What form of government can be given to societies in which bribery has
penetrated everywhere, where riches are obtained only by clever tricks
and semi-fraudulent means, where corruption reigns, where morality is
sustained by punitive measures and strict laws and not by voluntary
acceptance of moral principles, where cosmopolitan convictions have
eliminated patriotic feelings and religion? What form of government
can be given to such societies other than a despotism such as I shall
describe?
We will create a strong centralized government, so as to gather the
social forces into our power. We will mechanically regulate all the
functions of political life of our subjects by new laws. These laws will
gradually eliminate all the concessions and liberties permitted by the
GOYS. Our kingdom will be crowned by such a majestic despotism that it
will be able, at all times and in all places, to crush both antagonistic
and discontented GOYS.
We may be told that the despotism outlined by me is inconsistent with
modern progress, but I will prove to you that the contrary is the case.
At the time when people considered rulers as an incarnation of the will
of God, they subjected themselves without murmur to the autocracy of the
sovereigns; but as soon as we inspired them with the thought of their
personal rights, they began to regard the rulers as ordinary mortals. The
holy anointment fell from the heads of sovereigns in the opinion of the
people; and when we deprived them of their belief in God, then authority
was thrown into the street, where it became public property and was
seized by us. Moreover, the art of governing the masses and individuals
by means of cunningly constructed theories and phraseology, by rulers
of social life, and other devices not understood by the GOYS, belongs,
among other faculties, to our administrative mind, which is educated in
analysis and observation, and is also based upon skillful reasoning in
which we have no competitors, just as we have none in the preparation
of plans for political action and solidarity. Only the Jesuits could be
compared to us in this; but we were able to discredit them in the mind of
the senseless mob as a visible organization, whereas we, with our secret
organization, remained in the dark. After all, is it not the same to the
world who will be its master—whether it be the head of Catholicism or our
despot of Zionist blood? To us, however, the Chosen People, it is by no
means a matter of indifference.
Temporarily, a world coalition of the GOYS would be able to hold us in
check, but we are insured against this by roots of dissension so deep
among them that they cannot now be extracted. We have set at variance
the personal and national interests of the GOYS; we have incited
religious and race hatred, nurtured by us in their hearts for twenty
centuries. Owing to all this, no state will obtain the help it asks for
from any side because each of them will think that a coalition against
us will be disadvantageous to it. We are too powerful—_we must be taken
into consideration. No country can reach even an insignificant private
understanding without our being secret parties to it._
_Per me reges regnant_—“Through me the sovereigns reign.” The prophets
have told us that we were chosen by God himself to reign over the world.
God endowed us with genius to enable us to cope with the problem. Were
there a genius in the opposing camp, he would struggle against us, but
a newcomer is not equal to an old inhabitant. The struggle between us
would be of such a merciless nature as the world has never seen before;
moreover their genius would be too late.
All the wheels of government mechanism move by the action of the motor
which is in our hands, and _that motor is gold_. The science of political
economy, invented by our wise men, has long ago demonstrated the royal
prestige of capital.
To attain freedom of action, capital must obtain freedom to monopolize
industry and trade; this is already being done by an unseen hand in all
parts of the world. Such liberty will give political power to traders,
and will aid in subjugating the people. At present it is more important
to disarm peoples than to lead them to war; it is more important to
utilize flaming passions for our purposes than to extinguish them; more
important to grasp and interpret the thoughts of others in our own way
than to discard them.
_The most important problem of our government is to weaken the popular
mind by criticism; to disaccustom it to thought, which creates
opposition; to deflect the power of thought into mere empty eloquence._
At all times both peoples and individuals have mistaken words for deeds,
as they are satisfied with the visible, rarely noticing whether the
promise is performed in the fields of social life.
Therefore, we will organize ostensible institutions which will prove
eloquently their good work in the direction of “progress.”
We will appropriate to ourselves the liberal aspect of all parties, of
all shades of opinion, and we will provide our _orators with the same
aspect, and they will talk so much that they will exhaust the people by
their speeches and cause them to turn away from orators in disgust_.
_To control public opinion it is necessary to perplex it by the
expression of numerous contradictory opinions until the GOYS get lost in
the labyrinth, and come to understand that it is best to have no opinion
on political questions._
Such questions are not intended to be understood by the people, since
only he who rules knows them. This is the first secret.
The second secret necessary for the success of governing consists in
so multiplying popular failings, habits, passions, and conventional
laws that no one will be able to disentangle himself in the chaos, and
consequently, people will cease to understand each other. This measure
would help us to sow dissension within all parties, to disintegrate all
those collective forces which still do not wish to subjugate themselves
to us; to discourage all individual initiative which might in any degree
hamper our work.
_There is nothing more dangerous than individual initiative_; if it has
a touch of genius it can accomplish more than a million people among
whom we have sown dissensions. We must direct the education of the GOY
societies so that their arms will drop hopelessly when they face every
task where initiative is required. The intensity of action resulting from
individual freedom of action dissipates its force when it encounters
another person’s freedom. This results in heavy blows at morale,
disappointments and failures.
_We will so tire the GOYS by all this that we will force them to offer us
an international power, which by its position will enable us conveniently
to absorb, without destroying, all governmental forces of the world and
thus to form a super-government._ In lieu of modern rulers, we will place
a monster which will be called the Super-Governmental Administration. Its
hands will be stretched out like pincers in every direction so that this
colossal organization cannot fail to conquer all the peoples.