◆ SpookStack

THE TECHNIQUES OF SOVIET PROPAGANDA 81 The West has devoted too little study to this unique historical phenomenon: for the first time, a political system is based on a total lie—a ja practical with oatantatinn, The strencth of thie un- lie practiced h ostentation. The strength of precedented record of (not 90, but 100 percent}) lying rests on the fact that it saturates and wearies mistrust. Free men, living in a world where a modicum of good faith is practiced—if only because political rivalry can unmask too blatant falsehoods—simply cannot believe that mendacity can become total, _ oo ; Further, public opinion tends to polarize in favor of communism because it is always discussed in academic terms. The West always refers to the Sino-Soviet regimes in terms of “communism,” as if they practiced the humanitarian doctrines formulated years ago under that name, whereas Westerners should have long ago adopted the more i Hf Ld ae sare? £. ah eres. mene accurate terms of ‘‘fascism’’ or “absolutism” for these tyrannies. THE THIEF CRYING “THIEF” Soviet propaganda uses as a fundamental psychological stratagem the ancient and familiar ruse of crying “thief” to divert attention from its own thievery. It srouses Western workers against exploita- tion while preparing the most grinding exploitation in history. But the principal target for this stratagem is the people of Asia and Africa By urging them to fix their gaze, concentrate their clamour, and shake their fists at defunct Western colonialism, crypto-Communist propa- = - an aléeinne newne mene nf gende prevents them from seeing, hearing, and halting expansion of viet colonialism. Communism relies on the political inertia through which it continues to draw dividends on the sympathy it won among Western liberals by its early identification with Socialist movements and their idealistic goals. Ii can be said that communism has created its entire career 88 an Impersonator among adherents of the left, leading them to believe it was one of their own by posing as a defender of the worker; an advocate of progress, economic rationality, social justice, and the independence of man—in short, that communism stands for the same ideals as the left, when in fact it is digging a grave for the left. While leading “advanced thinkers” to believe its economy is un- surpassed in the world, it persuades “conservatives” to suppose its diplomacy is conventional. In the first instance, it plays on the inertia that perpetuates fallacies; in the second on the apathy that discourages investigation. In both, it lies. The notion that the U.S.S.R. behaves ‘‘as do the others” in its international affairs caters to intellectual laziness because it eliminates the necessity of analyzing Soviet actions, And this yields the Kremlin a substantial advantage, for it induces Western leaders to believe that the Soviets regard a conference, a treaty, and a minister as a conference, a treaty, and a minister, whereas the Kremlin has actually made of them a trap, & ‘rag, and a menial, respectively. Contributing greatly to the victory of the Soviet world is every misconception which tends to present the abnormal, counterfeit character of that world as analagous to normal standards of decency. There follows a few random samples of such misconceptions, which have been widely arcented in tha Wast, That a Soviet statesman was a comrade in arms; true, but in the U.S.S.R. he is a puppet controlled by the Politbureau’s directives,