„We enter the Reichstag to arm ourselves with democracy’s weapons. If democracy is foolish enough to give us free railway passes and salaries, that is its problem… We are coming neither as friends or neutrals. We come as enemies! As the wolf attacks the sheep, so come we.“ — Joseph Goebbels
„The people’s community must not be a mere phrase, but a revolutionary achievement following from the radical carrying out of the basic life needs of the working class. A ruthless battle against corruption! A war against exploitation, freedom for the workers! The elimination of all economic-capitalist influences on national policy. Maintaining a rotten economic system has nothing to do with nationalism, which is an affirmation of the Fatherland.“ — Joseph Goebbels
A lesser known fact is that Goebbels stratagems were “inspired” by Edward Bernays (who authored the book entitled “Propaganda” in 1928).
Bernays stated the following in his 1965 autobiography:
They were using my books as the basis for a destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me, but I knew any human activity can be used for social purposes or misused for antisocial ones.
Further References
Doob, L. W.. (1950). Goebbels’ Principles of Propaganda. Public Opinion Quarterly
“For almost a dozen years german propaganda minister goebbels was recognized as a master of his trade by those who fought and by those who acclaimed the nazi state. this article, based on both the published and unpublished portions of goebbels’ diary, summarizes the major propaganda principles which he followed.”
Meyer, M., & Welch, D.. (2006). Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933-1945. The History Teacher
“This is the most comprehensive analysis to date of nazi film propaganda in its political, social, and economic contexts, from the pre-war cinema as it fell under the control of the propaganda minister, joseph goebbels, through to the end of the second world war. david welch studies more than one hundred films of all types, identifying those aspects of nazi ideology that were concealed in the framework of popular entertainment.”
Propaganda and mass persuasion: a historical encyclopedia, 1500 to the present. (2013). Choice Reviews Online
“This fascinating survey provides a comprehensive introduction to propaganda, its changing nature, its practitioners, and its impact on the past five centuries of world history. written by leading experts, it covers the masters of the art from joseph goebbels to mohandas gandhi and examines enormously influential works of persuasion such as ‘uncle tom’s cabin,’ techniques such as films and posters, and key concepts like black propaganda and brainwashing. case studies reveal the role of mass persuasion during the reformation, and wars throughout history. regional studies cover propaganda superpowers, such as russia, china, and the united states, as well as little-known propaganda campaigns in southeast asia, ireland, and scandinavia. the book traces the evolution of propaganda from the era of printed handbills to computer fakery, and profiles such brilliant practitioners of the art as third reich film director leni riefenstahl and 19th-century cartoonist thomas nast, whose works helped to bring the notorious boss tweed to justice.”
Herf, J.. (2005). The “jewish War”: Goebbels and the antisemitic campaigns of the Nazi propaganda ministry. Holocaust and Genocide Studies
“How the nazi leadership translated radical antisemitism into a narrative of an innocent, besieged germany striking back at an ‘international jewry’ it accused of starting and prolonging world war ii forms the subject of this study. in the nazis’ paranoid conspiracy theory ‘jewry’ comprised powers behind the scenes in london, moscow, and washington. in response to the ‘war of extermination’ that jewry had supposedly launched against germany, the nazi leadership publicly threatened to ‘exterminate’ and ‘annihilate’ the jews as an act of justified retaliation. in their minds and in their policy, the ideological connection between the ‘final solution’ and the second world war was inherent, rather than contingent. the following analysis suggests why a centuries-old hatred led to mass murder between 1941 and 1945.”
