1. The word "freedom," which can be interpreted in various ways, is
defined by us as follows -
2. Freedom is the right to do that which the law allows. This
interpretation of the word will at the proper time be of service to
us, because all freedom will thus be in our hands, since the laws
will abolish or create only that which is desirable for us,
according to the aforesaid program.
3. We shall deal with the press in the following way: what is the
part played by the press to-day? It serves to excite and inflame
those passions which are needed for our purpose, or else it serves
selfish ends of parties. It is often vapid; unjust; mendacious; and
the majority of the public have not the slightest idea what ends the
press really serves. We shall saddle and bridle it with a tight
curb: we shall do the same also with all productions of the printing
press, for where would be the sense of getting rid of the attacks of
the press if we remain targets for pamphlets and books?
The produce
of publicity, which nowadays is a source of heavy expense owing to
the necessity of censoring it, will be turned by us into a very
lucrative source of income to our State: we shall law on it a
special stamp tax and require deposits of caution-money before
permitting the establishment of any organ of the press or of
printing offices; these will then have to guarantee our government
against any kind of attack on the part of the press. For any attempt
to attack us, if such still be possible, we shall inflict fines
without mercy. Such measures as stamp tax, deposit of caution-money
and fines secured by these deposits, will bring in a huge income to
the government.
It is true that party organs might not spare money
for the sake of publicity, but these we shall shut up at the second
attack upon us. No one shall with impunity lay a finger on the
aureole of our government infallibility. The pretext for stopping
any publication will be the alleged plea that it is agitating the
public mind without occasion or justification. I beg you to note
that among those making attacks upon us will also be organs
established by us, but they will attack exclusively points that we
have pre-determined to alter.
WE CONTROL THE PRESS
4. Not a single announcement will reach the public without our
control. Even now this is already being attained by us inasmuch as
all news items are received by a few agencies, in whose offices they
are focused from all parts of the world. These agencies will then be
already entirely ours and will give publicity only to what we
dictate to them.
5. If already now we have contrived to possess ourselves of the
minds of the goy communities to such an extent that they all come
near, looking upon the events of the world through the colored
glasses of those spectacles we are setting astride their noses; if
already now there is not a single State where there exist for us any
barriers to admittance into what goy stupidity calls State secrets:
what will our positions be then, when we shall be acknowledged
supreme lords of the world in the person of our king of all the
world...
6. Let us turn again to the future of the printing press. Every one
desirous of being a publisher, librarian, or printer, will be
obliged to provide himself with the diploma instituted therefore,
which, in case of any fault, will be immediately impounded.
With
such measures the instrument of thought will become an educative
means in the hands of our government, which will no longer allow the
mass of the nation to be led astray in by-ways and fantasies about
the blessings of progress. Is there any one of us who does not know
that these phantom blessings are the direct roads to foolish
imaginings, which give birth to anarchical relations of men among
themselves and towards authority, because progress, or rather the
idea of progress, has introduced the conception of every kind of
emancipation, but has failed to establish its limits.…
All the
so-called liberals are anarchists, if not in fact, at any rate in
thought. Every one of them is hunting after phantoms of freedom, and
falling exclusively into license, that is, into the anarchy of
protest for the sake of protest.…
FREE PRESS DESTROYED
7. We turn to the periodical press. We shall impose on it, as on all
printed matter, stamp taxes per sheet and deposits of caution-money,
and books of less than 30 sheets will pay double. We shall reckon
them as pamphlets in order, on the one hand, to reduce the number of
magazines, which are the worst form of printed poison, and, on the
other, in order that this measure may force writers into such
lengthy productions that they will be little read, especially as
they will be costly.
At the same time what we shall publish
ourselves to influence mental development; in the direction laid
down for our profit; will be cheap and will be read voraciously. The
tax will bring vapid literary ambitions within bounds and the
liability to penalties will make literary men dependent upon us. And
if there should be any found who are desirous of writing against us,
they will not find any person eager to print their productions.
Before accepting any production for publication the publisher or
printer will have to apply to the authorities for permission to do
so. Thus we shall know beforehand of all tricks preparing against us
and shall nullify them by getting ahead with explanations on the
subject treated of.
8. Literature and journalism are two of the most important educative
forces, and therefore our government will become proprietor of the
majority of the journals. This will neutralize the injurious
influence of the privately-owned press and will put us in possession
of a tremendous influence upon the public mind....If we give permits
for ten journals, we shall ourselves found thirty, and so on in the
same proportion.
