Theory and Practice of Oligarchic Collectivism 


FRENCH TRANSLATION OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION
PUBLISHED BY THE TITLE

ТЕОРИЯ И ПРАКТИКА ОЛИГАРХИЧЕСКОГО КОЛЛЕКТИВИЗМА

1918




THEORY AND PRACTISE OF OLIGARCHIC COLLECTIVISM 

1948



In homage to my friend and Brother Édouard Boulard, to whom I owe the idea of this essay.

J. B. E. Goldstein - 1944


“They [men] usually judge with their eyes rather than their hands; but everyone can see, but it is reserved for little to touch. Everyone sees you as you appear; few realize exactly what you are; and this minority does not dare to contradict the opinion of the greatest number, supported by the majesty of the State. " 

And as, in these matters, no appeal can be brought before any tribunal, we can consider that the end alone, in the last resort, allows the means to be judged: the peoples will always agree with the stronger. So let a prince take care above all to preserve his state. If he succeeds, the means will always be considered honorable, and praised by everyone. The joule judges only by appearances and results; the whole world is but a joule and thinks like a crowd. The isolated, capable of thinking and understanding, will be silent, or they will be silenced. 

Nicolas Machiavelli: The Prince, c. xvm, p. 35. 




SUMMARY

I. INTERNAL POLICY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
I. THE METHOD.



Differentiate say and do 13

On political discourse 14

The necessity of myth to lead the masses well 15

The need for violence to lead the masses well 17

II. STAGE OF EVOLUTION OF SOCIETY.

Sociological evaluation 23

Social balance 37

Psychological assessment 39

III. SOCIAL CIRCULATION.

The three classes 55

Elite 57

The middle class 58

The lower class 58

Similarities between the three classes 59 

IV. THE ELITE.

Influence of the elite on the behavior of society 61

The natural antagonism between the masses and the elite 61

The leader's metamorphosis 62

Maintenance and renewal of elites 65

The selection and manufacture of the elites 81

V. THE MIDDLE CLASS.

Role of the middle class 101

Control of the middle class 102

VI. THE LOWER CLASS.

Role of the lower class 105

Control of the lower class 105 



VII. THE MINORITIES.



Minorities, tools of the conquest of power 107

The control of minorities 109

VIII. POLITICAL AND TRADE UNION ORGANIZATIONS,
CORPORATE AND ASSOCIATIVES.

On the need for the plurality of political expressions and the illusion of choice 113

Control of organizations 119

Dangerous ideologies 121

IX. INTERNAL SECURITY.

The Central Party 123

Police 128

The militias 134

Company networks 135

Technical supervision 137

X. ORGANIZATION OF POWER.

Reminder of general principles 139

General presentation of the machinery of government 143



II. INFORMATION

WHO CONTROLS THE PRESENT CONTROLS THE PAST.
WHO CONTROLS THE PAST CONTROLS THE FUTURE.

I. THE OPINION.



What is public opinion 151

Opinion and its control 155

Propaganda 167

II. THE PRESS.

The role of the press 183

Control of the press 185

III. CULTURE.

Language, determinant of culture 1 87

To impoverish the language is to control thought 189

Control of culture and education 198

IV. HOBBIES.

The role of leisure 205



III. ECONOMY

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.
I. STATE OWNERSHIP.



Definition, scope and management of state property 213

Commerce and industry 216

II. THE ECONOMY.

Consumption control 227

Planning 235

Economic security 253



IV. FOREIGN POLICY

WAR IS PEACE.
I. WAR AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS.



Army 261

War as an economic and social stimulus 264

Political and geopolitical geography 267

The Conduct of the Diplomat 293

II. SPYING AND COUNTERSPYING.

Spy 317

Counterintelligence 322



DOMESTIC POLICY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.



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I. THE METHOD.

DIFFERENTIATE IT AND DO IT.

There is a need never to reveal your true intentions to the masses, and to present to them other reasons to which we know they are sensitive. Thus, it is necessary to clearly separate the form of the intention, and the true intention of which nothing must be said. The form of intention must be, for the most part if not entirely, either supernatural or metaphysical ("transcendent") in nature. It must be insignificant in any case, when viewed from the point of view of true intentions or actions in the real world of space, time and history. Or then: if the form of intention is to have some empirical significance, it will nevertheless be impossible to make it materialize in the present conditions of society. 

Be that as it may, the dependence of the whole structure of the reasoning on the form, on the real intention, makes it impossible for its speaker (or its writer) to provide a real explanation of the behavior. men. A distortion of truth must systematically exist, and, of course, nothing should be said or shown of how the form of intention might materialize, since, being chimerical or mythical, it cannot materialize. 

From a rational point of view, arguments in the form of intention can be both true and false (valid or invalid). But, with the exception of a few exceptional cases, they must have no connection with the real political problems, since they are imagined to "prove" to the masses the validity of the main points of the structure of the form of intention. . These points can be religious or metaphysical considerations, or the alluring aspects of a utopian ideal. 

The form of the intention must be the indirect expression of the true intention; that is to say of the concrete meaning of the real political action in its relation to the topicality of the historical, social and economic situation. But, at the time it is expressed, this form exists only to mask the true intention. So when we are debating universal peace, a unified and living kindly form of world government, what is really at stake is whether the country is to be ruled by its people, or under the influence of one another



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reactionary and despotic nation. When we debate the merits of a balanced state budget and a strong currency, our real intention lies in the real conflict around who regulates the value and distribution of currency. We imagine ourselves arguing about the moral and legal principles of freedom and democracy, when the real question is who will exercise control over that democracy. 

It follows from all this that the true intention is left unresponsive, since it often appears as vicious and reactionary to the understanding of the masses. Things have to be done that way, and then the true intention is always denied and left to "chance", presented as an unintended and unfortunate consequence, or as the unfortunate corollary of the form of intention. 

And even when the true intention is so thought to contribute to the well-being of the masses and their security, no proof or clue should be given to it.

And if ever this proof or this evidence is to exist, then it must be one of the arguments of the form of intention.

Even when the mass accepts the true intention favorably, or is thought to accept it in this way, it is still the form of the intention (that is to say, false reasons) which must be given to it. presented. 

The necessarily sophisticated and abstract nature of the form of intention exists only to stimulate passion, feelings, or the existence of prejudice that will serve to achieve the true goal while masking it. This method, whose consequences, from an intellectual point of view, are confusion and concealment of the truth, can in no way help to solve the problems of the masses. From the point of view of the state, its leaders and their spokespersons, on the other hand, when they are dishonest, ignorant, inhabited by utopian beliefs, or simply seeking to deceive, this method is by far the best to achieve any goal, and to steer the masses towards the path of sacrificing their own interests and dignity for their profits. 

ON POLITICAL SPEECH. 

Where a liberal system appears to be established (that is, when the suffrage system is widely applied or universal), candidates for high positions of governance must proceed by exploiting the simplest sentiments of the mass.



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Whatever their origins, the methods that are used by those whose aim is to capture and exploit the sympathy of the masses are always the same. They consist of pointing the finger at selfishness, stupidity, the materialistic pleasures of the rich and the powerful, and of course making caricatures of them. They consist in denouncing their vices, their errors and their faults (imaginary or real, it does not matter). They consist in promising the application of a crude social justice, always desired by the greatest number already subjected to all the frustrations, which aims to abolish all the distinctions of social categories based on the advantage of the well-birth. They consist in stimulating his desire, impossible to satisfy, for an absolutely equal distribution of pleasures and sufferings. 

Quite often the parties that this propaganda is directed against use exactly the same one to defend themselves against it. And whenever they think they can get away with it, they too make promises that they will never or will be able to keep. 

ON THE NECESSITY OF THE MYTH TO RUN THE MASSES WELL.

“General beliefs are the necessary supports of civilizations; they give direction to ideas. They alone can inspire faith and create duty [1]”, explains Gustave Le Bon. 

A myth, unlike a hypothesis or a utopia, is neither totally imaginary nor totally true at the same time. The facts of the myth can never be disputed, for a myth can never be refuted since it is, at its core, in accordance with the beliefs of a group. Being the expression of these convictions according to the language of this group (which can be at the origin of a movement), one cannot properly analyze the elements or the parts on a historical level. 

When men participate in a great social movement, they always perceive their action to come as a fight whose cause is so obvious that it will inevitably triumph.

These constructions, this knowledge which is so important for historians, are indeed myths, just as are the great general strikes of the trade unionists and the proletarian revolutions. Remarkable examples of these myths were 



[1] GUSTAVE Le Bon, Psychology of crowds, Book IL, c. iv. "Limits of variability of beliefs and opinions of crowds ”, §1“ Fixed Beliefs ”, 1895.



