Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

PROTOCOLS OF WISE MEN OF ZION 7of the world and satisfy them with all the means which a dominatedearth holds at the disposal of the knowing.Is this the truth? Who has spoken? Perhaps it is only a half truth, buteven in its halfness it is of enormous import, which is not seen by mostmen. The demon has spoken — or shall we say the spirit of the age —or, in still other words — the new type of man, who is imprinting hisfeatures on this age. History is the most skeptical of all sciences; itknows no absolute truths. It does not matter whether tilings really are asthe demon says; what matters is to know whether there are men who seethem that way; and whether these men are important.This is the meaning which our age breathes into the teachings ofMachiavelli. At its base, however, lies an eternal pessimistic wisdomwhich teaches that men are easily satisfied, hence easy for a clever mindto dominate. These two elements, the modern truth and the timelesswisdom, give the book a terrifying power which shines through thevarnish of superimposed lies.Maurice Joly had understood the meaning of domination. He knewthe modern mass and its state of mind. He had seen a master guide it.The master was Napoleon III, conspirator, usurper, and for nearlytwenty years emperor of the French; at once nationalist and socialist,democrat and tyrant, pacifist and conqueror, dictator by virtue ofbayonets and the plebiscite; applauded by the masses whom he hadpolitically raped. Joly had written his book with him in mind. He wasmeant when the demon spoke: we shall stultify the people, we shallpromote disturbances in Europe and elsewhere, we shall create a mightycentral power, we shall commit crimes, and the people will admire usfor them. If gallstones had not made a wreck of this third Napoleon, hemight have died in power and glory.Joly's magnificent portrait of modern tyranny underwent a strangefate. After thirty years of oblivion, its great day came. It was discoveredby a group of Russian conspirators. Not, to be sure, by the Russianrevolutionaries of that day, the Nihilists, Social Democrats, or SocialRevolutionaries; but by a few crafty agents of the counter-revolution,members of the Ochrana, the tsar's secret police. They wanted tofrighten the tsar and drive him to blood-