Welch, D.. (1993). Manufacturing a consensus: Nazi propaganda and the building of a ‘national community’ (volksgemeinschaft). Contemporary European History
“The point has to be made at once that any attempt to quantify public reaction to nazi propaganda is fraught with difficulties. accurate measurement of the effectiveness of nazi propaganda is weakened by the absence of public opinion surveys and the fact that, in a society that resorted so readily to coercions and terror, reported opinion did not necessarily reflect the true feelings and moods of the public, especially if these views were opposed to the regime. nevertheless, to state that public opinion in the third reich ceased to exist is not strictly true. after the nazi ‘seizure of power’ in 1933, propaganda minister joseph goebbels stressed the importance of co-ordinating propaganda with other activities. in a dictatorship, propaganda must address itself to large masses of people and attempt to move them to a uniformity of opinion and action. but the nazis also understood that propaganda is of little value in isolation. to some extent this explains why goebbels impressed on all his staff at the ministry of popular enlightenment and propaganda the imperative necessity constantly to gauge public moods. goebbels therefore regularly received (as did all the ruling élites) extraordinarily detailed reports from the secret police (sd reports) about the mood of the people and would frequently quote these in his diary. hitler, too, was familiar with these reports, and his recorded determination to avoid increasing food prices at all costs for fear that this would undermine the regime’s popularity suggests a political sensitivity to public opinion. to assure themselves of continued popular support was an unwavering concern of the nazi leadership, and of hitler and goebbels in particular.”
“Erich seligmann[1] fromm (march 23, 1900 – march 18, 1980) was a german social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. he was associated with what became known as the frankfurt school of critical theory.”
McLaughlin, N.. (1998). How to become a forgotten intellectual: Intellectual movements and the rise and fall of Erich Fromm. Sociological Forum
“The ideas and reputational history of german psychoanalyst and sociologist erich fromm are examined as a case study in the sociology of knowledge that explores how intellectual boundaries are constructed within and between disciplines in the modem academy, psychoanalytic institutes, and the journal and book reading publics and among the intellectual elite. the ‘rise and fall’ of erich fromm is narrated using the foil of michèle lamont’s analysis of how derrida became a dominant philosopher and influence on literary criticism. the example of how fromm became a forgotten intellectual is used to examine various models of how reputations are constructed. my analysis highlights the importance of the sectlike culture of psychoanalysis and marxism as well as the boundary-maintaining processes of academic disciplines, schools of thought, and intellectual traditions, and suggests a research agenda on orthodoxies and revisionism within intellectual movements more generally. [abstract from author]”
Fromm, E.. (2004). 1929a-e Erich Fromm Psychoanalysis and Sociology. English
“Erich fromm (1900-1980) was once a world-famous psychoanalyst and sociologist. his writings, spanning six decades, placed him among the most prolific and well-known analysts of his generation. in this paper, we outline fromm’s major themes and theoretical contributions. his unique attempts to synthesize depth psychology and a critical perspective on modern social forces make his work central to social work’s mission of alleviating oppression, fostering social justice, and facilitating emotional healing and personal growth. in resurrecting fromm, we hope to stimulate thought about some of the complex theoretical problems that inform practice.”
Brookfield, S.. (2002). Overcoming alienation as the practice of adult education: The contribution of Erich Fromm to a critical theory of adult learning and education. Adult Education Quarterly
“Erich fromm’s analysis of the commodification of contemporary life, his description of automation conformity, and his call for the overcoming of alienation represent important, though ignored. elements of the critical tradition that have great resonance for the practice of adult education. drawing particularly on the early marx of the economic and philosophical manuscripts. fromm conducted a radical, yet highly accessible, analysis of adult life and learning. he argued that learning to penetrate ideological obfuscation, and thereby overcome the alienation this obfuscation induced, was the learning task of adulthood. adult education as a force for resistance would make people aware of ideological manipulation and educate them for participatory democracy. by calling his ideas humanist, fromm ensured that his work beckoned enticingly to many educators. but his normative humanism was a militant, marxist humanism, entailing the abolition of capitalist alienation and the creation of democratic socialism. 10.1177/0741713602052002002”
Davis, H. B.. (2003). Erich Fromm and postmodernism.. Psychoanalytic Review
“While there has been some renewed interest in fromm, he has largely been neglected in the past years. i believe this is in part due to the conservative nature of political and intellectual ideas in recent years, but also because postmodernist thinking may be essentially-but not totally- inconsistent with fromm. there may be an inherent difficulty in comparing fromm’s ideas to postmodernism and its use in psychoanalysis since the two are of different time periods. i am primarily concerned with exploring selected concepts from fromm which, if not a forerunner of postmodernism in psychoanalysis, may at least have sown the seeds for the contemporary view. in discussing several postmodern ideas such as contextualization, the self, universalism, and meta-narratives, among others, i will relate fromm’s position on these issues. in his day fromm was an exponent of some of the ideas currently viewed as affirmative postmodernism. his ideas were opposed to the established orthodoxy of his day, as many of the affirmative postmodernists are today. by saying that fromm dealt with some of these issues i do not mean that the current viewpoint is simply an extension of fromm’s writings. (psycinfo database record (c) 2012 apa, all rights reserved)”
