no charges were brought for creating an eight plus year war under false pretenses.]

"This principle applies also to the individual man in so far as he wants to achieve great goals. He, too, will be able to do this only in step-like sections, and he, too, will always have to unite his entire energies on the achievement of a definitely delimited task, until this task seems fulfilled and a new section can be marked out. Anyone who does not so divide the road to be conquered into separate stages and does not try to conquer these one by one, systematically with the sharpest concentration of all his forces, will never be able to reach the ultimate goal, but will be left lying somewhere along the road, or perhaps even off it. This gradual working up to a goal is an art, and to conquer the road step by step in this way you must throw in your last ounce of energy."

"The very first prerequisite needed for attacking such a difficult stretch of the human road is for the leadership to succeed in representing to the masses of the people the partial goal which now has to be achieved, or rather conquered, as the one which is solely and alone worthy of attention, on whose conquest everything depends. The great mass of the people cannot see the whole road ahead of them without growing weary and despairing of the task. A certain number of them will keep the goal in mind, but will only be able to see the road in small, partial stretches, like the wanderer, who likewise knows and recognizes the end of his journey, but is better able to conquer the endless highway if he divides it into sections and boldly attacks each one as though it represented the desired goal itself. Only in this way does he advance without losing heart. [This tactic obscures the end (or real goal) and does not allow meaningful debate because there is never full disclosure.]

**Rule 5. Use propaganda to nationalize each small step**. "Thus, by the use of all propagandist means, the question of combating [problems] should have been made to appear as the task of the nation. Not just one more task. To this end, its injurious effects should have been thoroughly hammered into people as the most terrible misfortune, and this by the use of all available means, until the entire nation arrived at the conviction that everything - future or ruin - depended upon the solution of this [one] question."

"Only after such a preparation, if necessary over a period of [months, or] years, will the attention, and consequently the determination, of the entire nation be aroused to such an extent that we can take exceedingly hard measures exacting the greatest sacrifices without running the risk of not being understood or of suddenly being left in the lurch by the will of the masses.

**Rule 6. You are either with us or against us**. "Anyone who wants to attack [a problem] must first of all help to eliminate its spiritual basis. Anyone who refuses to see these things supports them, and thereby makes himself an accomplice in the slow prostitution of our future which, whether we like it or not, lies in the coming generation. This cleansing of our culture must be extended to nearly all fields. Theater, art, literature, cinema, press, posters, and window displays must be cleansed of all manifestations of our rotting world and placed in the service of a moral political, and cultural idea. The right of personal freedom recedes before duty."

"The fact that by clever and persevering use of propaganda [as news] even heaven can be represented as hell to the people." [Without objectivity, and balance, the press is reduced to the level of advertising.]

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Chapter 6 Religion

**From Mein Kampf** : "Symptoms of decay are in the last analysis only the consequences of [1] the absence of a definite uniformly acknowledged philosophy, and [2] the resultant general uncertainty in judgment and attitude toward the various great problems of the time."

"How widespread the general disunity was growing is shown by an examination of religious conditions before the War [WWI]. Here, too, a unified and effective philosophical conviction had long since been lost in large sections of the nation. In this the members officially breaking away from the churches play a less important role than those who are completely indifferent."

"Also noteworthy was the increasingly violent struggle against the dogmatic foundations of the various churches without which in this human world the practical existence of a religious faith is not conceivable."

**Rule 1. Faith is the foundation of all efficiency**. "The great masses of people do not consist of philosophers; precisely for the masses, faith is often the sole foundation of a moral attitude. If religious doctrine and faith are really to embrace the broad masses, the unconditional authority of the content of that faith is the foundation of all efficacy." [In 1802, Thomas Jefferson wrote of building a "wall of separation between church and State."]

**Rule 2. Moral values give infinitely interpretable ideas tangible form**. "Principles are for the state, as dogmas are religion. Only through them is the wavering and infinitely interpretable, purely intellectual idea delimited and brought into a form without which it could never become faith. Otherwise the idea would never pass beyond a metaphysical conception."

**Rule 3. Questioning faith in one area leads to questions in other areas.** "The attack against dogmas as such, strongly resembles the struggle against the general legal foundations of a state, and as the latter would end in a total anarchy of the state, the former would end in a worthless religious nihilism."

"For the political man, the value of a religion must be estimated less by its deficiencies than by the virtue of a visibly better substitute. As long as this appears to be lacking, what is present can be demolished only by fools or criminals."

**Rule 4. Religion vs. science is an unnecessary conflict**. "Not the smallest blame for the none too delectable religious conditions must be borne by those who encumber the religious idea with too many things of a purely earthly nature and thus often bring it into a totally unnecessary conflict with so-called exact science. In this, victory will almost always fall to the latter, though perhaps after a hard struggle, and religion will suffer serious damage in the eyes of all those who are unable to raise themselves above a purely superficial knowledge."

**Rule 5. Politicians can misuse religion for political ends**. "Worst of all, however, is the devastation wrought by the misuse of religious conviction for political ends. In truth, we cannot sharply enough attack those wretched crooks who would like to make religion an implement to perform political or rather business services for them. These insolent liars, it is true, proclaim their creed in a stentorian voice to the whole world for other sinners to hear; but their intention is not, if necessary, to die for it, but to live better."

"For a single-political swindle, provided it brings in enough, they are willing to sell the heart of a whole religion; for ten parliamentary mandates they would ally themselves with the mortal enemies of all religions - and for a minister's chair they would even enter into marriage with the devil, unless the devil was deterred by a remnant of decency."

"If religious life for many had an unpleasant aftertaste, this could be attributed to the abuse of Christianity on the-part of a so-called 'Christian' party and the shameless way in which they attempted to identify the Catholic faith with a political party. This false association was a calamity which may have brought parliamentary mandates to a number of good-for-nothings."

**Rule 6. Religious uncertainty leads to moral uncertainty** , which in turn leads to national uncertainty. "The consequence, however, had to be borne by the whole nation, since the outcome of the resultant slackening of religious life occurred at a time when everyone was beginning to waver and vacillate anyway, and the traditional foundations of ethics and morality were threatening to collapse. This, too, created cracks and rifts in our nation which might present no danger as long as no special strain-arose, but which inevitably became catastrophic when by the force of great events the question of the inner solidity of the nation achieved decisive importance."

"Likewise in the field of politics the observant eye could discern evils which, if not remedied or altered within a reasonable time, could be and had to be regarded as signs of coming decay."

[Through a somewhat tortuous process, Hitler linked: faith to unconditional authority, to religious dogma, which in turn was linked to moral values that are linked to political ideology. Thus, unconditional authority is passed from religion to politics.]

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Chapter 7 Organization and Leadership

**From Mein Kampf** : "The nationalization of the broad masses can never be achieved by half-measures, by weakly emphasizing a so called objective standpoint, but only by a ruthless and fanatically one sided orientation toward the goal to be achieved."

"The broad masses of a people consist neither of professors nor of diplomats. The scantiness of the abstract knowledge they possess directs their sentiments more to the world of feeling. That is where their positive or negative attitude lies. It is receptive only to an expression of force in one of these two directions and never to a half-measure hovering between the two."

**Rule 1. Willpower and force win the hearts of the masses**. "Their emotional attitude at the same time conditions their extraordinary stability. Faith is harder to shake than knowledge, love succumbs less to change than respect, hate is more enduring than aversion, and the impetus to the mightiest upheavals on this earth has at all times consisted less in a scientific knowledge dominating the masses than in a fanaticism which inspired them and sometimes in a hysteria which drove them forward."

"Anyone who wants to win the broad masses must know the key that opens the door to their heart. Its name is not objectivity, but will and power."

"The soul of the people can only be won if along with carrying on a positive struggle for our own aims, we destroy the opponent of these aims. The people at all times [must] see the proof of their own right in the ruthless attack on a foe, and to them renouncing the destruction of the adversary seems like uncertainty with regard to their own right."

**Rule 2. The goal is annihilation of the enemy**. "The broad masses are only a piece of Nature and their sentiment does not understand the mutual handshake of people who claim that they want the opposite things. What they desire is the victory of the stronger and the destruction of the weak, or his unconditional subjection. The nationalization of our masses will succeed only when, aside from all the positive struggle for the soul of our people, their international poisoners are exterminated."

**Rule 3. Support must come from the broad masses**. "The reservoir from which the movement must gather its supporters will primarily be the masses of our workers. Its work will be to tear these away from the international delusion, to free them from their social distress, to raise them out of their cultural misery and lead them to the national community as a valuable, united factor, national in feeling and desire."

"If, in the circles of the national intelligentsia, there are found men with the warmest hearts for their people and its future, imbued with the deepest knowledge of the importance of this struggle for the soul of these masses, they will be highly welcome in the ranks of this movement, as a valuable spiritual backbone."

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**Propaganda.** "If propaganda is to be effective for the movement, it must be addressed to only one quarter, since otherwise, in view of the difference in the intellectual training of the two camps in question, either it will not be understood by the one group, or by the other it would be rejected as obvious and therefore uninteresting."

"Even the style and the tone of its individual products cannot be equally effective for two such extreme groups. If propaganda renounces primitiveness of expression, it does not find its way to the feeling of the broad masses. If, however, in word and gesture, it uses the masses' harshness of sentiment and expression, it will be rejected by the so-called intelligentsia as coarse and vulgar."

**Public speakers**. "Among a hundred so-called speakers there are hardly ten capable of speaking with equal effect today before a public consisting of street-sweepers, locksmiths, sewer-cleaners, etc., and tomorrow holding a lecture with necessarily the same thought content in an auditorium full of university professors and students. But among a thousand speakers there is perhaps only a single one who can manage to speak to locksmiths and university professors at the same time, in a form which not only is suitable to the receptivity of both parties, but also influences both parties with equal effect or actually lashes them into a wild storm of applause. We must always bear in mind that even the most beautiful idea of a sublime theory in most cases can be disseminated only through the small and smallest minds. The important thing is not what the genius who has created an idea has in mind, but what, in what form, and with what success the prophets of this idea transmit it to the broad masses."

"The more seemingly limited, indeed, the narrower its ideas were, the more easily they were taken up and assimilated by a mass whose intellectual level corresponded to the material offered."

"Propaganda must be adjusted to the broad masses in content and in form, and its soundness is to be measured exclusively by its effective result."

***

**Rule 4. The leaders are elected, but have unlimited authority**. "The young movement is in its nature and inner organization anti-parliamentarian; that is, it rejects, in general and in its own inner structure, a principle of majority rule in which the leader is degraded to the level of a mere executant of other people's will and opinion. In little as well as big things, the movement advocates the principle of the leader is elected, but then enjoys unconditional authority."

"The leader is always elected, but thereby he is vested with unlimited powers and authority."

"Any man who wants to be leader bears, along with the highest unlimited authority, also the ultimate and heaviest responsibility. Anyone who is not equal to this or is too cowardly to bear the consequences of his acts is not fit to be leader; only the hero is cut out for this. The progress and culture of humanity are not a product of the majority, but rest exclusively on the genius and energy of the personality. To cultivate the personality and establish it and its rights is one of the prerequisites for recovering the greatness and power of our nationality. Hence the movement is anti-parliamentarian."

**Rule 5. The form of government is one of expediency not of principle**. "The movement finally sees its task, not in the restoration of a definite state form and in the struggle against another, but in the creation of those basic foundations without which neither republic nor monarchy can endure for any length of time. Its mission lies not in the foundation of a monarchy or in the reinforcement of a republic, but in the creation of a state."

"The question of the outward shaping of this state, its crowning, so to speak, is not of basic importance, but is determined only by questions of practical expediency. Once [the people] understand the great problems and tasks of its existence, the questions of outward formalities will no longer lead to inner struggle."

"The question of the movement's inner organization is [also] one of expediency and not of principle."

**Rule 6. Use direct lines of communication**. "The best organization is not that which inserts the greatest, but that which inserts the smallest, intermediary apparatus between the leadership of a movement and its individual adherents. For the function of organization is the transmission of a definite idea - which always first arises from the brain of an individual - to a larger body of men and the supervision of its realization."

"Hence organization is in all things only a necessary evil. In the best case it is a means to an end, in the worst case an end in itself."

***

**Growth.** "The practical development of every idea striving for realization in this world, particularly of one possessing a reform character, is as follows: Some idea of genius arises in the brain of a man who feels called upon to transmit his knowledge to the rest of humanity. He preaches his view and gradually wins a certain circle of adherents. This process of the direct and personal transmittance of a man's ideas to the rest of his fellow men is the most ideal and natural. With the rising increase in the adherents of the new doctrine, it gradually becomes impossible for the exponent of the idea to go on exerting a personal, direct influence on the innumerable supporters, to lead and direct them."

"Proportionately as, a consequence of the growth of the community, the direct and shortest communication is excluded, the necessity of a connecting organization arises: thus, the ideal condition is ended and is replaced by the necessary evil of organization. Little sub-groups are formed which in the political movement, for example, call themselves local groups and constitute the germ-cells of the future organization."

"If the unity of the doctrine is not to be lost, this subdivision must not take place until the authority of the spiritual founder and of the school trained by him can be regarded as unconditional. The geo-political significance of a focal center in a movement cannot be overemphasized. Only the presence of such a place, exerting the magic spell of a Mecca or a Rome, can in the long run give the movement a force which is based on inner unity and the recognition of a summit representing this unity."

**Germ cells**. "Thus, in forming the first organizational germ-cells we must never lose sight of the necessity, not only of preserving the importance of the original local source of the idea, but of making it paramount. This intensification of the ideal, moral, and factual immensity of the movement's point of origin and direction must take place in exact proportion to the movement's germ-cells, which have now become innumerable, demanding new links in the shape of organizational forms."

**Districts**. "The increasing number of individual adherents make it impossible to continue direct communication with them [in the] lowest organizational forms. [This] compels [the] creation of higher associations which politically can be designated roughly as county or district groups."

**Unification**. "Easy as it still may be to maintain the authority of the original center toward the lowest local groups, it will be equally difficult to maintain this position toward the higher organizational forms which now arise. But this is the precondition for the unified existence of the movement and hence for carrying out an idea. From this the following directives for the inner structure of the movement resulted: [training, loyalty, and submission.]

**(1) Training**. "Concentration for the time being of all activity in a single place. Training of a community of unconditionally reliable supporters and development of a school for the subsequent dissemination of the idea."

**(2) Loyalty**. "Formation of local groups only when the authority of the central leadership may be regarded as unquestionably recognized."

**(3) Submission**. "Likewise the formation of district, county, or provincial groups depends, not only on the need for them, but also on certainty that an unconditional recognition of the center has been achieved."

**Finding the necessary leadership**. "Furthermore, the creation of organizational forms is dependent on the men who are available and can be considered as leaders. This may occur in two ways: [paid and volunteers.]"

**(1) Paid leaders**. "The movement [provides the] financial means for the training and schooling of minds capable of future leadership. It then distributes the material [Hitler refers to paid leaders as "material."] thus acquired systematically according to criteria of tactical and other expediency. This way is the easier and quicker; however, it demands great financial means, since this leader material is only able to work for the movement when paid."

**(2) Voluntary leaders**. "The movement, owing to the lack of financial means, is not in a position to appoint [paid] leaders, but for the present must depend on honorary officers. This way is the slower and more difficult."

"Under certain circumstances the leadership of a movement must let large territories lie fallow, unless there emerges from the adherents a man able and willing to put himself at the disposal of the leadership, and organize and lead the movement in the district in question."

"The prerequisite for the creation of an organizational form is and remains the man necessary for its leadership. As worthless as an army in all its organizational forms is without officers, equally worthless is a political organization without the suitable leader. Not founding a local group is more useful to the movement when a suitable leader personality is lacking than to have its organization miscarry due to the absence of a leader to direct and drive it forward."

"Leadership itself requires not only will but also ability, and a greater importance must be attached to will and energy than to intelligence as such, and most valuable of all is a combination of ability, determination, and perseverance." [This is very appealing to the not-so-bright who want to be leaders.]

**Strength**. "The future of a movement is conditioned by the fanaticism [and] intolerance, with which its adherents uphold it as the sole correct movement, and push it past other formations of a similar sort."

**Weakness**. "It is the greatest error to believe that the strength of a movement increases through a union with another of similar character. It is true that every enlargement of this kind at first means an increase in outward dimensions, which to the eyes of superficial observers means power; in truth, however, it only takes over the germs of an inner weakening that will later become [apparent]."

"For whatever can be said about the like character of two movements, in reality it is never present. For otherwise there would actually be not two movements but one. And regardless wherein the differences lie - even if they consisted only in the varying abilities of the leadership - they exist."

**Natural law**. "But, the natural law of all development demands, not the coupling of two formations which are simply not alike, but the victory of the stronger and the cultivation of the victor's force and strength made possible alone by the resultant struggle."

"Through the union of two more or less equal political party formations momentary advantages may arise, but in the long run any success won in this way is the cause of inner weaknesses which appear later. The greatness of a movement is exclusively guaranteed by the unrestricted development of its inner strength and its steady growth up to the final victory over all competitors. Yes, we can say that its strength and hence the justification of its existence increases only so long as it recognizes the principle of struggle as the premise of its development, and that it passes the high point of its strength the moment complete victory inclines to its side."

***

**Rule 7. Competition and purity make you stronger**. "Therefore, it is only profitable for a movement to strive for this victory in a form which does not lead to an early momentary success, but which in a long struggle occasioned by absolute intolerance also provides long growth. Movements which increase only by the so-called fusion of similar formations, thus owing their strength to compromises, are like hothouse plants. They shoot up, but they lack the strength to defy the centuries and withstand heavy storms." [An interesting concept, but it fails to recognize the readily provable natural law of Hybrid Vigor.]

**According to Hitler** , "The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others."

"If an idea in itself is sound, and thus armed, takes up a struggle on this earth, it is unconquerable and every persecution will only add to its inner strength."

"The greatness of Christianity did not lie in attempted negotiations for compromise with any similar philosophical opinions in the ancient world, but in its inexorable fanaticism in preaching and fighting for its own doctrine." [Scholars might argue that the height of Christian enlightenment was not during the crusades or other periods of fanaticism and intolerance.]

"The apparent head start which movements achieve by fusions is amply caught up with by the steady increase in the strength of a doctrine and organization that remain independent and fight their own fight."

**Rule 8. Provoke hostility**. "On principle the movement must so educate its members that they do not view the struggle as something idly cooked up, but as the thing that they themselves are striving for. Therefore, they must not fear the hostility of their enemies, but must feel that it is the presupposition for their own right to exist. They must not shun the hatred of the enemies of our philosophy and its manifestations; they must long for them. And among the manifestations of this hate are lies and slander."

"Any man who is not attacked in the newspapers, not slandered and vilified, is not decent. The best yardstick for the value of his attitude, for the sincerity of his conviction, and the force of his will is the hostility he receives from the enemy. The man they have most reviled stands closest to us and the man they hate worst is our best friend."

"Anyone who does not see himself slandered daily has not made profitable use of the previous day; for if he had, he would be persecuted, reviled, slandered, abused, and befouled. And only the man who combats this mortal enemy may expect to see the slanders and the struggle of this people directed against him."

"When these principles enter the flesh and blood of our supporters, the movement will become unshakable and invincible."

***

**The power of a leader's personality**. "The movement must promote respect for personality by all means; it must never forget that in personal worth lies the worth of everything human; that every idea and every achievement is the result of one man's creative force and that the admiration of greatness constitutes, not only a tribute of thanks to the latter, but casts a unifying bond around the grateful."

"Personality cannot be replaced; especially when it embodies not the mechanical but the cultural and creative element. No more than a famous master can be replaced and another take over the completion of the half-finished painting he has left behind can the great poet and thinker, the great statesman and the great soldier, be replaced. For their activity lies always in the province of art. It is not mechanically trained, but inborn by God's grace."

***

**Rule 9. Worthwhile men are hated by their adversaries**. "Anyone in this world who does not succeed in being hated by his adversaries does not seem to me to be worth much as a friend. And thus the friendship of these people for our young movement was not only worthless, but solely and always harmful."

**Rule 10. Provoke and then defend with force**. "Our principle, 'Against those who attack us with force we will defend ourselves with force,' had something terrifying about it. The fact is that in a public meeting a [speaker] can be brought to silence if only fifty idiots, [who] supported by their voices and their fists, [can] refuse to let him speak. [The man who refuses to stand and speak is safe, because] his inborn cowardice never lets him get into such danger. For he does not work 'noisily' and 'obtrusively,' but in 'silence.'"

**Rule 11. Silence** (the protective cloak of a despicable anonymity) is cowardly, dishonest, and arrogant. "Even today I cannot warn our young movement enough against falling into the net of these so-called 'silent workers.' They are not only cowards, but they are also always incompetents and do-nothings. A man who knows a thing, who is aware of a given danger, and sees the possibility of a remedy with his own eyes, has the duty and obligation, by God, not to work 'silently,' but to stand up before the whole public against the evil and for its cure."

"If he does not do so, he is a disloyal, miserable weakling who fails either from cowardice or from laziness and inability. To be sure, this does not apply at all to most of these people, for they know absolutely nothing, but behave as though they knew God knows what; they can do nothing but try to swindle the whole world with their tricks; they are lazy, but with the 'silent' work they claim to do, they arouse the impression of an enormous and conscientious activity; in short, they are swindlers, political crooks who hate the honest work of others."

"As soon as one of these moths praises the darkness of silence, we can bet a thousand to one that by it he produces nothing, but steals, steals from the fruits of other people's work. To top all this, there is the arrogance and conceited effrontery with which this lazy, light-shunning rabble fall upon the work of others, trying to criticize it from above, thus in reality aiding the mortal enemies of our nationality."

"Every last agitator who possesses the courage to stand on a tavern table among his adversaries, to defend his opinions with manly forthrightness, does more than a thousand of these lying, treacherous sneaks. He will surely - be able to convert one man or another and win him for the movement. It will be possible to examine his achievement and establish the effect of his activity by its results."

"Only the cowardly swindlers who praise their 'silent' work and thus wrap themselves in the protective cloak of a despicable anonymity, are good for nothing and may in the truest sense of the word be considered drones in the resurrection of our people." [For those who practice the politics of "Mein Kampf," you are either a zealot or a coward.]

[Our Democracy is built on principles, not on efficiency. When we legislate new "efficiencies" into our government, we must be mindful of the principles that are being legislated out.]

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Chapter 8 Political Faith and Religion

**From Mein Kampf** : "The masses always respond to the compelling force which emanates from absolute faith in the ideas put forward, combined with an indomitable zest to fight for and defend them."

"At a time in which the one side, armed with all the fighting power that springs from a systematic conception of life - even though it be criminal in a thousand ways - makes an attack against the established order, the other side will be able to resist when it draws its strength from a new faith, which in our case is a political faith. This faith must supersede the weak and cowardly command to defend. In its stead we must raise the battle-cry of a courageous and ruthless attack."

"Our present movement is accused of heading towards a revolution. We have one answer to give to those political pigmies. We say to them: We are trying to make up for that which you, in your criminal stupidity, have failed to carry out. By your parliamentarian jobbing you have helped to drag the nation into ruin. But we, by our aggressive policy, are setting up a new philosophy of life which we shall defend with indomitable devotion. Thus we are building the steps on which our nation once again may ascend to the temple of freedom."

**Rule 1. The need for political zealots**. "And so during the first stages of founding our movement we had to take special care that our militant group which fought for the establishment of a new and exalted political faith should not degenerate into a society for the promotion of parliamentarian interests."

"The first preventive measure was to lay down a program which of itself would tend towards developing a certain moral greatness that would scare away all the petty and weakling spirits who make up the bulk of our present party politicians." [In other words, recruit only zealots.]

**Rule 2. Religion requires precise definition**. "The word 'religious' acquires a precise meaning; only when it is associated with a distinct and definite form [can] the concept [be] put into practice. To say that a person is 'deeply religious' may be very fine phraseology; but, generally speaking, it tells us little or nothing. There may be some few people who are content with such a vague description and there may even be some to whom the word conveys a more or less definite picture of the inner quality of a person thus described."

"But, since the masses of the people are not composed of philosophers or saints, such a vague religious idea will mean for them nothing [other] than [a way] to justify each individual in thinking and acting according to his own bent."

**Rule 3. Dogma defines religious thought**. "[A vague religious idea] will not lead to that practical faith into which the inner religious yearning is transformed; only when it leaves the sphere of general metaphysical ideas is [it] molded to a definite dogmatic belief."

"A [dogmatic] belief is certainly not an end in itself, but the means to an end. Yet it is a means without which the end could never be reached at all. This end, however, is not merely something ideal; for at the bottom it is eminently practical."

"We must always bear in mind the fact that the highest ideals are always the outcome of some profound vital need. The most sublime beauty owes its nobility to the fact that the most beautiful form is the form that is best suited to the purpose it is meant to serve."

"By helping to lift the human being above the level of mere animal existence, Faith really contributes to consolidate and safeguard its own existence."

**Rule 4. Moral values are taught**. "[If] the religious beliefs which have been consolidated through our education, so that they serve as moral standards in practical life [were] abolished, and not replace it by anything of equal value the result would be that the foundations of human existence would be seriously shaken. Man does not live merely to serve higher ideals, but these ideals furnish the necessary conditions for existence as a human being."

**Rule 5. To be of practical value, religious and political beliefs require clarity and form**. "Without a clearly defined belief, the religious feeling would not only be worthless for the purposes of human existence but even might contribute towards a general disorganization, on account of its vague and multifarious tendencies."

"Ideas are very important indeed, [but] they assume such vague and indefinite forms that they cannot be estimated as having a greater value than mere opinions, until they become constituent elements in the structure of a political party. For in order to give practical force to the ideals that grow out of philosophical ideals and to answer the demands which are a logical consequence of such ideals, mere sentiment and inner longing are of no practical assistance, just as freedom cannot be won by a universal yearning for it."

**Rule 6. Force creates reality**. "Only when the idealistic longing for independence is organized in such a way that it can fight for its ideal with military force, only then can the urgent wish of a people be transformed into a potent reality. Every philosophy of life, even if it is a thousand times correct and of the highest benefit to mankind, will be of no practical service for the maintenance of a people as long as its principles have not yet become the rallying point of a militant movement."

**Rule 7. Militancy requires clear definitions**. "If an abstract conception of a general nature is to serve as the basis of a future development, then the first prerequisite is to form a clear understanding of the nature and character and scope of this conception."

"For only on such a basis can a movement be founded which will be able to draw the necessary fighting strength from the internal cohesion of its principles and convictions."

**Rule 8. Political faith requires form**. "Since [political] faith must be directed towards ends that have to be attained in the world of practical reality, not only must it serve the general ideal, but it must also take into consideration the means that have to be employed for the triumph of the ideal."

***

**Political philosophy**. "To take abstract and general principles, derived from a philosophy which is based on a solid foundation of truth, and transform them into a militant community whose members have the same political faith - a community which is precisely defined, rigidly organized, of one mind and one will - such a transformation is the most important task of all; for the possibility of successfully carrying out the idea is dependent on the successful fulfillment of that task."

