Barry Clifford: Power And It's Consequence

The following contributors to this imaginary meeting below are as follows and identified from their single initial:

G is Joseph Goebbels                           1897 to 1945

S is Stalin                                             1878 to 1953

H is Adolf Hitler                                    1889 to 1945

P is Plato                                           427 BC to 337 BC

A is John Adams                                    1735 to 1826

L is Abraham Lincoln                             1809 to 1865

C is Cicero                                         106 BC to 43 BC

What I hope to illustrate is that nothing changes from history that is not already here in the present. Only awareness of history can help to effect real change. There is no one in this discussion and meeting of minds that I feel you could not identify or know today in some other body politic and that is now living in the spirit of these men's deeds of the past whether good or bad. It may surprise more than a few of who they actually were.

(Using their own actual spoken words)

G:  “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

S: “Of course those who cast the votes decide nothing and only those that count the votes will decide everything.”

H: How fortunate for us that men do not think, and it also gives me a very special pleasure to see how unaware the people around us are of what is happening to them.

P: “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”

Great outburst of laughter, when it dies down H begin to speak again: “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”

An interruption comes from the back and a clear voice emerges:

A: “If ever a time should come, when vain, corrupt and aspiring men such as you shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.

H: continues as if no one is there. “All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.”

G: Murmurs his approval and says: “Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play. Not every item of news should be published. Rather must those who control news policies endeavor to make every item of news serve a certain purpose. It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion.”

L: Who is in the back of the rooms roars in indignation, “I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country; corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in High Places will follow, and the Money Power of the Country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the People, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.”

Another man joins him in common chorus and support:

C: “Men may decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, fear, illusion, or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent or statue.”

A loud applause…………..

Barry Clifford