This, however, must in no wise be suspected by the
public. For which reason all journals published by us will be of the
most opposite, in appearance, tendencies and opinions, thereby
creating confidence in us and bringing over to us quite unsuspicious
opponents, who will thus fall into our trap and be rendered
harmless.
9. In the front rank will stand organs of an official character.
They will always stand guard over our interests, and therefore their
influence will be comparatively insignificant.
10. In the second rank will be the semi-official organs, whose part
it will be to attack the tepid and indifferent.
11. In the third rank we shall set up our own; to all appearance,
off position; which, in at least one of its organs, will present
what looks like the very antipothesis to us. Our real opponents at
heart will accept this simulated opposition as their own and will
show us their cards.
12. All our newspapers will be of all possible complexions –
aristocratic, republican, revolutionary, even anarchical – for so
long, of course, as the constitution exists.... Like the Indian idol
"Vishnu" they will have a hundred hands, and every one of them will
have a finger on any one of the public opinions as required. When a
pulse quickens these hands will lead opinion in the direction of our
aims, for an excited patient loses all power of judgment and easily
yields to suggestion.
Those fools who will think they are repeating
the opinion of a newspaper of their own camp will be repeating our
opinion or any opinion that seems desirable for us. In the vain
belief that they are following the organ of their party they will,
in fact, follow the flag which we hang out for them.
13. In order to direct our newspaper militia in this sense we must
take special and minute care in organizing this matter. Under the
title of central department of the press we shall institute literary
gatherings at which our agents will, without attracting attention,
issue the orders and watchwords of the day.
By discussing and controverting, but always superficially, without touching the
essence of the matter, our organs will carry on a sham fight
fusillade with the official newspapers solely for the purpose of
giving occasion for us to express ourselves more fully than could
well be done from the outset in official announcements, whenever, of
course, that is to our advantage.
14. These attacks upon us will also serve another purpose, namely,
that our subjects will be convinced of the existence of full freedom
of speech and so give our agents an occasion to affirm that all
organs which oppose us are empty babblers, since they are incapable
of finding any substantial objections to our orders.
ONLY LIES PRINTED
15. Methods of
organization like these, imperceptible to the public
eye but absolutely sure, are the best calculated to succeed in
bringing the attention and the confidence of the public to the side
of our government. Thanks to such methods we shall be in a position,
as from time to time may be required, to excite or to tranquillize
the public mind on political questions, to persuade or to confuse,
printing now truth, now lies, facts or their contradictions,
according as they may be well or ill received, always very
cautiously feeling our ground before stepping upon it....
We shall
have a sure triumph over our opponents; since they will not have at
their disposition organs of the press in which they can give full
and final expression to their views; owing to the aforesaid methods
of dealing with the press. We shall not even need to refute them
except very superficially.
16. Trial shots like these, fired by us in the third rank of our
press, in case of need, will be energetically refuted by us in our
semi-official organs.
17. Even nowadays, already, to take only the French press, there are
forms which reveal masonic solidarity in acting on the watchword:
all organs of the press are bound together by professional secrecy;
like the augurs of old, not one of their numbers will give away the
secret of his sources of information, unless it be resolved to make
announcement of them. Not one journalist will venture to betray this
secret, for not one of them is ever admitted to practice literature
unless his whole past has some disgraceful sore or other....These
sores would be immediately revealed. So long as they remain the
secret of a few, the prestige of the journalist attacks the majority
of the country – the mob follow after him with enthusiasm.
18. Our calculations are especially extended to the provinces. It is
indispensable for us to inflame there those hopes and impulses with
which we could at any moment fall upon the capital, and we shall
represent to the capitals that these expressions are the independent
hopes and impulses of the provinces. Naturally, the source of them
will be always one and the same – ours.
We require that, until such
a time as we are in the plenitude of power, the capitals should find
themselves stifled by the provincial opinion of the nations, i.e.,
of a majority arranged by our agentur. What we need is that; at the
psychological moment; the capitals should not be in a position to
discuss an accomplished fact for the simple reason, if for no other,
that it has been accepted by the public opinion of a majority in the
provinces.
19. When we are in the period of the new regime; prior to the
transition to that of the assumption of our full sovereignty; we
must not admit any revelations by the press of any form of public
dishonesty; it is necessary that the new regime should be thought to
have so perfectly contented everybody that even criminality has
disappeared...Cases of the manifestation of criminality should
remain known only to their victims and to chance witnesses – no
more.