"From general ideas a political program must be constructed and general ideas must receive the stamp of a definite political faith."

**One man must arise**. "Out of the army of millions who feel the truth of these ideas, and even may understand them to some extent, one man must arise. This man must have the gift of being able to expound general ideas in a clear and definite form; and, from the world of vague ideas shimmering before the minds of the masses, he must formulate principles that will be as clear-cut and firm as granite. He must fight for these principles as the only true ones, until a solid rock of common faith and common will emerges above the troubled waves of vagrant ideas. The [idea] must therefore be definitely formulated so that it may be organically incorporated in the party. That is a necessary prerequisite for the success of an idea."

**Religious dogma and political principles**. "A general conception of life can never be given an organic embodiment until it is precisely and definitely formulated. The function which dogma fulfills in religious belief is parallel to the function which party principles fulfill for a political party."

***

**Rule 9. Success is achieved through militancy and aggression**. "The simple fact [is] that the general presence of ideas in the hearts of millions of men has not proved [to be] sufficient to impede the victory of the opposing ideas, which are championed by a political party. International ideology achieves success because it is organized in a militant political party that is always ready to take the offensive. The ideas opposed to [it] have had to give way [because] they lacked a united front to fight for their cause." [If this were true, then the Roman Empire would have defeated the Christians.]

**Rule 10. Political teachings require faith in their interpretations**. "A doctrine which forms a definite outlook on life cannot struggle and triumph by allowing the right of free interpretation of its general teaching, but only by defining that teaching in certain articles of faith that have to be accepted and incorporating it in the political organization."

**Rule 11. Trust me**. "Therefore I [Hitler] considered it my special duty to extract from the extensive but vague contents of a general world view the ideas which were essential and give them a more or less dogmatic form."

"Because of their precise and clear meaning, these ideas [that I chose] are suited to the purpose of uniting in a common front all those who are ready to accept them as principles. In other words: [the movement] extracts the essential principles from the general conception of the world that is based on the folk idea."

"On these principles it establishes a political doctrine which takes into account the practical realities of the day, the nature of the times, the available human material and all its deficiencies."

"Through this political doctrine it is possible to bring great masses of the people into an organization which is constructed as rigidly as it could be. Such an organization is necessary for the final triumph of this world view."

[Thus, using Hitler's principles, one person dictates the political principles for a single political party, and that party establishes the principles nationally and then internationally (as we will see in subsequent chapters advocating preemptive war).]

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Chapter 9 The State and Education

**From Mein Kampf** : "Generally speaking, theorists may be classed in three groups:

**1. Ruling Authority** : "Those who hold that the State is a more or less voluntary association of men who have agreed to set up and obey a ruling authority. This is numerically the largest group. In its ranks are to be found those who worship our present principle of legalized authority. In their eyes the will of the people has no part whatever in the whole affair. For them the fact that the State exists is sufficient reason to consider it sacred and inviolable. To protect the madness of human brains, a positively dog-like adoration of so-called state authority is needed. In the minds of these people the means is substituted for the end, by a sort of sleight-of-hand movement. The State no longer exists for the purpose of serving men but men exist for the purpose of adoring the authority of the State, which is vested in its functionaries, even down to the smallest official." [The people serve the ruling authority of the state.]

**2. Economic well-being** : "The second group is somewhat smaller in numbers. It includes those who would make the existence of the State dependent on some conditions at least. They insist that not only should there be a uniform system of government but also, if possible, that only one language should be used, though solely for technical reasons of administration. In this view the authority of the State is no longer the sole and exclusive end for which the State exists. It must also promote the good of its subjects. Ideas of 'freedom', mostly based on a misunderstanding of the meaning of that word, enter into the concept of the State as it exists in the minds of this group. The form of government is no longer considered inviolable simply because it exists. It must submit to the test of practical efficiency. Its venerable age no longer protects it from being criticized in the light of modern exigencies. Moreover, in this view the first duty laid upon the State is to guarantee the economic well-being of the individual citizens. Hence it is judged from the practical standpoint and according to general principles based on the idea of economic returns." [The state serves the economic well-being of its individual citizens.]

**3. Natural Law** : "The third group is numerically the smallest. In this State they discover a means for the realization of tendencies that arise from a policy of power, on the part of a people who are ethnically homogeneous and speak the same language. But those who hold this view are not clear about what they mean by 'tendencies arising from a policy of power'. A common language is postulated not only because they hope that thereby the State would be furnished with a solid basis for the extension of its power outside its own frontiers, but also because they think - though falling into a fundamental error by doing so - that such a common language would enable them to carry out a process of nationalization in a definite direction." [The state facilitates natural law.]

***

**The form of government is a means to an end**. "From the facts the following conclusions may be drawn: The State is only a means to an end. Its end and its purpose is to preserve and promote a community of human beings who are physically as well as spiritually kindred." [The words: physically and spiritually will become the basis for the state's involvement in racism and religious discrimination.]

"States which do not serve this purpose have no justification for their existence. They are monstrosities. The fact that they do exist is no more of a justification than the successful raids carried out by a band of pirates can be considered a justification of piracy." [Hitler's need to tilt the playing field seems to show a lack of confidence in "natural law."]

**Racism**. "We must make a clear-cut distinction between the vessel and its contents. The State is only the vessel and the race is what it contains. The vessel can have a meaning only if it preserves and safeguards the contents. Otherwise it is worthless. The State task is not only to gather in and foster the most valuable sections of our people, but to lead them slowly and surely to a dominant position in the world."

**Persistence.** "A period of stagnation is superseded by a period of effort. And here, as in every other sphere, the proverb holds good that to rest is to rust; and furthermore the proverb that victory will always be won by him who attacks. The higher the final goal which we strive to reach, and the less it be understood at the time by the broad masses, the more magnificent will be its success. That is what the lesson of history teaches. And the achievement will be all the more significant if the end is conceived in the right way and the fight carried through with unswerving persistence."

**The master race**. "It must be clearly recognized that if a highly energetic and active body of men emerge from a nation and unite in the fight for one goal, thereby ultimately rising above the inert masses of the people, this small percentage will become masters of the whole. World history is made by minorities; these numerical minorities represent in themselves the will and energy and initiative of the people as a whole."

***

**Rule 1. The educational system must teach responsibility**. "The educational system ought to foster the spirit of readiness to accept responsibilities gladly." [Here, the devil is in the details. For example, does responsibility mean accountability to a moral code that embraces a respect for life, property, and the rights of others, as well as to ones chosen duties, or is it a way to instill obedience where one person establishes the rules and dictates to others to follow? Democracy withers in an environment where the political ideology mandates obedience, albeit disguised as responsibility.]

**Rule 2. The educational system must teach willpower and decisiveness**. "Extreme importance should be attached to the training of willpower and the habit of making firm decisions, also the habit of being always ready to accept responsibilities." [In Hitler's educational system, the gray areas of curiosity, exploration, and wonder, where the seeds of intellectual independence are nurtured, take a back seat to myopic determination and decisiveness.]

"Applied to our youth this principle ought to take the form that any answer is better than no answer. The fear of replying, because one fears to be wrong, ought to be considered more humiliating than giving the wrong reply. On this simple and primitive basis our youth should be trained to have the courage to act." [This implies that the teacher asks questions that have a "right" or "wrong" answer. This is characteristic rote learning, which in turn fosters obedience and dependency.]

"It has been often lamented that in [the past] all the authorities lost their heads and that, from the monarch down to the last divisional commander, nobody had sufficient mettle to make a decision on his own responsibility. That terrible fact constitutes a grave rebuke to our educational system; because what was then revealed on a colossal scale at that moment of catastrophe was only what happens on a smaller scale everywhere among us. It is the lack of willpower, and not the lack of arms, which renders us incapable of offering any serious resistance today. This defect is found everywhere among our people and prevents decisive action wherever risks have to be taken, as if any great action can be taken without also taking the risk. All in all, the cowardly lack of willpower and the incapacity for making decisions are chiefly results of the erroneous education given us in our youth."

"The disastrous effects of this are now widespread among us. The crowning examples of that tragic chain of consequences are shown in the lack of civil courage which our leading statesmen display. This drawback permeates all sections of public life and finds its immortal consummation in the institutions of government that function under the parliamentary regime."

"The cowardice which leads nowadays to the shirking of every kind of responsibility springs from the same roots. Here again it is the fault of the education given our young people."

"Just as the People's State must one day give its attention to training the will-power and capacity for decision among the youth, so too it must inculcate in the hearts of the young generation from early childhood onwards a readiness to accept responsibilities."

***

**Teaching**. "The formal imparting of knowledge, which constitutes the chief work of our educational system today, will be taken over by the People's State with only few modifications. These modifications must be made in three branches [efficiency, curriculum, and national pride]."

**Efficiency**. "First of all, the brains of the young people must not generally be burdened with subjects of which ninety-five per cent are useless to them and are therefore forgotten again. The curriculum of the primary and secondary schools presents an odd mixture at the present time. In many branches of study the subject matter to be learned has become so enormous that only a very small fraction of it can be remembered later on, and indeed only a very small fraction of this whole mass of knowledge can be used."

**Language**. "There is no reason why millions of people should learn two or three languages during the school years, when only a very small fraction will have the opportunity to use these languages in later life and when most of them will therefore forget those languages completely. To take an instance: Out of 100,000 students who learn French there are probably not 2,000 who will be in a position to make use of this accomplishment in later life, while 98,000 will never have a chance to utilize in practice what they have learned in youth."

"The argument that these matters form part of the general process of educating the mind is invalid. It would be sound if all these people were able to use this learning in after life. But, as the situation stands, 98,000 are tortured to no purpose and waste their valuable time, only for the sake of the 2,000 to whom the language will be of any use."

**History**. "The subject matter of our historical teaching must be curtailed. The chief value of that teaching is to make the principal lines of historical development understood. The more our historical teaching is limited to this task, the more we may hope that it will turn out subsequently to be of advantage to the individual, and through the individual, to the community as a whole. For history must not be studied merely with a view to knowing what happened in the past but as a guide for the future, and to teach us what policy would be the best to follow for the preservation of our own people. That is the real end; and the teaching of history is only a means to attain this end."

***

**Rule 3. The educational system must teach only the essentials**. "To sum up: The People's State must reconstruct our system of general instruction in such a way that it will embrace only what is essential."

"Beyond this it will have to make provision for a more advanced teaching in the various subjects for those who want to specialize in them. It will suffice for the average individual to be acquainted with the fundamentals of the various subjects to serve as the basis of what may be called an all-round education."

"[The student] ought to study exhaustively and in detail only that subject in which he intends to work during the rest of his life. A general instruction in all subjects should be obligatory, and specialization should be left to the choice of the individual." [Later in the chapter we will see how the "individual's choice" is controlled through a regulated selection process.]

"In this way the scholastic program would be shortened, and thus several school hours would be gained which could be utilized for physical training and character training, in will-power, the capacity for making practical judgments, decisions, etc."

***

**Curriculum**. "The second modification in the curriculum which the People's State will have to make is the following:

"It is a characteristic of our materialistic epoch that our scientific education shows a growing emphasis on what is real and practical: such subjects, for instance, as applied mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc. Of course they are necessary in an age that is dominated by industrial technology and chemistry, and where everyday life shows at least the external manifestations of these. But it is a perilous thing to base the general culture of a nation on the knowledge of these subjects."

"On the contrary, that general culture ought always to be directed towards ideals. It ought to be founded on the humanist disciplines and should aim at giving only the ground work of further specialized instruction in the various practical sciences. Otherwise we should sacrifice those forces that are more important for the preservation of the nation than any technical knowledge. In the historical department the study of ancient history should not be omitted. Roman history, along general lines, is and will remain the best teacher, not only for our own time but also for the future. And the ideal of Hellenic culture should be preserved for us in all its marvelous beauty." [In other words, limit the curriculum to subjects that promote the ideals that are politically favored.]

"A clear-cut division must be made between general culture and the special branches"

"The system of education which prevails today sees its principal object in pumping into young people that knowledge which will help them to make their way in life. This principle is expressed in the following terms: 'The young man must one day become a useful member of human society.' By that phrase they mean the ability to gain an honest daily livelihood."

"The superficial training in the duties of good citizenship, which he acquires merely as an accidental thing, has very weak foundations. The result was that the broad masses received a very inadequate knowledge of [our] history."

**Rule 4. The education system must teach national pride**. "It is evident that [under the existing educational system] no real national enthusiasm could be aroused. Our educational system proved incapable of selecting from the general mass of our historical personages the names of a few personalities which [our] people could be proud to look upon as their own. Thus the whole nation might have been united by the ties of a common knowledge of this common heritage."

"The attention of the whole nation was not concentrated on them for the purpose of awakening a common national spirit. From the various subjects that were taught, those who had charge of our training seemed incapable of selecting what redounded most to the national honor and lifting that above the common objective level, in order to inflame the national pride in the light of such brilliant examples. National passion is like a highly tempered thoroughbred who is discriminate about the sort of rider he will tolerate in the saddle."

**Nationalism**. "The third point which will have to be considered in relation to our educational system is the following:

"The People's State must realize that the sciences may also be made a means of promoting a spirit of pride in the nation. An inventor must appear great not only as an inventor but also, and even more so, as a member of the nation."

**Rule 5. The educational system must teach sacrifice for the national good**. "So that national feeling be sincere from the very beginning, and not a mere pretense, the following fundamental and inflexible principle should be impressed on the young brain while it is yet malleable: The man who loves his nation can prove the sincerity of this sentiment only by being ready to make sacrifices for the nation's welfare." [Thus, the people have now become a "means" to the end.]

"There is no such thing as a national sentiment which is directed towards personal interests."

"The spirit of nationalism and a feeling for social justice must be fused into one sentiment in the hearts of the youth. Then a day will come when a nation of citizens will arise which will be welded together through a common love and a common pride that shall be invincible and indestructible forever."

"By educating the young generation along the right lines, the People's State will have to see to it that a generation of mankind is formed which will be adequate to supreme combat that will decide the destinies of the world. The nation [that] will conquer - will be the first to take this road."

***

**Higher education**. "The situation is already intolerable where talent and natural gifts are not taken as decisive factors in qualifying for the right to a higher education." [Here begins the series of arguments to regulate who gets higher education.] "It is indeed intolerable to think that year after year hundreds of thousands of young people without a single vestige of talent are deemed worthy of a higher education, while other hundreds of thousands who possess high natural gifts have to go without any sort of higher schooling at all."

"The practical loss thus caused to the nation is incalculable. If the number of important discoveries which have been made in America has grown considerably in recent years one of the reasons is that the number of gifted persons belonging to the lowest social classes who were given a higher education in that country is proportionately much larger than in Europe."

**Knowledge and talent**. "A stock of knowledge packed into the brain will not suffice for the making of discoveries. What counts here is only that knowledge which is illuminated by natural talent. But with us at the present time no value is placed on such gifts. Only good school reports count."

"It is not merely the duty of the State to give to the average child a certain definite education in the primary school, but it is also its duty to open the road to talent in the proper direction. And above all, it must open the doors of the higher schools under the State to talent of every sort, no matter in what social class it may appear. This is an imperative necessity, for thus alone will it be possible to develop a talented body of public leaders."

"Our intellectual class is so shut up in itself and fossilized that it lacks living contact with the classes beneath it. Two evil consequences result from this: First, the intellectual class neither understands nor sympathizes with the broad masses. It has been so long cut off from all connection with them that it cannot now have the necessary psychological ties that would enable it to understand them. It has become estranged from the people. Secondly, the intellectual class lacks the necessary will-power; for this faculty is always weaker in cultivated circles, which live in seclusion, than among the primitive masses of the people."

"For example, the more 'intellectual' our statesmen have been the more lacking they have been, for the most part, in practical achievement. Our political preparation and our technical equipment for the war were defective, certainly not because the brains governing the nation were too little educated, but because the men who directed our public affairs were over-educated, filled to over-flowing with knowledge and intelligence, yet without any sound instinct and simply without energy, or any spirit of daring."

**Recruiting**. "It will be the task of the Peoples' State so to organize and administer its educational system that the existing intellectual class will be constantly furnished with a supply of fresh blood from beneath."

"From the bulk of the nation the State must sift out with careful scrutiny those persons who are endowed with natural talents and see that they are employed in the service of the community."

**Screening**. "This will be possible, however, only if the State trains individuals specially for these offices. Such individuals must have the necessary fundamental capabilities and willpower. The principle does not hold true only in regard to the civil service but also in regard to all those who are to take part in the intellectual and moral leadership of the people, no matter in what sphere they may be employed." [Those evaluating fundamental capacities and willpower control who receives higher education and the jobs that follow.]

"The greatness of a people is partly dependent on the condition that it must succeed in training the best brains for those branches of the public service for which they show a special natural aptitude and in placing them in the offices where they can do their best work for the good of the community. If two nations of equal strength and quality engage in a mutual conflict that nation will come out victorious which has entrusted its intellectual and moral leadership to its best talents."

**Material reward**. "The individual will have to be valued, not by the class of work he does but by the way in which he does it and by its usefulness to the community."

"Fundamentally every kind of work has a double value: the one material, the other ideal. The material value depends on the practical importance of the work to the life of the community. The greater the number of the population who benefit from the work, directly or indirectly, the higher will be its material value. This evaluation is expressed in the material recompense which the individual receives for his labor. In contradistinction to this purely material value there is the ideal value. Here the work performed is not judged by its material importance, but by the degree to which it answers a necessity."

"Certainly the material utility of an invention may be greater than that of the service rendered by an everyday workman; but it is also certain that the community needs each of those small daily services just as much as the greater services. From the material point of view a distinction can be made in the evaluation of different kinds of work according to their utility to the community, and this distinction is expressed by the differentiation in the scale of recompense; but on the ideal or abstract plans all workmen become equal the moment each strives to do his best in his own field, no matter what that field may be. It is on this that a man's value must be estimated, and not on the amount of recompense received."

**Matching the work to those best suited**. "In a reasonably directed State, care must be taken that each individual is given the kind of work which corresponds to his capabilities. In other words, people will be trained for the positions indicated by their natural endowments; but these endowments or faculties are innate and cannot be acquired by any amount of training, being a gift from Nature and not merited by men."

**Judging job performance**. "Therefore, the way in which men are generally esteemed by their fellow-citizens must not be according to the kind of work they do, because that has been more or less assigned to the individual. Seeing that the kind of work in which the individual is employed is to be accounted to his inborn gifts and the resultant training which he has received from the community, he will have to be judged by the way in which he performs this work entrusted to him by the community. For the work which the individual performs is not the purpose of his existence, but only a means."

"His real purpose in life is to better himself and raise himself to a higher level as a human being; but this he can only do in and through the community whose cultural life he shares. And this community must always exist on the foundations on which the State is based, [the preservation and promotion of physically and spiritually kindred people]."

**Duty**. "It is the duty of the individual to return to the community, zealously and honestly, what the community has given him."

**Materialism and an individual's worth**. "At the present time, when whole groups of people estimate each other's value only by the size of the salaries which they respectively receive, there will be no understanding of all this. But that is no reason why we should cease to champion those ideas. Quite the opposite: in an epoch which is inwardly diseased and decaying anyone who would heal it must have the courage first to lay bare the real roots of the disease."

"Of course the objection will be made that in general it is difficult to differentiate between the material and ideal values of work and that the lower prestige which is attached to physical labor is due to the fact that smaller wages are paid for that kind of work. It will be said that the lower wage is in its turn the reason why the manual worker has less chance to participate in the culture of the nation; so that the ideal side of human culture is less open to him because it has nothing to do with his daily activities. It may be added that the reluctance to do physical work is justified by the fact that, on account of the small income, the cultural level of manual laborers must naturally be low, and that this in turn is a justification for the lower estimation in which manual labor is generally held."

"There is quite a good deal of truth in all this. But that is the very reason why we ought to see that in the future there should not be such a wide difference in the scale of remuneration. Don't say that under such conditions poorer work would be done. It would be the saddest symptom of decadence if finer intellectual work could be obtained only through the stimulus of higher payment. If that point of view had ruled the world up to now humanity would never have acquired its greatest scientific and cultural heritage. For all the greatest inventions, the greatest discoveries, the most profoundly revolutionary scientific work, and the most magnificent monuments of human culture, were never given to the world under the impulse or compulsion of money. Quite the contrary: rarely was their origin associated with a renunciation of the worldly pleasures that wealth can purchase."

"It is also one of the aims before our movement to hold out the prospect of a time when the individual will be given what he needs for the purposes of his life and it will be a time in which, on the other hand, the principle will be upheld that man does not live for material enjoyment alone. This principle will find expression in a wiser scale of wages and salaries which will enable everyone, including the humblest workman who fulfills his duties conscientiously, to live an honorable and decent life both as a man and as a citizen. Let it not be said that this is merely a visionary ideal, that this world would never tolerate it in practice and that of itself it is impossible to attain." [This "visionary ideal" will be twisted beyond recognition after learning Hitler's definition of a "citizen" in the following chapter.]

"Man should take care not to have too low an estimate of the power of an ideal. It was not preoccupation about their daily bread that led men to sacrifice their lives, but the love of their country, the faith which they had in its greatness, and an all-round feeling for the honor of the nation."

"Man must strive again and again to serve the ultimate aim and no failures must induce him to renounce his intentions, just as we cannot spurn the sway of justice because mistakes creep into the administration of the law, and just as we cannot despise medical science because, in spite of it, there will always be diseases."

[We must be thoughtful of the balance between rote learning and teaching intellectual independence.]

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Chapter 10 Citizens, Subjects, and Aliens

**From Mein Kampf** : "The institution that is now erroneously called the State generally classifies people only into two groups: citizens and aliens. Citizens are all those who possess full civic rights, either by reason of their birth or by an act of naturalization. Aliens are those who enjoy the same rights in some other State."

"Between these two categories there are certain beings who resemble a sort of meteoric phenomena. They are people who have no citizenship in any State and consequently no civic rights anywhere."

**Acquiring Citizenship**. "In most cases nowadays a person acquires civic rights by being born within the frontiers of a State. Besides naturalization that is acquired through the fact of having been born within the confines of a State there exists another kind of naturalization that can be acquired later."

"This process is subject to various preliminary requirements. For example, one condition is that, if possible, the applicant must not be a burglar or a common street thug. It is required of him that his political attitude is not such as to give cause for uneasiness; in other words, he must be a harmless simpleton in politics. It is required that he shall not be a burden to the State of which he wishes to become a citizen."

"In this realistic epoch of ours this last condition naturally only means that he must not be a financial burden. If the affairs of the candidate are such that it appears likely he will turn out to be a good taxpayer, that is a very important consideration and will help him to obtain civic rights all the more rapidly."

"The whole process of acquiring civic rights is not very different from that of being admitted to membership of an automobile club, for instance. A person files his application. It is examined. It is sanctioned. And one day the man receives a card which informs him that he has become a citizen. In this way, year after year, those organisms which we call States take up poisonous matter which they can hardly ever overcome."

"Another point of distinction between a citizen and an alien is that the former is admitted to all public offices, that he may possibly have to do military service and that in return he is permitted to take a passive or active part at public elections. Those are his chief privileges. For in regard to personal rights and personal liberty the alien enjoys the same amount of protection as the citizen, and frequently even more."

"At present there exists one State which manifests at least some modest attempts that show a better appreciation of how things ought to be done in this matter. It is not, however, in our model German Republic but in the U.S.A. that efforts are made to conform at least partly to the counsels of commonsense. By refusing immigrants to enter there if they are in a bad state of health, and by excluding certain races from the right to become naturalized as citizens, they have begun to introduce principles similar to those on which we wish to ground the People's State."

**Rule 1. "The People's State will classify its population in three groups: citizens, subjects of the State, and aliens**. The principle is that birth within the confines of the State gives only the status of a subject. It does not carry with it the right to fill any position under the State or to participate in political life, such as taking an active or passive part in elections.

"Another principle is that the race and nationality of every subject of the State will have to be proved. A subject is at any time free to cease being a subject and to become a citizen of that country to which he belongs by virtue of his nationality. The only difference between an alien and a subject of the State is that the former is a citizen of another country."

"The young boy or girl who is of [our] nationality and is a subject of the State is bound to complete the period of school education which is obligatory. Thereby he submits to the system of training which will make him conscious of his race and a member of the folk-community. Then he has to fulfill all those requirements laid down by the State in regard to physical training after he has left school; and finally he enters the army. The training in the army is of a general kind. It must be given to each individual and will render him competent to fulfill the physical and mental requirements of military service."

**Rule 2. Character will be certified**. "The rights of citizenship shall be conferred on every young man whose health and character have been certified as good, after having completed his period of military service. [Whoever controls the certification process determines who will have the rights of a citizen.] This act of inauguration in citizenship shall be a solemn ceremony. And the diploma conferring the rights of citizenship will be preserved by the young man as the most precious testimonial of his whole life. It entitles him to exercise all the rights of a citizen and to enjoy all the privileges attached thereto. For the State must draw a sharp line of distinction between those who, as members of the nation, are the foundation and the support of its existence and greatness, and those who are domiciled in the State simply as earners of their livelihood there."

**Rule 3. There will be a sworn loyalty oath**. "On the occasion of conferring a diploma of citizenship the new citizen must take a solemn oath of loyalty to the national community and the State. The citizen has privileges which are not accorded to the alien. Those who show themselves without personal honor or character, or common criminals, or traitors to the fatherland, and can at any time be deprived of the rights of citizenship. Therewith they become merely subjects of the State."

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Chapter 11 Personality

**From Mein Kampf** : "If the principal duty of the State is to educate and promote the existence of those who are the material out of which the State is formed, it will not be sufficient to promote those elements as such, educate them and finally train them for practical life, but the State must also adapt its own organization to meet the demands of this task."

"Elements within the folk-community which show the best qualities ought to be encouraged more than the others and especially they should be encouraged to increase and multiply. This task is comparatively simple because it can be recognized and carried out almost mechanically."

"It is much more difficult to select from among a whole multitude of people all those who actually possess the highest intellectual and spiritual characteristics and assign them to that sphere of influence which not only corresponds to their outstanding talents but in which their activities will above all things be of benefit to the nation. This selection according to capacity and efficiency cannot be effected in a mechanical way. It is a work which can be accomplished only through the permanent struggle of everyday life itself."

"A philosophy of life which repudiates the democratic principle of the rule of the masses and aims at giving this world to the best people - that is, to the highest quality of mankind - must also apply that same aristocratic postulate to the individuals within the folk-community. It must take care that the positions of leadership and highest influence are given to the best men. Hence it is not based on the idea of the majority, but on that of personality." [If the elite personality is so talented, why is this necessary?]

