"...voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
He was wrong about just about everything else, but in this one statement I fear he may have told the truth.
Some may find the comment which precedes this interesting as well:
Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.
Alas, the conflict setting the context for these comments was the last time the US Congress declared war (WWII). Fearful of the political consequences of taking responsibility of such actions, Congress has consented to letting subsequent Presidents (including our current administrator) initiate ill-defined actions. We, the people, no longer have a say in the matter as our elected representatives will not take a stand one way or another; they will chatter at great length, but will not declare a beginning nor end to hostilities.
ETA: emphasis is "declare war". Consent to fund POTUS-initiated actions is missing the point.
Except the military action in Iraq was authorized by Congress by H.J. Res. 114, March 3, 2003. Congress also controls the funding though they have been slack to use that power.
>Congress also controls the funding though they have been slack to use that power.
I think that brings us full circle:
"...and denounce the pacifists [or legislators who might defund unpopular military actions] for lack of patriotism [being 'weak on defense'] and exposing the country to danger."
It is all too easy to pretend that people have no say in the actions of their commonwealth, and much too difficult to believe that patriotism, pacifism, idealism, and conservatism each have something important to say.
The quote is fine as long as you don't take as an absolute statement of the only way things can be. It is a fact that the outlined strategy is almost always effective.
Thanks, that's what I meant by including it this discussion.
Personally, I would hope we could raise the general level of skepticism and equip ourselves with a Sagan-like "Baloney Detection Kit" so that everyone is aware of this technique for motivating populations towards conflict and that this hopefully makes us all more immune to it.
"...voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
He was wrong about just about everything else, but in this one statement I fear he may have told the truth.