“It is clear that we cannot distinguish the sane from the insane in psychiatric hospitals. the hospital itself imposes a special environment in which the meanings of behavior can easily be misunderstood. the consequences to patients hospitalized in such an environment-the powerlessness, depersonalization, segregation, mortification, and self-labeling-seem undoubtedly countertherapeutic. i do not, even now, understand this problem well enough to perceive solutions. but two matters seem to have some promise. the first concerns the proliferation of community mental health facilities, of crisis intervention centers, of the human potential movement, and of behavior therapies that, for all of their own problems, tend to avoid psychiatric labels, to focus on specific problems and behaviors, and to retain the individual in a relatively non-pejorative environment. clearly, to the extent that we refrain from sending the distressed to insane places, our impressions of them are less likely to be distorted. (the risk of distorted perceptions, it seems to me, is always present, since we are much more sensitive to an individual’s behaviors and verbalizations than we are to the subtle contextual stimuli that often promote them. at issue here is a matter of magnitude. and, as i have shown, the magnitude of distortion is exceedingly high in the extreme context that is a psychiatric hospital.) the second matter that might prove promising speaks to the need to increase the sensitivity of mental health workers and researchers to the catch 22 position of psychiatric patients. simply reading materials in this area will be of help to some such workers and researchers. for others, directly experiencing the impact of psychiatric hospitalization will be of enormous use. clearly, further research into the social psychology of such total institutions will both facilitate treatment and deepen understanding. i and the other pseudopatients in the psychiatric setting had distinctly negative reactions. we do not pretend to describe the subjective experiences of true patients. theirs may be different from ours, particularly with the passage of time and the necessary process of adaptation to one’s environment. but we can and do speak to the relatively more objective indices of treatment within the hospital. it could be a mistake, and a very unfortunate one, to consider that what happened to us derived from malice or stupidity on the part of the staff. quite the contrary, our overwhelming i…”
It is clear that we cannot distinguish the sane from the insane in psychiatric hospitals. The hospital itself imposes a special environment in which the meanings of behavior can easily be misunderstood. The consequences to patients hospitalized in such an environment-the powerlessness, depersonalization, segregation, mortification, and self-labeling-seem undoubtedly countertherapeutic. I do not, even now, understand this problem well enough to perceive solutions. But two matters seem to have some promise. The first concerns the proliferation of community mental health facilities, of crisis intervention centers, of the human potential movement, and of behavior therapies that, for all of their own problems, tend to avoid psychiatric labels, to focus on specific problems and behaviors, and to retain the individual in a relatively non-pejorative environment. Clearly, to the extent that we refrain from sending the distressed to insane places, our impressions of them are less likely to be distorted. (The risk of distorted perceptions, it seems to me, is always present, since we are much more sensitive to an individual’s behaviors and verbalizations than we are to the subtle contextual stimuli that often promote them. At issue here is a matter of magnitude. And, as I have shown, the magnitude of distortion is exceedingly high in the extreme context that is a psychiatric hospital.) The second matter that might prove promising speaks to the need to increase the sensitivity of mental health workers and researchers to the Catch 22 position of psychiatric patients. Simply reading materials in this area will be of help to some such workers and researchers. For others, directly experiencing the impact of psychiatric hospitalization will be of enormous use. Clearly, further research into the social psychology of such total institutions will both facilitate treatment and deepen understanding. I and the other pseudopatients in the psychiatric setting had distinctly negative reactions. We do not pretend to describe the subjective experiences of true patients. Theirs may be different from ours, particularly with the passage of time and the necessary process of adaptation to one’s environment. But we can and do speak to the relatively more objective indices of treatment within the hospital. It could be a mistake, and a very unfortunate one, to consider that what happened to us derived from malice or stupidity on the part of the staff. Quite the contrary, our overwhelming impression of them was of people who really cared, who were committed and who were uncommonly intelligent. Where they failed, as they sometimes did painfully, it would be more accurate to attribute those failures to the environment in which they, too, found themselves than to personal callousness. Their perceptions and behavior were controlled by the situation, rather than being motivated by a malicious disposition. In a more benign environment, one that was less attached to global diagnosis, their behaviors and judgments might have been more benign and effective.