"There can be no doubt that personality was the sole factor in all decisions and achievements, which were afterwards taken over by the whole of humanity as a matter of course. Originally [ideas] sprang from the brain of a single individual and in the course of many years, maybe even thousands of years, they were accepted all round as a matter of course and this gained universal validity."

"All the material inventions which we see around us have been produced by the creative powers and capabilities of individuals. And all these inventions help man to raise himself higher and higher above the animal world and to separate himself from that world in an absolutely definite way. Hence they serve to elevate the human species and continually to promote its progress."

"In their final consequences all human thought and invention help man in his life-struggle on this planet, even though the so-called practical utility of an invention, a discovery or a profound scientific theory, may not be evident at first sight.

"Everything contributes to raise man higher and higher above the level of all the other creatures that surround him, thereby strengthening and consolidating his position; so that he develops more and more in every direction as the ruling being on this earth."

"Even the purely theoretical work, which cannot be measured by a definite rule and is preliminary to all subsequent technical discoveries, is exclusively the product of the individual brain. The broad masses do not invent, nor does the majority organize or think." [If this were true, then a parliamentarian system could easily be controlled by a "personality" making such a system a dictator's dream, instead of a dictator's nemesis.]

"The first and supreme duty of an organized folk community is to place the inventor in a position where he can be of the greatest benefit to all. Indeed the very purpose of the organization is to put this principle into practice. Only by so doing can it ward off the curse of mechanization and remain a living thing. In itself it must personify the effort to place men of brains above the multitude and to make the latter obey the former."

**Rule 1. All achievement is the result of the individual's personality, not the will of the masses**. "It must start out from the principle that the blessings of mankind never came from the masses but from the creative brains of individuals, who are therefore the real benefactors of humanity."

"The idea of personality rules everywhere, the authority of the individual over his subordinates and the responsibility of the individual towards the persons who are placed over him."

"To the same degree in which the principle of personality is excluded from the economic life of the nation, and the influence and activities of the masses substituted in its stead, the national economy, which should be for the service and benefit of the community as a whole, will gradually deteriorate in its creative capacity." [One might argue the opposite and take the position that market driven economies are highly creative.]

"The People's State must assure the welfare of its citizens by recognizing the importance of personal values and by preparing the way for the maximum of productive efficiency in all the various branches of economic life, thus securing to the individual the highest possible share in the general output."

**Clearing the way for personality**. "Hence the People's State must mercilessly expurgate from all the leading circles in the government of the country the parliamentarian principle, according to which decisive power through the majority vote is invested in the multitude. Personal responsibility must be substituted in its stead." [Mein Kampf "personalities" do not do well in a parliamentarian environment.]

"In its organization the State must be established on the principle of personality, starting from the smallest cell and ascending up to the supreme government of the country." [Hitler appears to be afraid of better ideas coming from the ranks of the masses.]

**Rule 2. No decisions by majority vote**. "There are no decisions made by the majority vote, but only by responsible persons. Every man in a position of responsibility will have councilors at his side, but the decision is made by that individual person alone. In principle the People's State must forbid the custom of taking advice on certain political problems - economics, for instance - from persons who are entirely incompetent because they lack special training and practical experience in such matters."

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Chapter 12 Philosophy and Organization

**From Mein Kampf** : "As so often happens in the course of history, the main difficulty is not to establish a new order of things but to clear the ground for its establishment. Prejudices and egotistic interests join together in forming a common front against the new idea and in trying by every means to prevent its triumph, because it is disagreeable to them or threatens their existence."

"That is why the protagonist of the new idea is unfortunately, in spite of his desire for constructive work, compelled to wage a destructive battle first, in order to abolish the existing state of affairs." [This may explain Trump's obsession with dismantling our democracy.]

"A doctrine whose principles are radically new and of essential importance must adopt the sharp probe of criticism as its weapon, though this may show itself disagreeable to the individual followers."

**Propaganda**. "[To create change, we used] criticism repeated again and again, until the corrosive acid ate into the old State so thoroughly that it finally crumbled to pieces. [Trump's corrosive, "Fake News - Fake News - Fake News"] Only then did the so-called 'constructive' critical work begin."

"An existing order of things is not abolished by merely proclaiming and insisting on a new one. It must not be hoped that those who are the partisans of the existing order and have their interests bound up with it will be converted and won over to the new movement simply by being shown that something new is necessary."

**Intolerance**. "For a philosophy is intolerant and cannot permit another to exist side by side with it. It imperiously demands its own recognition as unique and exclusive and a complete transformation in accordance with its views throughout all the branches of public life. It can never allow the previous state of affairs to continue in existence by its side."

"And the same holds true of religions. Christianity was not content with erecting an altar of its own. It had first to destroy the pagan altars. It was only in virtue of this passionate intolerance that an apodictic faith could grow up. And intolerance is an indispensable condition for the growth of such a faith." [Those who think like Hitler twist peaceful religions into sectarian rivalries, fear, and hatred.]

"A philosophy of life which is inspired by an infernal spirit of intolerance can only be set aside by a doctrine that is advanced in an equally ardent spirit and fought for with as determined a will and which is itself a new idea, pure and absolutely true."

"Each one of us today may regret the fact that the advent of Christianity was the first occasion on which spiritual terror was introduced into the much freer ancient world, but the fact cannot be denied that ever since then the world is pervaded and dominated by this kind of coercion and that violence is broken only by violence and terror by terror. Only then can a new regime be created by means of constructive work. Political parties are prone to enter compromises; but a philosophy never does this. A political party is inclined to adjust its teachings with a view to meeting those of its opponents, but a philosophy proclaims its own infallibility."

**Diminished resolve**. "In the beginning, political parties have also and nearly always the intention of securing an exclusive and despotic domination for themselves. They always show a slight tendency to become philosophical. But the limited nature of their program is itself enough to rob them of that heroic spirit which a philosophy demands. The spirit of conciliation which animates their will attracts those petty and chicken-hearted people who are not fit to be protagonists in any crusade. That is the reason why they mostly become struck in their miserable pettiness very early in the march. They give up fighting for their ideology, and by way of what they call 'positive collaboration,' they try as quickly as possible to wedge themselves into some tiny place at the trough of the existent regime and to stick there as long as possible. Their whole effort ends at that. And if they should get shouldered away from the common manger by a competition of more brutal manners then their only idea is to force themselves in again, by force or chicanery, among the herd of all the others who have similar appetites, in order to get back into the front row, and finally - even at the expense of their most sacred convictions - participate anew in that beloved spot where they find their fodder. They are the jackals of politics."

**Dominance.** "A general philosophy of life will never share its place with something else. Therefore it can never agree to collaborate in any order of things that it condemns. On the contrary it feels obliged to employ every means in fighting against the old order and the whole world of ideas belonging to that order and prepare the way for its destruction.

"Any new philosophy of life will bring its ideas to victory only if the most courageous and active elements of its epoch and its people are enrolled under its standards and grouped firmly together in a powerful fighting organization."

**Rule 1. Establish faith**. "To achieve this purpose it is absolutely necessary to select from the general system of doctrine a certain number of ideas which will appeal to such individuals and which, once they are expressed in a precise and clear-cut form, will serve as articles of faith for a new association of men."

"While the program of the ordinary political party is nothing but the recipe for cooking up favorable results out of the next general elections, the program of a philosophy represents a declaration of war against an existing order of things, against present conditions, in short, against the established view of life in general."

"It is not necessary, however, that every individual fighter for such a new doctrine need have a full grasp of the ultimate ideas and plans of those who are the leaders of the movement. It is only necessary that each should have a clear notion of the fundamental ideas and that he should thoroughly assimilate a few of the most fundamental principles, so that he will be convinced of the necessity of carrying the movement and its doctrines to success."

**Rule 2. Establish discipline**. "The individual soldier is not initiated in the knowledge of high strategical plans. But he is trained to submit to a rigid discipline, to be passionately convinced of the justice and inner worth of his cause and that he must devote himself to it without [reservation]."

"Supposing that each soldier in an army were a general, and had the training and capacity for generalship, that army would not be an efficient fighting instrument. Similarly a political movement would not be very efficient in fighting for a philosophy if it were made up exclusively of intellectuals. No, we need the simple soldier also. Without him no discipline can be established."

"By its very nature, an organization can exist only if leaders of high intellectual ability are served by a large mass of men who are emotionally devoted to the cause. To maintain discipline in a company of two hundred men who are equally intelligent and capable would turn out more difficult in the long run than in a company of one hundred and ninety less gifted men and ten who have had a higher education."

**Rule 3. Establish obedience**. "[The opposition] completely failed to realize the fact that the strength of a political party never consists in the intelligence and independent spirit of the rank-and-file of its members but rather in the spirit of willing obedience with which they follow their intellectual leaders. What is of decisive importance is the leadership itself. When two bodies of troops are arrayed in mutual combat, victory will not fall to that side in which every soldier has an expert knowledge of the rules of strategy, but rather to that side which has the best leaders and at the same time the best disciplined, most blindly obedient and best drilled troops. That is a fundamental piece of knowledge which we must always bear in mind when we examine the possibility of transforming a philosophy into a practical reality."

[The analogy is true for conventional forces, but not for guerrilla forces where intelligence and independent spirit are the key to survival. Conventional forces are more like football teams, while guerrilla forces are more like vandals. It is a mistake to minimize these small forces; as more often than not, when supported by only twenty-five percent of the local civilian population, they will prevail against an occupying army. It should be noted that it is a common (almost fundamental) guerilla tactic, to terrorize those in the local population who collaborate. An occupying army that cannot protect its collaborators will not be successful.]

**Rule 4. Force creates reality**. "If we agree that in order to carry a philosophy into practical effect it must be incorporated in a fighting movement, then the logical consequence is that the program of such a movement must take account of the human material at its disposal."

"Principles must be absolutely definite and unmistakable, so the propagandist program must be well drawn up and must be inspired by a keen sense of its psychological appeals to the minds of those without whose help the noblest ideas will be doomed to remain in the eternal, realm of ideas."

"If the idea, which is at present an obscure wish, is one day to attain a clear and definite success, it will have to put forward certain definite principles which of their very nature and content are calculated to attract a broad mass of adherents [whose zealousness] can guarantee that these principles will be fought for."

"That is why the program of the new movement was condensed into a few fundamental postulates. They are meant first of all to give the ordinary man a rough sketch of what the movement is aiming at. They are a profession of faith which on the one hand are meant to win adherents to the movement, and on the other, [are] meant to unite such adherents together in a covenant to which all have subscribed."

**Rule 5. Never change course**. "In these matters we must never lose sight of the following: What we call the program of the movement is absolutely right as far as its ultimate aims are concerned, but as regards the manner in which that program is formulated certain psychological considerations had to be taken into account. Hence, in the course of time, the opinion may well arise that certain principles should be expressed differently and might be better formulated. But any attempt at a different formulation has a fatal effect in most cases. For something that ought to be fixed and unshakable thereby becomes the subject of discussion."

"As soon as one point alone is removed from the sphere of dogmatic certainty, the discussion will not simply result in a new and better formulation which will have greater consistency but may easily lead to endless debates and general confusion. In such cases the question must always be carefully considered: [1] as to whether a new and more adequate formulation is to be preferred, though it may cause a controversy within the movement, or [2] whether it may not be better to retain the old formula which, though probably not the best, represents an organism enclosed in itself, solid and internally homogeneous."

"All experience shows that the second of these alternatives is preferable. For since in these changes one is dealing only with external forms such corrections will always appear desirable and possible. But in the last analysis the generality of people think superficially, and therefore, the great danger is [that] a merely external [superficial change] in the program, will [be seen as] an essential [internal philosophical change in the] aim of the movement. In that way the will and the combative force at the service of the ideas are weakened and the energies that ought to be directed towards the outer world are dissipated in programmatic discussions within the ranks of the movement."

"For a doctrine that is actually right in its main features, it is less dangerous to retain a formulation which may no longer be quite adequate instead of trying to improve it and thereby allowing a fundamental principle of the movement, which had hitherto been considered as solid as granite, to become the subject of a general discussion which may have unfortunate consequences. This is particularly to be avoided as long as a movement is still fighting for victory. For, would it be possible to inspire people with blind faith in the truth of a doctrine if doubt and uncertainty are encouraged by continual alterations in its external formulation?"

***

**The rationale for rigidity**. "The essentials of a teaching must never be looked for in its external formulas, but always in its inner meaning. And this meaning is unchangeable."

"And in its interest one can only wish that a movement should exclude everything that tends towards disintegration and uncertainty in order to preserve the unified force that is necessary for its triumph."

"Here again the Catholic Church has a lesson to teach us. Though sometimes, and often quite unnecessarily, its dogmatic system is in conflict with the exact sciences and with scientific discoveries, it is not disposed to sacrifice a syllable of its teachings. It has rightly recognized that its powers of resistance would be weakened by introducing greater or less doctrinal adaptations to meet the temporary conclusions of science, which in reality are always vacillating. And thus it holds fast to its fixed and established dogmas which alone can give to the whole system the character of a faith. And that is the reason why it stands firmer today than ever before. We may prophesy that, as a fixed pole amid fleeting phenomena, it will continue to attract increasing numbers of people who will be blindly attached to it the more rapid the rhythm of changing phenomena around it." [By design, those who follow the principles of Mein Kampf intentionally create insecurity causing a migration to their "fixed pole." It is this author's opinion that, excluding Adolph Hitler, Donald Trump has created more uncertainty and insecurity in the free world than any other person in modern history.]

"Therefore whoever really and seriously desires that the idea [put forward] should triumph must realize that this triumph can be assured only through a militant movement and that this movement must ground its strength only on the granite firmness of an impregnable and firmly coherent program. In regard to its formulas it must never make concessions to the spirit of the time but must maintain the form that has once and for all been decided upon as the right one; in any case until victory has crowned its efforts."

"Before this goal has been reached, any attempt to open a discussion on the opportuneness of this or that point in the program might tend to disintegrate the solidity and fighting strength of the movement, according to the measures in which its followers might take part in such an internal dispute. Some 'improvements' introduced today might be subjected to a critical examination tomorrow, in order to substitute it with something better the day after. Once the barrier has been taken down the road is opened and we know only the beginning, but we do not know to what shoreless sea it may lead."

***

**Rule 6. Never revise the postulates**. "The members of the movement, both present and future, must never feel themselves called upon to undertake a critical revision of these leading postulates, but rather feel themselves obliged to put them into practice as they stand. For the majority of our followers the essence of the movement will consist not so much in the letter of our theses but in the meaning that we attribute to them." [This compliments the "Personality" principle where personality rules everywhere.]

***

"Our party above all, by the success of its propaganda, has shown the force of the folk idea; so much so that the others, in an effort to gain proselytes, find themselves forced to copy our example, at least in words. Only the desire to maintain their existence and the fear that our movement may prevail, because it is based on a philosophy that is of universal importance, and because they feel that the exclusive character of our movement betokens danger for them - only for these reasons do they use words which they repudiated [six] years ago, derided [five] years ago, branded as stupid [four] years ago, combated [three] years ago, hated [two] years ago, and finally, [one] year ago, annexed and incorporated them in their present political vocabulary, employing them as war slogans in their struggle."

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Chapter 13 The Printed Word vs. Oratory

**From Mein Kampf** : "The Party ought not be the beadle, but rather the master of public opinion. It must not serve the masses but rather dominate them."

"In the case of every movement, especially during its struggling stages, there is naturally a temptation to conform to the tactics of an opponent and use the same battle-cries, when his tactics have succeeded in leading the people to crazy conclusions or to adopt mistaken attitudes towards the questions at issue. This temptation is particularly strong when motives can be found, though they are entirely illusory, that seem to point towards the same ends which the young movement is aiming at."

**Rule 1. Never yield to public opinion**. "On several occasions I have experienced such cases, in which the greatest energy had to be employed to prevent the ship of our movement from being drawn into a general current which had been started artificially, and indeed from sailing with it. Weak characters were tempted to set their sails according to the direction of the wind and capitulate before the shout of public opinion."

"Capitulation [made it] necessary to grasp the rudder with an iron hand and turn the movement about, so as to save it from a course that would have led it on the rocks. Certainly to attempt such a change of course was not a popular maneuver at that time, because all the leading forces of public opinion had been active and a great flame of public feeling illuminated only one direction. Such a decision almost always brings disfavor on those who dare to take it. In the course of history not a few men have been stoned for an act for which posterity has afterwards thanked them on its knees."

"But a movement must count on posterity and not on the plaudits of the movement. It may well be that at such moments certain individuals have to endure hours of anguish, but they should not forget that the moment of liberation will come and that a movement which purposes to reshape the world must serve the future and not the passing hour."

"On this point it may be asserted that the greatest and most enduring successes in history are mostly those which were least understood at the beginning, because they were in strong contrast to public opinion and the views and wishes of the time."

**Oratory.** "We had experience of this when we made our own first public appearance. In all truth it can be said that we did not court public favor, but made an onslaught on the follies of our people. In those days the following happened almost always: I presented myself before an assembly of men who believed the opposite of what I wished to say and who wanted the opposite of what I believed in. Then I had to spend a couple of hours in persuading two or three thousand people to give up the opinions they had first held, in destroying the foundations of their views with one blow after another and finally in leading them over to take their stand on the grounds of our own convictions and our philosophy of life."

**Rule 2. Anticipate and dispel counter-arguments**. "I learned something that was important at that time, namely, to snatch from the hands of the enemy the weapons which he was using in his reply. I soon noticed that our adversaries, especially in the persons of those who led the discussion against us, were furnished with a definite repertoire of arguments out of which they took points against our claims which were being constantly repeated. The uniform character of this mode of procedure pointed to a systematic and unified training. And so we were able to recognize the incredible way in which the enemy's propagandists had been disciplined, and I am proud today that I discovered a means not only of making this propaganda ineffective but of beating the artificers of it at their own work. Two years later I was master of that art."

"In every speech I made it was important to get a clear idea beforehand of the probable form and matter of the counter-arguments we had to expect in the discussion, so that in the course of my own speech these could be dealt with and refuted. To this end it was necessary to mention all the possible objections and show their inconsistency; it was all the easier to win over an honest listener by expunging from his memory the arguments which had been impressed upon it, so that we anticipated our replies. What he had learned was refuted without having been mentioned by him and that made him all the more attentive to what I had to say."

**The one-page circular**. "[Propaganda and explanation] was needed was to win over those whose opinions and mental attitudes bound [them] to the enemy's camp. The one-page circular was also adopted by us to help in this propaganda."

**Leaflets and pamphlets**. "Our first meetings were distinguished by the fact that there were tables covered with leaflets, papers, and pamphlets of every kind. But we relied principally on the spoken word. And, in fact, this is the only means capable of producing really great revolutions, which can be explained on general psychological grounds."

"All the formidable events which have changed the aspect of the world were carried through, not by the written but by the spoken word. Intellectuals protested against my attitude simply because they themselves did not have the force or ability to influence the masses through the spoken word; for they always relied exclusively on the help of writers and did not enter the arena themselves as orators for the purpose of arousing the people."

"An orator receives continuous guidance from the people before whom he speaks. This helps him to correct the direction of his speech; for he can always gauge, by the faces of his hearers, how far they follow and understand him, and whether his words are producing the desired effect. But the writer does not know his reader at all. Therefore, from the outset he does not address himself to a definite human group of persons which he has before his eyes but must write in a general way. Hence, up to a certain extent he must fail in psychological finesse and flexibility."

"Therefore, in general it may be said that a brilliant orator writes better than a brilliant writer can speak, unless the latter has continual practice in public speaking. One must also remember that of itself the multitude is mentally inert, that it remains attached to its old habits and that it is not naturally prone to read something which does not conform with its own pre-established beliefs when such writing does not contain what the multitude hopes to find there."

"Therefore, some piece of writing which has a particular tendency is, for the most part, read only by those who are in sympathy with it. Only a leaflet or a placard, on account of its brevity, can hope to arouse a momentary interest in those whose opinions differ from it. The picture, in all its forms, including the film, has better prospects. Here there is less need of elaborating the appeal to the intelligence. It is sufficient if one be careful to have quite short texts, because many people are more ready to accept a pictorial presentation than to read a long written description. In a much shorter time, at one stroke I might say, people will understand a pictorial presentation of something which it would take them a long and laborious effort of reading to understand." [Imagine what Hitler could have done with a TV sound bite or a Twitter account.]

"The most important consideration, however, is that one never knows into what hands a piece of written material comes and yet the form in which its subject is presented must remain the same. In general the effect is greater when the form of treatment corresponds to the mental level of the reader and suits his nature. Therefore, a book which is meant for the broad masses of the people must try from the very start to gain its effects through a style and level of ideas which would be quite different from a book intended to be read by the higher intellectual classes."

**Adaptability**. "Only through this capacity for adaptability does the force of the written word approach that of oral speech. The orator may deal with the same subject a book deals with; but if he has the genius of a great and popular orator he will scarcely ever repeat the same argument or the same material in the same form on two consecutive occasions. He will always follow the lead of the great mass in such a way that from the living emotion of his hearers the apt word which he needs will be suggested to him and in its turn this will go straight to the hearts of his hearers. Should he make even a slight mistake he has the living correction before him."

"As I have already said, he can read the play of expression on the faces of his hearers, first to see if they understand what he says, secondly to see if they take in the whole of his argument, and thirdly, in how far they are convinced of the justice of what has been placed before them."

"Should he observe, first, that his hearers do not understand him he will make his explanation so elementary and clear that they will be able to grasp it, even to the last individual. Secondly, if he feels that they are not capable of following him he will make one idea follow another carefully and slowly until the most slow-witted hearer no longer lags behind. Thirdly, as soon as he has the feeling that they do not seem convinced that he is right in the way he has put things to them he will repeat his argument over and over again, always giving fresh illustrations, and he himself will state their unspoken objection. He will repeat these objections, dissecting them and refuting them, until the last group of the opposition show him by their behavior and play of expression that they have capitulated before his exposition of the case."

**Emotion.** "Not infrequently it is a case of overcoming ingrained prejudices which are mostly unconscious and are supported by sentiment rather than reason. It is a thousand times more difficult to overcome this barrier of instinctive aversion, emotional hatred and preventive dissent than to correct opinions which are founded on defective or erroneous knowledge. False ideas and ignorance may be set aside by means of instruction, but emotional resistance never can. Nothing but an appeal to these hidden forces will be effective here. And that appeal can be made by scarcely any writer. Only the orator can hope to make it."

"A very striking proof of this is found in the fact that, though we had a Press which in many cases was well written and produced and had a circulation of millions among the people, it could not prevent the broad masses from becoming the implacable enemies of the bourgeois class. The deluge of papers and books published by the intellectual circles year after year passed over the millions of the lower social strata like water over glazed leather. This proves that one of two things must be true: either that the matter offered in the Press was worthless or that it is impossible to reach the hearts of the broad masses by means of the written word alone. Of course, the latter would be specially true where the written material shows such little psychological insight as has hitherto been the case."

"It is difficult to remove emotional prejudices, psychological bias, feelings, etc., and to put others in their place. Success depends here on imponderable conditions and influences. Only the orator who is gifted with the most sensitive insight can estimate all this. Even the time of day at which the speech is delivered has a decisive influence on its results. The same speech, made by the same orator and on the same theme, will have very different results according as it is delivered at ten o'clock in the forenoon, at three in the afternoon, or in the evening."

"If one goes to a theatre to see a matinee performance and then attends an evening performance of the same play one is astounded at the difference in the impressions created. A sensitive person recognizes for himself the fact that these two states of mind caused by the matinee and the evening performance respectively are quite different in themselves. The same is true of cinema productions. This latter point is important; for one may say of the theatre that perhaps in the afternoon the actor does not make the same effort as in the evening. But surely it cannot be said that the cinema is different in the afternoon from what it is at nine o'clock in the evening. No, here the time exercises a distinct influence, just as a room exercises a distinct influence on a person."

"There are rooms which leave one cold, for reasons which are difficult to explain. There are rooms which refuse steadfastly to allow any favorable atmosphere to be created in them. Moreover, certain memories and traditions which are present as pictures in the human mind may have a determining influence on the impression produced."

"In all these cases one deals with the problem of influencing the freedom of the human will. And that is true especially of meetings where there are men whose wills are opposed to the speaker and who must be brought around to a new way of thinking. In the morning and during the day it seems that the power of the human will rebels with its strongest energy against any attempt to impose upon it the will or opinion of another. On the other hand, in the evening it easily succumbs to the domination of a stronger will."

"Because in such assemblies there is a contest between two opposite forces. The superior oratorical art of a man who has the compelling character of an apostle will succeed better in bringing around to a new way of thinking to those who have naturally been subjected to a weakening of their forces of resistance (rather than in converting those who are in full possession of their volitional and intellectual energies). The mysterious artificial dimness of the Catholic churches also serves this purpose, the burning candles, the incense, the thurible, etc."

"In this struggle between the orator and the opponent whom he must convert to his cause this marvelous sensibility towards the psychological influences of propaganda can hardly ever be availed of by an author. Generally speaking, the effect of the writer's work helps to conserve, reinforce and deepen the foundations of a mentality already existing. All really great historical revolutions were not produced by the written word. At most, they were accompanied by it."

"It is out of the question to think that the French Revolution could have been carried into effect by philosophizing theories if they had not found an army of agitators led by demagogues of the grand style. These demagogues inflamed popular passion that had been already aroused, until that volcanic eruption finally broke out and convulsed the whole of Europe. And the same happened in the case of the gigantic Bolshevik revolution which recently took place in Russia. It was not due to the writers on Lenin's side but to the oratorical activities of those who preached the doctrine of hatred and that of the innumerable small and great orators who took part in the agitation." [Political Emotion (i.e. the "doctrine of fear and hatred") is mainly a spoken activity, supported by written material.]

"The masses of illiterate Russians were not fired to Communist revolutionary enthusiasm by reading the theories of Karl Marx, but by the promises of paradise made to the people by thousands of agitators in the service of an idea. It was always so, and it will always be so."

"The genius of Lloyd George is proved by the fact that he found for his speeches that form and expression which opened the hearts of his people to him and made these people carry out his will absolutely. The primitive quality itself of those speeches, the originality of his expressions, his choice of clear and simple illustration, are examples which prove the superior political capacity of this Englishman. For one must never judge the speech of a statesman to his people by the impression which it leaves on the mind of a university professor but by the effect it produces on the people. And this is the sole criterion of the orator's genius."

**Written matter**. "The astonishing development of our movement, which was created from nothing a few years ago and is today singled out for persecution by all the internal and external enemies of our nation, must be attributed to the constant recognition and practical application of those principles. Written matter also played an important part in our movement; but at the stage of which I am writing it served to give an equal and uniform education to the directors of the movement, in the upper as well as in the lower grades, rather than to convert the masses of our adversaries."