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the fact of early Christianity, the Reformation, the French Revolution and the followers of the revolutionary Mazzini [2].

Here is why it would be a waste of time to try to analyze these constructions and this knowledge as we analyze a thing by separating it into distinct elements, why we must consider them as a whole exclusively and as historical forces, and why we must especially be careful not to make hasty comparisons between the facts accomplished and the causes that the groups made their own before taking action.

A myth is not a description of things and notions, but the expression of a determination to act. Those who live in this world of myths are resistant to all their refutations. For example, no failure proves anything against socialism, since socialism is only a transitional phase preceding the revolution (it is understood here that the communists regard the revolution as a permanent action, and not as a means leading to an end). All the unbelievers who seek to verify the premises supporting the argument of socialism are accused of having followed their training badly (or that their training was insufficient); these must still work to understand, with more courage, persistence and confidence than they have shown. 

Although a myth is not a scientific theory, and therefore it is not necessary to confront it with facts, it is not, however, arbitrary; no myth can 



[2] Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872), was an Italian revolutionary and patriot, fervent republican and fighter for the achievement of Italian unity. He is considered with Giuseppe Garibaldi, Victor-Emmanuel II and Camillo Cavour, as one of the “fathers of the fatherland” in Italy. 

Mazzini participated in and supported all the insurrectionary movements in Italy, which for the most part proved to be failures, but his action had the effect of shaking the small states of the peninsula and of worrying the larger ones like the Kingdom of Sardinia, then the Kingdom of Italy from 1861, France and the Austrian Empire of which Metternich, Austrian Prime Minister, said of him: “I had to fight with the greatest of soldiers, Napoleon. I have come to agree among themselves the emperors, kings and popes. No one has given me more trouble than an Italian brigand: thin, pale, in rags, but eloquent like the storm, burning like an apostle, cunning like a thief, casual like a comedian, tireless like a lover, who has for name: Giuseppe Mazzini.".

His ideas and his political action largely contributed to the birth of the Italian unitary state, while the convictions of the various courts of Italy forced him into exile and underground until his death. Mazzinian theories are of great importance in defining the modern European movement by the affirmation of democracy through the republican form of the state. In Italian politics, it constitutes a permanent reference, which earned it to be taken over by all political tendencies: fascism, resistance and its republican family



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being. A myth that serves to bring together and animate a group (which can be a Nation, a population, or a social category) must be able to stimulate the deepest feelings of its members, and, at the same time, channel their energies towards the quest. a solution to the real problems they encounter in their current social and economic environment.

ON THE NECESSITY OF VIOLENCE TO RUN THE MASSES WELL. 

The myth, when it is powerful, transcends the social movement, it makes the revolution formidable and heroic. But he is of no service if he is not supported by violence. George Sorel, who has become universally known to thinkers and politicians of all stripes for his theory of regenerative violence, and indispensable to all proletarian revolutionary movements [3], teaches us just about everything that follows in this article. But you have to be careful when you understand the ideas he was defending, and why he was defending them. Sorel did not take the ideas of humanism and pacifism for what they were, for he understood that they are only forms of intentions serving to achieve real intentions; he linked them to the historical context in which they were to function.

Whatever their strength, the arguments of humanism and pacifism are never free from the violence of social relations, since violence is always the first of the means allowing to maintain order in any society.

Even in societies where individual freedom is greatest, at least the lower class is kept in a state of economic, social and political bondage. From the point of view of political reality which is ours here, humanist discourse only serves to obscure social realities. More importantly: the moral denunciation of violence helps to gag the lower and middle classes, and to dissuade them from using the violent means at their disposal when they revolt.

It is true that open violence in civil society in peacetime has become rarer in our twentieth century than in all previous centuries; but should we take this fact for the mark of an evolution in all respects?

Yes, insofar as the physical brutality of the bandits of ancient times, and that used by states to punish them, does not 



[3] GEORGES SOREL, Reflections on violence, 1908.



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are hardly employed than in some socially primitive societies. It is not this violence that Sorel wanted to talk about.

From another point of view, the growing rarity of acts of violence corresponds only to the growing frequency of deception and corruption in social relations. Deception has largely replaced violence as a sure way to achieve success and access privilege. This is why those who are better at deception than violence make humanism their main argument. For, unlike an act of violence, deception does not engender moral horror of the masses; "We ended up finding that it would be very unfair to condemn bankrupt merchants and notaries who retired ruined after mediocre catastrophes, while the princes of financial fraud continued to lead a happy life", explains Sorel [4].

Likewise in the case of the modern lower class, when it finds itself controlled by reformists and politicians. Open tolerance of methods of proletarian violence would threaten all institutions of society, and its social structure as a whole. This is why the use of violence is condemned by all those who have an interest in maintaining a society in its present state. Cunning is favored when it uses the doctrines of "social peace", "collaboration" and "arbitration". The seriousness of occasional lower-class acts of violence is downplayed, because the elites of the labor unions - when they are quiet allies of the ruling elite - use it to: maintain their pressure on employers, obtain for them even concessions, and to prove how capable they are of controlling proletarian violence. Sorel explains in this regard:

“To transform the unions into politico-criminal associations serving as auxiliaries to democratic government, such has been the plan of Waldeck Rousseau since 1884; the unions were to play a role analogous to that which we have seen play in the Lodges: the latter being used to spy on civil servants, the former being intended to threaten the interests of the employers who are not favorable to the administration; the Freemasons being rewarded with decorations and favors granted to their friends; workers being authorized to wrest from their bosses 



[4] GEORGES SOREL, Reflections on violence, c. vi., "The Morality of Violence", II, § B, 1908.



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salary supplements. This policy was simple and inexpensive. In order for this system to function properly, there must be a certain moderation in the conduct of the workers; not only must the violence remain discreet, but also the demands must not exceed certain limits. The same principles must be applied here as for bribes received by politicians: these are approved by everyone when they know how to limit their demands. People who are in business know that there is a whole art of bribery; some brokers have acquired a special skill in appreciating the discounts to be offered to senior officials or members of parliament who can bring a deal to fruition (knowing that no important business is done without a bribe). If the financiers are, almost always, obliged to have recourse to the good offices of specialists, all the more reason for the workers not accustomed to the customs of the world, must they need intermediaries to fix the sum which they can require from? their bosses without exceeding reasonable limits? 

“We are thus led to consider arbitration in a whole new light and to understand it in a truly scientific way, since, instead of letting ourselves be fooled by the abstracts, we will explain it, by means of the dominant ideas. of bourgeois society, which invented it and which wants to impose it on the workers. It would obviously be absurd to enter a butcher's shop and summon him to sell a ham at a price lower than the marked price, claiming arbitration; but it is not absurd to promise a group of employers the advantages which fixed wages can procure for them for a few years, and to ask specialists what gratuities deserve this guarantee; this gratification can be considerable, if one can hope for a good flow of business during this period. Instead of paying a bribe to an influential man, bosses give their workers a pay rise; from their point of view, there is no difference. As for the government, it becomes the benefactor of the people and it hopes to have good elections; [...] [5],

“According to many learned people, the shift from violence to cunning that is evident in England's current strikes cannot be over-admired. Trade unions [6] hold 



5 GEORGES SOREL, Reflections on violence, c. vi., "The Morality of Violence", m, 1908.

6 Workers' unions in England. 



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many to gain recognition of the right to use the threat wrapped in diplomatic formulas: they wish not to be worried when they circulate around the factories delegates responsible for making the workers who want to work understand that they would have great interest to follow the indications of trade unions; [...] [7]”.

In addition, the growth of humanist and peaceful ideologies, this effort to mask the force which, in any case, continues to operate in an ambiguous manner, in order to rely on a power resulting from cunning, deception, compromise and corruption rather than violence is the method of oligarchic collectivism. It helps to hold not only the lower and middle classes, but also all individuals from the elite as it is described in a future chapter. Power is exercised in an ambiguous manner, by deception and without regard for the meaning of what political power is according to the theory of modern political science. At the same time as this state, political power, as it officially appears, must face criticism from the middle and lower classes; this is where the need for press control takes on its full meaning. Sorel said on this subject: "When the ruling classes, no longer daring to govern, are ashamed of their privileged position, insist on making advances to their enemies and proclaim their horror for any split in society, it becomes much more difficult to maintain in the proletariat this idea of ​​scission without which it would be impossible for socialism to fulfill its historic role [8]”. And if they do not firmly control the press, then they reveal their cowardice and quackery.

