- "I myself was to experience how easily one is taken
in by a lying and censored press and radio in a totalitarian state. Though
unlike most [Americans] I had daily access to foreign newspapers, especially
those of London, Paris and Zurich, which arrived the day after publication,
and though I listened regularly to the BBC and other foreign broadcasts
. . .
-
- It was surprising and sometimes consternating to find
that notwithstanding the opportunities I had to learn the facts and despite
one's inherent distrust of what one learned from [government] sources,
a steady diet over the years of falsifications and distortions made a certain
impression on one's mind and often mislead it. No one who has not lived
for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive how difficult it
is to escape the dread consequences of a regime's calculated and incessant
propaganda. Often in a [ ] home or office or sometimes in a casual conversation
with a stranger in a restaurant, a beer hall, a cafe, I would meet with
the most outlandish assertions from seemingly educated and intelligent
persons. It was obvious that they were parroting some piece of nonsense
they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers. Sometimes one was
tempted to say as much, but on such occasions one was met with such a state
of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty,
that one realized how useless it was then to try to make contact with a
mind which had become warped and for whom the facts of life had become
what [Bush sources], with their cynical disregard for truth, said they
were."
-
- I feel the lengthy paragraph above clearly articulates
life in present-day America for a thinking, aware and concerned person.
This was written many years ago by William L. Shirer and printed in his
monumental work, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" (New
York: Simon & Schuster, 1960) pp. 247-248. I only changed it in four
places. To restore the original, simple insert Germans for [Americans],
Nazi for [government], German for [ ] and Hitler and (Nazi Propaganda Minister
Dr.) Goebbels for [Bush sources]. Isn't it amazing how history repeats
itself?
-
- Jim Marrs
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