Is it me, or do these quotes seem more relevant than ever?

Question

“The broad mass of the nation … will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.” - Adolf Hitler (could have just as easily been Bush that said it though)

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” — Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels (is it that hard to imagine Karl Rove saying this behind closed doors?)

“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 tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Göring (or was it Vice-president Cheney??)

Is it just me or are these quotes all startlingly relevant today?

Answer 1

It's just you.

Answer 2

They have been relevant for along time. Ever sence the gov has had the ability to run secret programs it has had the need to lie and the more secretive the gov becomes the bigger lies they need to tell. The people are being watched because of terrorism while the leaders are held totaly unaccountable.

Answer 3

these are always relevant, but attributing them to American citizens is a deliberate travesty. Tell me, would you be able to make these same remarks about the leaders of say Iran if you lived in Iran? Me thinks not, not without some serious discussions with those in power.

Answer 4

You really need to learn something about the Nazis. If Bush really was like Hitler, you'd be dragged off and shot for posting this.

Another fine product of our liberal educational system.

Answer 5

Sounds like Bill Clinton's mantra, except he wasn't praying, he was preying on ignorant minds. He kept telling big lies about guns, which the lib media reinforced with constant repetition. It worked on the less intelligent among us. Like you for instance.

Answer 6

Your history and knowledge of Nazi quotes is very impressive.

Answer 7

Great stuff - wish Larry King would ask Condi Rice this question.

Answer 8

Wow! I'm no Star trekey,but you've got me starting to believe in adjacent dimensions...Spooky...

Answer 9

This country and its government are not nazi-germany, but, you're right. "Grab 'em by the b**ls and their hearts and minds will follow."

Answer 10

do these seem to be relevant today?

"... the United States, united as never before, have drawn the sword for freedom and cast away the scabbard."

-Speech, 26th December, 1941

"Not so easily shall the lights of freedom die".

-Broadcast to the US, 16th June, 1941

- "Never in the field of human conflict is so much owed by so many to so few..."

- a deliberate alteration of Churchill's famous 1940 phrase, referring to the work of the Global Coalition against Terrorism, suggested by a visitor to this site.

"Silly people -- and there were many, not only in enemy countries -- might discount the force of the United States. Some said they were soft, others that they would never be united. They would fool around at a distance. They would never come to grips. They would never stand blood-letting. Their democracy and system of recurrent elections would paralyze their war effort. They would be just a vague blur on the horizon to friend or foe. Now we should see the weakness of this numerous but remote, wealthy, and talkative people. But I had studied the American Civil War, fought to the last desperate inch. American blood flowed in my veins. I thought of a remark which Edward Grey had made to me more than thirty years before -- that the United States is like "a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lighted under it there is no limit to the power it can generate". Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful."

-"The Second World War", Volume 3, "The Grand Alliance"

"To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day"

- Unknown to me, taken from the 10 Downing Street Website

"We shall have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will. You do your worst--and we will do our best. Perhaps it will be our turn soon. Perhaps it will be our turn now."

- Speech, 14th July 1941. See "The Unrelenting Struggle"

"behind them lay a shattered fleet hidden in a pall of fire and smoke; and the vengeance of the United States".

- On Pearl Harbour (possibly from "The Second World War"

"I do not grudge our loyal, brave people, who were ready to do their duty no matter what the cost, who never flinched under the strain of last week...but they should know the truth. They should know that there has been gross neglect and deficiency in our defences; they should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road; they should know that we have passed an awful milestone in our history...and that terrible words have for the time being been pronounced against the Western democracies: 'Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting.' And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup, which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom, as in the olden time."

- Speech on Munich, 5th October 1938

"We shall hear in succeeding generations a lot of talk about the pacific virtues we displayed; how we exhausted every expedient; how we flaunted a magnificent patience; how we never lost our heads or were carried away by fear or excitement; how we turned the second cheek to the smiter seven times or more."

- written by Churchill in 1946 or 1947 for Vol 1 of his war memoirs, but not included. Find in Gilbert Companion Vol 5 Part III

"Some historians will urge that admiration should be given to a Government of honourable high-minded men who bore provocation with exemplary forbearance and piled up to their credit all the Christian virtues, especially those which command electioneering popularity; but who when their patience was at length worn out by repeated injury and peril turned upon their agressor with their backs to the wall."

- written by Churchill in 1946 or 1947 for Vol 1 of his war memoirs, but not included. Find in Gilbert Companion Vol 5 Part III

"I hope it will also be written how hard all this was upon the ordinary common folk who fill the casuality lists of world wars. Under representative Government and Parliamentary institutions, they confide their safety to the Ministers and the Prime Minister of the day. They have just cause of complaint if their guides or rulers so mismanage their affairs that in the end they are thrust into the worst of wars with the worst of chances."

- written by Churchill in 1946 or 1947 for Vol 1 of his war memoirs, but not included. Find in Gilbert Companion Vol 5 Part III

"This wicked man, the repository and embodiment of many forms of soul-destroying hatred, this monstrous product of former wrongs and shame, has now resolved to try to break our famous Island race by a process of indiscriminate slaughter and destruction. What he has done is to kindle a fire in British hearts, here and all over the world, which will glow long after all traces of the conflagration he has caused in London have been removed. He has lighted a fire which will burn with a steady and consuming flame until the last vestiges of Nazi tyranny have been burnt out of Europe, until the Old World - and the New - can join hands to rebuild the temples of man's freedom and man's honour, upon foundations which will not soon or easily be overthrown."

- Speech, 11th September, 1940

"Let us learn our lessons. Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that, once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events."

- Unknown to me

" Twice in a single generation the catastrophe of world war has fallen upon us; twice in our lifetime has the long arm of Fate reached across the ocean to bring the United States into the forefront of the battle. If we had kept together after the last war, if we had taken common measures for our safety, this renewal of the curse need never have fallen upon us. Do we not owe it to ourselves, to our children, to mankind tormented, to make sure that these catastrophes shall not engulf us for the third time? It has been proved that pestilences may break out in the Old World which carry their destructive ravages into the New World, from which, once they are afoot, the New World cannot by any means escape. Duty and prudence alike command, first, that the germ-centres of hatred and revenge should be constantly and vigilantly surveyed and treated in good time, and, secondly, that an adequate organisation should be set up to make sure that the pestilence can be controlled at its earliest beginnings before it spreads and rages throughout the entire earth."

- speech to a Joint Session of Congress, Washington, 26th December, 1941

"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. It is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

(has been applied in the British media to the fall of the Taliban) - Speech, 1942.

"I refuse to remain impartial between the fire brigade and the fire"

- comment made during the General Strike of 1926, and whilst a good quote, has led to much misunderstanding of WSC's motives during this episode.

Answer 11

I"m afraid it's just you.