Lies being taught;
Mein Kampf is unintelligible ravings of a
maniac.
Now the Truth; Read and know.
Volume 2 CHAPTER XI PROPAGANDA AND
ORGANIZATION
Part 1 – PROPAGANDA
The year 1921 was specially important for me
from many points of view.
When I entered the German Labour Party I at
once took charge of the propaganda, believing this branch to be far the most
important for the time being. Just then it was not a matter of pressing
necessity to cudgel one's brains over problems of organization. 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. I have never been in favour of hasty and pedantic
methods of organization, because in most cases the result is merely a piece of
dead mechanism and only rarely a living organization. Organization is a thing
that derives its existence from organic life, organic evolution. When the same
set of ideas have found a lodgement in the minds of a certain number of people
they tend of themselves to form a certain degree of order among those people
and out of this inner formation something that is very valuable arises. 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 centre. 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 and putting that ability to the test. 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.
But it is still more rare to find a great
theorist who is at the same time a great leader. For the latter must be more of
an agitator, a truth that will not be readily accepted by many of those who
deal with problems only from the scientific standpoint. And yet what I say is
only natural. For an agitator who shows himself capable of expounding ideas to
the great masses must always be a psychologist, even though he may be only a
demagogue. Therefore he will always be a much more capable leader than the
contemplative theorist who meditates on his ideas, far from the human throng
and the world. For to be a leader means to be able to move the masses. The gift
of formulating ideas has nothing whatsoever to do with the capacity for
leadership. It would be entirely futile to discuss the question as to which is
the more important: the faculty of conceiving ideals and human aims or that of
being able to have them put into practice. Here, as so often happens in life,
the one would be entirely meaningless without the other. The noblest
conceptions of the human understanding remain without purpose or value if the
leader cannot move the masses towards them. And, conversely, what would it
avail to have all the genius and elan of a leader if the intellectual theorist
does not fix the aims for which mankind must struggle. But 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Propaganda and organization, therefore follower and member, then stand towards
one another in a definite mutual relationship. The better the propaganda has
worked, the smaller will the organization be. The greater the number of
followers, so much the smaller can be the number of members. And conversely. If
the propaganda be bad, the organization must be large. And if there be only a
small number of followers, the membership must be all the larger--if the
movement really counts on being successful.
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.
A revolutionary conception of the world and human
existence will always achieve decisive success when the new WELTANSCHAUUNG 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-centres of the coming State.
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 endeavour 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.
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 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 of
members, which increase their size beyond certain dimensions gradually lose
their fighting force and are no longer in form to back up the propagation of a
doctrine with aggressive elan 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 on the part of the membership body, guaranteed by the process of
natural selection, that we are to seek the prerequisite conditions for the
continuation of an active and spirited propaganda and also 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; but these will try to be accepted as members the moment the party achieves
a manifest success in the course of its development.
It is on these grounds that we are to explain
why so many movements which were at first successful slowed down before
reaching the fulfilment 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, no longer struggled for the triumph of the original idea.
The fire of the first fervour died out, the fighting spirit flagged and, as the
bourgeois world is accustomed to say very justly in such cases, the party mixed
water with its wine.
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 thus 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 which aims at securing general
recognition for the movement. 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.
With those elements that originally made the
movement, the organization should occupy all the important positions that have
been conquered and from those elements the whole directorate should be formed.
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. But this usually happens through
a process of mutual rivalry, for here it is less a question of human
intelligence than of the play and effect of the forces whose development may
indeed be foreseen from the start but not perpetually controlled.
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.
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 on the fact.
Many thousands of persons then 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 to-day 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.
Up to the middle of 1921 this simple activity
of gathering in followers was sufficient and was of value to the movement. But
in the summer of that year certain events happened which made it seem opportune
for us to bring our organization into line with the manifest successes which
the propaganda had achieved.
An attempt made by a group of patriotic
visionaries, supported by the chairman of the party at that time, to take over
the direction of the party led to the break up of this little intrigue and, by
a unanimous vote at a general meeting, entrusted the entire direction of the
party to my own hands. At the same time a new statute was passed which invested
sole responsibility in the chairman of the movement, abolished the system of
resolutions in committee and in its stead introduced the principle of division
of labour which since that time has worked excellently…
Adolf Hitler
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