"So let us do more every day for the underprivileged," say these gentlemen; let us show ourselves to be more Christian or more philanthropic or more democratic (according to the temperament of each one); let us unite for the fulfillment of social duty. We will thus have these dreadful socialists who believe it is possible to ruin the prestige of the Intellectuals, after the Intellectuals have ruined that of the Church. In fact these learned and moral combinations have failed; the reason is not difficult to see. 

“The fine reasoning of these gentlemen, the pontiffs of social duty, supposes that violence can no longer increase, or 



[7] GEORGES SOREL, Reflections on violence, c. vi, "The Morality of Violence", VI, 1908.

[8] GEORGES SOREL, Reflections on violence, c. vi., "The Morality of Violence", I., 1908. 



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even that it will diminish as the Intellectuals make more courtesies, platitudes and grimaces in honor of the union of classes. Unfortunately for these great thinkers, things are quite different; it turns out that violence does not stop increasing as it should decrease according to the principles of high sociology. " 

An open recognition of the need for violence can stop social degeneration, but in this case the outspoken brutality and authoritarian spirit that characterize it must be backed up by a particularly strong and convincing myth. Myth and violence, when they depend on each other and reciprocally, no longer produce either cruelty without purpose or suffering, but, instead, a sense of sacrifice and heroism [10]. 

But it is through what is only superficially a paradox that open consent to the use of violence, when linked to a strong myth, leads to a general decrease in violence throughout society. . As was the case in the days of the early Christian martyrs, which historians have shown were ultimately rare and unspectacular in reality, the absolute quality of a myth gives a higher meaning to the nature of violence, and, at the same time, prevents a relentless repetition of brutal acts. "We can therefore conceive that socialism is perfectly revolutionary, although there are only short and few conflicts, provided that these have sufficient force to be able to ally themselves with the idea of ​​the general strike. ; all the events will then appear in an amplified form, and, the catastrophic notions being maintained, the split will be perfect. Thus the objection which is often addressed to revolutionaries is rejected: civilization is not threatened with succumbing to the consequences of an increase in brutality, since the idea of ​​a general strike makes it possible to fuel the notion of class struggle by means of incidents which would appear mediocre to bourgeois historians [11]”.

The seeming paradox, suggesting that the open admission of the function of the violent in social conflicts can lead to a decrease in the amount of violence in general, appears to be a great mystery to all who contemplate society in general.



[9] Ibid.

[10] Sorel seems to have a suddenly "romantic" and "passionate" outlook when dealing with this point, but all of his thinking strongly suggests that he was aware of it. Ulbid. 



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considering only the shapes. If Men believe and say that they are opposed to violence, if, on the contrary, they defend humanist and peaceful ideals, it follows - as all formalists think - that there will be less violence in the world only when they openly admit the need for it. Historical experience, however, does not support such hope, as Machiavelli had already noticed and understood in his time. The humanist ideals common to most of the 18th century French aristocrats in no way reduced the gigantic bloodbath of the French Revolution of 1789; on the contrary, they could well be the cause of its excessiveness. The facts show us that the humanistic perception of the punishments to be inflicted on criminals, as we saw it appear and flourish during the 19th century, in no way diminished violent crime. Peace and anti-war movements are a particularly visible mark of modern society. However, they did not prevent the coming of the biggest and most devastating wars in the history of mankind. On the contrary, in the countries where they were the most influential, precisely, they led many more men to death than if the political doctrine of the day had been based on the fact that wars are one of the natural phases and inevitable cycle of History of all societies, all over the world. 



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II. SOCIETY'S STAGE OF EVOLUTION.

SOCIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT.

Everyone can admit that almost all the behaviors other than verbal, which one can notice in animals, or in humans when they are only the fact of impulses, are not logical. This characteristic, common to all living beings endowed with a central nervous system, brings its share of difficulties when the behavior which is not logical is supplemented by the verbal expression. Neither the country, nor the type of society, nor the culture exert any influence on these behaviors: and history teaches us that during the evolution of Man, from the Neolithic period to our time, no change only affected his mind. Basically, the man of the twentieth century behaves much the same way as the one who lived in Mesopotamia or even in Japan thousands of years ago. Some of the most prominent modern historians and sociologists have incorporated psychology and its findings into their research and assessments. Others, just as eminent, have established classifications of typical behaviors by observing their constancies and repetitions throughout the history of mankind. Among them, Vilfredo Pareto stood out for the greater accuracy of his observations 12 when explaining non-logical collective social and cultural behaviors - which psychologists distinguish from logical behaviors resulting from reflected reason, while speaking of passion. However, passion always prevails over reason in the behavior of societies, and it is at the origin of cultures and their evolution. Pareto, to justify his classification, says that "Every social phenomenon can be considered under two aspects, that is to say as it is in reality or as it presents itself to the minds of certain men. We will call the first aspect: objective; the second: subjective. This division is necessary, because we cannot put in the same class, for example, the operations which the chemist performs in his laboratory, and those of the individual who devotes himself to magic, the actions performed by the sailors. Greeks rowing for 



[12] Vilfredo Pareto presented his classification in his Trattato di sociologia générale (Traite de sociologie générale), in 1916. 



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hunt their ship on the water, and the sacrifices they offered to Poseidon to obtain a favorable navigation. In Rome, the law of the XII Tables punished those who performed spells against the harvests. We want to distinguish this action from that which consists in burning the harvests [13]”.

Pareto's attempts to demystify nonscientific theories and belief systems led him to distinguish between the changing elements that gave rise to these theories, to which he called "derivations", and the elements. residuals (relatively) permanent that of “residues”. This notion of residues is often misunderstood, or taken as an abstract way of designating the most primary instincts and feelings of the human mind. Pareto occasionally spoke to clarify his explanation, and referred to its residues as instincts. However, it seems that he used them to denote manifestations of feelings, or rather as their equivalents. Residues are intermediaries to the feelings of the mind that we cannot know, and the system of beliefs and actions that we know and can properly analyze. Moreover, the residues come under the instincts of Man, but they do not cover them all, knowing that we can only know those which make rationality appear in the theories, the others remaining hidden.

For example, a man's appetite or his preference for pork ribs does not fall into any of the residue categories established by Pareto. But if this man constructs a theory saying that Chinese food is superior to Italian food, then Pareto would try to explore the residues which support his justification (since, a priori, no logical argument could definitively justify that the food of either of these two countries is better).

Pareto distinguished between residuals and derivations using the following procedures:

1 ° Analysis of the doctrines associated with the action. For example: Christian religious doctrine, or liberal political theory. Knowing these theories, one extracts from them the elements which correspond to the scientific standards of the logical experiment;

2 ° Extraction of elements which are not scientifically demonstrable, and separation of these, on the one hand, into elements




[13] VILFREDO PARETO; Treatise on general sociology, c. ii, “Non-logical Actions”, §149,1911.



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constants which are the residuals; and, on the other, in variables which are the derivations.

The derivations only appear when one finds oneself in the presence of reasoning, of ideological justifications. And when they are present, Pareto's analysis consists in extracting from them the (relatively) constant elements that support them. For example, there is a wide variety of verbalizations and doctrines related to sex in all eras of history. These can take the form of literary pornography (sexual freedom), or that of the denunciation of sexual license (sexual repression). These last two actions are derivations resulting from a common and very particular residue which, for its part, remains remarkably stable at all periods of humanity and everywhere in the world. The styles, fashions and ethical theories concerning sex vary considerably, but they are the products of a nucleus, sex, which engenders all kinds of new doctrines which are only alibis motivated by deep reasons never openly stated. 

Pareto theories gave rise to a system of social thought recognized by the most renowned historians and sociologists, including Pitirim Sorokin [14] most recently. "Pareto's system of social thought is a brilliant quantitative description of the functional interdependence of the social phenomenon which eliminates the single cause, which emphasizes a dynamic analysis of the phenomena called 'residues' and 'derivations', and which its author describes as follows:

“Residues are manifestations of feelings. Derivatives include logical reasoning, those which are not, and the manifestations of feelings serving the purpose of the derivations: they are manifestations of the irrepressible and natural need for the human being to think. If this need were satisfied only by reasoning drawn from logical experiments, there would be no derivations. Instead, we would only find scientific theories supported by logical experiments. But the human need to think can be satisfied in many other ways [...] [15]”. 



[14] Pitirim Sorokin (1889-), political activist in Russia, became a sociologist and founder of the Department of Sociology at Harvard University (United States). He was particularly distinguished by his contribution to the theory of social cycles. His major works are The Sociology of Revolution (1935) and Social and Cultural Dynamics (4 vol., 1937-41).

[15] Sorokin, 1928.



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We can also consider, from another point of view, that the Pareto residuals are synonymous with “economic interests”, and, more exactly, equivalents of the “basic instincts” of Malinovsky.