“Another type of discovery may be connected with hormones, those internal chemical secretions which so largely regulate the operations of the human body. The artificial use of hormones has already been shown to have profound effects on the behaviour of animals, and it seems quite possible that hormones, or perhaps drugs, might have similar effects on man. For example, there might be a drug, which, without other harmful effects, removed the urgency of sexual desire, and so reproduced in humanity the status of workers in a beehive. Or there might be another drug that produced a permanent state of contentment in the recipient—after all alcohol does something like this already, though it has other disadvantages and is only temporary in its effects. A dictator would certainly welcome the compulsory administration of the “contentment drug” to his subjects.” p183
Oligarchical monopoly
“Widespread wealth can never be common in an overcrowded world, and so in most countries of the future the government will inevitably be autocratic or oligarchic; some will give good government and some bad, and the goodness or badness will depend much more on the personal merits of the rulers than it does in a more democratic country.” p.194
Normative government
“To think of it as possible at other times is a misunderstanding of the function of government in any practical sense of the term. If the only things that a government was required to do were what everybody, or nearly everybody, wanted, there would be no need for the government to exist at all, because the things would be done anyhow; this would be the impracticable ideal of the anarchist. But if there are to be starving margins of population in most parts of the world, mere benevolence cannot suffice. There would inevitably be ill feeling and jealousy between the provinces, with each believing that it was not getting its fair share of the good things, and in fact, it would be like the state of affairs with which we are all too familiar. If then there is ever to be a world government, it will have to function as government do now, in the sense that it will have to coerce a minority – and indeed it may often be a majority – into doing things they do not want to.” p.191
George Pember Darwin (1928–2001) worked developing computers, and then (1964) married Angela Huxley, daughter of David Bruce Huxley. She was also a granddaughter of the writer Leonard Huxley and a great-granddaughter of Thomas Huxley, “Darwin’s Bulldog”.
After the death of his first wife, Leonard married Rosalind Bruce (1890–1994), and had two further sons. The elder of these was David Bruce Huxley (1915-1992), whose daughter Angela Huxley married George Pember Darwin, son of the physicist Sir Charles Galton Darwin (and thus a great-grandson of Charles Darwin married a great-granddaughter of Thomas Huxley). The younger son (1917-2012) was the Nobel Prize winner, physiologist Andrew Fielding Huxley. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huxley_family
Further References
Fancher, R. E.. (2009). Scientific Cousins: The Relationship Between Charles Darwin and Francis Galton. American Psychologist
“This article traces the personal as well as the intellectual and scientific relationship between charles darwin and his younger half-cousin francis galton. although they had been on friendly terms as young men, and darwin had in some ways been a role model for galton, the two did not share major scientific interests until after the publication of darwin’s on the origin of species in 1859. that work precipitated a religious and philosophical crisis in galton, which he gradually resolved after conceiving and developing the basic ideas of ‘hereditary genius’ and eugenics. more mathematically inclined than darwin, he subsequently contributed to the darwinian evolutionary discussion, and to the future science of psychology, by proposing the basic concept of the nature-nurture dichotomy, the conceptual and statistical foundations for behavior genetics, and the idea for intelligence testing. (psycinfo database record (c) 2010 apa, all rights reserved). (from the journal abstract)”
Gillham, N. W.. (2001). Sir Francis Galton and the Birth of Eugenics. Annual Review of Genetics
“The eugenics movement was initiated by sir francis galton, a victorian scientist. galton’s career can be divided into two parts. during the first. galton was engaged in african exploration, travel writing, geography, and meteorology. the second part began after he read the ‘origin of species’ by his cousin charles darwin. the book convinced galton that humanity could be improved through selective breeding. during this part of his career he was interested in the factors that determine what he called human ‘talent and character’ and its hereditary basis.”