"Even a newspaper is rarely read if it does not bear the stamp of a party affiliation. Moreover, the reading of newspapers helps little, because the general picture given by a single [issue] of a newspaper is so confused and produces such a fragmentary impression that it really does not influence the occasional reader. And where a man has to count his pennies it cannot be assumed that, exclusively for the purpose of being objectively informed, he will become a regular reader or subscriber to a paper which opposes his views. Only one who has already joined a movement will regularly read the party organ of that movement, and especially for the purpose of keeping himself informed of what is happening in the movement."

"It is quite different with the 'spoken' leaflet. Especially if it be distributed gratis it will be taken up by one person or another, all the more willingly if its display title refers to a question about which everybody is talking at the moment. Perhaps the reader, after having read through such a leaflet more or less thoughtfully, will have new viewpoints and mental attitudes and may give his attention to a new movement. But with these, even in the best of cases, only a small impulse will be given, but no definite conviction will be created; because the leaflet can do nothing more than draw attention to something and can become effective only by bringing the reader subsequently into a situation where he is more fundamentally informed and instructed. Such instruction must always be given at the mass assembly."

**Mass assemblies**. "Mass assemblies are also necessary for the reason that, in attending them, the individual who felt himself formerly only on the point of joining the new movement, now begins to feel isolated and in fear of being left alone as he acquires for the first time the picture of a great community which has a strengthening and encouraging effect on most people. Brigaded in a company or battalion, surrounded by his companions, he will march with a lighter heart to the attack than if he had to march alone. In the crowd he feels himself in some way thus sheltered, though in reality there are a thousand arguments against such a feeling." [Could this explain Trump's need to continually hold campaign style pep rallies for his base?]

"Mass demonstrations on the grand scale not only reinforce the will of the individual but they draw him still closer to the movement and help to create an esprit de corps. The man who appears first as the representative of a new doctrine in his place of business or in his factory is bound to feel himself embarrassed and has need of that reinforcement which comes from the consciousness that he is a member of a great community. And only a mass demonstration can impress upon him the greatness of this community. If, on leaving the shop or mammoth factory, in which he feels very small indeed, he should enter a vast assembly for the first time and see around him thousands and thousands of men who hold the same opinions; if, while still seeking his way, he is gripped by the force of mass-suggestion which comes from the excitement and enthusiasm of three or four thousand other men in whose midst he finds himself; if the manifest success and the consensus of thousands confirm the truth and justice of the new teaching and for the first time raise doubt in his mind as to the truth of the opinions held by himself up to now - then he submits himself to the fascination of what we call mass-suggestion. The will, the yearning and indeed the strength of thousands of people are in each individual. A man who enters such a meeting in doubt and hesitation leaves it inwardly fortified; he has become a member of a community."

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Chapter 14 Persistence

**From Mein Kampf** : "I [Hitler] attended some of the bourgeois meetings. Invariably I had the same feeling towards these as towards the compulsory dose of castor oil in my boyhood days. It just had to be taken because it was good for one: but it certainly tasted unpleasant. If it were possible to tie ropes round the people and forcibly drag them to these bourgeois meetings, keeping them there behind barred doors and allowing nobody to escape until the meeting closed, then this procedure might prove successful in the course of a few hundred years."

"For my own part, I must frankly admit that, under such circumstances, I could not find life worth living. But, thank God, all this is impossible. And so it is not surprising that the sane and unspoilt masses shun these 'bourgeois mass meetings' as the devil shuns holy water."

"I came to know the prophets of the bourgeois philosophy, and I was not surprised at what I learned, as I knew that they attached little importance to the spoken word. What struck me at once was the homogeneous uniformity of the audiences. Nearly always they were made up exclusively of party members. The whole affair was more like a yawning card party than an assembly of people who had just passed through a great revolution. The speakers did all they could to maintain this tranquil atmosphere. They declaimed, or rather read out, their speeches in the style of an intellectual newspaper article or a learned treatise, avoiding all striking expressions. Here and there a feeble professorial joke would be introduced, whereupon the people sitting at the speaker's table felt themselves obliged to laugh - not loudly but encouragingly and with well-bred reserve."

"I once attended a meeting to celebrate the anniversary of a battle. The speech was delivered or rather read out by a venerable old professor from one or other of the universities. The committee sat on the platform: one monocle on the right, another monocle on the left, and in the center a gentleman with no monocle. All three of them were punctiliously attired in morning coats, and I had the impression of being present before a judge's bench just as the death sentence was about to be pronounced or at a christening or some more solemn religious ceremony."

"The so-called speech, which in printed form may have read quite well, had a disastrous effect. After three quarters of an hour the audience fell into a sort of hypnotic trance, which was interrupted only when some man or woman left the hall, or by the clatter which the waitresses made, or by the increasing yawns of slumbering individuals. I had posted myself behind three workmen who were present either out of curiosity or because they were sent there by their parties. From time to time they glanced at one another with an ill-concealed grin, nudged one another with the elbow, and then silently left the hall. One could see that they had no intention whatsoever of interrupting the proceedings, nor indeed was it necessary to interrupt them."

"At long last the celebration showed signs of drawing to a close. After the professor, whose voice had meanwhile become more and more inaudible, finally ended his speech, the gentleman without the monocle delivered a rousing peroration to the assembled 'sisters and brothers.' On behalf of the audience and himself he expressed gratitude for the magnificent lecture which they had just heard from Professor X and emphasized how deeply the Professor's words had moved them all. If a general discussion on the lecture were to take place it would be tantamount to profanity, and he thought he was voicing the opinion of all present in suggesting that such a discussion should not be held. Therefore, he would ask the assembly to rise from their seats and join in singing the patriotic song. The proceedings finally closed with an anthem."

"And then they all sang. It appeared to me that when the second verse was reached the voices were fewer and that only when the refrain came on they swelled loudly. When we reached the third verse my belief was confirmed that a good many of those present were not very familiar with the text."

"After this the meeting broke up and everyone hurried to get outside, one to his glass of beer, one to a cafe, and others simply into the fresh air."

"Out into the fresh air! That was also my feeling. And was this the way to honor a heroic struggle in which hundreds of thousands had fought? To the devil with it all! That sort of thing might find favor with the Government, it being merely a 'peaceful' meeting. The Minister responsible for law and order need not fear that enthusiasm might suddenly get the better of public decorum and induce these people to pour out of the room, and instead of dispersing to beer halls and cafes, march in rows of four through the town singing and causing some unpleasantness to a police force in need of rest. No. That type of citizen is of no use to anyone." [A boyish sense of humor can mask the tyrant within.]

***

**Our meetings**. "On the other hand, [our] meetings were by no means 'peaceable' affairs. Two distinct outlooks enraged in bitter opposition to one another, and these meetings did not close with the mechanical rendering of a dull patriotic song but rather with a passionate outbreak of popular national feeling."

**Rule 1. Discipline and absolute authority are essential**. "It was imperative from the start to introduce rigid discipline into our meetings and establish the authority of the chairman absolutely. Our purpose was not to pour out a mixture of soft-soap bourgeois talk; what we had to say was meant to arouse the opponents at our meetings! How often did they not turn up in masses with a few individual agitators among them, and judging by the expression on all their faces, ready to finish us off there and then."

"Yes, how often did they not turn up in huge numbers, those supporters of the Red Flag, all previously instructed to smash up everything once and for all and put an end to these meetings. More often than not everything hung on a mere thread, and only the chairman's ruthless determination and the rough handling by our ushers baffled our adversaries' intentions. And indeed they had every reason for being irritated."

**Rule 2. Create discord**. "The fact that we had chosen red as the color for our posters sufficed to attract them to our meetings. The ordinary bourgeoisie were very shocked to see that, we had also chosen the symbolic red and they regarded this as something ambiguously significant. The suspicion was whispered that we also were merely another variety suitably disguised. [We] addressed each other as 'Party Comrade.' We used to roar with laughter at these silly faint-hearted bourgeoisie and their efforts to puzzle out our origin, our intentions, and our aims."

"We chose red for our posters after particular and careful deliberation, our intention being to irritate the Left, so as to arouse their attention and tempt them to come to our meetings - if only in order to break them up - so that in this way we got a chance of talking to the people."

**Opposition's strategy**. "In those years, it was indeed a delightful experience to follow the constantly changing tactics of our perplexed and helpless adversaries. First of all they appealed to their followers to ignore us and keep away from our meetings. Generally speaking this appeal was heeded. But, as time went on, more and more of their followers gradually found their way to us and accepted our teaching. Then the leaders became nervous and uneasy. They clung to their belief that such a development should not be ignored forever, and that terror must be applied in order to put an end to it."

"[Next,] appeals were then made to the class-conscious proletariat [the working class] to attend our meetings in masses and strike with the clenched hand of the proletarian at the representatives of a 'monarchist and reactionary agitation.'"

"Our meetings suddenly became packed with work-people fully three-quarters of an hour before the proceedings were scheduled to begin. These gatherings resembled a powder cask ready to explode at any moment; and the fuse was conveniently at hand. But matters always turned out differently. People came as enemies and left, not perhaps prepared to join us, yet in a reflective mood and disposed critically to examine the correctness of their own doctrine."

"Gradually as time went on my three-hour lectures resulted in supporters and opponents becoming united in one single enthusiastic group of people. Every signal for the breaking-up of the meeting failed. The result was that the opposition leaders became frightened and once again looked for help to those quarters that had formerly discountenanced these tactics, and with some show of right, had been of the opinion that on principle the workers should be forbidden to attend our meetings."

"Then they did not come any more, or only in small numbers. But after a short time the whole game started all over again. The instructions to keep away from us were ignored; the comrades came in steadily increasing numbers, until finally the advocates of the radical tactics won the day. We were to be broken up."

"Yet when, after two, three and even eight meetings, it was realized that to break up these gatherings was easier said than done, and that every meeting resulted in a decisive weakening of the red fighting forces, then suddenly the other password was introduced: 'Proletarians, comrades avoid meetings of the agitators.'"

***

**The press**. "The same eternally alternating tactics were also to be observed in the Press. Soon they tried to silence us but discovered the uselessness of such an attempt. After that they swung round to the opposite tactics. Daily 'reference' was made to us solely for the purpose of absolutely ridiculing us in the eyes of the working-classes. After a time these gentlemen must have felt that no harm was being done to us, but that, on the contrary, we were reaping an advantage in that people were asking themselves why so much space was being devoted to a subject which was supposed to be so ludicrous."

"People became curious. Suddenly there was a change of tactics and for a time we were treated as veritable criminals against mankind. One article followed the other, in which our criminal intentions were explained and new proofs brought forward to support what was said. Scandalous tales, all of them fabricated from start to finish, were published in order to help to poison the public mind. But in a short time even these attacks also proved futile; and in fact they assisted materially because they attracted public attention to us."

"In those days I took up the standpoint that it was immaterial whether they laughed at us or reviled us, whether they depicted us as fools or criminals; the important point was that they took notice of us and that in the eyes of the working-classes we came to be regarded as the only force capable of putting up a fight."

***

**The cause of their failure**. "One reason why they never got so far as breaking up our meetings was undoubtedly the incredible cowardice displayed by the leaders of the opposition. On every critical occasion they left the dirty work to the smaller fry whilst they waited outside the halls for the results of the break up."

"We were exceptionally well informed in regard to our opponents' intentions, not only because we allowed several of our party colleagues to remain members of the Red organizations for reasons of expediency, but also because the Red [string pullers], fortunately for us, were afflicted with a degree of talkativeness that is still unfortunately very prevalent. They could not keep their own counsel, and more often than not they started cackling before the proverbial egg was laid. Hence, time and again our precautions were such that Red agitators had no inkling of how near they were to being thrown out of the meetings."

**Rule 3. No reliance on official protection**. "The state of affairs compelled us to take the work of safeguarding our meetings into our own hands. No reliance could be placed on official protection. On the contrary, experience showed that such protection always favored only the disturbers. The only real outcome of police intervention would be that the meeting would be dissolved, that is to say, closed. And that is precisely what our opponents [wanted]."

"Generally speaking, this led the police to adopt a procedure which, to say the least, was a most infamous sample of official malpractice. The moment they received information of a threat that the one or other meeting was to be broken up, instead of arresting the would-be disturbers, they promptly advised the innocent parties that the meeting was forbidden. This step the police proclaimed as a ' precautionary measure in the interests of law and order.'"

"The political work and activities of decent people could therefore always be hindered by desperate ruffians who had the means at their disposal. In the name of peace and order State authority bowed down to these ruffians and demanded that others should not provoke them. When [we] desired to hold meetings and the labor unions declared that their members would resist, then it was not these blackmailers that were arrested and jailed. No. Our meetings were forbidden by the police."

"Yes, this organ of the law had the unspeakable impudence to advise us in writing to this effect in innumerable instances. To avoid such eventualities, it was necessary to see to it that every attempt to disturb a meeting was nipped in the bud."

"Another feature to be taken into account in this respect is that all meetings which rely on police protection must necessarily bring discredit to their promoters in the eyes of the general public. Meetings that are only possible with the protective assistance of a strong force of police convert nobody, because in order to win over the lower strata of the people there must be a visible show of strength on one's own side. In the same way that a man of courage will win a woman's affection more easily than a coward, so a heroic movement will be more successful in winning over the hearts of a people than a weak movement which relies on police support for its very existence."

"It is for this latter reason in particular that our young movement was to be charged with the responsibility of assuring its own existence, defending itself; and conducting its own work of smashing the opposition. The work of organizing the protective measures for our meetings was based on the following: (1) An energetic and psychologically judicious way of conducting the meeting. And, (2) An organized squad of troops to maintain order."

"In those days we and no one else were masters of the situation at our meetings and on no occasion did we fail to emphasize this. Our opponents fully realized that any provocation would be the occasion of throwing them out of the hall at once, whatever the odds against us. At meetings, we had in those days from five to eight hundred opponents against fifteen to sixteen [of us] yet we [tolerated] no interference, for we were ready to be killed rather than capitulate. More than once a handful of party colleagues offered a heroic resistance to a raging and violent mob of the [opposition]. Those fifteen or twenty men would certainly have been overwhelmed in the end had not the opponents known that three or four times as many of themselves would first get their skulls cracked."

**Their meetings**. "The pitiful and frightened manner in which the bourgeois meetings are conducted must be seen in order to be believed. Very frequently threats were sufficient to call off such a meeting at once. The feeling of fear was so marked that the meeting, instead of commencing at eight o'clock, very seldom was opened before a quarter to nine or nine o'clock. The Chairman thereupon did his best, by showering compliments on the 'gentleman of the opposition' to prove how he and all others present were pleased (a palpable lie) to welcome a visit from men who as yet were not in sympathy with them for the reason that only by mutual discussion (immediately agreed to) could they be brought closer together in mutual understanding."

"Apart from this the Chairman also assured them that the meeting had no intention whatsoever of interfering with the professed convictions of anybody. Indeed no. Everyone had the right to form and hold his own political views, but others should be allowed to do likewise. He therefore requested that the speaker be allowed to deliver his speech without interruption. People abroad [who were watching and judging us], he continued, would thus not come to regard this meeting as another shameful example of the bitter fraternal strife."

"The brothers of the Left had little if any appreciation for that sort of talk; the speaker had hardly commenced when he was shouted down. One gathered the impression at times that these speakers were graceful for being peremptorily cut short in their martyr-like discourse. These bourgeois toreadors left the arena in the midst of a vast uproar, that is to say, provided that they were not thrown down the stairs with cracked skulls, which was very often the case."

**Our meetings**. "They [the Left] came to our meetings in the belief that the little game which they had so often played could as a matter of course be also repeated on us. 'Today we shall finish them off.' How often did they bawl this out to each other on entering the meeting hall, only to be thrown out with lightning speed before they had time to repeat it."

"In the first place our method of conducting a meeting was entirely different. We did not beg and pray to be allowed to speak, and we did not straightway give everybody the right to hold endless discussions. We curtly gave everyone to understand that we were masters of the meeting and that we would do as it pleased us and that everyone who dared to interrupt would be unceremoniously thrown out. We stated clearly our refusal to accept responsibility for anyone treated in this manner. If time permitted and if it suited us, a discussion would be allowed to take place. Our party colleague would now make his speech. That kind of talk was sufficient in itself to astonish the [opposition]."

"Secondly, we had at our disposal a well-trained and organized body of men for maintaining order at our meetings. On the other hand the bourgeois parties protected their meetings with a body of men better classified as ushers who by virtue of their age thought they were entitled to authority and respect. But as [the Left] has little or no respect for these things, the question of suitable self-protection at these bourgeois meetings was, so to speak, in practice non-existent."

Defense squad. "When our political meetings first started I made it a special point to organize a suitable defensive squad - a squad composed chiefly of young men. Some of them were comrades who had seen active service with me; others were young party members who, right from the start, had been trained and brought up to realize that only terror is capable of smashing terror - that only courageous and determined people had made a success of things in this world and that, finally, we were fighting for an idea so lofty that it was worth the last drop of our blood."

"These young men had been brought up to realize that where force replaced common sense in the solution of a problem, the best means of defense was attack and that the reputation of our hall-guard squads should stamp us as a political fighting force and not as a debating society."

"And it was extraordinary how eagerly these boys of the War generation responded to this order. They had indeed good reason for being bitterly disappointed and indignant at the miserable milksop methods employed by the bourgeois [at the end of WWI]."

"Thus it became clear to everyone that the Revolution [in 1918, that established democratic principles for the German people] had only been possible thanks to the dastardly methods of a bourgeois government. At that time there was certainly no lack of man-power to suppress the revolution, but unfortunately there was an entire lack of directive brain power. How often did the eyes of my young men light up with enthusiasm when I explained to them the vital functions connected with their task and assured them time and again that all earthly wisdom is useless unless it be supported by a measure of strength, that the gentle goddess of Peace can only walk in company with the god of War, and that every great act of peace must be protected and assisted by force. In this way the idea of military service came to them in a far more realistic form - not in the fossilized sense of the souls of decrepit officials serving the dead authority of a dead State, but in the living realization of the duty of each man to sacrifice his life at all times so that his country might live."

"How those young men did their job! Like a swarm of hornets they tackled disturbers at our meetings, regardless of superiority of numbers, however great, indifferent to wounds and bloodshed, inspired with the great idea of blazing a trail for the sacred mission of our movement."

***

**Our flag**. "The organization of defense guards for keeping order at our meetings cleared up a very difficult question. Up till then the movement had possessed no party badge and no party flag. The lack of these tokens was not only a disadvantage at that time but would prove intolerable in the future. The disadvantages were chiefly that members of the party possessed no outward token of membership which linked them together, and it was absolutely unthinkable that for the future they should remain without some token which would be a symbol of the movement."

"More than once the psychological importance of such a symbol had become clearly evident to me. A sea of red flags, red armlets and red flowers was in itself sufficient to give [a large] assembly an outward appearance of strength. I was able to feel and understand how easily the man in the street succumbs to the hypnotic magic of such a grandiose piece of theatrical presentation."

"The question of the new flag, that is to say the form and appearance it must take, kept us very busy in those days. Suggestions poured in from all quarters, which although well meant were more or less impossible in practice. The new flag had not only to become a symbol expressing our own struggle but on the other hand it was necessary that it should prove effective as a large poster. All those who busy themselves with the tastes of the public will recognize and appreciate the great importance of these apparently petty matters. In hundreds of thousands of cases a really striking emblem may be the first cause of awakening interest in a movement."

"After innumerable trials I decided upon a final form. At the same time we immediately ordered the corresponding armlets for our squad of men who kept order at meetings. Our flag became the embodiment of our party program."

***

**Rapid growth and possible failure**. "The increasing interest taken in our meetings, compelled us at times to hold two meetings a week. Crowds gathered round our posters; the large meeting halls in the town were always filled. We were being spoken about."

"The [current] hall which held 5,000 people, was more than once overcrowded and up till then there was only one [larger circus] hall into which we had not ventured. I hired the hall."

"In those days this was a tremendous venture. Not only because of the uncertainty of filling that vast hall, but also because of the risk of the meeting being wrecked. Numerically our squad of hall guards was not strong enough for this vast hall. I was also uncertain about what to do in case the meeting was broken up - a huge circus building being a different proposition from an ordinary meeting hall. But events showed that my fears were misplaced, the opposite being the case. In that vast building a squad of wreckers could be tackled and subdued more easily than in a cramped hall."

"One thing was certain: A failure would throw us back for a long time to come. If one meeting was wrecked our prestige would be seriously injured and our opponents would be encouraged to repeat their success. That would lead to sabotage of our work in connection with further meetings and months of difficult struggle would be necessary to overcome this."

"We had only one day in which to post our bills. Two lorries which I hired were draped as much as possible in red, each had our new flag hoisted on it and was then filled with fifteen or twenty members of our party. Orders were given the members to canvas the streets thoroughly, distribute leaflets and conduct propaganda for the mass meeting to be held that evening."

"At seven o'clock in the evening only a few had gathered in the circus hall. I was being kept informed by telephone every ten minutes and was becoming uneasy. Usually at seven or a quarter past our meeting halls were already half filled; sometimes even packed. But I soon found out the reason why I was uneasy. I had entirely forgotten to take into account the huge dimensions of this new meeting place. A thousand people in the [previous hall] was quite an impressive sight, but the same number in the Circus building was swallowed up in its dimensions and was hardly noticeable. Shortly afterwards I received more hopeful reports and at a quarter to eight I was informed that the hall was three-quarters filled, with huge crowds still lined up at the pay boxes. I then left for the meeting."

"I arrived at the Circus building at two minutes past eight. There was still a crowd of people outside, partly inquisitive people and many opponents who preferred to wait outside for developments. The hall was before me, like a huge shell, packed with thousands and thousands of people. Even the arena was densely crowded. More than 5,600 tickets had been sold, and allowing for the unemployed, poor students and our own detachments of men for keeping order, a crowd of about 6,500 must have been present."

**Success**. "I began, and spoke for about two and a half hours. I had the feeling after the first half-hour that the meeting was going to be a big success. Contact had been at once established with all those thousands of individuals. After the first hour the speech was already being received by spontaneous outbreaks of applause, but after the second hour this died down to a solemn stillness which I was to experience so often later on in this same hall, and which will forever be remembered by all those present. Nothing broke this impressive silence and only when the last word had been spoken did the meeting give vent to its feelings by singing the national anthem. I watched the scene during the next twenty minutes, as the vast hall slowly emptied itself, and only then did I leave the platform, a happy man, and made my way home."

Solidify success. "We met regularly at the Circus Hall and it gave us great satisfaction to see that every meeting brought us the same measure of success. The result was shown in an ever-increasing number of supporters and members into our party."

"Naturally, such success did not allow our opponents to sleep soundly. At first their tactics fluctuated between the use of terror and silence in our regard. Then they recognized that neither terror nor silence could hinder the progress of our movement. So they had recourse to a supreme act of terror which was intended to put a definite end to our activities in the holding of meetings - would-be assassins." [Ignore, attack, ignore, and escalate attack.]

"It was decided finally to interrupt one of our meetings. A few days later a real attack came."

"The hall was filled, and for that reason the police had barred the entrances. Our adversaries, who had arrived very early, were in the hall, and our followers were for the most part outside. The small bodyguard awaited me at the entrance. I had the doors leading to the principal hall closed and then asked the bodyguard of forty-five or forty-six men to come forward. I made it clear to the boys that perhaps on that evening for the first time they would have to show their unbending and unbreakable loyalty to the movement and that not one of us should leave the hall unless carried out dead. I added that I would remain in the hall and that I did not believe that one of them would abandon me, and that if I saw any one of them act the coward I myself would personally tear off his armlet and his badge. I demanded of them that they should come forward if the slightest attempt to sabotage the meeting were made and that they must remember that the best defense is always attack."

"Then I advanced through the hall and could take in the situation with my own eyes. Our opponents sat closely huddled together and tried to pierce me through with their looks. Innumerable faces glowing with hatred and rage were fixed on me, while others with sneering grimaces shouted at me together. Now they would 'Finish with us. We must look out for our entrails. Today they would smash in our faces once and for all.' And there were other expressions of an equally elegant character. They knew that they were there in superior numbers and they acted accordingly."

**Rule 4. Persistence will prevail**. "In spite of all the interruptions, I was able to speak for about an hour and a half and I felt as if I were master of the situation. Even the ringleaders of the disturbers appeared to be convinced of this; for they steadily became more uneasy, often left the hall, returned and spoke to their men in an obviously nervous way. A small psychological error which I committed in replying to an interruption, and the mistake of which I myself was conscious the moment the words had left my mouth, gave the sign for the outbreak."

"There were a few furious outbursts and all in a moment a man jumped on a seat and shouted 'Liberty'. At that signal the champions of liberty began their work. In a few moments the hall was filled with a yelling and shrieking mob. Numerous beer-mugs flew like howitzers above their heads. Amid this uproar one heard the crash of chair legs, the crashing of mugs, groans and yells and screams. It was a mad spectacle. I stood where I was and could observe my boys doing their duty, every one of them."

"The dance had hardly begun when my Storm Troops, as they were called from that day onwards, launched their attack. Like wolves they threw themselves on the enemy again and again in parties of eight or ten and began steadily to thrash them out of the hall. After five minutes I could see hardly one of them that was not streaming with blood. Then I realized what kind of men many of them were, even though seriously wounded, attacked again and again as long as they could stand on their feet. Twenty minutes long the pandemonium continued. Then the opponents, who had numbered seven or eight hundred, had been driven from the hall or hurled out headlong by my men, who had not numbered fifty. Only in the left corner a big crowd still stood out against our men and put up a bitter fight. Then two pistol shots rang out from the entrance to the hall in the direction of the platform and now a wild din of shooting broke out from all sides. One's heart almost rejoiced at this spectacle."

"At that moment it was not possible to identify the person who had fired the shots. But at any rate I could see that my boys renewed the attack with increased fury until finally the last disturbers were overcome and flung out of the hall. About twenty-five minutes had passed since it all began. The hall looked as if a bomb had exploded there. Many of my comrades had to be bandaged and others taken away. But we remained masters of the situation. The chairman of the meeting, announced: 'The meeting will continue. The speaker shall proceed.' So I went on with my speech."

"When we ourselves declared the meeting at an end an excited police officer rushed in, waved his hands and declared: 'The meeting is dissolved.' Without wishing to do so I had to laugh at this example of the law's delay. It was real police pompousness. The smaller they are the greater they must always try to appear. That evening we learned a real lesson. And our adversaries never forgot the lesson they had received."

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Chapter 15 The Strong Man is Mightiest Alone

**From Mein Kampf** : "In speaking of a co-operative union we generally mean a group of associations which, for the purpose of facilitating their work, establish mutual relations for collaborating with one another along certain lines, appointing a common directorate with varying powers and thenceforth carrying out a common line of action. The average citizen is pleased and reassured when he hears that these associations, by establishing a co-operative union among one another, have at long last discovered a common platform on which they can stand united and have eliminated all grounds of mutual difference. Therewith a general conviction arises, to the effect that such a union is an immense gain in strength and that small groups which were weak as long as they stood alone have now suddenly become strong. Yet this conviction is for the most part a mistaken one."

