Evening star., 1955-02-10

tured at the Universities of MoscotD,
the Sorbonne and Heidelberg, where
he obtained a doctorGte of laiDs. He
1Das ouer-secretary of the Russian
Senate during the czarist regime and
MAS tDritten 1teiD book, with Three
TSars on the Path to Repolution.")
DOINTING to China on map spread
Il before him, Napoleon once ex-
claimed, Here sleeps a giant. Watch
out and don't rouse him from his sleep;
wake him UP and he will upset the
whole world"
The Eastern giant is now awake and
not likely to fall asleep again. Witness
how China's representative, Chou En-
lai, entered the international arena in
Geneva, holding under his arm Karl
Marks "Das Kapital." Moscow edition.
His black eyes staring into the face Of
Western civilization. he spoke with con-
fidence, fully cogniZant of his strength.
How did it happen that hitherto in
vineible China, with her 600 million
population, found herself behind the
Iron Curtain without Moscow firing
shot?
The answer, of course. is a relatively
new weapon.
Without severing diplomatic relations
with any nation, the Kremlin effec-
lively uses this new weapon, enabling
it to carry on continuous cold war
which may be intensified as a result Of
the political shuttle in Moscow.
This weapon is not the atom or hy-
drogen bomb or bacteria. No less
potent and dangerous as threat to
Western civilization, it is a psychology
ical bomb called propaganda" In the
arsenal of Soviet weapons it rates first
place and it's effectiveness has been
demonstrated to the entire world. 1t
has permitted the Soviet to swallow
nation after nation, capitalizing on the
inaction of the Western world which,
convinced of the righteousness of its
way of life, has not grasped the dire
significance of the theological war and
has not devised proper methods and
ways to conduct such warfare.
Propaganda is not mere information.
It is in fact planned, organized, all
out effort to spread particular doc
trine, all information subtly distorted to
favor the promulgated idea. 1t Is a.
complicated psychological subconscious
complex, and science in itself. Its
name is ''psychogagy"-the art of gov
erning the collective minds Of peoples.
1t is a science having it's own nomen-
clature, axioms and history. The
philippics-those inf1ammatory speeches
of DemoSthenes against Philip of
Macedonia and the speeches of Cato
against Carthage-Were' also propa-
ganda.
The expansion of the printed word
greatly disturbed Napoleon, who once
exclaimed Indignantly. ""One newspaper
article in Paris can do me more harm
than an entire enemy army corps!"
Only in our time has the "cold war"
attained it's full elimination. Three
factors chiefly contribute to this condi-
tion-the Topographic, technical and
psychological.
The masses have emerged on the
stage of history, and their role. fire.
quently mechanical, becomes more and
more important. Our epoch is the era
of the masses. and nations can now be
ruled only by relying on the masses.
Propaganda accomplishes this
New technical achievements have
given propaganda unlimited opportuni-
ties. The gigantic expansion of the
printed word due to progress in printing
technique, fast transportation. the tele-
graph, telephone, radio, television, etc.,
have all contributed to the tremendous
influence of propaganda.
In the past, Propaganda reached but
Evrnif fnI of r%,S1ait itA
meetings were small, newspapers print
ed few copies. Today the spoken word
reaches hundreds of millions all over
the world, including the jungles and
Arctic wastes.
Contemporary mans psych ology
makes him extremely susceptible to
propaganda. No longer does he feel a
speechless subject, but a citizen pos
sessing the right to have his voice
heard-a voice that must be needed
by his ruler.
UrbaniZation - ever-increaSing mi
grafton to cities, the great industrial
centers; estrangement from the old
patriarchal form of life, deviation from
religion. all contribute to making the
individual less secure. This, with fear
of the future, unemployment, the spec
ter of total war, produces anxiety and
compels man to seek guidance. and to
become increasingly susceptible to the
influence of propaganda.
These factors all contribute to the
development Of what Mussolini once
called, "A herd of the newest type"
Propaganda operates on the theory
that the man in the street cannot form
his own opinion: he is a conformist
subject to organization, standardized
ton and propaganda. his thinking
shaped from information he obtains
from his surroundings-the press, the
radio. television. what he hears from
his relatives and friends. This tend
ency to think with ones group, i.e.,
the "typicality,' is characteristic of the
herd-spirit psychology of the masses
of our time.
Target No. / of Communist propa-
gandists is this group of human
masses and the arrows of propaganda