Let us now see some examples of behaviors resulting from the Pareto residuals.

The historical list of practices and residues that are not logical is quite long; they are mainly found in many tribes, groups and even Nations. They most often relate to meteorology; that is, the belief that it is possible to predict it accurately or even to influence it. Sometimes this non-logical behavior consists of sacrificing an ox, a rooster or a goat; sometimes, it consists of the manufacture and manipulation of material objects; sometimes still, in the repetition of formulas, songs, etc. Often these practices are associated with theories that are supposed to explain why they can affect meteorology (because a god listens and is receptive, etc.). These many and varied practices maintain a close link with derivations. But all these derivations, which also and consequently are numerous, have one point in common which we will arbitrarily designate under the name of "nucleus". This core is man's feeling (or belief) that it is possible to influence meteorology by means of some abstract action. 

It can be understood that this nucleus appears in many activities other than attempting to control meteorology. And it can be activities during which men can combine together two, or more, elements of different kinds to serve another purpose, or even no concrete purpose. This core, common to all the major fields of action, is an expression of a residue that we can arbitrarily and empirically call, for this precise case, a “residue of combinations”.

We can find, in all periods of human history since the Neolithic period, a wide variety of verbal activities related to the theme of the pleasures of sex (and more precisely and exactly with the sexual drive, which finds its origin in the survival drive of the species). Sometimes they take the form of pornographic literature; sometimes, on the contrary, that of the denunciation of the sin of the flesh, of asceticism and abstinence; sometimes that of a strict codification of sexual practices; sometimes, that of a necessary censorship; sometimes, that of moral or religious allegories ... 



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But, in all these last expressions, very different from each other, and sometimes even opposed or contradictory, we still find the theme of sexuality as a common core. And at the same time we notice its great stability across ages and cultures (because it is a concern). He changes style and affects modes of expression, it is around him that new expressions replace old ones, even censoring them at the same time. This demonstrates again, but with the help of a different example, that this common "sexual nucleus" is the expression of a residue. Or again: we find that everywhere, and at all times, Men believe in the objective reality and in the persistence of entities such as gods and spirits; or even in "the state", "progress", "justice", "liberty", "humanity", "proletariat" or "law". The names and particular personalities of these entities change, sometimes rapidly; as well as the theories which explain the entities (religions, philosophies and moralities). These names, special or particular characteristics and theories are derivations.

However, we still find this common belief in the reality of such entities (however we express and describe them), which demonstrates the existence of a residue, and at the same time the existence of a persistent residue of abstraction (which we may call "natural need for abstractions"). 

The term residue then means, in the strict context of this explanation, the stable and common element that we find in all social actions, and which is a remnant of our distant primitive ancestors, when we have disengaged it from all derivations. The resemblance of this explanation, here sociological, with those of Malinovsky, and even those of modern psychology, may seem obvious. The two branches find the same answer, but that of sociology proceed differently (although in a way quite close to that of psychologists and psychoanalysts, in the absolute), by the observation and the comparison of many actions of nature. social in diverse and varied contexts and times. 

Always seen from the angle of sociology, exclusively, we can assume that the residues correspond to as many impulses that exist in Man permanently. Because, here, we only give to the word residue a sociological meaning, and not a psychological one; the equivalent of this explanation, from the point of view of psychology and the study of behavior 



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will be more detailed and more precise, but will not, of course, be accompanied by concrete and historical examples. But it is still important, at this stage, to insist on the theoretical and sociological meaning of the term residue, in order to prevent any supposition that what has just been explained so far can be invalidated by an argument resulting from psychology, by explaining, for example, that residue is an inappropriate term when trying to describe what drive is, and that drive is not, alone, at the origin of behaviors presented as consequences of its action. 

We classify the residues according to a hierarchy that Pareto established in his Trattato di sociologia générale (the actions which are not logical being made up of “residues”, that is to say of all the affects inherent in man). This hierarchy is made up of six classes, or generic categories. 

Class I.: instinct for combinations of residues. It is about the tendency which leads the Men to combine or to manipulate various elements and arbitrarily extracted from past experiences. Many magical and occult practices are the results of such combinations: manipulations to control the weather or the progression of a disease, to seek luck; the virtues attributed to the numbers (3, 7 and 13 for the most common examples); totems and amulets, etc. The supposedly virtuous or magical connections are established between certain events, certain formulas, prayers and mystical words, luck and bad luck, joy, terror and sadness. At a more complex level, it is such combinations of residues that lead individuals with brash, restless or passionate temperaments to get involved in large financial manipulations, mergers, combinations and re-combinations of companies, to make then undo. political alliances in order to make and break empires. It is again the combinations of residues of this class which are at the origin of the elaboration of the complex logical or pseudological systems made up of ideas and general abstractions which lead to theological, metaphysical and ideological representations of all kinds. Finally, it is these combinations of residues that give rise to these derivations which humans need to give an appearance of rationality to their behavior (certain specialists in the study of behavior speak, in the latter case, of alibis which must mask the realities of fundamental human behavior, as stated by Malinowski, for example). 



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IN SUMMARY: combinations in general; combinations of similar or contrary things; resemblance and opposition in general; rare things; exceptional events; terrible things and events; happy state united with good things; unhappy state united with bad things; assimilated things producing effects of a similar nature; rarely of an opposing nature; the mysterious power of certain things and certain acts; mysterious power in general; names mysteriously united with things; need to unite behaviors; need for logical developments; faith in the effectiveness of combinations. 

Class II. : persistence of groups (or aggregates). When any combination of residues has been created, forces intervene to ensure its persistence. These forces, one might say, are “conservative” in nature (ie similar to those which support the maintenance of a political system). They are found as much in certain animal species as in humans. We often speak of them using the term “social inertia”. They are expressed, for example, in the powerful feeling that the family, the tribe or the nation is an objective and permanent entity. Group persistence is so strong that the deceased and the coming messiah are included in the supposedly persistent unity; and thus exist and have existed innumerable forms of ancestor cults, beliefs in immortality and other lasting social gains. The pride of the noble family, class solidarity, patriotism, religious and political fanaticism, are all direct expressions of assemblages of residues which form the persistence of groups. Group persistence is also responsible for the feeling that ownership of an object may evolve into a fusion of that object and the soul of its owner; what is at the origin of this practice which consists in burying the dead with objects which belonged to them during their lifetime, or, as regards the choice of the place of burial, to bury them "in the ground where they are born ”,“ of their ancestors ”, or“ whom they loved ”, etc. They can manifest in another way and to other concerns, offering a perpetuity, even a divine immortality to abstractions and personifications. Gods, heroes, platonic entities, “natural laws”, “progress”, the “State”, the “Republic”, the “Fatherland”, the “Nation”, the “moral will” and many other creatures of 



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Class I and II residues are decisive in changes and developments in political and social structures. That is why they should be given more attention than those in the following classes. 

Class III. : need to express feelings through external acts - residues of demonstrative expressions and activities. Most men have a constant urge to "take action", whether it pays off or not. Ignorance of medicine does not prevent the family from providing all kinds of care or pseudo-care to those of its members who are ill. Most of them, too, think that "something must be" or "should be done" to improve social or economic condition, even when they have no idea what should be done. nor the skills and knowledge required to provide arguments supported by valid premises [16]. Some of 



[16] This is, of course, the behavior that Hume brought to light, and which he strongly debated in his A Treatise on Human Nature (1739): "In every System of morality, which I have hitherto met with, I have always remarked, that the author proceeds for some time in the ordinary ways of reasoning, and establishes the being of a God, or makes observations concerning human affairs; when ail of a sudden I am surprised to find, that instead of the usual copulations of propositions, is, and is not, I meet with no proposition that is not connected with an ought, or an ought not. This change is imperceptible; but is however, of the last conséquence. For as this ought, or ought not, expresses some new relation or affirmation, 'tis necessary that it should be observed and explained; and at the same time that a reason should be given; for what seems altogether inconceivable, how this new relation can be a déduction from others, which are entirely différent from it. But as authors do not commonly use this précaution, I shall présume to recommend it to the readers; and am persuaded, that this small attention would subvert ail the vulgar Systems of morality, and let us see, that the distinction of vice and virtue is not founded merely on the relations of objects, nor is perceived by reason." L. III, t* Part, s. I.



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they even go so far as to launch into (passionate) speeches, to campaign during a popular vote or to propose reforms whose long-term consequences they cannot anticipate. Just as most men are impatient with those who remain passive while "the country is heading towards disaster". This class of residues has a close relationship with Class I; developing combinations of residues is one of the most intense human activities. 

