Part 10 (1/2)
Again, it must be said that the originators and directors here referred to cannot be at present any ruling caste, for all that the program contemplates is directly opposed to the interests of such a caste. It cannot refer to any national aristocratic group, like the Junkers of Germany, for the methods which are proposed are the very ones which would render powerless such a group. It cannot refer to any but a people who have no government, who have everything to gain and nothing to lose, and who can keep themselves intact amid a crumbling world. There is only one group that answers that description.
Again, a reading of the Protocols makes it clear that the speaker himself was not seeking for honor. There is a complete absence of personal ambition throughout the doc.u.ment. All plans and purposes and expectations are merged in the future of Israel, which future, it would seem, can only be secured by the subtle breaking down of certain world ideas held by the Gentiles. The Protocols speak of what has been done, what was being done at the time these words were given, and what remained to be done. Nothing like them in completeness of detail, in breadth of plan and in deep grasp of the hidden springs of human action has ever been known. They are verily terrible in their mastery of the secrets of life, equally terrible in their consciousness of that mastery. Truly they would merit the opinion which Jews have recently cast upon them, that they were the work of an inspired madman, were it not that what is written in the Protocols in words is also written upon the life of today in deeds and tendencies.
The criticisms which these Protocols pa.s.s upon the Gentiles for their stupidity are just. It is impossible to disagree with a single item in the Protocols' description of Gentile mentality and veniality. Even the most astute of the Gentile thinkers have been fooled into receiving as the motions of progress what has only been insinuated into the common human mind by the most insidious systems of propaganda.
It is true that here and there a thinker has arisen to say that science so-called was not science at all. It is true that here and there a thinker has arisen to say that the so-called economic laws both of conservatives and radicals were not laws at all, but artificial inventions. It is true that occasionally a keen observer has a.s.serted that the recent debauch of luxury and extravagance was not due to the natural impulses of the people at all, but was systematically stimulated, foisted upon them by design. It is true that a few have discerned that more than half of what pa.s.ses for ”public opinion” is mere hired applause and booing and has never impressed the public mind.
But even with these clues here and there, for the most part disregarded, there has never been enough continuity and collaboration between those who were awake, to follow all the clues to their source. The chief explanation of the hold which the Protocols have had on many of the leading statesmen of the world for several decades is that they explain whence all these false influences come and what their purpose is. They give a clue to the modern maze. It is now time for the people to know.
And whether the Protocols are judged as proving anything concerning the Jews or not, they const.i.tute an education in the way the ma.s.ses are turned about like sheep by influences which they do not understand. It is almost certain that once the principles of the Protocols are known widely and understood by the people, the criticism which they now rightly make of the Gentile mind will no longer hold good.
It is the purpose of future articles in this series to study these doc.u.ments and to answer out of their contents all the questions that may arise concerning them.
Before that work is begun, one question should be answered--”Is there likelihood of the program of the Protocols being carried through to success?” The program is successful already. In many of its most important phases it is already a reality. But this need not cause alarm, for the chief weapon to be used against such a program, both in its completed and uncompleted parts, is clear publicity. Let the people know. Arousing the people, alarming the people, appealing to the pa.s.sions of the people is the method of the plan outlined in the Protocols. The antidote is merely enlightening the people.
That is the only purpose of these articles. Enlightenment dispels prejudice. It is as desirable to dispel the prejudice of the Jew as of the Gentile. Jewish writers too frequently a.s.sume that the prejudice is all on one side. The Protocols themselves ought to have the widest circulation among the Jewish people, in order that they may check those things which are bringing suspicion upon their name.
[Issue of July 24, 1920.]
XI.
”Jewish” Estimate of Gentile Human Nature
”Upon completing this program of our present and future actions, I will read to you the principles of these theories.”--Protocol 16.
”In all that I have discussed with you hitherto, I have endeavored to indicate carefully the secrets of past and future events and of those momentous occurrences of the near future toward which we are rus.h.i.+ng in a stream of great crises, antic.i.p.ating the hidden principles of future relations.h.i.+ps with the Gentiles and of our financial operations.”--Protocol 22.
The Protocols, which profess themselves to be an outline of the Jewish World Program, are found upon a.n.a.lysis to contain four main divisions.
These, however, are not marked in the structure of the doc.u.ments, but in the thought. There is a fifth, if the object of it all is included, but this object is a.s.sumed throughout the Protocols, being only here and there defined in terms. And the four main divisions are great trunks from which there are numerous branches.
There is first what is alleged to be the Jewish conception of human nature, by which is meant Gentile nature. It is inconceivable that such a plan as that which the Protocols set forth could have been evolved by a mind that had not previously based the probability of success on a certain estimate of the ign.o.bility and corruptibility of human nature--which all through the Protocols is referred to as Gentile nature.
Then, secondly, there is the account of what has already been accomplished in the realization of the program--things actually done.
Thirdly, there is a complete instruction in the methods to be used to get the program still further fulfilled--methods which would themselves supply the estimate of human nature upon which the whole fabric is based, if there were nothing else to indicate it.
Fourth, the Protocols contain in detail some of the achievements which, at the time these words were uttered, were yet to be made. Some of these desired things have been achieved in the meantime, for it should be borne in mind that between the year 1905 and the year 1920 there has been time to set many influences in motion and attain many ends. As the second quotation at the head of this article would indicate, the speaker knew that events were ”rus.h.i.+ng in a stream of great crises,” a knowledge which is amply attested by Jewish sources outside the Protocols.
If this series of articles represented a special pleading upon the Jewish Question, the present article would seek to win the reader's confidence by presenting first the set of facts which are described under ”secondly” in the above list of main divisions. To begin with the estimate of human nature here disclosed is to court alienation of the reader's interest, especially if the reader be a Gentile. We know from abundant sources what the Jewish estimate of human nature is, and it tallies in all respects with what is disclosed in the Protocols, but it has always been one of the fallacies of Gentile thought that human nature is, now, full of dignity and n.o.bility. There is little question, when the subject is considered in all its lights, that the Jewish conception is right. And so far as these Protocols are concerned, their low estimate of mankind, though harsh to human pride and conceit, are very largely true.
Just to run through the Protocols and select the salient pa.s.sages in which this view is expressed is to find a pretty complete philosophy of the motives and qualities of human beings.
Take these words from the First Protocol:
”It should be noted that people with evil instincts are more numerous than those with good ones; therefore, the best results in governing them are attained by intimidation and violence, and not by academic argument.
Every man aims for power; everyone desires to be a dictator, if possible; moreover, few would not sacrifice the good of others to attain their own ends.”
”People in ma.s.ses and people of the ma.s.ses are guided by exceptionally shallow pa.s.sions, beliefs, customs, traditions and sentimental theories and are inclined toward party divisions, a fact which prevents any form of agreement, even when this is founded on a thoroughly logical basis.