Galton, D. J., & Galton, C. J.. (1998). Francis Galton: And eugenics today. Journal of Medical Ethics
“Eugenics can be defined as the use of science applied to the qualitative and quantitative improvement of the human genome. the subject was initiated by francis galton with considerable support from charles darwin in the latter half of the 19th century. its scope has increased enormously since the recent revolution in molecular genetics. genetic files can be easily obtained for individuals either antenatally or at birth; somatic gene therapy has been introduced for some rare inborn errors of metabolism; and gene manipulation of human germ-line cells will no doubt occur in the near future to generate organs for transplantation. the past history of eugenics has been appalling, with gross abuses in the usa between 1931 and 1945 when compulsory sterilization was practised; and in germany between 1933 and 1945 when mass extermination and compulsory sterilization were performed. to prevent such abuses in the future statutory bodies, such as a genetics commission, should be established to provide guidance and rules of conduct for use of the new information and technologies as applied to the human genome.”
Galton, F.. (1985). Essays in eugenics. The History of hereditarian thought ; 16
“CONTENTS: the possible improvement of the human breed under existing conditions of law and sentiment eugenics, its definition, scope, and aims restrictions in marriage studies in national eugenics eugenics as a factor in religion probability, the foundation of eugenics local associations for promoting eugenics sir francis galton (1822-1911) was a victorian polymath: geographer, meteorologist, tropical explorer, founder of differential psychology, inventor of fingerprint identification, pioneer of statistical correlation and regression, convinced hereditarian, eugenicist, proto-geneticist, half-cousin of charles darwin and best-selling author.”
Harper, P.. (2002). A life of Sir Francis Galton. From African exploration to the birth of eugenics. Human Genetics
“Few scientists have made lasting contributions to as many fields as francis galton. he was an important african explorer, travel writer, and geographer. he was the meteorologist who discovered the anticyclone, a pioneer in using fingerprints to identify individuals, the inventor of regression and correlation analysis in statistics, and the founder of the eugenics movement. now, nicholas gillham paints an engaging portrait of this victorian polymath. the book traces galton’s ancestry (he was the grandson of erasmus darwin and the cousin of charles darwin), upbringing, training as a medical apprentice, and experience as a cambridge undergraduate. it recounts in colorful detail galton’s adventures as leader of his own expedition in namibia. darwin was always a strong influence on his cousin and a turning point in galton’s life was the publication of the origin of species. thereafter, galton devoted most of his life to human heredity, using then novel methods such as pedigree analysis and twin studies to argue that talent and character were inherited and that humans could be selectively bred to enhance these qualities. to this end, he founded the eugenics movement which rapidly gained momentum early in the last century. after galton’s death, however, eugenics took a more sinister path, as in the united states, where by 1913 sixteen states had involuntary sterilization laws, and in germany, where the goal of racial purity was pushed to its horrific limit in the ‘final solution.’ galton himself, gillham writes, would have been appalled by the extremes to which eugenics was carried. here then is a vibrant biography of a remarkable scientist as well as a superb portrait of science in the victorian era.”
Magnello, M. E.. (2013). Galton’s Law of Ancestral Heredity. In Brenner’s Encyclopedia of Genetics: Second Edition
“Francis galton developed his theory of ancestral heredity in the late 1880s to determine the relationship between various traits, especially stature in parents and their offspring. he created the idea of a ‘midparent’ to measure the contribution of both parents over three generations. his theory incorporated elements of both blending and particulate inheritance, which generated interest from many victorian scientists, including charles darwin, james clerk maxwell, and karl pearson. galton’s ideas on reversion, regression, and correlation provided the framework from which pearson went on to devise a battery of correlational techniques and statistical models for simple and multiple regression.”