IN SUMMARY: need to act manifested by combinations; religious exaltation.

Class IV. : residues related to sociability. This class, like Class V, has a close relationship with Class II residues; it would be arbitrary to separate them distinctly, in theory. For, in truth, and with the exception of Class VI (sexual residues), all residues fall into the first and main two classes: I. instinct for combinations of residues; II. persistence of groups (or aggregates). However, we group together under Class IV the factors of these two classes to present them as: a need for conformity to the group that all individuals feel, and, conversely, as a strong tendency of the group to want to conform to its opinions (or beliefs). , practices, rituals, etc.) individuals that he has not yet assimilated; reservation or rejection of the change (or novelty); the opposite, yet related, feelings of pity and cruelty; willingness to sacrifice life, welfare, or property for the supposed welfare of others; the feelings of social belonging and hierarchy present in most individuals (feelings that some individuals are superior, and others inferior in the social scale); the almost universal need for group approval (which we will discuss extensively in future articles). 

Most of these latter sentiments, and their important role in establishing social life, have been noted by many authors who have written on society since the time of the ancient Greek philosophers. We must keep in mind, however, that they are all non-logical (or irrational) as soon as we look for the arguments and then the premises on which



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the latter are or could be established. They can give rise to good or bad results - this will depend on the circumstances - but they will occur in all cases, not as deliberate and considered intentions, but in a way independent of all rational thought. We do not conform to the group and its thoughts, practices and customs by virtue of a theory that this will improve our daily lives; it comes from our nature and our drive which commands us, against all considered will, to conform; and it is only later that we build or adopt a reasoning (which will be our alibi) saying that "this is the best way to live". We do not sacrifice our life for our country because we believe in some highly elaborate philosophical theory, of which others relate to the nature of social life (or a "social contract") and of what should be the State can be drawn. Because the tendency to self-sacrifice occurs before any construction of theories (alibis), and because these latest attempts, made under the pressure of Class I residues, allow us to give it an acceptable meaning.

IN SUMMARY: particular companies; need for consistency; uniformity obtained by acting on oneself; uniformity imposed on others; neophobia; pity and cruelty; pity for oneself transferred to others; instinctive aversion to suffering in general; reasoned repugnance for unnecessary suffering; tendency to impose harm on oneself for the good of others; tendency to expose one's life; sharing of property with others; feelings of hierarchy; feelings of superiors; feelings of inferiors; need community approval; asceticism. 

Class V.: integrity of the individual and his dependencies. It concerns the need of men to preserve their personal integrity, to remain what they are, and to relate to whatever they perceive as conforming to their perception of themselves. 

Here are some examples. There is usually a very strong feeling which is opposed to any alteration of the social structure of belonging, or of the social structure which corresponds to that considered "ideal". In societies where slavery exists, there is strong opposition when it comes to suggesting that slaves be freed; this reaction extends to other members of this society who, however, have no slaves. During the American Civil War, the vast majority of southerners who fought bravely, and with personal conviction, did not own slaves and 



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knew they would never have the means to own or maintain them. Later in this same country, all the soldiers who fought bravely in defense of values ​​such as the right to free enterprise did not own businesses, nor did they hope to be able to own one one day. In fact, these combatants saw a link which seemed obvious to them between their own integrity and the need to preserve the general social structure in which they evolved. When a misfortune has affected the integrity of an individual, he does not cease to restore it, in a large majority of cases. A taboo has been broken; therefore a purification ceremony is immediately organized (among Baptist religious, purification may be required when the family counts an ancestor who has been guilty of an ungodly act). The Purgatory of Catholics is there to restore the balance that has been out of balance during earthly life. Or integrity is restored by actions directed against its rapist or against the one who is designated as such. In other words: revenge must be done; the criminal must be punished, or the heretic must be burned. 

It is also this class of residues which is responsible for most of the feelings leading to the expression of the need for social equality. These feelings are never more than alibis, because they always correspond, in fact, to a need for extraordinary privileges for the group which adheres to the doctrine of equality or which defends it. The bourgeoisie of the period following the Renaissance demanded this social equality; but, in truth, her real expectation was a transfer to her of the principal social privileges ordinarily granted to nobility resulting from feudalism. We notice that this foreshadowed the demand for equality of the lower class (or working class). From the point of view of this analysis, we find no contradiction with the obvious fact that a Nation which sincerely fights for equality can, at the same time, accept internal practices of racial or religious discrimination. The contradiction can only be found in the choice of words used, which have little influence since they serve as alibis, and not in the feelings that the latter express (oddly enough, in general). 

IN SUMMARY: feelings that contrast with alterations in social balance; feelings of equality among inferiors; restoration of integrity through operations relating to subjects who have suffered the alteration; real subjects; imaginary or abstract subjects; restoration of integrity by



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operations relating to those who have altered it; real agent of alteration; imaginary or abstract agent.

Class VI. : sexual residues. These residues, which are exclusively biological in nature, are not strictly speaking. They only function when stimulated by expressions that are, at least, partially verbal where theories, literature, moral rules and religious doctrines are used as disguises and distortions - ever changing, but always present - sexual urges. We agree here with Sigmund Freud's point of view, without however repeating its arguments, and especially the psychoanalytic approach. 

These six classes of residues are of the same nature (instinctive, instinctual, etc., as we wish), and they are the major and never changing nuclei of behaviors which are not logical. And these residues are at the origin of the greatest proportion of human actions that affect the course of governments and of history. 

With these residues, more or less constant which occur at all times and in all cultures, we find the derivations, variable and changing elements, which are their products, let us remember. These sets of residues and derivations come to "dress" the verbal explanations and justifications, the doctrines and the theories which are the alibis having to give them an acceptable rational meaning. These other derivations, verbal ones, are themselves specifically evoked by the operation of one of the combinations of residues which have just been presented and explained. Concrete theories of social connections are made up of residues and derivations. 

Derivatives, which include all or almost all of the doctrines, beliefs and theories that underlie social struggles, democratic principles, laws, systems of governance and moral and religious hierarchies, justifications for this or such form of societies, constitutions, programs and charters, can be divided into four generic classes, as Pareto did, once again.

Class I.: affirmations. These derivations are the simplest, the most direct, and, often, the most efficient. They frequently take the form of maxims and aphorisms: "honesty is the best policy";



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"Expect the other to treat you as you have treated him", "better to receive pain than to have to inflict it", Golden Rule 11, etc. 

The tones and feelings that accompany these simple statements are accepted, and, especially when repeated many times, they acquire a high persuasive value. This point is developed by Adolf Hitler in a chapter by Mein Kampf (1925) devoted to propaganda "[...] any effective propaganda must be limited to very few points, and assert them with stereotypical formulas for so long as it takes, so that the last of the listeners is able to grasp the idea. [...] No diversity must, in any case, modify the content of what is the object of the propaganda, but must always, in the end, repeat the same thing 1 *. " 

IN SUMMARY: experimental facts or imaginary facts; feelings; mixture of facts and feelings.

Class II. : authority. This class includes a wide variety of derivations whose common argument consists in appealing to some authority: an individual or a group of individuals; a deity or his personification; the authority of a tradition or a custom ... There is seldom a minimum of scientific justification allowing rational acceptance of the opinion of the authority - which, moreover, is not necessarily absurd, but this in no way weakens the effectiveness of this derivation. The will of God, the Bible, what our ancestors did, the “real meaning” of Karl Marx, the political testament, remain admissible and convincing arguments from a point of view that consciously frees itself from scientific logic. 

IN SUMMARY: authority of one man or several men; authority of tradition, uses and customs; authority of a divine being or personification.

Class III. : agreements with feelings or with principles. Thanks to Class II residues, man can transform feelings into abstractions, enduring realities and enduring principles. The power of these entities is derived from 



[17] "Do not do to your neighbor what you would take badly of him". This version of the Golden Rule, also called the “Ethics of Reciprocity,” was written by the Greek statesman Pittacos of Mytilene (-640 / -568), and found in a fragment of Pittacus (10.3.) . The scholar and philosopher Thales (-624 / -54Ô) did it this way, according to Diogenes Laërce: “Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing”. 

[18] Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf 1925, pg. 181-185. 



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feelings that they express, and not of their supposed logical or scientific rigor. Due to their strength, they can also be used as premises for the pseudo-logic of derivations. The theorist can appeal to a “universal judgment”, to a “collective unconscious”, to “the will of the people” or even to “the opinion of the best minds”, and continue to be persuasive without having to be persuasive. find themselves compelled to rely on real facts in relation to what their listeners or readers think. A political program which serves “the best interests of humanity”, or which takes up the “principles of natural law”, or which respects the “eternal and inalienable rights of individuals”, is thus made acceptable by sparing the tedious scientific justification which would demonstrate what its probable effects would be on society and its citizens. 

