Two Quotations and a Comment
"Why of course the people don’t want war: Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don’t want war….But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship…voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are about to be attacked (and) denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
---Herman Goering, at the Nuremberg trials, 1946
Quoted in the Hightower Lowdown for May, 2003
"There is more than one kind of freedom…freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it."
--- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
What worked then, works now. And we should never underestimate the American people’s willingness to swap freedom to for freedom from.