Bulmer, M.. (2003). Francis Galton: Pioneer of Heredity and Biometry. Journal of Heredity
“If not for the work of his half cousin francis galton, charles darwin’s evolutionary theory might have met a somewhat different fate. in particular, with no direct evidence of natural selection and no convincing theory of heredity to explain it, darwin needed a mathematical explanation of variability and heredity. galton’s work in biometry—the application of statistical methods to the biological sciences—laid the foundations for precisely that. this book offers readers a compelling portrait of galton as the ‘father of biometry,’ tracing the development of his ideas and his accomplishments, and placing them in their scientific context.though michael bulmer introduces readers to the curious facts of galton’s life—as an explorer, as a polymath and member of the victorian intellectual aristocracy, and as a proponent of eugenics—his chief concern is with galton’s pioneering studies of heredity, in the course of which he invented the statistical tools of regression and correlation. bulmer describes galton’s early ambitions and experiments—his investigations of problems of evolutionary importance (such as the evolution of gregariousness and the function of sex), and his movement from the development of a physiological theory to a purely statistical theory of heredity, based on the properties of the normal distribution. this work, culminating in the law of ancestral heredity, also put galton at the heart of the bitter conflict between the ‘ancestrians’ and the ‘mendelians’ after the rediscovery of mendelism in 1900. a graceful writer and an expert biometrician, bulmer details the eventual triumph of biometrical methods in the history of quantitative genetics based on mendelian principles, which underpins our understanding of evolution today. — a. w. f. edwards, university of cambridge, author of pascal’s arithmetic triangle and likelihood”
Sandall, R.. (2008). Sir Francis Galton and the roots of eugenics. Society
“The eugenics movement was initiated by sir francis galton, a victorian scientist. galton’s career can be divided into two parts. during the first, galton was engaged in african exploration, travel writing, geography, and meteorology. the second part began after he read the origin of species by his cousin charles darwin. the book convinced galton that humanity could be improved through selective breeding. during this part of his career he was interested in the factors that determine what he called human ‘talent and character’ and its hereditary basis. consequently, he delved into anthropometrics and psychology and played a major role in the development of fingerprinting. he also founded the field of biometrics, inventing such familiar statistical procedures as correlation and regression analysis. he constructed his own theory of inheritance in which nature and not nurture played the leading role. he actively began to promote eugenics and soon gained important converts.”
Liu, Y.. (2008). A new perspective on Darwin’s Pangenesis. Biological Reviews
“In 1868 charles darwin proposed pangenesis, a developmental theory of heredity. he suggested that all cells in an organism are capable of shedding minute particles he called gemmules, which are able to circulate throughout the body and finally congregate in the gonads. these particles are then transmitted to the next generation and are responsible for the transmission of characteristics from parent to offspring. if any cells of the parent undergo changes as a result of environmental change, they will consequently transmit modified gemmules to their offspring. soon after darwin’s pangenetic theory was published, francis galton designed a series of blood transfusion experiments on differently pigmented rabbits to test its validity. he found no evidence in support of the existence of darwin’s gemmules and the concept of pangenesis was largely abandoned. in this article, recent reports of successful induction of heritable changes by blood transfusion are reviewed. detection of circulating nucleic acids and prions in plant sap and animal blood is considered as fresh evidence for the existence of gemmules. it is now apparent that a considerable revision of views on darwin’s pangenesis must occur before a new comprehensive genetic theory can be achieved.”
Galton, D. J.. (2005). Eugenics: Some lessons from the past. Reproductive BioMedicine Online
“This article examines the views of darwinist evolution on issues regarding race and how this contributed to the spread of racism in the united states. the writings of charles darwin and a myriad of his followers are examined, including herbert spencer, francis galton, and others. the influence of darwinism in contributing to the growth of institutional racism and the teaching of scientifically based racist thought is addressed. the article also examines how darwinist evolutionary thought affected the nation’s beliefs about those with special needs and how this contributed to people’s perceptions about people of color. the author asserts that the blatant inaccuracies of darwinist evolution regarding race raise questions about the theory’s overall veracity and how teachers should approach instruction regarding darwin’s theory. ”
Champkin, J.. (2011). Francis Galton centenary. Significance
“This year marks the centenary of the death of the great victorian scientist sir francis galton (1822–1911). galton, a cousin of charles darwin, and wildly eccentric, is a key and curious figure in the founding of modern statistics – and of several other sciences as well. we celebrate the life and achievements of an extraordinary man.”
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