IN SUMMARY: feelings; individual interest; collective interest; legal entities; metaphysical entities; supernatural entities.

Class IV. : "Verbal evidence". These derivations are familiar to us since they are the product of verbal confusions, fallacies and syllogisms, ambiguities, uses of expressions resulting from emotion in place of descriptions of facts, and other metaphors and allegories presented as truths, which the epistemologists study.

IN SUMMARY: indeterminate term designating a real thing and indeterminate thing corresponding to a term; term designating a thing, and which gives rise to accessory feelings, or accessory feelings which lead to the choice of a term; term with several meanings, and different things designated by a single term; metaphors, allegories, analogies; doubtful, indeterminate terms that do not correspond to anything concrete. 

The influence of derivations on important social changes is minor or nonexistent. Residues are the lasting, significant and truly influential factors, while derivations are only forms of expressions that appear, exist and then disappear in favor of new ones, without altering in any way the structure of society, its evolutions, regressions and upheavals. However, they should not be totally neglected, for they are the intelligible expression of residues, and, in this, they allow us to perceive and interpret the influences they exert in time, space and time. History.

In his ambition to surpass the theory of "solidarity", the politician is inspired by the ambition to obtain money, power and accolades.



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Analysis of his theory would reveal nothing of his motivations which are, after all, that of virtually all politicians, no matter what doctrines they preach. What is important for him is to be gifted with the ability to influence others. If he said something like "believe in solidarity, because if you do it, it will allow me to enrich myself", he would make people laugh, and garner very little support.

The influence on the actions of men and on the course of events which derivations - theories, doctrines and reasoning - can have on the instant always deceives the candid observer. At best, derivations reinforce the influence of residue - a well-thought-out "truth" that good propagandists have firmly entrenched in people's minds, always acting indirectly. The apparent influence of the derivations is, in reality, that of the residue that it expresses. It is for this reason that the "logical" refutation of theories advanced in politics never leads to anything, as long as the residues remain intact. Historians and political scientists have no difficulty in proving that the Nazi racial theories are on the whole wrong, but that has no effect in convincing them to give them up. And even if they abandoned them, they would only substitute them for new derivations to express the same residues. 

SOCIAL BALANCE.

What is called here “social equilibrium” groups together the general state and the structure of a society, considered from a dynamic point of view and at any time. That is, this term refers to the state of a society, as it involves the interaction of those forces which together determine what it is at any given time, and at the same time, knowing that these forces and their interactions vary in intensity over time and according to the nature of external events, and thus change the state and structure of this society. Let us see what are these forces capable of changing the state and structure of a society. 

I. The physical environment - climate and geography, etc. - is the most important. But, knowing that it varies very slowly during the history of a society, we must consider it as a constant, and stop taking it into account when we seek to know what are the laws which govern social changes and evolutions. 



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II. The residues, which, as we have seen above, also exert a very great influence. Residues change slowly, as well; they remain surprisingly stable, especially when taken and analyzed within each social group. But, since they still change much faster than the physical environment, they can greatly change social life at all levels of a society. Even more influential is the distribution of residuals by social class (which are the most and least present); as these changes in distribution can be sudden (at the end of a revolution, for example), the distribution of residues can therefore change the state and structure of a society very quickly. The study of these changes in the distribution of residues can also be incorporated into the category of forces presented in point V., below. 

III. Economic factors exert, of course, a considerable influence, and they are unanimously recognized by all modern historians and sociologists. Because, since the end of the monarchy, which has occurred in almost all countries during roughly the same period of history, it is the economy which has often and really conditioned the chosen political doctrine. by modern states. For example, a country which enjoys abundant natural resources may adopt a political doctrine which promotes the well-being of individuals of all social classes, while, conversely, another which finds itself at a great disadvantage in this respect will have a elite which, in order to survive the general discontent of the middle and lower classes, will have to adopt a collectivist and authoritarian doctrine (fascism, national-socialism or communism). 

IV. The derivations, which were explained in the previous article, exert a certain influence on social equilibrium; significantly less, however, than the three forces previously presented. These beliefs which are not based on any logic - myths, religions and other formulas - being only expressions of residues, they cannot influence the latter, nor even their distributions, nor, again, the distribution of the elites. 



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V. The circulation of the elites, the modalities of which were presented in the previous article, and about which we will return again, has a pluralist theory of history (several eminent sociologists and historians belonging to several eras have integrated the " circulation of the elites ”in their explanations and comments, such as Dante, Machiavelli, Sorel, Michels, Pareto, Mosca, Burnham, and even Trotsky ...). The changes and upheavals of a society are not consequences of the exclusive impact of any single cause, but rather the results of interdependencies and reciprocal influences from a variety of causes. which, mainly, but not exclusively, are the five forces which have just been presented here.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT.

Few psychologists worry about putting their discoveries to the test of the largest scale of sociology, and suddenly, the interest of these does not, very often, exceed the level of a pleasant conversation of living room. Wilfred Trotter is about the only one, since the observations of Taine and Le Bon, to have undertaken serious research into the psychology of men when they interact in large groups and form societies. His observations and discoveries considerably enrich those of these two other eminent specialists in the role of human psychology in the history of mankind, and their highly scientific approach makes them the only valid alternative to that of sociologists such as Pareto and Mosca. No leader, no ruling elite in this twentieth century would last long if it ignored what Trotter teaches us. It must be said that no one before him has been able to enjoy such a lofty point of view as that of the eminent brain surgeon that he is, and whose reputation and excellence, in the latter capacity, have been so widely recognized. 

“Few topics have led to such heated and protracted discussions as the definition of the science of sociology,” he says in the introduction to his research papers. “It is therefore necessary, as it is hoped that this essay may serve sociological applications, that the author define the meaning in which he uses this term. When naming it science, it must of course be understood that sociology is a body of knowledge derived from the experience of its material, and coordinated in such a way that it can be useful for 



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prediction of future events, and, if possible, that it allows us to influence the future behavior of this material. Men in society, or groups of men, are this material.

"Consequently, sociology is only a new name given to psychology in the broadest sense, that is to say a psychology which must be able to include all the phenomena of the mind without even the exception of the more complex, and which is essentially practical in an even wider sense than any orthodox psychology that we have seen so far.

“Sociology has, of course, been often described as social psychology, and has been considered to be different from ordinary psychology in that it concerns those forms of mental activity that Man shows in his social relations, the society bringing to light a special set of mental aptitudes which is not usually of interest to ordinary psychology, since the latter focuses on the individual. "

Trotter considers that any psychology, to be viable, must closely associate “the two fields of the individual and the social”, so that they form a continuity, that the Man as solitary animal is unknown to us. He explains to us, with an accuracy that any careful observation and devoid of the parasitic elements of humanistic and ethical religious or political considerations easily confirms that human behavior is above all dictated (rather unconsciously than consciously) by natural instincts which are: species preservation, nutrition, and enough sex to stimulate reproduction. 

However, he still wonders about the killings, massacres and wars which regularly contradict these natural instincts, and considers them, arbitrarily to our liking, as manifestations of anomalies specific to certain species, since, he says, the bees and ants, whose collective behavior strikingly imitates cell organizations, are protected from them. He makes it an unknown which he names "x", and which he considers to be one of the elements responsible for the complexity of human behavior.

Yet, the most in-depth study of the behavior of men throughout their history strongly suggests that all of these killings, massacres and wars are nothing but sophisticated expressions of what Spencer called "the survival of the fittest" when he spoke. looked for similarities between the architecture of economic exchanges and Darwin's theory of evolution. What Spencer calls this is, from a more scientific point of view, a visible manifestation of the natural selection of species.

 

[19] WILFRED TROTTER, Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War, "Herd instinct and its bearing on the psychology of civilized man", I. Introduction, p. 11, 1919.



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“The survival of the fittest, which I have sought to express in terms of mechanics, is what Darwin called 'natural selection or the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life.' An operation of this kind is revealed throughout the organic kingdom. Darwin's great work on the Origin of Species has proven this to satisfy almost all naturalists. Even on its simple statement, the truth of its hypothesis is so obvious that it hardly needs proof. We can ask to prove by facts that natural selection explains everything we want to relate to it; but we do not ask for facts to prove that natural selection has always been done, is currently being done, and must always continue to be done. This point, recognized as a certain a priori truth, let us study it from the two distinct points of view that it presents to us.

