Falsehood is a recognized and extremely useful weapon in warfare, and every country uses it quite deliberately to deceive its own people, to attract neutrals, and mislead the enemy. The ignorant and innocent masses in each country are unaware at the time that they are being misled, and when it is all over only here and there are the falsehoods discovered and exposed… [T]he authorities in each country do, and indeed must, resort to this practice and in order, first, to justify themselves by depicting the enemy as an undiluted criminal; and secondly to inflame popular passion sufficiently to secure recruits for the continuance of the struggle… People must never be allowed to become despondent; so victories must be exaggerated and defeats, if not concealed, at any rate minimized, and the stimulus of indignation, horror, and hatred must be assiduously and continuously pumped into the public mind by means of “propaganda”… The Public can be worked up emotionally by sham ideals. A sort of collective hysteria spreads and rises until finally it gets the better of sober people and reputable newspapers.
– Arthur Ponsonby, Falsehood in War-time (1928, Unwin Brothers Ltd.), pp. 13–14.
Watch on Odysee
Watch on BitChute
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