***
**Part One: The nature of movements, parties, and religions**.

**Rule 1. A prophet arises and a movement is founded**. "It will be interesting, and in my opinion, important for the better understanding of [cooperative unions] if we try to get a clear notion of how it comes about that these associations, unions, etc., are established, when all of them declare that they have the same ends in view. In itself it would be logical to expect that one aim should be fought for by a single association and it would be more reasonable if there were not a number of associations fighting for the same aim. In the beginning there was undoubtedly only one association which had this one fixed aim in view. One man proclaimed a truth somewhere, and calling for the solution of a definite question, fixed his aim and founded a movement for the purpose of carrying his views into effect."

"That is how an association or a party is founded, the scope of whose program is either the abolition of existing evils or the positive establishment of a certain order of things in the future."

**Rule 2. Other prophets join the movement, singularity of purpose is lost, and the movement languishes.** "Once such a movement has come into existence it may lay practical claim to certain priority rights. The natural course of things would now be that all those who wish to fight for the same objective as this movement is striving for should identify themselves with it and thus increase its strength, so that the common purpose in view may be all the better served. Especially men of superior intelligence must feel, one and all, that by joining the movement they are establishing precisely those conditions which are necessary for practical success in the common struggle. Accordingly it is reasonable, and in a certain sense, honest - which honesty, as I shall show later, is an element of very great importance - that only one movement should be founded for the purpose of attaining the one aim."

"The fact that this does not happen must be attributed to two causes. The first may almost be described as tragic. The second is a matter for pity, because it has its foundation in the weaknesses of human nature."

"[First] the tragic reason why it so often happens that the pursuit of one definite task is not left to one association alone is as follows: Generally speaking, every action carried out on the grand style in this world is the expression of a desire that has already existed for a long time in millions of human hearts, a longing which may have been nourished in silence."

"Yes, it may happen that throughout centuries men may have been yearning for the solution of a definite problem, because they have been suffering under an unendurable order of affairs, without seeing on the far horizon the coming fulfillment of the universal longing. Nations which are no longer capable of finding an heroic deliverance from such a sorrowful fate may be looked upon as effete."

**Rule 3. A strong man arises to lead his people** "But, on the other hand, nothing gives better proof of the vital forces of a people and the consequent guarantee of its right to exist than that one day, through a happy decree of Destiny, a man arises who is capable of liberating his people from some great oppression, or of wiping out some bitter distress, or of calming the national soul which had been tormented through its sense of insecurity, and thus fulfilling what had long been the universal yearning of the people."

**Rule 4. Natural law removes all but one leader**. "An essential characteristic of what are called the great questions of the time is that thousands undertake the task of solving them and that many feel themselves called to this task: yea, even that Destiny itself has proposed many for the choice, so that through the free play of forces the stronger and bolder shall finally be victorious and to him shall be entrusted the task of solving the problem."

**Rule. 5 The discontented will find a different road**. "Thus it may happen that for centuries many are discontented with the form in which their religious life expresses itself and yearn for a renovation of it; and so it may happen that through this impulse of the soul some dozens of men may arise who believe that, by virtue of their understanding and their knowledge, they are called to solve the religious difficulties of the time and accordingly present themselves as the prophets of a new teaching or at least as declared adversaries of the standing beliefs."

**Rule 6. Many think they are called**. "Here also it is certain that the natural law will take its course, inasmuch as the strongest will be destined to fulfill the great mission. But usually the others are slow to acknowledge that only one man is called. On the contrary, they all believe that they have an equal right to engage in the solution of the difficulties in question and that they are equally called to that task. Their contemporary world is generally quite unable to decide which of all these possesses the highest gifts and accordingly merits the support of all."

"So in the course of centuries, or indeed often within the same epoch, different men establish different movements to struggle towards the same end. At least the end is declared by the founders of the movements the same, or may be looked upon as such by the masses of the people. The populace nourishes vague desires and has only general opinions, without having any precise notion of their own ideals and desires or of the question whether and how it is possible for these ideals and desires to be fulfilled."

"The tragedy lies in the fact that many men struggle to reach the same objective by different roads, each one genuinely believing in his own mission and holding himself in duty bound to follow his own road without any regard for the others".

**Rule 7. Diverse organizations are weak and removed by natural law**. "These movements, parties, religious groups, etc., originate entirely independently of one another out of the general urge of the time, and all with a view to working towards the same goal. It may seem a tragic thing, at least at first sight, that this should be so, because people are too often inclined to think that forces which are dispersed in different directions would attain their ends far more quickly and more surely if they were united in one common effort. But that is not so. For Nature herself decides according to the rules of her inexorable logic. She leaves these diverse groups to compete with one another and dispute the palm of victory and thus she chooses the clearest, shortest and surest way along which she leads the movement to its final goal."

**Rule 8. Natural law determines justice**. "How could one decide from outside which is the best way, if the forces at hand were not allowed free play, if the final decision were to rest with the doctrinaire judgment of men who are so infatuated with their own superior knowledge that their minds are not open to accept the indisputable proof presented by manifest success, which in the last analysis always gives the final confirmation of the justice of a course of action." [According to Hitler: might is not only right - it is also the justification.]

"Hence, though diverse groups march along different routes towards the same objective, as soon as they come to know that analogous efforts are being made around them, they will have to study all the more carefully whether they have chosen the best way and whether a shorter way may not be found and how their efforts can best be employed to reach the objective more quickly."

"Through this rivalry each individual protagonist develops his faculties to a still higher pitch of perfection and the human race has frequently owed its progress to the lessons learned from the misfortunes of former attempts which have come to grief."

"The general evolution of things, even though it took a century of struggle, placed the best in the position that it had merited. And that will always be so. Therefore it is not to be regretted if different men set out to attain the same objective. In this way the strongest and swiftest becomes recognized and turns out to be the victor."

**Rule 9. False prophets and copycats will steal and take credit for the success of others**. "Now there is a second cause for the fact that often in the lives of nations several movements, which show the same characteristics, strive along different ways to reach what appears to be the same goal. This second cause is not at all tragic, but just something that rightly calls forth pity. It arises from a sad mixture of envy, jealousy, ambition, and the itch for taking what belongs to others."

"The moment a man arises who profoundly understands the distress of his people, and having diagnosed the evil with perfect accuracy, takes measures to cure it; the moment he fixes his aim and chooses the means to reach it - then paltry and pettifogging people become all attention and eagerly follow the doings of this man who has thus come before the public gaze."

"Just like sparrows who are apparently indifferent, but in reality are firmly intent on the movements of the fortunate companion with the morsel of bread so that they may snatch it from him if he should momentarily relax his hold on it, so it is also with the human species. All that is needed is that one man should strike out on a new road and then a crowd of poltroons will prick up their ears and begin to sniff for whatever little booty may possibly lie at the end of that road. The moment they think they have discovered where the booty is to be gathered they hurry to find another way which may prove to be quicker in reaching that goal."

"As soon as a new movement is founded and has formulated a definite program, people of that kind come forward and proclaim that they are fighting for the same cause. This does not imply that they are ready honestly to join the ranks of such a movement and thus recognize its right of priority. It implies rather that they intend to steal the program and found a new party on it. In doing this they are shameless enough to assure the unthinking public that for a long time they had intended to take the same line of action as the other has now taken, and frequently they succeed in thus placing themselves in a favorable light, instead of arousing the general disapprobation which they justly deserve."

"For it is a piece of gross impudence to take what has already been inscribed on another's flag and display it on one's own, to steal the program of another, and then to form a separate group as if all had been created by the new founder of this group. The impudence of such conduct is particularly demonstrated [in those] individuals who [at] first caused dispersion and disruption [and later became] most emphatic in proclaiming the necessity of union and unity [when] they find they [could not] catch up with their adversary's advance."

***
Part Two: How movements, parties, and religions disintegrate

**Patriotic disintegration**. "It is to that kind of conduct [of copycats and false prophets] that the so-called 'patriotic disintegration' is to be attributed. Certainly the founding of a multitude of new groups, parties, etc., calling themselves 'Patriotic,' was a natural phenomenon of the time, for which the founders were not at all responsible."

"What we now call the 'patriotic disintegration' owes its existence exclusively to the second of the two causes which I have mentioned. Ambitious men who at first had no ideas of their own, and still less any concept of aims to be pursued, felt themselves 'called' exactly at that moment in which the success of the [other] Party became unquestionable."

"Suddenly programs appeared which were mere transcripts of ours. Ideas were proclaimed which had been taken from us. Aims were set up on behalf of which we had been fighting for several years, and ways were mapped out which the [opposition] had for a long time trodden. All kinds of means were resorted to for the purpose of trying to convince the public that, although [the other party] had been in existence for a long time, [they now] found it necessary to establish these new [programs]. But all [their explanations] were just as insincere as the motives behind them were ignoble."

"In reality all this was grounded only on one dominant motive. That motive was the personal ambition of the founders, who wished to play a part in which their own pigmy talents could contribute nothing original except the gross effrontery which they displayed in appropriating the ideas of others, a mode of conduct which in ordinary life is looked upon as thieving."

"At that time there was not an idea or concept launched by other people which these political kleptomaniacs did not seize upon at once for the purpose of applying to their own base uses. Those who did all this were the same people who subsequently, with tears in their eyes, profoundly deplored the 'patriotic disintegration' and spoke unceasingly about the 'necessity of unity'."

"In doing this they nurtured the secret hope that they might be able to cry down the others, who would tire of hearing these loud-mouthed accusations and would end up by abandoning all claim to the ideas that had been stolen from them and would abandon to the thieves not only the task of carrying these ideas into effect but also the task of carrying on the movements of which they themselves were the original founders."

"When that did not succeed, and the new enterprises, thanks to the paltry mentality of their promoters, did not show the favorable results which had been promised beforehand, then they became more modest in their pretenses and were happy if they could land themselves in one of the so-called 'co-operative union'."

**Honest Patriotism**. "There could be no better proof of the sterling honesty of certain individual founders than the fact that many of them decided, in a really admirable manner, to sacrifice their manifestly less successful movements to the stronger movement, by joining it unconditionally and dissolving their own." [The strong absorbing the weak - unconditional surrender.]

***

**Rule 10. Coalitions with the weak will not make you stronger**. "At that period everything which could not stand on its own feet joined one of those co-operative unions, believing that eight lame people hanging on to one another could force a gladiator to surrender to them. But if among all these cripples there was one who was sound of limb he had to use all his strength to sustain the others and thus he himself was practically paralyzed."

"We ought to look upon the question of joining these working coalitions as a tactical problem, but, in coming to a decision, we must never forget the following fundamental principle: Through the formation of a working coalition associations which are weak in themselves can never be made strong, whereas it can and does happen not infrequently that a strong association loses its strength by joining in a coalition with weaker ones."

**Rule 11. Coalitions are controlled by duffers**. "It is a mistake to believe that a factor of strength will result from the coalition of weak groups; because experience shows that under all forms and all conditions the majority represents the duffers and poltroons. Hence a multiplicity of associations, under a directorate of many heads, elected by these same associations, is abandoned to the control of poltroons and weaklings."

**Rule 12. Coalitions impede natural law**. "Through such a coalition the free play of forces is paralyzed, the struggle for the selection of the best is abolished and therewith the necessary and final victory of the healthier and stronger is impeded. Coalitions of that kind are inimical to the process of natural development, because for the most part they hinder rather than advance the solution of the problem which is being fought for." [Some might argue that the checks and balances of a coalition are one of its most important features as it may be the only way to put the brakes on the rogue use of power.]

**Rule 13. Coalitions are temporary in nature**. "It may happen that, from considerations of a purely tactical kind, the supreme command of a movement whose goal is set in the future will enter into a coalition with such associations for the treatment of special questions and may also stand on a common platform with them, but this can be only for a short and limited period. Such a coalition must not be permanent, if the movement does not wish to renounce its liberating mission. Because if it should become indissolubly tied up in such a combination it would lose the capacity and the right to allow its own forces to work freely in following out a natural development, so as to overcome rivals and attain its own objective triumphantly." [From Hitler's viewpoint, for coalitions to be lasting, the strong must absorb the weak.]

**Rule 14. Coalitions have never achieved anything really great.** "It must never be forgotten that nothing really great in this world has ever been achieved through coalitions, but that such achievements have always been due to the triumph of the individual. [Hitler forgets that a coalition of barons forced King John to sign the Magna Carta in 1215, establishing the ideals of democracy, limitation of power, equality, and freedom under the law.] Successes achieved through coalitions, owing to the very nature of their source, carry the germs of future disintegration in them from the very start; so much so that they have already forfeited what has been achieved. The great revolutions which have taken place in human thought and have veritably transformed the aspect of the world would have been inconceivable and impossible to carry out except through titanic struggles waged between individual natures, but never as the enterprises of coalitions." [Since the time of Sun Tzu (544 BC), the greatest military victories have resulted from coalitions.]

**Rule 15. Coalitions dilute singularity of mission**. "And, above all things, the People's State will never be created by the desire for compromise inherent in a patriotic coalition, but only by the iron will of a single movement which has successfully come through in the struggle with all the others."

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Chapter 16 Authority

**From Mein Kampf** : "Authority nearly always depends on three elements."

**Rule 1. "Popular support** is the first element which is necessary for the creation of authority. But an authority resting on that foundation alone is still quite frail, uncertain and vacillating. Hence everyone who finds himself vested with an authority that is based only on popular support must take measures to improve and consolidate the foundations of that authority by the creation of force."

**Rule 2. The capacity to use force**. "Accordingly we must look upon power, that is to say, the capacity to use force, as the second foundation on which all authority is based. This foundation is more stable and secure, but not always stronger, than the first."

**Rule 3. Tradition**. "If popular support and power [which Hitler defined as the capacity to use force] are united together and can endure for a certain time, then an authority may arise which is based on a still stronger foundation, namely, the authority of tradition."

**Rule 4. Invincibility results from popular support, the capacity to use force, and endurance for a certain time**. "And, finally, if popular support, power, and tradition are united together, then the authority based on them may be looked upon as invincible." [Note the absence of distinction between domestic and international authority.]

***

**The moral classification of the population**. "Every national body is made up of three main [moral] classes. At one extreme we have the best of the people, taking the word 'best' here to indicate those who are highly endowed with the civic virtues and are noted for their courage and their readiness to sacrifice their private interests. At the other extreme are the worst dregs of humanity, in whom vice and egotistic interests prevail. Between these two extremes stands the third class, which is made up of the broad middle stratum, who do not represent radiant heroism or vulgar vice."

"The stages of a nation's rise are accomplished exclusively under the leadership of the best extreme."

"Times of normal and symmetrical development, or of stable conditions, owe their existence and outwardly visible characteristics to the preponderating influence of the middle stratum. In this stage the two extreme classes are balanced against one another; in other words, they are relatively cancelled out."

"Times of national collapse are determined by the preponderating influence of the worst elements."

"It must be noted here, however, that the broad masses, which constitute what I have called the middle section, come forward and make their influence felt only when the two extreme sections are engaged in mutual strife. In case one of the extreme sections comes out victorious, the middle section will readily submit to its domination. If the best dominate, the broad masses will follow it. Should the worst extreme turn out triumphant, then the middle section will at least offer no opposition to it; for the masses that constitute the middle class never fight their own battles." [If true, this might explain how a large population can be silenced by a relatively small number of zealots.]

***

**Controlling the military**. "At the Front a man may die, but the deserter must die. Only this draconian threat against every attempt to desert the flag can have a terrifying effect, not merely on the individual but also on the mass. Therein lay the meaning and purpose of the military penal code." [A military penal code is needed for the military.]

**Controlling the upper class.** "It was a fine belief to think that the great struggle for the life of a nation could be carried through if it were based solely on voluntary fidelity arising from, and sustained by, the knowledge that such a struggle was necessary. The voluntary fulfillment of one's duty is a motive that determines the actions of only the best men." [It does not apply to] the average type of men." [No laws are needed to control the upper class.]

**Controlling the middle class**. "Hence special laws are necessary; just as, for instance, the law against stealing, which was not made for men who are honest on principle, but for the weak and unstable elements. Such laws are meant to hinder the evil-doer through their deterrent effect and thus prevent a state of affairs from arising in which the honest man is considered the more stupid, and which would end in the belief that it is better to have a share in the robbery than to stand by with empty hands or allow oneself to be robbed." [Laws are needed for the middle class.]

"It was a mistake to believe that in a struggle it would be possible to dispense with those expedients which the experience of hundreds and even of thousands of years had proved to be effective in making weak and unstable men face and fulfill their duty in difficult times and at moments of great nervous stress."

**Controlling the lower class**. "For the voluntary war hero it is, of course, not necessary to have the death penalty in the military code, but it is necessary for the cowardly egoists who value their own lives more than the existence of the community in the hour of national need. Such weak and characterless people can be held back from surrendering to their cowardice only by the application of the heaviest penalties. Only by a ruthless enforcement of the death penalty can this be effected." [The death penalty is needed for the lower (moral) class.]

***

**Rule 5. The middle class is needed to support the upper class**. "Ten million people cannot permanently hold together a State of fifty million, composed of different and convicting nationalities."

"A revolution cannot be carried through by a party of ten million members. If such a movement were attempted the leaders would find that it was not an extreme section of the population on which they had to depend, but rather the broad masses of the middle stratum; hence the inert masses."

**Obedience**. "If we ask how it was possible to carry the Revolution, we arrive at the following conclusions: It was due to a process of dry rot in our [Nation's] conceptions of duty and obedience. And, it was due also to the passive timidity of the Parties who were supposed to uphold the State."

"To this the following must be added: The dry rot which attacked our concepts of duty and obedience was fundamentally due to our wholly non-national and purely State education. From this came the habit of confusing means and ends. Consciousness of duty, fulfillment of duty, and obedience, are not ends in themselves no more than the State is an end in itself; but they all ought to be employed as means to facilitate and assure the existence of a community of people who are kindred both physically and spiritually."

**Priority of obedience**. "[Nowadays,] if a [military] general receives from above the order not to shoot, he [has] fulfilled his duty and therefore acted rightly in not shooting, because to the bourgeois mind blind formal obedience [to the military chain of command] is a more valuable thing than the life of a nation. But according to [our] concept, it is not obedience to weak superiors that should prevail at such moments, [but] in such an hour the duty of assuming personal responsibility towards the whole nation [must] make its appearance." [With one stroke, Hitler absorbed the military establishment into his political philosophy.]

**The capacity to use force**. "As regards the [next] point, [the capacity to use force, our weak national leaders] were convinced that they [could] defend their principles only by intellectual ways and means. That outlook was a sign of the weakness and decadence which had been gradually developing. And it was also senseless at a period when there was a political adversary who had long ago abandoned that standpoint, and instead of this, had openly declared that he meant to attain his political ends by force whenever that became possible."

"To fight [the extreme Left] with intellectual weapons was a piece of folly. For [they] always professed the doctrine that the use of arms was a matter which had to be judged from the standpoint of expediency and that success justified the use of arms. The success which [the extreme Left] once attained was due to perfect co-operation between political purposes and ruthless force."

**Intellectual means and muscular force**. "From the first day of its foundation [our] new movement took its stand on the principle that its ideas had to be propagated by intellectual means [and] wherever necessary, muscular force must be employed to support [our] propaganda. In accordance with their conviction of the paramount importance of the new doctrine, the leaders of the new movement naturally believed that no sacrifice could be considered too great when it was a question of carrying through the purpose of the movement."

**Tranquility and order require popular support**. "The rulers of the State can guarantee tranquility and order only in cases [where] the State embodies a philosophy which is shared in by the people as a whole; so that elements of disturbance can be treated as isolated criminals, instead of being considered as the champions of an idea which is diametrically opposed to official opinions. [Without popular support] the State may [for centuries] employ the most violent measures on the terror that threatens it; but in the end, all these measures will prove futile, and the State will have to succumb."

**Rule 6. Self-sacrifice requires clarity of purpose**. "Political convictions in the higher sense mean (1) that [the person] has the picture of a new regime clearly before one's mind, (2) feels that the establishment of this regime is an absolute necessity, and (3) sets himself to carry out that purpose as the highest task to which his life can be devoted."

**Rule 7. Self-defense is essential**. "In the beginning [our body guards] were merely to guard and maintain order at our meetings. Its first task was limited to making it possible for us to hold our meetings, which otherwise would have been completely prevented by our opponents. As a matter of fact, it has happened in history not infrequently that some of the greatest minds have perished under the blows of the most insignificant helots. Our bodyguards did not look upon violence as an end in itself, but they protected the expositors of ideal aims and purposes against hostile coercion by violence. We learned how necessary was the formation of such a body, not only from our experience [in meetings] but also when we sought gradually to carry the Movement beyond and extend it." [Force is originally justified for defense, but once available, it is used to "carry the Movement beyond and extend it."]

"Only by building up its own defense could our movement become secure and attract that amount of public attention and general respect which is given to those who can defend themselves when attacked."

**Rule 8. Absolute power is needed to train the middle class**. "It is impossible to carry through a voluntary training in military service for larger masses unless one is assured absolute power of command. There [are only a] few men who will voluntarily and spontaneously submit to that kind of obedience which is considered natural and necessary in the Army." [Remember, citizenship required military service.]

"The State [currently] teaches our young men democratic and pacifist ideas and thus deprives millions and millions of their national instincts, [and] poisons their logical sense of patriotism. 'Right goes with might'." [According to Hitler, any use of force is justified and right.]

***

**The bodyguards become the educational branch of the organization**. "It was decided that the Storm Detachment [originally the bodyguards] ought not to be in the nature of a military organization. It had to be an instrument of protection and education and its duties should be in quite a different sphere from that of the military defense. And, of course, the Storm Detachment should not be in the nature of a secret organization."

***

**Rule 9. Allow no secret organizations**. "Secret organizations are established only for purposes that are against the law. Therewith the purpose of such an organization is limited by its very nature. It is not possible to build up any vast organization, keeping it secret at the same time and cloaking its purpose. Every attempt of that kind is destined to turn out absolutely futile. It is not merely that our police officials today have at their disposal a staff of eavesdroppers and other such rabble who are ready to play traitor, like Judas, for thirty pieces of silver and will betray whatever secrets they can discover and will invent what they would like to reveal. In order to forestall such eventualities, it is never possible to bind one's own followers to the silence that is necessary. Only small groups can become really secret societies, and that only after long years of filtration. But the very smallness of such groups would deprive them of all value for the Movement."

"What we needed then and need now is not one or two hundred dare-devil conspirators but a hundred thousand devoted champions of our philosophy of life. The work must not be done through secret conventicles but through formidable mass demonstrations in public. Dagger and pistol and poison-vial cannot clear the way for the progress of the movement. That can be done only by winning over the man in the street."

"There is another danger connected with secret societies. It lies in the fact that their members often completely misunderstand the greatness of the task in hand and are apt to believe that a favorable destiny can be assured for the nation all at once by means of a single murder. Such a belief may find historical justification by appealing to cases where a nation had been suffering under the tyranny of some oppressor who at the same time was a man of genius and whose extraordinary personality guaranteed the internal solidity of his position and enabled him to maintain his fearful oppression. In such cases a man may suddenly arise from the ranks of the people who is ready to sacrifice himself and plunge the deadly steel into the heart of the hated individual." [Shortly after seizing power, in a highly questionable national election, Hitler established the Gestapo, a secret police force, to deal with dissenters.]

**Controlling the bodyguards**. "If then the Storm Detachment must not be either a military defense organization or a secret society, the following conclusions must result:

"1. Its training must not be organized from the military standpoint but from the standpoint of what is most practical for party purposes."

"2. In order to safeguard the Storm Detachment against any tendency towards secrecy, not only must the uniform be such that it can immediately be recognized by everybody, but its large number of [efficient troopers equipped for duty must] show the direction the Movement is going and [this] must be known to the whole public. The members of the Storm Detachment must not hold secret gatherings but must march in the open and thus, by their actions, put an end to all legends about a secret organization."

"In order to keep them away from all temptations towards finding an outlet for their activities in small conspiracies, from the very beginning, we had to inculcate in their minds the great idea of the Movement, and to educate them so thoroughly in the task of defending this idea, that their horizon became enlarged and the individual no longer considered it his mission to remove from circulation some rascal or other, whether big or small, but to devote himself entirely to the task of bringing about the establishment of a new State."

"3. The form of organization adopted for the Storm Detachment, as well as its uniform and equipment, had to follow different models from those of the old Army. They had to be specially suited to the requirements of the task that was assigned to the Storm Detachment. The Storm Detachment must not be allowed to sink to the level of something in the nature of a defense organization or a secret society. Steps must be taken rather to make it a vanguard of 100,000 men in the struggle for ideals."

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Chapter 17 Christian Unity

**From Mein Kampf** : "The moment we were successful in placing [the Christian denomination problem] before the people in the light of an idea that would unite them in one struggle the [enemy] reacted. He resorted to his old tactics. With amazing alacrity he hurled the torch of discord into the patriotic movement and opened a rift there. In bringing forward the ultramontane question and in the mutual quarrels that it gave rise to between Catholicism and Protestantism lay the sole possibility, as conditions then were, of occupying public attention with other problems and thus ward off the attack which had been concentrated against [the non-Christian enemy]."

"Catholics and Protestants were fighting with one another to their hearts' content, while the enemy of humanity and all Christendom was laughing up his sleeve."

"Everybody who has the right kind of feeling for his country is solemnly bound, each within his own denomination, to see to it that he is not constantly talking about the Will of God merely from the lips but that in actual fact he fulfills the Will of God and does not allow God's handiwork to be debased. For it was by the Will of God that men were made of a certain bodily shape, were given their natures and their faculties. Whoever destroys His work wages war against God's Creation and God's Will."

"Therefore everyone should endeavor, each in his own denomination of course, and should consider it as his first and most solemn duty to hinder any and every one whose conduct tends, either by word or deed, to go outside his own religious body and pick a quarrel with those of another denomination. For, in view of the religious schism that exists, to attack the essential characteristics of one denomination must necessarily lead to a war of extermination between the two Christian denominations." [Sounds a little like a coalition under one umbrella.]

"What may be tolerated by the faithful in one denomination even when it seems unjust to them, will at once be indignantly rejected and opposed on a priori grounds if it should come from the militant leaders of another denomination. This is so true that even men who would be ready and willing to fight for the removal of manifest grievances within their own religious denomination will drop their own fight and turn their activities against the outsider the moment the abolition of such grievances is counseled or demanded by one who is not of the same faith. They consider it unjustified and inadmissible and incorrect for outsiders to meddle in matters which do not affect them at all."

"Such attempts are not excused even when they are inspired by a feeling for the supreme interests of the national community; because even in our day religious feelings still have deeper roots than all feeling for political and national expediency. That cannot be changed by setting one denomination against another in bitter conflict. It can be changed only if, through a spirit of mutual tolerance, the nation can be assured of a future the greatness of which will gradually operate as a conciliating factor in the sphere of religion also. I have no hesitation in saying that in those men who seek today to embroil the patriotic movement in religious quarrels I see [the] worse enemies of my country."

