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

THE DEATH OF MONEY 137workers] have been led astray by agitators.' Now, with the suppleness ofan actor, he flattered those on the Left.'Without the boundless stupidity and blindness of our bourgeoisie[formerly "national intelligentsia"], the Jew would never have becomethe leader of the German working-class. Stupidity was joined by pride.The "better class" thought it beneath its pride to descend to the "plebs."The millions of German fellow nationals would not have been alienatedfrom their people if the leading classes had troubled themselves aboutthem. Relinquish the hope that we can expect anything from above forthe freedom of the German people! The most elementary requirementsarc lacking: the will, the courage, and the energy. Where, then, lies thepower of the German people? It lies, as it always has, in the broadmasses. There the energy lies slumbering, waiting for the man who canrouse it out of its slumber and hurl it into the fight for the destiny of theGerman race.'What's that? Where is the power? In the 'broad mass of the undecided,the stand-asiders, the lazy, the cowardly'? In the broad mass that lives inthe lunatic delusion that every shoemaker and tailor can govern? In the'broad mass of mentally and physically crippled factory workers'? In thebroad mass, two thirds of which consist of fools and cowards and whichas a whole is made up of 'average men, democrats'? Yes, indeed! Onlyin the broad masses is there hope and power, to them alone belongs thefuture — once they condescend to fill Hitler's meeting halls. Then heassures them: 'It is the same as it has always been: liberation does notcome down from above, it will spring up from below.' Who remembersthat 'the spirit of resistance must be kindled from above'?No, evidently propaganda is not just the trick of 'always saying thesame thing' — that would be too simple. True, Hitler's adversariesthought so because they took him for a fool; he himself said so becausehe wanted to be taken for an iron character with immutable principles.Actually, propaganda changes and irradiates like swamp water inchanging weather. The facts must constandy be interpreted, invented,falsified anew; overnight, friend must be-come foe; good, evil — andalways the force of faith must gleam through the veil of shifting truths.Without this power of faith,