“Living organisms prove by the fact that they are fit to live in view of the trials to which they have been subjected; while the organisms which die show that they are in some respects unfit to live; facts no less manifest of the necessary tendency of this spontaneous purification of the species to ensure the adaptation between it and its environment. Adaptation can be maintained or it can occur by this means. Undoubtedly, many who have regarded nature with a philosophical mind have observed that the death of the worst and the multiplication of the best must be the result of a constitution in harmony with the surrounding circumstances. The average vigor of a breed would decrease if sick and weak individuals survived and spread; these individuals being destroyed, failing to fulfill certain conditions of life, those who are capable of fulfilling them remain, and the average adaptation of the race is preserved; these are almost obvious truths. 

But to recognize natural selection as a means of maintaining an already established balance between the properties of the species and the forces to which it is subjected is only to recognize it in its simplest and most general mode of action. This is the most special mode we're dealing with right now. 



[20] "BumcueaHue uauôojiee npucnocoôjieuHbix" (aHru. "Survival of the fittest") in the original edition in Russian, 1944 (N. D. T.). 



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This mode, Darwin was the first to notice it. It was he who discovered that natural selection is capable of producing adaptation between organisms and their circumstances; to him again the merit of having appreciated the immense importance of the consequences which flow from it. He has used an enormous mass of facts to bring out the exact demonstration that the preservation of the favored races in the struggle for life is an endlessly active cause of divergence among organic forms. He followed the complicated results of the selection process with marvelous sagacity; he has shown that multitudes of facts inexplicable by other causes are completely explained by this cause. In short, he has proved that the cause he puts forward is a real cause, a cause that we usually see in action, and that the results that can be concluded are in harmony with the phenomena presented by creation. organic, both as a whole and in its details [21]." 

Later in that same paragraph, Spencer offers an interesting and obvious parallel between the survival of plant species and that of animal species. Then he remarks, again correctly: "But in proportion as life becomes more complex, where an existence free from evils cannot be assured by the possession, to a great extent, of a certain faculty, but only by that of several faculties, in the same proportion arise the obstacles to the increase of a particular faculty, as a result of "the preservation of the favored races in the struggle for life". As the faculties multiply, it becomes possible for the various members of a species to acquire various kinds of superiority over one another. One saves his life by greater skill, another by keener sight, another by finer sense of smell, another by more delicate hearing, another by greater strength, another by more faculty. great to endure cold or hunger, another by particular timidity, another by special courage, others by other bodily or mental attributes [22]." 

When we apply this observation to the unique species of Man - and this would apply, moreover, to many others 



[21] HERBERT SPENCER, Principles of Biology, chap. XII. "Indirect equilibration", §165, 1865. 

[22] Ibid. 



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animal species, regardless of their physical characteristics and the special survival skills that they each have developed during their evolution - we can easily notice that the latter uses as natural means of survival, fight or flight. And in the case of this species endowed with speech and a superior intelligence, the fight and flight can each be: either a physical action or a verbal action which manifests itself, for example, by threats, promises, of diplomacy in collective and political affairs. There are, of course, cases where neither fight nor flight is possible, and where, the means of defense for survival not being able to take place, extreme passivity and resignation take the place of these logical behaviors. We therefore end up with three possible behaviors in humans when their survival is at stake: struggle, flight, and resignation when neither of the other two is possible.

History shows us countless cases where the mass, not having at its head a leader to engage it in a struggle against an elite which has entered its stage of degeneration and which has become despotic, collectively accepts its serfdom, or its destruction with resignation. The recent discipline of behaviourism, initiated by psychologist John Broadus Watson, shows, with the help of multiple experiments, that animals express the same resignation when faced with a threat against which they cannot fight, and that 'they can't run away either.

If we admit that Spencer's observations are correct, because they are now confirmed by Watson's experiments, Trotter's problem of the unknown "x" is no longer one, and we can continue. to draw lessons from what he says, since no contradiction emerges from it on the contrary, as we shall see. In addition, his descriptions highlight striking parallels between cellular life and that of humans in society. 

“The animal kingdom presents two advantages that are relatively sudden and particularly striking in complexity, as well as in the size of the unit below which natural selection continues without evolution. These advantages consist in the aggregation of units which were previously independent, and fully exposed to the normal action of natural selection; and the two stages are, of course, the passage from the unicellular to the multicellular, and from the solitary state to the social.



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“It is evident that in multicellular organisms, individual cells lose some of the capacities they possess as unicellular organisms - the capacity for reproduction is regulated and limited, nutrition is no longer. long possible in the old way, and the response to stimuli is only through certain channels. In compensation for these sacrifices, we can say, metaphorically, that the action of natural selection is "withdrawn from within the community". The maladjustment of a given cell, or a given group of cells, can only be eliminated by the effect it produces on the whole organism. The group of cells is less sensitive to the “whims” of a cell than the organism of which the cell is the whole. It would seem, therefore, that there is in the cell of the multicellular organism a wider range of variables, and, perhaps, an increased wealth of factors determining its survival. In addition, variables which were not immediately favorable to the unicellular state would offer, in an integration into a multicellular organism, a chance of survival. 

“When we look at it this way, multicellularity presents itself as an escape in a pinch of natural selection, which, in the case of the unicellular organism, is often fatal; for, even when multicellular is favorable in at least one respect, natural selection will involve, in such a small universe, the loss of at least one cell. Therefore, the only way for unicellular organisms to improve their chances of survival is to develop into multicellular organisms, and for multicellular organisms to increase the number of their cells. Some species of multicellular organisms could eventually reach a limit in their ability to survive. The competition would wait for its maximum limit, smaller and smaller variables would be able to produce significant results. In species falling within the latter case, an increase in the number of units is imminent when progress is to be expected. Greater physical complexity does nothing more; the next stage is the appearance of gregariousness. The necessity and inevitability of this change is shown to us by their spontaneous appearances in regions far apart from each other (for example, in insects and mammals), wherever multicellularity first arose. 

“Gregariousness seems to be frequently regarded as a somewhat superficial character, hardly deserving of the name



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of an instinct, certainly advantageous, but not of fundamental importance nor likely to be deeply buried in the cellular inheritance of the species. This attitude is perhaps due to the fact that, among mammals, the onset of gregariousness has never been accompanied by visible physical changes which are naturally associated with it [23] [...].

“The study of bees and ants quickly shows how important gregariousness can be. The individual, in such communities, is completely incapable, often physically, of living apart from them, and this fact immediately leads us to suspect that, even in communities less cohesive than those of bees and ants, the individual may be more dependent on community life than he would seem at first glance.

“As further striking evidence that the importance of gregariousness is not simply acquired late in the evolution of a species, we observe the remarkable coincidence of its onset as it reaches exceptional levels of intelligence. , or shows itself capable of very complex reactions in response to the environment. It can hardly be considered a meaningless accident that the dog, horse, monkey, elephant and man are all social animals. The cases of the bee and the ant are perhaps the most astonishing. It is here that the benefits of gregariousness seem to really outweigh the most stupendous differences in structure, and we find a condition that is often taken for a mere habit, capable of allowing an insect's nervous system to compete. , in complexity and in the possibility of adaptation with that of large vertebrates. 

“The conception of Man as a gregarious animal is, of course, extremely familiar; we meet it frequently in the writings of psychologists and sociologists, and it has been fully received as such by a large audience.

“The family was considered the original unit; from there developed the tribe, and, with the transfer of the family attachment to the tribe, the social instinct thus developed. It is interesting to note that the psychological attack on this observation has been anticipated by sociologists and anthropologists, and that it is already recognized that a horde of animals from the



23 In gregarious insects, there are, of course, physical changes which appear and which have a close link with social organization. 



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same species must be regarded as the primitive basis of human society.

“The most important consequence of this manner of vaguely observing human social habits has been that no exhaustive investigation of its psychological corollaries has yet been carried out [...].

“From the point of view of biology, the probability that gregariousness can be a primitive and fundamental quality in humans seems to be considerable [24] [...]. "

Trotter was followed in these early observations by the mathematician Karl Pearson, who reported on it in his essay, "Socialism and Natural Selection", in 1898. Supporter of eugenics and a great admirer of Karl Marx, Pearson sees a social dimension of Darwinism that could be applied at the level of Nations. "What I see - and I think that we could make a scientific vision of what a Nation should be - is an organized whole maintained at a high degree of internal efficiency by ensuring that its individuals are substantially recruited. in the best circles, and brought to their highest degree of external efficiency by competition, mainly by means of war against inferior races [25]”.

Trotter having laid down the biological bases of the gregariousness of Man, he presents to us the behaviors common to groups of animals. The similarities with the observations of crowd behavior made by Le Bon a few years earlier [26] are striking, but there are new elements to which he seems to want to draw our attention.