"Anyone who goes outside the ranks of his own Movement and tends to turn it away from the fulfillment of its mission is acting in a manner that deserves the severest condemnation. The energies of the patriotic movement should [not] be squandered in a religious conflict [between Christians]."

"The men who suddenly discovered that the highest mission of the patriotic movement was to fight ultramontanism, have not succeeded in smashing ultramontanism, but they succeeded in splitting the patriotic movement."

"The most devoted Protestant could stand side by side with the most devoted Catholic in our ranks without having his conscience disturbed in the slightest as far as concerned his religious convictions."

"While we were exhausting our energies in religious [Christian] wars the others were acquiring their share of the world. And while the patriotic movement is debating with itself whether the ultramontane danger be greater than the [non-Christian enemy]. As far as regards that kind of 'patriotic' warrior, I pray with all my heart: 'Lord, preserve us from such friends, and then we can easily deal with our enemies'."

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Chapter 18 Confederacy

**From Mein Kampf** : "What is a Confederacy?"

"By a Confederacy we mean a union of sovereign states which of their own free will and in virtue of their sovereignty come together and create a collective unit, ceding to that unit as much of their own sovereign rights as will render the existence of the union possible and will guarantee it."

"But the theoretical formula is not wholly put into practice by any confederacy that exists today. And least of all by the American Union, where it is impossible to speak of original sovereignty in regard to the majority of the states. Many of them were not included in the federal complex until long after it had been established. The states that make up the American Union are mostly in the nature of territories, more or less, formed for technical administrative purposes, their boundaries having in many cases been fixed in the mapping office."

"Originally these states did not, and could not, possess sovereign rights of their own. Because it was the Union that created most of the so-called states. Therefore the sovereign rights, often very comprehensive, which were left, or rather granted, to the various territories correspond not only to the whole character of the Confederation but also to its vast space, which is equivalent to the size of a Continent. Consequently, in speaking of the United States of America one must not consider them as sovereign states but as enjoying rights or, better perhaps, autarchic powers, granted to them and guaranteed by the Constitution. A vigorous national State does not need to make many laws for the interior [citizens], because of the affection and attachment of its citizens." [In one sentence, Hitler dismissed the need for a Constitution.]

***

**Rule 1. Oppose centralization**. "In the sphere of commerce as well as that of administration the importance of the individual states has been steadily decreasing. Modern means of communication and mechanical progress have been increasingly restricting distance and space. A certain unification, especially in the field of transport, appears logical. But, we feel it our duty to oppose with all our might such a [centralized] development in the modern State, especially when the measures proposed are solely for the purpose of [creating] a disastrous foreign policy and making it possible." [Without centralization, a nation cannot create a unified foreign policy; thus a void is assured. Later you will see how Hitler fills this void with nationalism.]

"Moreover, we must oppose such centralization because in domestic affairs it helps to reinforce a system of government which in all its manifestations has brought the greatest misfortunes on the nation. A still further reason for opposing a centralizing process arises from the certain conviction that in great part this so-called nationalization does not make for unification at all and still less for simplification. In many cases it is adopted simply as a means of removing from the sovereign control of the individual states certain institutions."

"A great portion of this centralization today is the work of parties which once promised that they would open the way for the promotion of talent, meaning thereby that they would fill those posts and offices entirely with their own partisans."

"For tactical reasons, this last consideration obliges us to watch with the greatest attention every further attempt at centralization and fight it at each step. But in doing this our standpoint must always be that of a lofty national policy and never a pettifogging particularism."

**Rule 2. Grant no sovereign rights to states**. "We cannot accredit to any other state a sovereign power and sovereign rights within the confines of the nation, which represents the nation. The absurdity which some federal states commit by maintaining 'representations' abroad and corresponding foreign 'representations' among themselves - that must cease and will cease. The absurdity of these 'representations' is all the greater because they do harm and do not bring the slightest advantage."

"The importance of the individual states in the future will no longer lie in their political power. I look to them rather as important ethnical and cultural centers. But even in this respect time will do its leveling work. Modern traveling facilities shuffle people among one another in such a way that tribal boundaries will fade out and even the cultural picture will gradually become more of a uniform pattern."

**Rule 3. Nationalize the army**. "The army must definitely be kept clear of the influence of the individual states. The army does not exist for the purpose of being a school in which tribal particularisms are to be cultivated and preserved, but rather as a school for teaching all to understand and adapt their habits to one another."

"Whatever tends to have a separating influence in the life of the nation ought to be made a unifying influence in the army."

"The army must raise the boy above the narrow horizon of his own little native province and set him within the broad picture of the nation. The youth must learn to know, not the confines of his own region but those of the father, and because it is the latter that he will have to defend one day. It is therefore absurd to have the youth do his military training in his own native region."

"We may disapprove of every attempt at unification but not that of unifying the army. On the contrary, even though we should wish to welcome no other kind of unification, this must be greeted with joy."

**Rule 4. Nationalize the country with ideas and principles**. "Finally a new and triumphant idea should burst every chain which tends to paralyze its efforts to push forward. We must educate the nation in our ideas and principles. As the Churches do not feel themselves bound or limited by political confines, so our doctrine cannot feel itself limited to the territories of the individual federal states that belong to our Fatherland."

"The doctrine is not handmaid to the political interests of the single federal states. One day it must become teacher to the whole nation. It must determine the life of the whole people and shape that life anew. For this reason we must imperatively demand the right to overstep boundaries that have been traced by a political development which we repudiate. [Thus filling the foreign policy void created by applying rules one and two.]

"The more completely our ideas triumph, the more liberty can we concede in particular affairs to our citizens at home."

[Hitler's tactic is to weaken the existing democratic government by opposing centralization, and then nationalize it under the control of one person.]

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Chapter 19 Propaganda and Organization

**From Mein Kampf** : "The first necessity was to spread our ideas among as many people as possible. Propaganda should go well ahead of organization and gather together the human material for the latter to work up."

"Organization is a thing that derives its existence from organic life, organic evolution. When the same set of ideas have found lodgement in the minds of a certain number of people they tend of themselves to form a certain degree of order among those people."

"Of course here, as everywhere else, one must take account of those human weaknesses which make men hesitate, especially at the beginning, to submit to the control of a superior mind. If an organization is imposed from above downwards in a mechanical fashion, there is always the danger that some individual may push himself forward who is not known for what he is and who, out of jealousy, will try to hinder abler persons from taking a leading place in the movement. The damage that results from that kind of thing may have fatal consequences, especially in a new movement."

"For this reason it is advisable first to propagate and publicly expound the ideas on which the movement is founded. This work of propaganda should continue for a certain time and should be directed from one center. When the ideas have gradually won over a number of people this human material should be carefully sifted for the purpose of selecting those who have ability in leadership. It will often be found that apparently insignificant persons will nevertheless turn out to be born leaders.

"Of course, it is quite a mistake to suppose that those who show a very intelligent grasp of the theory underlying a movement are for that reason qualified to fill responsible positions on the directorate. The contrary is very frequently the case. Great masters of theory are only very rarely great organizers also."

"And this is because the greatness of the theorist and founder of a system consists in being able to discover and lay down those laws that are right in the abstract, whereas the organizer must first of all be a man of psychological insight. He must take men as they are, and for that reason he must know them, not having too high or too low an estimate of human nature. He must take account of their weaknesses, their baseness and all the other various characteristics, so as to form something out of them which will be a living organism, endowed with strong powers of resistance, fitted to be the carrier of an idea and strong enough to ensure the triumph of that idea."

"To be a leader means to be able to move the masses. The noblest conceptions of the human understanding remain without purpose or value if the leader cannot move the masses towards them."

"When the abilities of theorist and organizer and leader are united in the one person, then we have the rarest phenomenon on this earth. And it is that union which produces the great man. As I have already said, during my first period in the Party, I devoted myself to the work of propaganda. I had to succeed in gradually gathering together a small nucleus of men who would accept the new teaching and be inspired by it. And in this way, we should provide the human material which subsequently would form the constituent elements of the organization. Thus, the goal of the propagandist is nearly always fixed far beyond that of the organizer."

***

**Human material**. "If a movement proposes to overthrow a certain order of things and construct a new one in its place, then the following principles must be clearly understood and must dominate in the ranks of its leadership: Every movement which has gained its human material must first divide this material into two groups: namely, followers and members. It is the task of the propagandist to recruit the followers and it is the task of the organizer to select the members."

**Followers and members**. "The follower of a movement is he who understands and accepts its aims; the member is he who fights for them. The follower is one whom the propaganda has converted to the doctrine of the movement. The member is he who will be charged by the organization to collaborate in winning over new followers from which in turn new members can be formed."

"To be a follower needs only the passive recognition of the idea. To be a member means to represent that idea and fight for it. From ten followers one can have scarcely more than two members. To be a follower simply implies that a man has accepted the teaching of the movement; whereas to be a member means that a man has the courage to participate actively in diffusing that teaching in which he has come to believe."

"Because of its passive character, the simple effort of believing in a political doctrine is enough for the majority, for the majority of mankind is mentally lazy and timid. To be a member one must be intellectually active, and therefore this applies only to the minority."

**Recruiting.** "Such being the case, the propagandist must seek untiringly to acquire new followers for the movement, whereas the organizer must diligently look out for the best elements among such followers, so that these elements may be transformed into members. The propagandist need not trouble too much about the personal worth of the individual proselytes he has won for the movement. He need not inquire into their abilities, their intelligence or character. From these proselytes, however, the organizer will have to select those individuals who are most capable of actively helping to bring the movement to victory."

"The propagandist aims at inducing the whole people to accept his teaching. The organizer includes in his body of membership only those who, on psychological grounds, will not be an impediment to the further diffusion of the doctrines of the movement."

"The propagandist inculcates his doctrine among the masses, with the idea of preparing them for the time when this doctrine will triumph, through the body of combatant members which he has formed from those followers who have given proof of the necessary ability and will-power to carry the struggle to victory."

**Exclusive, vigorous, and solid**. "The final triumph of a doctrine will be made all the more easy if the propagandist has effectively converted large bodies of men to the belief in that doctrine, and if the organization that actively conducts the fight be exclusive, vigorous, and solid."

**Effective propaganda decreases the reliance on member activists**. "When the propaganda work has converted a whole people to believe in a doctrine, the organization can turn the results of this into practical effect through the work of a mere handful of men."

**The duty of the organization**. "The first duty of the propagandist is to win over people who can subsequently be taken into the organization. And the first duty of the organization is to select and train men who will be capable of carrying on the propaganda. The second duty of the organization is to disrupt the existing order of things and thus make room for the penetration of the new teaching which it represents, while the duty of the organizer must be to fight for the purpose of securing power, so that the doctrine may finally triumph."

**Rule 1. Centralize power**. "A revolutionary conception of the world and human existence will always achieve decisive success when the new [idea] has been taught to a whole people, or subsequently forced upon them if necessary, and when, on the other hand, the central organization, the movement itself, is in the hands of only those few men who are absolutely indispensable to form the nerve-centers of the coming State."

**Rule 2. The fist in glove relationship for propaganda and activists**. "Put in another way, this means that in every great revolutionary movement that is of world importance the idea of this movement must always be spread abroad through the operation of propaganda. The propagandist must never tire in his efforts to make the new ideas clearly understood, inculcating them among others, or at least he must place himself in the position of those others and endeavor to upset their confidence in the convictions they have hitherto held. In order that such propaganda should have backbone to it, it must be based on an organization. The organization chooses its members from among those followers whom the propaganda has won. That organization will become all the more vigorous if the work of propaganda be pushed forward intensively. And the propaganda will work all the better when the organization back of it is vigorous and strong in itself."

**Rule 3. Maintain unity and fighting spirit**. "Hence the supreme task of the organizer is to see to it that any discord or differences which may arise among the members of the movement will not lead to a split and thereby cramp the work within the movement. Moreover, it is the duty of the organization to see that the fighting spirit of the movement does not flag or die out but that it is constantly reinvigorated and restrengthened. It is not necessary [that] the number of members should increase indefinitely. Quite the contrary would be better. In view of the fact that only a fraction of humanity has energy and courage, a movement which increases its own organization indefinitely must, of necessity, one day become plethoric and inactive. Organizations, that is to say, groups whose members increase their size beyond certain dimensions, gradually lose their fighting force and are no longer in [a form that is able] to back up the propagation of a doctrine with aggressive élan and determination."

"Now the greater and more revolutionary a doctrine is, so much the more active will be the spirit inspiring its body of members, because the subversive energy of such a doctrine will frighten way the chicken-hearted and small-minded bourgeoisie. In their hearts they may believe in the doctrine but they are afraid to acknowledge their belief openly. By reason of this very fact, however, an organization inspired by a veritable revolutionary idea will attract into the body of its membership only the most active of those believers who have been won for it by its propaganda. It is in this activity, guaranteed by the process of natural selection, that [is] the prerequisite condition for the continuation of an active and spirited propaganda, and the victorious struggle for the success of the idea on which the movement is based.

"The greatest danger that can threaten a movement is an abnormal increase in the number of its members, owing to its too rapid success. So long as a movement has to carry on a hard and bitter fight, people of weak and fundamentally egotistic temperament will steer very clear of it. [These people will eventually] try to be accepted as members the moment the party achieves success."

"It is on these grounds that we are to explain why so many movements which were at first successful slowed down before reaching the fulfillment of their purpose, and from an inner weakness which could not otherwise be explained, gave up the struggle and finally disappeared from the field. As a result of the early successes achieved, so many undesirable, unworthy and especially timid individuals became members of the movement that they finally secured the majority and stifled the fighting spirit of the others. These inferior elements then turned the movement to the service of their personal interests, and debasing it to the level of their own miserable heroism, [causing the movement to] no longer struggle for the triumph of the original idea. The fire of the first fervor died out, the fighting spirit flagged, and the party mixed water with its wine."

**Rule 4. Close membership when success is first achieved**. "For this reason it is necessary that a movement should, from the sheer instinct of self-preservation, close its lists to new membership the moment it becomes successful. And, any further increase in its organization should be allowed to take place only with the most careful foresight and after a painstaking sifting of those who apply for membership. Only [then] will it be possible to keep the kernel of the movement intact and fresh and sound. Care must be taken that the conduct of the movement is maintained exclusively in the hands of this original nucleus. This means that the nucleus must direct the propaganda. And the movement itself, when it has secured power in its hands, must carry out all those acts and measures which are necessary in order that its ideas should be finally established in practice."

**Rule 5. Expand power**. "With those elements that originally made the movement, the organization should occupy all the important positions that have been conquered. This should continue until the maxims and doctrines of the party have become the foundation and policy of the new State. Only then will it be permissible gradually to give the reins into the hands of the Constitution of that State which the spirit of the movement has created.

"All great movements, whether of a political or religious nature, owe their imposing success to the recognition and adoption of those principles. And no durable success is conceivable if these laws are not observed."

**Rule 6. Claim the support of the silent populace, while at the same time recruiting zealots** [who we have seen were more valued for their obedience than their intellect]. "As director of propaganda for the party, I took care not merely to prepare the ground for the greatness of the movement in its subsequent stages, but I also adopted the most radical measures against allowing into the organization any other than the best material. For the more radical and exciting my propaganda was, the more did it frighten weak and wavering characters away, thus preventing them from entering the first nucleus of our organization."

"Perhaps they remained followers, but they did not raise their voices. On the contrary, they maintained a discreet silence. Many thousands of persons [have] assured me that they were in full agreement with us, but they could not on any account become members of our party. They said that the movement was so radical that to take part in it as members would expose them to grave censures and grave dangers, so that they would rather continue to be looked upon as honest and peaceful citizens and remain aside, for the time being at least, though devoted to our cause with all their hearts."

"And that was all to the good. If all these men who in their hearts did not approve of revolutionary ideas came into our movement as members at that time, we should be looked upon as a pious confraternity today and not as a young movement inspired with the spirit of combat. The lively and combative form which I gave to all our propaganda fortified and guaranteed the radical tendency of our movement, and the result was that, with a few exceptions, only men of radical views were disposed to become members."

"It was due to the effect of our propaganda that within a short period of time hundreds of thousands of citizens became convinced in their hearts that we were right and wished us victory, although personally they were too timid to make sacrifices for our cause or even participate in it."

**Rule 7. First gain control; then change the form of government**. "In the [early years] the movement was controlled by a committee elected by the members at a general meeting. Comically enough, the committee embodied the very principle against which the movement itself wanted to fight with all its energy, namely, the principle of parliamentarianism."

"Here was a principle which personified everything that was being opposed by the movement, from the smallest local groups to the district and regional groups, the state groups and finally the national directorate itself. It was imperative to change this state of affairs forthwith, if this bad foundation in the internal organization was not to keep the movement insecure and render the fulfillment of its high mission impossible."

"When the new statute was approved and I was appointed as president, I had the necessary authority in my hands and also the corresponding right to make short shrift of all that nonsense. In the place of decisions by the majority vote of the committee, the principle of absolute responsibility was introduced."

"This principle of absolute responsibility is being adopted little by little throughout the movement. In the small local groups and perhaps also in the regional and district groups it will take yet a long time before the principle can be thoroughly imposed, because timid and hesitant characters are naturally opposed to it. For them the idea of bearing absolute responsibility for an act opens up an unpleasant prospect. They would like to hide behind the shoulders of the majority in the so-called committee, having their acts covered by decisions passed in that way. But it seems to me a matter of absolute necessity to take a decisive stand against that view, to make no concessions whatsoever to this fear of responsibility, even though it takes some time before we can put fully into effect this concept of duty and ability in leadership, which will finally bring forward leaders who have the requisite abilities to occupy the chief posts."

[Responsibility is a word that conjures up interpretations of character and virtue. Words that give the user the appearance of the moral high ground are easy to defend and difficult to attack. In this chapter, the word "responsibility" is used to cloak dictatorship. In Chapter 9 Rule 1, it was used to cloak obedience. Dictatorship and obedience are words difficult to defend and easy to attack. Give a bad dog a good name, and visa versa. In Hitler's words, "By clever and persevering use of propaganda even heaven can be represented as hell to the people."]

"In any case, a movement which must fight against the absurdity of parliamentary institutions must be immune from this sort of thing. Only thus will it have the requisite strength to carry on the struggle."

"At a time when the majority dominates everywhere else, a movement which is based on the principle of one leader who has to bear personal responsibility for the direction of the official acts of the movement itself will one day overthrow the present situation and triumph over the existing regime. That is a mathematical certainty. This idea made it necessary to reorganize our movement internally."

[The hypocrisy is to get elected and then throw out the electoral process.]

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Chapter 20 Trade Unions

**From Mein Kampf** : "In our efforts to discover the quickest and easiest way for the movement to reach the heart of the broad masses we were always confronted with the objection that the worker could never completely belong to us while his interests in the purely vocational and economic sphere were cared for by a political organization conducted by men whose principles were quite different from ours. That was quite a serious objection."

**The employers**. "It was difficult to discuss this problem with the average employer. He had no understanding (or did not wish to have any) for either the material or moral side of the question. [Typically,] he declared that his own economic interests were in principle opposed to every kind of organization which joined together the workmen that were dependent on him. Hence it was for the most part impossible to bring these employers to take an impartial view of the situation."

**Understanding the problem**. "We could not be satisfied with merely understanding the problem. It was necessary to come to some conclusions that could be put into practice. The following questions had to be answered: (1) Are trade unions necessary? (2) Should the Party itself operate on a trade unionist basis or have its members take part in trade unionist activities in some form or other? (3) What form should a Party Trade Union take? What are the tasks confronting us and the ends we must try to attain? (4) How can we establish trade unions for such tasks and aims"?

**1. Are trade unions necessary**? "In the present state of affairs I am convinced that we cannot possibly dispense with the trades unions. On the contrary, they are among the most important institutions in the economic life of the nation. Not only are they important in the sphere of social policy but also, and even more so, in the national political sphere. For when the great masses of a nation see their vital needs satisfied through a just trade unionist movement the stamina of the whole nation in its struggle for existence will be enormously reinforced thereby. Before everything else, the trades unions are necessary as building stones for the future economic parliament, which will be made up of chambers representing the various professions and occupations."

**2. Should the Party itself operate on a trade unionist basis or have its members take part in trade unionist activities in some form or other?** "The second question is also easy to answer. If the trade unionist movement is important, then it is clear that [we] ought to take a definite stand on that question, not only theoretically but also in practice. But how? That is more difficult to see clearly. A clear and precise formula was still to be discovered."

**Education**. "A real education for the employer as well as for the employee, in the spirit of a mutual co-operation within the common framework of the national community, cannot be secured by theoretical instruction, appeals and exhortations, but through the struggles of daily life. In this spirit, and through this spirit, the movement must educate the several large economic groups and bring them closer to one another under a wider outlook. Without this preparatory work it would be sheer illusion to hope that a real national community can be brought into existence."

"The great ideal represented by [our] philosophy of life, and for which the movement fights, can alone, steadily and slowly, form a general style of thought. Hence the movement must [not only] adopt a positive attitude towards the trade-unionist idea, but it must go further than this. For the enormous number of members and followers of the trade-unionist movement, it must provide a practical education."

**3. What form should a Party Trade Union take?** What are the tasks confronting us and the ends we must try to attain? "The answer to the third question follows from what has been already said. [Our party trade union] is not an instrument for class warfare, but a representative organ of the various occupations and callings. But, under the political aspect, it recognizes only citizens with absolutely equal rights and equal obligations corresponding thereto. And, side by side with these, it recognizes subjects of the State who have no political rights whatsoever."

"According, it is not the task of the trades union to band together certain men within the national community and thus gradually transform these men into a class. Trades Union must organize definite groups of those who participate in the economic life of the nation and thus enhance the security of the national economic system itself, reinforcing it by the elimination of all those anomalies which ultimately exercise a destructive influence on the social body of the nation, damaging the vital forces of the national community, prejudicing the welfare of the State, and by no means as a last consequence, bringing evil and destruction on economic life itself."

"The employee will have to recognize the fact that the economic prosperity of the nation brings with it his own material happiness. The employer must recognize that the happiness and contentment of his employees are necessary pre-requisites for the existence and development of his own economic prosperity. Workers and employers are both together the delegates and mandatories of the whole national community."

"The large measure of personal freedom which is accorded to them for their activities must be explained by the fact that experience has shown that the productive powers of the individual are more enhanced by being accorded a generous measure of freedom than by coercion from above. Moreover, by according this freedom we give free play to the natural process of selection which brings forward the ablest and most capable and most industrious."

"For the National Trades Union, the strike is a means that may, and indeed must, be resorted to [until we are in power]. But when [our] State is established it will, as a matter of course, abolish the mass struggle between the two great groups made up of employers and employees. This struggle has always resulted in lessening the national production and injuring the national community. In place of this struggle, [we] will take over the task of caring for and defending the rights of all parties concerned." [Again the principle of gaining control, and then changing the organization's form to consolidate power.]

"Here again, as everywhere else, the inflexible principle must be observed, that the interests of the country must come before party interests." [Thus, to oppose is to be a traitor.]

"The task of the National Trades Union will be to educate and prepare its members to conform to these ideals. That task may be stated as follows: All must work together for the maintenance and security of our people and the People's State, each one according to the abilities and powers with which Nature has endowed him and which have been developed and trained by the national community."

**4. "How shall we establish trades unions for such tasks and aims?** That is far more difficult to answer. There were two ways: (1) We could establish our Trades Unions. (2) Or we could enter the [existing] Unions and inculcate a new spirit in it, with the idea of transforming it into an instrument in the service of the new ideal."

"The first way was not advisable, by reason of the fact that our financial situation was still the cause of much worry to us at that time and our resources were quite slender. And, I did not have a single man whom I might call upon to carry out the important task of overthrowing the [existing] unions."

"Considered from all these points of view it was not then advisable, nor is it yet [feasible], to think of founding our own Trades Union. That seemed clear to me, at least until somebody appeared who was obviously called by fate to solve this particular problem."

"Therefore [we had two choices,] either to recommend our own party members to leave the trades unions in which they were enrolled, or to remain in them for the moment, with the idea of causing as much destruction in them as possible. I recommended the latter alternative." [Again, sabotage the existing democratic form and rebuild with a dictatorial structure.]

***

**Should the masses be to allowed to prosper?** "I have today, a firmly rooted conviction that when one is engaged in a great ideological struggle in the political field it would be a grave mistake to mix up economic questions with this struggle in its earlier stages."

"For if such were to happen the economic struggle would immediately distract the energy necessary for the political fight. Once the people are brought to believe that they can buy a little house with their savings they will devote themselves to the task of increasing their savings and no spare time will be left to them for the political struggle."

"Instead of participating in the political conflict on behalf of the opinions and convictions which they have been brought to accept, they will now go further with their 'settlement' idea and in the end they will find themselves for the most part sitting on the ground amidst all the stools. Today we have a classical example of how the active strength of a people becomes paralyzed when that people is too much taken up with purely economic problems."

"The more the combined strength of our movement is concentrated in the political struggle, the more confidently may we count on being successful along our whole front."

"If we busy ourselves prematurely with trade unionist problems, settlement problems, etc., it will be to the disadvantage of our own cause. For, though these problems may be important, they cannot be solved in an adequate manner until we have political power in our hand and are able to use it in the service of this idea. Until that day comes, these problems can have only a paralyzing effect on the movement. And if [we] take them up too soon they will only be a hindrance in the effort to attain [our] own ideological aims."

"It [could] then easily happen that trade unionist considerations [would] control the political direction of the movement, instead of the ideological aims of the movement directing the way that the trades unions are to take."

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Chapter 21 Establishing Foreign Policy

**From Mein Kampf** : "One cannot imagine the revival of a nation unless that revival be preceded by a process of nationalization."

"Every important success in the field of foreign politics must call forth a favorable reaction at home. Experience proves that every struggle for liberty increases the national sentiment and national self-consciousness and therewith gives rise to a keener sensibility towards anti-national elements and tendencies."

***

**National enthusiasm and intolerance are directly proportional**. "A state of things, and persons also, that may be tolerated and even pass unnoticed in times of peace will not only become the object of aversion when national enthusiasm is aroused, but will even provoke positive opposition, which frequently turns out disastrous for them."

"In this connection we may recall the spy-scare that became prevalent when the war broke out, when human passion suddenly manifested itself to such a heightened degree as to lead to the most brutal persecutions, often without any justifiable grounds, although everybody knew that the danger resulting from spies is greater during the long periods of peace; but, for obvious reasons, they do not then attract a similar amount of public attention."

**The lack of nationalistic foreign policy**. "For this reason [peace and the lack of public scrutiny] the subtle instinct of the State parasites who came to the surface of the national body [thought that] a policy of alliances which would restore the freedom of our people and awaken national sentiment might possibly ruin their own criminal existence. Thus we may explain the fact that the men who have held the reins of government adopted an entirely negative attitude towards foreign affairs."

