THE SCHOOL FOR DICTATORS
29
their importance, but both are only secondary. The really important
thing is the victim's state of mind. In the last analysis all suggestion
is auto-suggestion. .That is the answer to those who, having studied
the Nazi and Fascist leaders at close quarters and discovered their
intellectual and moral limitations, are unable to understand how such
mediocrities could create such powerful mass movements.
It
was not
they who created the movements; in reality it was they who reaped
the benefit of them. The secret of Fascism and National Socialism must
be sought in the first place in the mental state to which the Italian and
German masses were reduced as a consequence of the war, the
economic crisis, and the failure of the Socialist parties. A Nazi propa–
gandist, Dietrich, unknowingly admitted as much when he wrote:
"One experience we had. Trust in the Fuhrer grew strongest, and
gripped the whole people, in those parts of Germany where economic
and moral distress was greatest and seemed most intolerable."
MR.
w.
Please let us not forget the practical object of our conversations.
What consequences do you draw for me from all this, Mr. Cynic?
That is what interests me.
THOMAS THE CYNIC
The most important consequence for you, Mr. W., is
this.
Do
not fall into the
sin
of pride. Do not beheve that it is the function of a
Fascist leader to create Fascism out of nothing. Rather place your
trust
in the impotence of the old parties to overcome the crisis of civ–
ilization which mankind seems to have entered upon. Do not forget
that in all probability we are barely at the beginning of a long series
of wars, revolutions, counter-revolutions, and economic disasters.
Therefore do not be in a hurry. Put your trust in
m~ind's
possible
return to barbarism, and do not be discouraged. Even without a great
historical tradition behind them, the masses can easily return to bar–
ibarism with the potent aid of war and famine. Heaven forbid that I
ould cast doubts on the wisdom of Professor Pickup and your other
lleagues, Mr. W., but when it comes to really stupefying the masses,
"thout the decisive intervention of wholesale massacres and pro–
onged distress, the efforts of the best propagandists will be as inef–
fectual as the buzzing of a lot of flies. Please do not be shocked
if
I call
· gs
by their right names. For the sake of clarity I speak with the ut–
ost
frankness. It is now an established fact that as as consequence of
ternational and civil wars, and prolonged unemployment a wave, an
pidemic, of psychological dissociation occurs, a process by which an
er-increasing number of individuals cease to function normally. A
adually· atrophy of their higher mental qualities takes place and at
e same time a gradual hypertrophy of their lower mental faculties,
