War Propaganda
or the blasé—not by the former because the expression and form of what was said would soon have drawing-power only for literary tea-parties, instead of being suited to the masses; the latter we must anxiously shun because their own lack of emotional freshness is constantly seeking new stimulants. These people are soon fed up with anything; they want variety, and they cannot put themselves in the place of their less surfeited fellow-men, or even understand their needs. They are always the first to criticize propaganda, or rather its substance, which seems to them too old-fashioned, too stale, and then again too outworn. They are always looking for something new, seeking variety, and thus are the death of any effective political mass recruiting. For as soon as organization and substance of any propaganda begin to be made for these people’s needs, they lose any sort of unity, and instead are altogether dissipated.
The purpose of propaganda is not to be a constant source of interesting diversion for blasé little gentlemen, but to convince, and to convince the masses. But they are so slow-moving that it is always some time before they are ready even to take notice of a thing, and only thousandfold repetition of the simplest ideas will finally stick in their minds.
Any variations employed must never change the substance of the propaganda, but must always say the same thing in conclusion. The slogan, that is, must be illuminated from various angles, but every discussion must end again with the slogan itself. Only thus can and will propaganda produce a unified and concentrated effect.
Only this sweeping line, which must never he abandoned, will (with steady and consistent emphasis) pave the way to final success. It is astonishing then to discover the enormous, scarcely comprehensible results which such perserverance leads to.
All advertising, whether in business or politics, succeeds by the steady and long-continued consistency with which it is employed.
Here too the enemy war propaganda was a model of its kind: it was restricted to a few points, calculated exclusively for the masses, continued with tireless perseverance. Those basic ideas
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