"Undoubtedly a distinction ought to be made between (1) the responsible administrators of our affairs of State, or rather those who ought to be responsible; (2) the average run of our parliamentary politicasters, and (3) the masses of our people, whose sheepish docility corresponds to their want of intelligence."

"The first know what they want. The second fall into line with them, either because they have been already schooled in what is afoot or because they have not the courage to take an uncompromising stand against a course which they know and feel to be detrimental. The third just submit to it because they are too stupid to understand."

**Foreign relations are not a gift**. "This was the case especially because our movement has always proclaimed the principle, and must proclaim it, that the freedom of the country in its foreign relations is not a gift that will be bestowed upon us by Heaven or by any earthly Powers, but can only be the fruit of a development of our inner forces. We must first root out the causes which led to our collapse and we must eliminate all those who are profiting by that collapse. [This points to the need for domestic scapegoats (either real or imagined) and their removal which is now in the national interest.] Then we shall be in a position to take up the fight for the restoration of our freedom in the management of our foreign relations."

**Taking a stand on foreign policy**. "It will be easily understood therefore why we did not attach so much importance to foreign affairs during the early stages of our young movement, but preferred to concentrate on the problem of internal reform. But when the small and insignificant society expanded and finally grew too large for its first framework, the young organization assumed the importance of a great association and we then felt it incumbent on us to take a definite stand on problems regarding the development of a foreign policy."

**Guiding principles**. "The fundamental and guiding principle which we must always bear in mind when studying this question is that foreign policy is only a means to an end, and that the sole end to be pursued is the welfare of our own people. Every problem in foreign politics must be considered from this point of view, and this point of view alone. Shall such and such a solution prove advantageous to our people now or in the future, or will it injure their interests? That is the question."

"This is the sole preoccupation that must occupy our minds in dealing with a question. Party politics, religious considerations, humanitarian ideals - all such and all other preoccupations must absolutely give way to this."

"Foreign policy should [be devised] to assure the supply of material necessities for the maintenance of our people and their children. And the way [through strong national enthusiasm] should be prepared which will lead to this goal. Alliances [can then] be established which will prove beneficial to us and bring us the necessary auxiliary support." [Watch how "to assure the supply of necessities for the maintenance of our people and children" is expanded into the military acquisition of territory later in this chapter.]

**Independence**. "Our task today is to make our nation powerful once again by re-establishing a strong and independent State. The re-establishment of such a State is the prerequisite and necessary condition which must be fulfilled in order that we may be subsequently able to put into practice a foreign policy which will serve to guarantee the existence of our people in the future, fulfilling their needs and furnishing them with those necessities of life which they lack."

"The possibility of winning back the independence of a nation is not absolutely bound up with the question of territorial reintegration, but it will suffice if a small remnant, no matter how small, of this nation and State will exist, provided it possesses the necessary independence to become not only the vehicle of the common spirit of the whole people, but also to prepare the way for the military fight to reconquer the nation's liberty."

"When a people who amount to a hundred million souls tolerate the yoke of common slavery in order to prevent the territory belonging to their State from being broken up and divided, that is worse than if such a State and such a people were dismembered while one fragment still retained its complete independence. Of course, the natural proviso here is that this fragment must be inspired with a consciousness of the solemn duty that devolves upon it, not only to proclaim persistently the inviolable unity of its spiritual and cultural life with that of its detached members, but also to prepare the means that are necessary for the military conflict which will finally liberate and re-unite the fragments that are suffering under oppression."

"One must also bear in mind the fact that the restoration of lost districts which were formerly parts of the State, both ethnically and politically, must in the first instance be a question of winning back political power and independence for the motherland itself, and that in such cases the special interests of the lost districts must be uncompromisingly regarded as a matter of secondary importance in the face of the one main task, which is to win back the freedom of the central territory. For the detached and oppressed fragments of a nation or an imperial province cannot achieve their liberation through the expression of yearnings and protests on the part of the oppressed and abandoned, but only when the portion which has more or less retained its sovereign independence can resort to the use of force for the purpose of reconquering those territories that once belonged to the common fatherland."

"Therefore, in order to reconquer lost territories the first condition to be fulfilled is to work energetically for the increased welfare and reinforcement of the strength of that portion of the State which has remained, after the partition. Thus the unquenchable yearning which slumbers in the hearts of the people must be awakened and restrengthened by bringing new forces to its aid, so that when the hour comes all will be devoted to the one purpose of liberating and uniting the whole people."

"Therefore, the interests of the separated territories must be subordinated to the one purpose. That one purpose must aim at obtaining for the central remaining portion such a measure of power and might that will enable it to enforce its will on the hostile will of the victor and thus redress the wrong. For flaming protests will not restore the oppressed territories. That can be done only through the might of the sword."

"The forging of this sword is a work that has to be done through the domestic policy which must be adopted by a national government. To see that the work of forging these arms is assured, and to recruit the men who will bear them, that is the task of the foreign policy."

**Territorial expansion**. "Instead of a sound policy of territorial expansion in Europe, our rulers embarked on a policy of colonial and trade expansion. That policy was all the more mistaken inasmuch as they presumed that in this way the danger of an armed conflict would be averted. The result of the attempt to sit on many stools at the same time might have been foreseen. It let us fall to the ground in the midst of them all. The right way should have been by the acquisition of new territory in Europe."

**Deficits**. "The cultural importance of a nation is almost always dependent on its political freedom and independence. Political freedom is a prerequisite condition for the existence, or rather the creation, of great cultural undertakings. Accordingly no sacrifice can be too great when there is question of securing the political freedom of a nation. What might have to be deducted from the budget expenses for cultural purposes, in order to meet abnormal demands for increasing the military power of the State, can be generously paid back later on." [Another of Hitler's two step processes: first add cultural programs (which may be very popular) to the national budget, and then use then as a bank to finance war.]

**Military preparation**. "Of course, it could not be expected that a parliamentary majority of feckless and stupid people would be capable of deciding on such a resolute policy for the absolute subordination of all other national interests to the one sole task of preparing for a future conflict of arms which would result in establishing the security of the State. The father of Frederick the Great sacrificed everything in order to be ready for that conflict; but the fathers of our absurd parliamentarian democracy could not do it."

"That is why, in pre-War times, the military preparation necessary to enable us to conquer new territory in Europe was only very mediocre, [making it] difficult to obtain the support of really helpful allies. The characteristic of our present foreign policy is that it follows no discernible or even intelligible lines of action."

"England looked upon [us] as a Power which was of world importance commercially and politically and which, partly because of its enormous industrial development, assumed such threatening proportions that the two countries already contended against one another in the same sphere and with equal energy. The so-called peaceful conquest of the world by commercial enterprise, which, in the eyes of those who governed our public affairs at that time, represented the highest peak of human wisdom, was just the thing that led English statesmen to adopt a policy of resistance. England allied herself with those countries which had a definite military importance."

**Diplomacy.** "The object of a diplomatic policy must not be to see that a nation goes down heroically, but rather that it survives in a practical way. Hence every road that leads to this goal is opportune and the failure to take it must be looked upon as a criminal neglect of duty."

**National pride**. "Now, in the comity of nations, when one nation loses its instinct for self-preservation and ceases to be an active member it sinks to the level of an enslaved nation and its territory will have to suffer the fate of a colony."

"The ignorance of our people on questions of foreign politics is clearly demonstrated by the reports in the daily Press which talk about 'friendship towards [us]' on the part of one or the other foreign statesman, whereby this professed friendship is taken as a special guarantee that such persons will champion a policy that will be advantageous to our people. That kind of talk is absurd to an incredible degree. It means speculating on the unparalleled simplicity of the average philistine when he comes to talking politics."

"Englishman must naturally be British first of all. The same is true of every American. And no Italian statesman would be prepared to adopt a policy that was not pro-Italian. Therefore, anyone who expects to form alliances with foreign nations on the basis of a pro-[us] or [friendly] feelings among the statesmen of other countries is either an ass or a deceiver. The necessary condition for linking together the destinies of nations is never mutual esteem or mutual sympathy, but rather the prospect of advantages accruing to the contracting parties."

"Today we are not fighting for our position as a World Power, but only for the existence of our country, for national unity and the daily bread of our children."

***

**The three key questions on national policy**.

**World Powers**. "[In the first place], can a [World] Power associate itself for life or death with a State whose most characteristic signs of activity consist of a rampant servility in external relations and a scandalous repression of the national spirit at home? [No.] Can such a Power be associated with a State in which there is nothing of greatness, because its whole policy does not deserve it? [No.] Or can alliances be made with Governments which are in the hands of men who are despised by their own fellow-citizens and consequently are not respected abroad? No!" [Donald Trump ("The Least Popular President Ever" – Newsweek 9-22-17) might be well advised to remember this.]

"A self-respecting Power which expects something more from alliances than commissions for greedy Parliamentarians will not and cannot enter into an alliance with our present-day [government]. Our present inability to form alliances furnishes the principle and most solid basis for the combined action of the enemies who are robbing us. Because [our nation] does not defend itself in any other way except by the flamboyant protests of our parliamentarian elect, there is no reason why the rest of the world should take up the fight in our defense. And God does not follow the principle of granting freedom to a nation of cowards, despite all the implications of our 'patriotic' associations."

"In the second place we must not forget that, among the nations which were formerly our enemies, mass-propaganda has turned the opinions and feelings of large sections of the population in a fixed direction. When, for years long, a foreign nation has been presented to the public as a horde of 'Huns', 'Robbers', 'Vandals', etc., they cannot suddenly be presented as something different, and the enemy of yesterday cannot be recommended as the ally of tomorrow." [For example, a person who has been marinating in far right hate talk radio for several years is probably not going to be receptive to different points of view, either domestically or internationally.]

"But the third factor deserves greater attention, since it is of essential importance for establishing future alliances. From the political point of view it is not in the interests of [potential allies] that we should be ruined even still more, but such a proceeding would be very much in the interests of [international business cartels]. [They] demand not only [our] economic but [also our] complete political enslavement. If our people and our State should fall victims to these oppressors of the nations, lusting after [power] and money, the whole earth would become the prey of that hydra."

***

**Question I.** "Can a [World] Power associate itself for life or death with a State whose most characteristic signs of activity consist of a rampant servility?"

**Weak foreign policy**. "[Our leaders] bowed and begged favors. Yes, during all these recent years, with the touching simplicity of incorrigible visionaries, they went on their knees again and again, perpetually wagging their tails."

**The force of arms**. "It must be quite clearly understood that we cannot get back the territories we have lost if we depend on solemn imprecations before the throne of the Almighty God or on pious hopes in a League of Nations, but only by the force of arms. Therefore the only remaining question is: Who is ready to take up arms for the restoration of the lost territories?"

"As far as concerns myself personally, I can state with a good conscience that I would have courage enough to take part in a campaign for the reconquest of [lost territories] at the head of parliamentarian storm battalions consisting of parliamentarian gasconaders and party leaders. Only the Devil knows whether I might have the luck of seeing a few shells suddenly burst over this 'burning' demonstration of protest. I think that if a fox were to break into a poultry yard his presence would not provoke such a helter-skelter and rush to cover as we should witness in the band of 'protesters'."

"The vilest part of it all is that these talkers themselves do not believe that anything can be achieved in this way. Each one of them knows very well how harmless and ineffective their whole pretense is. They do it only because it is easier now to babble than to fight."

"A tendency towards lying and calumny lies in the nature of these people, and that explains how they can calmly and brazenly attempt to twist things. There is one clear answer that must be given to these gentlemen. It is this: [we were] betrayed, in the first place, by every [citizen] who was sound in limb and body and did not offer himself for service to his country. [We were] betrayed by every man who did not help to reinforce the national spirit and the national powers of resistance, either directly by his act or indirectly by a cowardly toleration of disgraceful treaties. [They are not] brave gentlemen, [those] who make your protests only with words."

"Today I am guided by a calm and cool recognition of the fact that the lost territories cannot be won back by the whetted tongues of parliamentary spouters, but only by the whetted sword; in other words, through a fight where blood will have to be shed."

"Now, I have no hesitations in saying that today, once the die has been cast, it is not only impossible to win back [a lost territory] through a war, but I should definitely take my stand against such a movement, because I am convinced that it would not be possible to arouse the national enthusiasm of the people and maintain it in such a way as would be necessary in order to carry through such a war to a successful [outcome]."

"And if, in order to carry through this struggle to victory, sacrifices should be made in other quarters, future generations will not condemn us for that. They will take account of the miseries and anxieties which led us to make such a bitter decision, and in the light of that consideration they will more clearly recognize the brilliancy of our success."

"Again I must say here that we must always be guided by the fundamental principle that, as a preliminary to winning back lost provinces, the political independence and strength of the motherland must first be restored. The first task which has to be accomplished is to make that independence possible and to secure it by a wise policy of alliances, which presupposes an energetic management of our public affairs."

"The lack of character which our people have shown during the last years is deeply distressing. The indifference with which they have treated the most urgent necessities of our nation might veritably lead one to despair. Their cowardice is such that it often cries to heaven for vengeance. But one must never forget that we are dealing with a people who gave to the world, a few years previously, an admirable example of the highest human qualities."

"[At] the end of the tremendous struggle between the nations, no people in the world gave a better proof of manly courage, tenacity and patient endurance, than this people gave who are so cast down and dispirited today. Nobody will dare to assert that the lack of character among our people today is typical of them. What we have to endure today, among us and around us, is due only to the influence of the sad and distressing effects that followed the high treason."

"The oppression which we suffer from at the hands of our enemies is no longer taken, as it formerly was, as a matter for laughter, but it is resented with bitterness and anger. There can be no doubt that a great change of attitude has taken place. This evolution has not yet taken the shape of a conscious intention and movement to restore the political power and independence of our nation, but the blame for this must be attributed to those utterly incompetent people who have no natural endowments to qualify them for statesmanship."

"Yes. If anybody accuses our people today he ought to be asked: What is being done to help them? What are we to say of the poor support which the people give to any measures introduced by the Government? Is it not true that such a thing as a Government hardly exists at all? And must we consider the poor support which it receives as a sign of a lack of vitality in the nation itself, or is it not rather a proof of the complete failure of the methods employed in the management of this valuable trust? What has our Government done to re-awaken in the nation a proud spirit of self-assertion, an up-standing manliness, and a spirit of righteous defiance towards its enemies?"

" **Peace treaties** which make demands that fall like a whip-lash on the people turn out not infrequently to be the signal of a future revival. To what purpose could the Treaty have been exploited? In the hands of a willing Government, how could this instrument of unlimited blackmail and shameful humiliation have been applied for the purpose of arousing national sentiment to its highest pitch? How could a well-directed system of propaganda utilize the sadist cruelty of that treaty, so as to change the indifference of the people to a feeling of indignation and to transform that indignation into a spirit of dauntless resistance?"

"Each point of that Treaty could have been engraved on the minds and hearts of the people and burned into them until sixty million men and women would find their souls aflame with a feeling of rage and shame; and a torrent of fire would burst forth as from a furnace, and one common will would be forged from it, like a sword of steel. Then the people would join in the common cry: 'To arms again!'"

"Yes. A treaty of that kind can be used for such a purpose. Its unbounded oppression and its impudent demands were an excellent propaganda weapon to arouse the sluggish spirit of the nation and restore its vitality."

[Hitler was referring to the Treaty of Versailles which followed WWI and placed what many felt was too harsh a burden on the German people. Over time, the weight of the treaty produced a population with: anger, fear, and frustration. The longstanding feeling of impotence created the environment necessary for Hitler's rise to power. An oligarchy creates this same feeling of political impotence in the population it controls (see Appendix C).]

"Then, from the child's story-book to the last newspaper in the country, and every theatre and cinema, every pillar where placards are posted and every free space on the hoardings should be utilized in the service of this one great mission, until the faint-hearted cry, 'Lord, deliver us,' which our patriotic associations send up to Heaven today would be transformed into an ardent prayer: 'Almighty God, bless our arms when the hour comes. Be just, as Thou hast always been just. Judge now if we deserve our freedom. Lord, bless our struggle'."

**The world's doormat**. "The rest of the world looks upon us only as its valet, or as a kindly dog that will lick its master's hand after he has been whipped."

"Of course the possibilities of forming alliances with other nations are hampered by the indifference of our own people, but much more by our Government. They have been and are so corrupt that now, after years of indescribable oppression, there exists only a faint desire for liberty. In order that our nation may undertake a policy of alliances, it must restore its prestige among other nations, and it must have an authoritative Government that is not a drudge in the service of foreign States and the taskmaster of its own people, but rather the herald of the national will."

***

**Question II.** "[Can] the nations which were formerly our enemies [whose] mass-propaganda has turned the opinions and feelings of large sections of the population in a fixed direction [against us, now reverse that direction?]"

"The second objection [see "World Powers" earlier in the chapter] referred to the difficulty of changing the ex-enemy nations into friendly allies. That objection may be answered as follows: Only when the Government and the people feel absolutely certain of being able to undertake a policy of alliances can one Power or another, whose interests coincide with ours, think of instituting a system of propaganda for the purpose of changing public opinion among its own people."

"Naturally it will take several years of persevering and ably directed work to reach such a result. Because a long period is needed in order to change the public opinion of a country, it is necessary to reflect calmly before such an enterprise [can] be undertaken. This means that one must not enter upon this kind of work unless one is absolutely convinced that it is worth the trouble and that it will bring results which will be valuable in the future."

"One must not try to change the opinions and feelings of a people by basing one's actions on the vain cajolery of a more or less brilliant Foreign Minister, but only if there be a tangible guarantee that the new orientation will be really useful. Otherwise public opinion, in the country dealt with, may be just thrown into a state of complete confusion. The most reliable guarantee that can be given for the possibility of subsequently entering into an alliance with a certain State cannot be found in the loquacious suavity of some individual member of the Government, but in the manifest stability of a definite and practical policy on the part of the Government as a whole, and in the support which is given to that policy by the public opinion of the country."

"The faith of the public in this policy will be strengthened all the more if the Government organize one active propaganda to explain its efforts and secure public support for them, and if public opinion favorably responds to the Government's policy."

"Therefore a nation in such a position as ours will be looked upon as a possible ally if [their] public opinion supports [their] Government's policy and if both are united in the same enthusiastic determination to carry through the fight."

"The task of bringing about a radical change in the public opinion of a country calls for hard work, and many do not at first understand what it means, it would be both foolish and criminal to commit mistakes which could be used as weapons in the hands of those who are opposed to such a change."

"One must recognize the fact that it takes a long time for a people to understand completely the inner purposes which a Government has in view, because [ordinarily] it is not possible to explain the ultimate aims of the preparations that are being made to carry through a certain policy. In such cases the Government has to count on the blind faith of the masses or the intuitive instinct of the ruling caste that is more developed intellectually. But since many people lack this insight, this political acumen and faculty for seeing into the trend of affairs, and since political considerations forbid a public explanation of why such and such a course is being followed, a certain number of leaders in intellectual circles will always oppose new tendencies which, because they are not easily grasped, can be pointed to as mere experiments. And that attitude arouses opposition."

"For this reason a strict duty devolves upon everybody not to allow any weapon to fall into the hands of those who would interfere with the work of bringing about a mutual understanding with other nations. This is specially so in our case, where we have to deal with the pretensions and fantastic talk of our patriotic associations and our small bourgeoisie who talk politics in the cafes."

"These harmless and sometimes half-crazy spouters, in their war of protests, are serving the interests of our mortal enemy. They squander their energies in futile demonstrations against the whole world. These demonstrations are harmful to our interests and those who indulge in them forget the fundamental principle which is a preliminary condition of all success. What thou doest, do it thoroughly. Because we keep on howling against five or ten States we fail to concentrate all the forces of our national will and our physical strength for a blow at the heart of our bitterest enemy. And in this way we sacrifice the possibility of securing an alliance which would reinforce our strength for that decisive conflict."

"Here, too, there is a mission to fulfill. It must teach our people not to fix their attention on the little things, but rather on the great things, not to exhaust their energies on secondary objects, and not to forget that the object we shall have to fight for one day is the bare existence of our people and that the sole enemy we shall have to strike at is that Power which is robbing us of this existence."

"The people will have no moral right to complain of the manner in which the rest of the world acts towards them, as long as they themselves have not called to account those criminals who sold and betrayed their own country. We cannot hope to be taken very seriously if we allow those scoundrels to circulate undisturbed in our own country. [They,] while in the pay of the enemy war propaganda, took the weapons out of our hands, broke the backbone of our resistance, and bartered away the [country] for thirty pieces of silver. The enemy did only what was expected."

"A change in public feeling among those nations which have hitherto been enemies, and whose true interests will correspond in the future with ours, could be effected, as far as human calculation goes, if the internal strength of our State and our manifest determination to secure our own existence made it clear that we should be valuable allies."

***

**Question III.** "From the political point of view it is not in the interests of [potential allies] that we should be ruined even still more, but such a proceeding would be very much in the interests of [international business cartels]. [They] demand not only [our] economic but [also our] complete political enslavement."

"The answer to the third question is still more difficult: Is it conceivable that they who represent the true interests of those nations which may possibly form an alliance with us, could put their views into practice against the will of [international business interests]?"

"In England, despite the ties of kinship, there was a certain amount of jealousy and anxiety over the growing importance of the United States in all spheres of international economics and politics. What was formerly a colonial territory, the daughter of a great mother, seemed about to become the new mistress of the world. It is quite understandable that today England should re-examine her old alliances and that British statesmanship should look anxiously to the danger of a coming moment when the cry would no longer be: 'Britain rules the waves', but rather: 'The Seas belong to the United States'."

"The gigantic North American State, with the enormous resources of its virgin soil, is much more invulnerable than an encircled [country]. Should a day come when the die which will finally decide the destinies of the nations will have to be cast in that country, England would be doomed if she stood alone. Therefore she eagerly reaches out her hand to enter any alliance which from the political viewpoint represents the sole possibility of reinforcing Britain's world position in face of the strenuous developments taking place on the American continent."

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Chapter 22 Foreign Policy and Natural Resources

Hitler had two groups of concerns about Germany's relationship with Russia. The first group dealt with Russia itself, and the second with the ability of his young organization. Russia, although not geographically contiguous to Germany, would become so when, under Hitler's plan, Poland became "land and soil" for the "motherland." And, Russia, the center of Communist ideology, was trying to expand its fairly extensive presence in Germany.

***

**From Mein Kampf** : "There are two reasons which induce me to submit to a special examination the relation of [our country] to Russia: first here perhaps we are dealing with the most decisive concern of all [our] foreign affairs; and second this question is also the touchstone for the political capacity of the young movement to think clearly and to act correctly."

"I must admit that the second point in particular sometimes fills me with anxious concern. Since our young movement does not obtain membership material from the camp of the indifferent, but chiefly from very extreme outlooks, it is only too natural if these people, in the field of understanding foreign affairs as in other fields, are burdened with the preconceived ideas or feeble understanding of the circles to which they previously belonged, both politically and philosophically."

"And this by no means applies only to the man who comes to us from the Left. On the contrary. Harmful as his previous instruction with regard to such problems might be, in part at least it was not infrequently balanced by an existing remnant of natural and healthy [emotional] instinct."

"Then it was only necessary to substitute a better attitude for the influence that was previously forced upon him, and often the essentially healthy instinct and impulse of self-preservation that still survived in him could be regarded as our best ally. It is much harder, on the other hand, to induce clear political thinking in a man whose previous education in this field was devoid of any reason and logic, [and] had also sacrificed his last remnant of natural instinct on the altar of objectivity." [The ideology of the Left began in Germany with Marx and Engels; later, Lenin championed it in Russia.]

"Precisely the members of our so-called intelligentsia are the hardest to move to a really clear and logical defense of their interests and the interests of their nation. They are not only burdened with a dead weight of the most senseless conceptions and prejudices, but what makes matters completely intolerable is that they have lost and abandoned all healthy instinct of self-preservation."

"The movement is compelled to endure hard struggles with these people, hard because, despite total incompetence, they often unfortunately are afflicted with an amazing conceit, which causes them to look down without the slightest inner justification upon other people, [who are] for the most part healthier than they. Supercilious, arrogant know-it-alls, without any capacity for cool testing and weighing, which, in turn, must be recognized as the pre-condition for any will and action in the field of foreign affairs."

***

**Rule 1.** "First I would like to make the following introductory remarks: Only an adequately large space on this earth assures a nation of freedom of existence."

"Let no one cite England as a proof to the contrary, for England in reality is merely the great capital of the British world empire which calls nearly a quarter of the earth's surface its own. In addition, we must regard as giant states, first of all the American Union, then Russia, and China."

"Today we find ourselves in a world of great power states in process of formation, with our own sinking more and more into insignificance. We must bear this bitter truth coolly and soberly in mind. We have lost all proportion to the other great states of the earth, and this thanks only to the positively catastrophic leadership of our nation in the field of foreign affairs, thanks to our total failure to be guided by what I should almost call a testamentary [disposition of property after death] aim in foreign policy, thanks to the loss of any healthy instinct and impulse of self-preservation."

**Rule 2.** "The movement must strive to eliminate the disproportion between our population and our area - viewing this latter as a source of food as well as a basis for power politics - and between our historical past and the hopelessness of our present impotence. And in this it must remain aware that we, as guardians of the highest humanity on this earth."

"If I characterize [our] policy up to now as aimless and incompetent, the proof of my assertion lies in the actual failure of this policy. If our people had been intellectually inferior or cowardly, the results of its struggle on the earth could not be worse than what we see before us today."

**Rule 3**. "We cannot measure the strength of an empire by itself, but only by comparison with other states. And just such a comparison furnishes proof that the increase in strength of the other states was not only more even, but also greater in its ultimate effect; that consequently, despite its apparent rise, [our] road actually diverged more and more from that of the other states and fell far behind; in short, the difference in magnitudes increased to our disfavor."

"We must again profess the highest aim of all foreign policy, to wit: to bring the soil into harmony with the population Yes, from the past we can only learn that, in setting an objective for our political activity, we must proceed in two directions: Land and soil are the goal of our foreign policy."

**Rule 4. Force is needed**. "Only childish and naive minds can lull themselves in the idea that they can bring about a correction by wheedling and begging. One half of our political figures consist of extremely sly, but equally spineless elements which are hostile toward our nation to begin with, while the other is composed of good-natured, harmless, and easy-going soft-heads."

"Moreover, the times have changed. Today it is not princes and princes' mistresses who haggle and bargain over state borders; it is the inexorable [international business cartels] that struggle for domination over the nations. No nation can remove this hand from its throat except by the sword. Only the assembled and concentrated might of a national passion rearing up in its strength can defy the international enslavement of peoples. Such a process is and remains a bloody one."

**Rule 5. A bloody sacrifice is justified**. "We must hold unflinchingly to our aim in foreign policy, namely, to secure for the people the land and soil to which they are entitled on this earth. And this action is the only one which, before God and our posterity, would make any sacrifice of blood seem justified: before God, since we have been put on this earth with the mission of eternal struggle for our daily bread, beings who receive nothing as a gift, and who owe their position as lords of the earth only to the genius and the courage with which they can conquer and defend it. The soil on which some day generations of peasants can beget powerful sons will sanction the investment of the sons of today."

"And I must sharply attack those pen-pushers who claim to regard such an acquisition of soil as a 'breach of sacred human rights' and attack it as such in their scribblings. One never knows who stands behind these fellows. But one thing is certain, that the confusion they can create is desirable and convenient to our national enemies. By such an attitude they help to weaken and destroy from within our people's will for the only correct way of defending their vital needs. For no people on this earth possesses so much as a square yard of territory on the strength of a higher will or superior right."

**Rule 6**. "State boundaries are made by man and changed by man."

"The fact that a nation has succeeded in acquiring an undue amount of soil constitutes no higher obligation that it should be recognized eternally. At most it proves the strength of the conquerors and the weakness of the [other] nations. And in this case, right lies in this strength alone."

"Just as our ancestors did not receive the soil on which we live today as a gift from Heaven, but had to fight for it at the risk of their lives, in the future no folkish grace will win soil for us and hence life for our people, but only the might of a victorious sword."

**Rule 7.** "It is not in colonial acquisitions that we must see the solution of this problem, but exclusively in the acquisition of a territory for settlement, which will enhance the area of the mother country, and hence not only keep the new settlers in the most intimate community with the land of their origin, but secure for the total area those advantages which lie in its unified magnitude." [Neighbors beware.]

"In particular, we are not constables guarding the well-known 'Poor little nations', but soldiers of our own nation. The right to possess soil can become a duty if without extension of its soil a great nation seems doomed to destruction." [The "right to possess argument" can be applied any number of natural resources.]

"Once we ourselves recognize the crying need which must determine our conduct in foreign affairs, from this knowledge will flow the force of perseverance."

"An alliance whose aim does not embrace a plan for war is senseless and worthless."

***

"The present rulers of Russia have no idea of honorably entering into an alliance, let alone observing one. Never forget that the rulers of present-day Russia are common blood-stained criminals; that they are the scum of humanity which, favored by circumstances, overran a great state in a tragic hour, slaughtered and wiped out thousands of her leading intelligentsia in wild blood lust, and now for almost ten years have been carrying on the most cruel and tyrannical regime of all time."

["The right to possess soil can become a duty if without extension of its soil a great nation seems doomed to destruction" was the basis of Hitler's militant foreign policy doctrine. Some hold the opinion that the Bush era neocons have morphed soil into oil. ]

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Chapter 23 The Right to Forcibly Remove Oppression

**From Mein Kampf** : "Historical examples show that nations which lay down their arms without compelling reasons prefer in the ensuing period to accept the greatest humiliations and extortions rather than attempt to change their fate by a renewed appeal to force."

***

**Small pieces**. "This is humanly understandable. A shrewd victor will, if possible, always present his demands to the vanquished in installments [one slice at a time until you have it all]. And then, with a nation that has lost its character - and this is the case of every one which voluntarily submits - [the victor] can be sure that [the vanquished] will not regard one more of these individual oppressions as an adequate reason for taking up arms again."

"The more extortions are willingly accepted in this way, the more unjustified it strikes people finally to take up the defensive against a new, apparently isolated, though constantly recurring, oppression, especially when, all in all, so much more and greater misfortune has already been borne in patient silence."

**Cowardly submission**. "The stain of a cowardly submission can never be effaced; that drop of poison in the blood of a people [will be] passed on to posterity and will paralyze and undermine the strength of later generations."

"On the other hand, even the loss of freedom after a bloody and honorable struggle assures the rebirth of a people and is the seed of life from which someday a new tree will strike fast roots."

"Of course, a people that has lost all honor and character will not concern itself with such teachings. Therefore, we must not expect those who embody a spineless submission suddenly to look into their hearts, and on the basis of reason and all human experience, begin to act differently than before. On the contrary, it is these men in particular who will dismiss all such teachings until, either the nation is definitely accustomed to its yoke of slavery, or until better forces push to the surface to wrest the power from the hands of the infamous spoilers. In the first case these people usually do not feel so badly, since not seldom they are appointed by the shrewd victors to the office of slave overseer, which these spineless natures usually wield more mercilessly over their people than any foreign beast put in by the enemy himself."

**Political emasculation**. "Our enemies were too shrewd to demand too much at once. They always limit their extortions to the amount which, in their opinion - and that of the [our] leadership - would at the moment be bearable enough so that an explosion of popular feeling need not be feared. For this is the 'drop of poison' which the spinelessness once begun must increase more and more and which gradually becomes the foulest heritage, burdening every future decision. It can become a terrible lead weight, a weight which a nation is not likely to shake off, but which finally drags it down into the existence of a slave race."

"Thus, edicts of enslavement, political emasculation with economic pillage, and finally created the moral spirit. Destiny made no exception in [our] case, but gave us what we deserved. Since we no longer know how to value honor, it teaches us at least to appreciate freedom in the matter of bread. By now people have learned to cry out for bread, but one of these days they will pray for freedom."

**Impotence**. "Wretched and bad as the leaders of our nation were, they were equally arrogant, and especially when it came to ridding themselves of undesired, unpleasant prophets. The greatest parliamentary thick-heads suddenly setting themselves on the pedestal of statesmen, from which they could lecture down at plain ordinary mortals. It had and has nothing to do with the case that such a 'statesman' by the sixth month of his activity is shown up as the most incompetent windbag, the butt of everyone's ridicule and contempt, that he doesn't know which way to turn and has provided unmistakable proof of his total incapacity!"

"No, that makes no difference, on the contrary: the more lacking the parliamentary statesmen are in real accomplishment, the more furiously they persecute those who expect accomplishments from them, who have the audacity to point out the failure of their previous activity and predict the failure of their future moves."

"But if once you finally pin down one of these parliamentary honorables, and this political showman really cannot deny the collapse of his whole activity and its results any longer, they find thousands and thousands of grounds for excusing their lack of success, and there is only one that they will not admit, namely, that they themselves are the main cause of all evil." [Attacking parliamentarians is easier than attacking the parliamentary system itself. Personal attacks require fewer facts than debating the merits of the issue.]

Woe to the vanquished. "It was a question of bending and breaking. [We] bent at the very outset, and ended up by breaking completely later."

"A feeble little tailor cannot argue with athletes, and a defenseless negotiator has always suffered the sword of Brennus on the opposing side of the scale, unless he had his own to throw in as a counterweight." [In 389 B.C., when a conquered city's 1,000 pound gold ransom was being measured in false weights, and one of the oppressed complained, Brennus threw his sword on the scale, adding it to the already false weights, and screamed at the questioner, 'Woe to the vanquished.']

"Or has it not been miserable to watch the comic-opera negotiations which always preceded the repeated dictates? This degrading spectacle presented to the whole world, first inviting us to the conference table, as though in mockery, then presenting us with decisions and programs prepared long before, which, to be sure, could be discussed, but which from the start could only be regarded as unalterable."

**Resistance**. "Any idea of real resistance was utter nonsense if we did not declare war against those forces which had broken [our National] resistance from within. An incredible and really insane idea, the hope that the traitors of former days would suddenly turn into fighters for freedom. No more than a hyena abandons carrion does a [traitor] abandon treason."

"Regardless what type of resistance was decided on, the first requirement was always the elimination of poison from our national body. If this were not done, any thought of resistance, regardless of what type, was pure madness."

**Natural law**. "Real world-historical import it does not follow the schedules of a privy councilor or some dried-up old minister, but the eternal laws of life on this earth, which are the struggle for this life and which remain struggle. It should have been borne in mind that the bloodiest civil wars have often given rise to a steeled and healthy people, while artificially cultivated states of peace have more than once produced a rottenness that stank to high Heaven."

"You do not alter the destinies of nations in kid gloves. And so, the most brutal thrust was required to seize the vipers that were devouring our people. Only if this were successful did the preparation of active resistance have meaning."

"To fight, with the deadly enemy in our own ranks, would have been sheer idiocy. What was done could at most be shadowboxing, staged to satisfy the nationalistic element in some measure, or in reality to dupe the 'seething soul of the people'."

"If they had seriously believed in what they were doing, they would have had to recognize that the strength of a nation lies primarily, not in its weapons, but in its will, and that, before foreign enemies are conquered, the enemy within must be annihilated. [(1) Label your political adversaries as 'a deadly enemy in our ranks,' (2) wrap then in a blanket with foreign enemies that need to be conquered, and (3) demand they be annihilated. Divisiveness was a hallmark of Hitler's teachings and it is a hallmark of the Trump administration.] Once so much as the shadow of a defeat grazes a people that is not free of internal enemies, its force of resistance will break and the foe will be the final victor."

**Passive resistance**. "It is generally known that a nation cannot be made free by prayers. But maybe one could be made free by sitting with folded arms, and that had to be historically tested."

"Peoples are not freed by doing nothing, but by sacrifices. To be sure, this so-called passive resistance as such could not be maintained for long. For only a man totally ignorant of warfare could imagine that occupying armies can be frightened away by such ridiculous means."

"As soon as the passive resistance had grown really dangerous to the [oppressor], it would have been child's play for the troops of occupation to put a cruel end to the whole childish mischief in less than a week. For the ultimate question is always this: What do we do if the passive resistance ends by really getting on an adversary's nerves and he takes up the struggle against it with brutal strong-arm methods? Are we then resolved to offer further resistance? If so we must, for better or worse, invite the gravest and bloodiest persecutions."

[This is in stark contrast to Chapter 7 on "Basic Organization," where Hitler described the critical need for popular support, espousing that without it, "the State may employ the most violent measures for centuries long... but in the end all these measures will prove futile, and the State will have to succumb."]

"But then we stand exactly where active resistance would put us - face to mace [the heavy club used in the middle ages] with struggle. Hence any so-called passive resistance has an inner meaning only if it is backed by determination to continue it if necessary in open struggle or in undercover guerrilla warfare."

"In general, any such struggle will depend on a conviction that success is possible. As soon as a besieged fortress under heavy attack by the enemy is forced to abandon the last hope of relief, for all practical purposes it gives up the fight, especially when in such a case the defender is lured by the certainty of life rather than probable death. Rob the garrison of a surrounded fortress of faith in a possible liberation, and all the forces of defense will abruptly collapse."

"Therefore, passive resistance, in view of the ultimate consequences it could and inevitably would produce in case it were actually successful, only had meaning if an active front were built up behind it. Then, it is true, there is no limit to what could have been drawn from our people."

"There are always more courageous men willing to sacrifice themselves for success than for something that is obviously futile."

**Urgency**. "Never was the time riper, never did it cry out more imperiously for such a solution than in the moment when, on the one hand, naked treason shamelessly revealed itself, while, on the other hand, a people was economically delivered to slow starvation. Since the state itself trampled all laws of loyalty and faith underfoot, mocked the rights of its citizens, cheated millions of its truest sons of their sacrifices and robbed millions of others of their last penny, it had no further right to expect anything but hatred of its subjects. And in any event, this hatred against the spoilers of people and fatherland was pressing toward an explosion."

"The judges of this state may go right ahead and convict us for our actions, but History, acting as the goddess of a higher truth and a higher justice, will one day smilingly tear up this verdict, acquitting us of all guilt and blame."

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Conclusion

"I [Adolf Hitler] wish at the end by reminding the supporters and champions of our doctrine of those eighteen heroes, to whom I have dedicated Mein Kampf, those heroes who sacrificed themselves for us all with the clearest consciousness. They must forever recall the wavering and the weak to the fulfillment of his duty, a duty which they themselves in the best faith carried to its final consequence." [Mein Kampf begins and ends with heroic-patriotism.]

***

Final Comment: Extremists (right or left) are mirror images of their counterparts. They wave different flags, but both employ the teachings of "Mein Kampf."

The End.

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Appendix A: Preparation

"Donald Trump is the biggest popular-vote loser in history to ever call himself President. In spite of the fact that he has no mandate, he will attempt to use his congressional majority to reshape America in his own racist, authoritarian, and corrupt image. If progressives are going to stop this, we must stand indivisibly opposed to Trump and the Members of Congress (MoCs) who would do his bidding." Source: <https://www.indivisible.org/>

"If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to realize that we don't stand for them." –Paul Wellstone

"Ultimately our democracy demands (and) needs you. Not just when there's an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime. If you're tired of arguing with strangers on the internet, try to talk with one in real life. If something needs fixing, lace up your shoes and do some organizing. If you're disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself. Show up. Dive in. Persevere." -Barack Obama

**BUILD YOUR CASE**.

Five Axioms

1. My member of Congress (MoC) or for that matter elected officials national, state, or local wants me to believe that she, or he, (A) cares about me, (B) shares my values, and (C) is working hard for me.

2. All politics are local (national policies have local consequences) and this is where it gets personal.

3. "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." -Barack Obama  
4. Know yourself. Stand for something besides just stopping the Trump agenda. What are your goals and dreams?

5. Know your adversary.

Application

Develop your arguments using facts to establish credibility. Research your MoC's voting record, quotations, and news releases. YouTube may have video clips. Interview a police officer concerning gun control, or an educator regarding the effects of deporting dreamers. Focus not only on the devastation to the children and their families, but also the effects on other students in the classroom, etc.

Know your adversary. In addition to factual records of your opponent's position, lookup Hitler's position using the chapters in this book; for example, "free speech." See chapters 3, 5, and 13. Keyword searches are helpful.

Keep in mind that national, state, and local leaders of the far right are recruited more for loyalty than intelligence. They follow slogans more than facts and personalities more than principles. Know their catchphrases (i.e. "guns don't kill people - people kill people"). Destroy them with emotion and facts. Americans are being slaughtered by assault rifles and Republican MoCs do nothing to end this carnage.

Applying the tactics in chapter one, wrap your Republican MoC in their voting record, statements, and silent ratification of Trump tweets.

They will try to deny, divert, distract, and/or revert to the tired Republican drumbeat, "What about Hillary's e-mails? What about Benghazi?" Force them to focus and take a position on the issue at hand. If they shut off your mike, yell. Have friends present to back you up.

Republican MoCs who consistently turn a blind eye to Trump's abhorrent use of the Oval Office and rubber stamp his divisive agenda are not honoring their oath of office. They sit quietly while Trump systematically destroys the institutions of our democracy (for more read "On Tyranny" by Tim Snyder, published 2017). The worst are those spineless Republican hypocrites who sigh and moan and yet vote to approve a Trump bill that they have neither seen nor discussed. This is a perfect example of the Nazi fundamental "obeying in advance."

Have a friend videotape the exchange and upload it to your local TV station, YouTube, or social media outlets.

A few issues that Republican MoCs need to discuss openly: sensible gun control, healthcare, Dreamers, fair tax reform, the border wall, the deficit, North Korea, ISIS, deportation, freedom of speech, Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, terrorism, immigration, student loans, minimum wage, fracking, climate change, racism, police use of force, equal pay, animal rights, unemployment, abortion, campaign finance reform, drones, Puerto Rico, Cuba, etc.

### Show up. Dive in. Persevere.

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Appendix B: Riding the Tiger

Riding the Tiger 2017

"Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside"

\- President John F. Kennedy

TIMELINE:

November 8, 1960 John F. Kennedy was elected President.

July 11, 1963 President Kennedy asked Congress for legislation "giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments," as well as "greater protection for the right to vote."

November 22, 1963 President Kennedy assassinated - Vice President Lyndon Johnson sworn in.

July 2, 1964 Kennedy's Civil Rights Act was enacted. Eighty-two percent of the Senate Republicans (the Party of Lincoln) and eighty percent of the House Republicans supported the bill. Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) voted against it.

July 16, 1964 Senator Goldwater was nominated to run against President Johnson in the upcoming Presidential election. In his acceptance speech Goldwater stated: "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." In one catchy slogan Senator Goldwater bypassed the Constitution and Bill of Rights and inadvertently aligned the Republican Presidential campaign with the "end justifying the means" (a _Mein Kampf_ fundamental).

***

Barry Goldwater was an honorable man and worthy adversary. Just for perspective let's take a moment to note the vast difference between Senator Goldwater and Donald Trump. Here are a few examples:

(1) Barry Goldwater served in WWII and Korea, attaining the rank of Major General.

(2) Senator Goldwater was endorsed by the KKK, but barred them from supporting his campaign and publically denounced them.

(3) The Senator was a strong advocate for the environment. "I feel very definitely that the [Nixon] administration is absolutely correct in cracking down on companies and corporations and municipalities that continue to pollute the nation's air and water. While I am a great believer in the free competitive enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right of our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment. To this end, it is my belief that when pollution is found, it should be halted at the source, even if this requires stringent government action against important segments of our national economy."-1969

(4) Goldwater 1994, "When you say 'radical right' today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican party and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye."

(5) Senator Goldwater had a robust adversarial relation with his political opponents, but they were not spuriously labeled "enemies." He was grief-stricken at the assassination of his friend President John F. Kennedy.

***

November 3, 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson elected President in a landslide, it has been said by Goldwater followers that "the country was not prepared to have three different men as President in just 14 months." Only Arizona and five southern (former Confederate) states supported Goldwater.

November 5, 1968 Republican Richard Nixon was elected President using his newly developed "southern strategy" which appealed to white supremacists chafing over the 1964 Civil Rights Act. [The ideals of Lincoln are cast aside.]

RIDING THE TIGER

Racism:

Following Nixon's lead, the Republican Party endorsed a political strategy of divisiveness and racial hatred. In 1968, they rode the tiger all the way to the White House.

**Above the law** :

To be clear, there is little doubt in my mind that President Nixon loved his country (as did Hitler) but Nixon had the misconception (like Hitler) that once elected his power was absolute. In a televised interview Nixon stated, "Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal." [Nixon resigned in 1974 to avoid impeachment.]

**Obstructionism** :

1978 Newt Gingrich was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and championed the doctrine of obstructionism. According to Gingrich, "The minority wins when Congress accomplishes less."

Winning was now more important to Republican members of Congress than country. People don't matter. Looking for common ground and mutually beneficial solutions was dead. Debate became an acid bath where adversaries were enemies.

Gingrich instituted shutdowns that curtailed health and welfare services for veterans, delayed Social Security checks for tens of thousands, and negatively impacted numerous sectors of the economy.

**Use of media for daily lies** :

Gingrich created a climate of destructive partisanship generating politically motivated ethics charges and lies. He caught, and kept, media attention with salacious accusations.

Democrats were constantly on the nightly news receiving withering personal attacks, no matter how outrageous or hypocritical. Gingrich accused the Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neil of putting "communist propaganda" in the Speaker's lobby and also accused O'Neil of McCarthyism. [From _Mein Kampf_ stay on the offense – truth doesn't matter.]

"If you're not in the Washington Post every day, you might as well not exist," Gingrich told Newsweek.

**Abandonment of human decency** :

Gingrich made winning, rather than good governance, the currency of success. He initiated the Republican practice of holding up disaster relief funds for political gain (Oklahoma City bombing).

EATEN BY THE TIGER

Holding disaster relief funds hostage (and then letting them go):

On August 25, 2011 while states from North Carolina to New York had already declared states of emergency from Hurricane Irene a spokesperson for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said that if there is any damage caused by the hurricane requiring federal disaster funding, the money would have to be balanced out by spending cuts elsewhere in government.

He later moderated this position and became the enemy of the right wing Tea (Taxed Enough Already) Party he had once embraced.

In 2014, Canter lost the Republican primary to a Tea Party endorsed candidate in what was to become the prototype for Republican primaries.

TRUMP AND THE REPUBLICANS RIDING THE TIGER

Through silent ratification the Republican Party = [Goldwater] the end justifies the means > OK to sidestep the Constitution and Bill of Rights in the defense of liberty or the pursuit of justice > [Nixon] the Constitution and Bill of Rights don't matter if you are President > abandonment of Party of Lincoln principles > racism > above the law > elected leader has absolute power > [Gingrich] obstructionism > adversaries are enemies > use of media for daily lies > stay on offense regardless of consequences to country > and abandonment of human decency.

Watch Congress vote and see for yourself if the above isn't true. Here is one example: based on a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, an estimated 43,956 people would die each year as a result of the 2017 Republican "Repeal and Replace" of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

The Republican Congress fought tooth and nail to pass a bill that knowingly would kill Americans with health problems. [Hitler cut healthcare costs by sending 250,000 people with disabilities to the gas chambers.]

The moral depravity of elected officials voting to kill 43,956 of their fellow countrymen - each year - is beyond comprehension; yet this is the new norm for the Republican Congress.

In tens years' time, the Republican plan would kill more Americans than died in World War Two.

**12-2-2017:** Gleeful Republicans at press conference after passing tax cut scam that pilfers the middle-class and poor. The bill also includes a provision gutting Obamacare.

#heartlessmonsters

Holocaust Victims (Auschwitz kill rate 43,956 every two weeks)

The 2017 Republican Christmas Gift is death to the tens of thousands who will lose medical care as a result of the Republican destruction of the Affordable Care Act.

12-22-2017

[Footnote: more than 80% of Obamacare enrollees live in states Trump won. It appears that Trump's hate and divisiveness radicalized his supporters enough so that they voted against their own best interests right into the tiger's mouth.]

Return to Table of Contents
Appendix C: Community

1950 - 2018

## The Decline of Community & the Rise of the Isolated Individual

**Over the past seven decades** , the United States has lost much of the social glue (reciprocity, honesty, and trust) that allowed communities to act efficiently.

We have become a nation of strangers spending our free time in activities that do not interact face-to-face with others (i.e. movies, reading, watching TV, spectator sports, etc.). Gone are the days of attendance at weekly meetings of service clubs, churches, bowling leagues, fraternal orders, sewing clubs, and book clubs. Family meals together are now in front of the TV or with handheld devises. Through electronic entertainment we can laugh at the same joke with millions of others but still feel lonely. For more on this read "Bowling Alone" by Robert Putnam.

**Community and the 2016 Presidential election** :

From Secretory Clinton's "Two Basket" speech, "I know there are only 60 days left to make our case -- and don't get complacent, don't see the latest outrageous, offensive, inappropriate comment and think, well, he's done this time. We are living in a volatile political environment. You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic -- you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people -- now 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks \-- they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America." [They are Americans but their conduct does not represent America. HRC apologized for this characterization, but true to _Mein Kampf_ principles, Trump has never apologized for his despicable behavior or that of his followers.]

"But the other basket -- and I know this because I see friends from all over America here -- I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas -- as well as, you know, New York and California -- but that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they're just desperate for change. It doesn't really even matter where it comes from. They don't buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won't wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they're in a dead-end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well." -HRC

**Trump (like Hitler) made a significant visceral connection with his followers**. He united and liberated these desperate people with divisiveness, hatred, racism, and religious blaming. In addition, he incited physical violence (against dissenters) and "lock her up" chants at his Hitleresque style rallies. In the 1950's this might have been considered isolated abhorrent behavior but with the decline of communities and the increase of the isolated individual we can no longer casually dismiss it.

These two baskets [(1) the deplorables and (2) people who feel government has let them down] need to be carefully examined. The first and second baskets differ in hundreds of ways not the least of which is the degree of "being let down by government" and "who to blame." The first basket is filled with phobias that can be exploited. Under Trump the deplorables are authorized to hate, blame, and (thanks to the NRA) carry military assault weapons.

**Gandhi said something to the effect of, "Inside every bully hides a coward**." This can be projected to, "Inside every homophobe is a person insecure about his, or her, sexual orientation." "Inside every xenophobe is a person insecure around foreigners" and so on.

Some insecurities are not justified. For example, if a homophobe recognizes that sexual orientation is genetically determined their insecurity most likely will decrease. You are born with it and you can't pray it away any more than you can pray to be two inches taller (or shorter) or have different colored eyes.

Other insecurities: In 1950 a worker could spend an entire career with one employer. Now a worker can expect seven or eight different jobs during his, or her, working life. Globalization is closing plants across the country. Big boxes have destroyed "Main Street" and with it the social fabric of communities. Rural areas are being impacted more than urban.

**Adding salt to the wound** : In Robert Putnam's book mentioned above, there is scientific evidence that a well-connected person in a well-connected society will be more productive than a person of equal training, education, talent, intelligence, and motivation who is weakly connected in a poorly connected society. This fact has been channeled into misplaced racism, divisiveness, and hate. At the other end, it has been used to instill undeserved entitlement.

The deplorables have good reason to be insecure. Unfortunately, Trump (following _Mein Kampf_ ) proclaimed himself the "mighty leader"... "a strong man arises"... and the only person with the ability to fix the country. At no point (to my knowledge) did Trump ever discuss the merits of an issue or give any details of his plans. His refrain was always: "it is easy" "it can be done quickly" and "I am the only person who can do it." Like Hitler, Trump replayed the lies so often that gullible people began to believe them. Hitler sold the same bill of goods when he was elected Chancellor of Germany in 1933.

The second basket (excluding the mega rich) contains practically the entire voting population of both parties. We now live in an oligarchy where wealthy donors (individuals, groups, or PACs) buy expensive political ads to convince the isolated voter to cast their ballot for the candidate that best represents the donor's interests. Gone are the days described in 1816 by Thomas Jefferson as a government of "counties divided into wards of such size that every citizen can attend, when called on, and act in person... making every citizen an acting member of the government."

People in this basket are empowered by calling their members of congress, writing letters to the editor, running for office, belonging to a political party and attending face-to-face meetings, manning GOTV phone banks, and voting. Or, like sixty-five to seventy percent of those eligible to vote, they complain to spouses and friends, then register their disappointment by staying home on Election Day.

Trump should never have made it through the Presidential primaries, but tapping into the residual anger and impotence of voters he blew qualified Republican contenders off the stage with lies and schoolyard mockery. He was probably the least qualified person in modern history to receive the nomination from a major party.

As a general election candidate, he amplified his connection to primeval hate and (with the help of an unprecedented last minute game-changing announcement from the FBI Director that refocused the electorate's attention, and interference from Russia) was able the win the Electoral College vote while losing the popular vote by millions. [Trump won the Electoral College by 77,744 votes in three crucial states (Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania), and lost the popular vote to Secretary Clinton by 2.9 million (this does not factor in the additional 8 million votes cast for the Libertarian Party and the Green Party).]

**The Republicans under Trump (and others) have chosen** _Mein Kampf_ **to empower the disenfranchised and win elections**. If 2016 taught us anything, it is that (with the decline of communities and the rise of the isolated individual) facts are not enough. Democrats and Progressives must incorporate facts into strategies and messages that viscerally resonate with the people. Without intense passion, facts and qualified candidates will no longer win. Oprah Winfrey's awkward endorsement of Hillary Clinton, "You don't have to like her" might as well have been a kiss of death.

**In a nutshell** :

With the decline of social and political civility, good ideas and tepid enthusiasm are no electoral match for the power and focus of hate.

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