“The cardinal quality of the herd is homogeneity. It is clear that the great advantage of social behavior is that it allows large numbers of individuals to act as one; in this, in the case of hunting, the strength of the gregarious animal in the pursuit and in the attack immediately exceeds that of the prey. And, in protective socialism, the alarm sensitivity of the new unity greatly exceeds that, isolated, of one of the individuals. 



[24] WILFRED TROTTER, Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War, "Herd instinct and its bearing on the psychology of civilized man", III. "Biological significances of gregariousness", 1919. 

[25] Pearson, Karl. National Life from the Standpoint of Science, pp. 43-44, 1901. 

[26] Gustave Le Bon published Crowd Psychology in 1895, and it was this essay that inspired Trotter to undertake his own research. 



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“To maintain these advantages of homogeneity, it is obvious that the members of the herd must have a sensitivity to the behaviors of their congeners. The isolated individual will be insignificant; the individual as part of the herd will be able to transmit the most powerful impulse. Each individual of the group having a tendency to follow his neighbor, to be followed by another in his turn, each one is, to a certain extent, capable of being a leader; but no action originating from "normal behavior" will be followed. An action will only be imitated when it "looks" like a normal action. If a leader goes so far forward that he ceases to be in the herd, he will necessarily be ignored. 27 "

Unfortunately, Trotter does not explain what he means by "normal behavior", and this whole paragraph does not tell us more about it. But, since it is a question of group behavior, and he and Le Bon agree on many points, one can reasonably assume that he means, "as opposed to the typically non-rational behavior of large groups of people." 'people ".

“The individual who will show originality in his conduct, in other words resistance to the call of the herd, will be eliminated by natural selection; the wolf who does not follow the impulses of the horde will starve; the sheep which does not respond to the movements of the flock will be eaten.

“Again, not only will the individual be attentive to the impulses of the group, but he will treat the group as his normal environment. The impulse that drives the individual to be in the group and always stay there will be stronger than anything. Anything that could push an individual to separate from his fellows will meet the strongest resistance, as soon as this incentive is perceived as such [28]. "

This last paragraph tells us that what thus pushes an animal to remain attached to the group, whatever happens, starts from an instinct (which undoubtedly finds its most distant origin in the behavior of the cell of a multicellular organism) of the danger of isolating oneself from it. It would be, in this case, a survival reflex, and that would explain wonderfully why this mimicry, which seems so stupid to us a priori, never seems to follow the slightest preliminary reflection, nor even the least logic, except, of course, when an unambiguous threat emerges.



[27] WlLFRED TROTTER, Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War, "Herd instinct and its bearing on the psychology of civilized man", IV. "Mental characteristics of the gregarious animal", 2. "General characteristics of the gregarious animal", 1919.

[28] Ibid. 



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“The conscious individual will have a primitive feeling of well-being and security, when he is in the presence of his fellows, which it would be impossible to analyze; and he will feel vulnerable as soon as he is isolated from it. Man quickly understands that it is not good to be alone. Loneliness will engender a terror that reason cannot overcome. 

“Again, certain conditions will be associated with the presence or absence of the herd. Take, for example, the sensations of heat and cold. In gregarious animals, the fight against the cold is done by physical rapprochement between individuals; thus, separation from the group is, in the mind, associated with the feeling of cold [...]. Conversely, the feeling of warmth is associated with feelings of security and salvation. Medicine has taken thousands of years to question the validity of popular associations between cold and vulnerability; today, however, the understanding of this doubt is evident to the psychologist. 

“Slightly more complex manifestations of the same tendency towards homogeneity appear in the desire to identify with the herd in matters of opinion. Here we find the biological explanation for the deep-rooted impulse that mankind has always expressed in the form of segregation and class establishment. Each of us, in our opinions and our conduct, in the way we dress, have fun, according to our religious and political beliefs, feels obliged to obtain the approval of a class, a citizen. skin within the herd. Whoever shows himself the most eccentric in his opinions and conduct is, we can be sure, supported by the consent of a class whose very small number of individuals testify to its apparent eccentricity, and whose snobbery testifies to its determination to challenge the consensus adopted by the greatest number. Again, anything that tends to make a difference with the herd is seen as unpleasant. In the mind of the individual we will find a reluctance towards novelty of action and thought which will be impossible to analyze. The novelty will be perceived as "bad", "unreasonable", "undesirable" or, as we sometimes say, "in bad taste"; depending on the circumstances, these will be variables, which we can already define, to a certain extent.



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“Relatively simple manifestations appear to us in our reluctance to show off and distinguish ourselves from others, and in our shyness. The cause has yet to be found in the mind structure of the gregarious animal, receptive to group behavior. This sensitivity is closely associated with the suggestibility of the gregarious animal, and, consequently, with that of Man. Its effect will be, clearly, to make acceptable those suggestions which come from the flock, and these only. It is especially important to note that this suggestibility is not general, and that it is only the suggestions of the herd that the action of instinct makes acceptable. For example, humans are notoriously insensitive to suggestions arising from experience. The fact that the story of the latter behavior is rather grandiose, and everywhere called human progress, is telling. If we seek to understand how the development of a thing such as the steam engine took place, we are not failing to be struck by the extreme evidence of each step which led to its perfect setting. to the point, and especially how people looked at this invention with reluctance until it seems to have imposed itself on society.

“Again, of two suggestions, those that best correspond to the group's perception is the most acceptable. Therefore, the chances of a claim being accepted depend greatly on whether the way it is worded uses the arguments of a majority of the herd. 

“It follows that anything that deviates from the herd's suggestion will tend to be rejected. For example, a compelling order given by an individual who is known to have no authority will necessarily be ignored or deemed ridiculous; whereas if this same individual presents his request in the form of a suggestion, in an indirect manner and in such a way that it will appear to express the voice of the flock, then it will be unanimously accepted. 

“It is unfortunate, when discussing these facts, that we feel compelled to use the word 'suggestibility', which implies so much the notion of abnormality. If the biological explanation of suggestibility is to be accepted here, then we are forced to conclude that abnormality is a normal quality of the human mind. Belief must be a natural disturbing element and impossible to eradicate in humans; or, in other words, a positive or negative statement is more easily accepted than rejected, unless its source is permanently separated from the herd. Man is therefore not easily influenced 



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in spurts, not just during panic movements and when in a crowd, under hypnosis or any other similar situation, but always, everywhere and under any circumstance. The uncertainty which characterizes man's way of reacting to different suggestions has been attributed to variations in his suggestibility. In the opinion of the present author, this is an incorrect interpretation of facts which are explained more satisfactorily, considering that the variations express a greater or lesser adequacy with the voice of the herd.

“Man's resistance to certain suggestions, and especially to experience, as we so often notice when confronted with novelty, cannot become anything other than a new proof of his suggestibility, since the novelty has always had to oppose the tradition of the flock.

“During the early days of the human race, the emergence of the ability to speak must have led to a strengthening of the authority of the flock, and to greater definitions and scope thereof. Now, the desire for certainty is one of the great depths of the human mind, and, certainly, a necessary property of any mind; it is very plausible to suppose that he must have led, during those remote times, to the extent of all life subject to the influence of words supported by the instinctive sanction of the flock. The lives of individuals had to be completely conditioned by terrible sanctions. They had to know what they should and should not do, and what would happen to them if they disobeyed. Whether the experiment confirms the validity of the herd's opinion or not, it should have had very little weight [...]. The primitive from Central Australia perfectly fits this description. All his life is regulated, in the smallest details, by the voice of the flock, and he must not disobey it, under pain of the most terrible sanctions [...].

“These primitive conditions must have appeared everywhere, and the reason was to appear to them only in the intrusive and disturbing form of a hostile foreign power which had come to disturb the perfection of life, and to cause series of unrelenting conflicts. end [. . .].

“Direct observation of man immediately reveals the fact that a considerable proportion of his beliefs are irrational, and to such an obvious degree that any special examination requiring only elementary knowledge is dispensed with. When we examine the intellectual baggage of the average man, we notice that it is made up of a vast number of very precise judgments concerning a very wide variety of complex matters. 



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He shows himself capable of providing explanations for the origin and nature of the universe, and even, he can offer an explanation of his point; he can make conclusions about what will happen to him after his death, and, of course, he can explain the basics of his conduct in society. He also shows himself able to say how the country should be run, why this law is good and another bad. He has very strong opinions about military strategy at sea and on land, the principles of taxation, the use to be made of alcohol, vaccination, treatment of influenza, prevention of hydrophobia, municipal finances, the teaching of Greek, which is tolerable in art, satisfactory in literature, and expected of science.

"All of these opinions must necessarily be devoid of any rational basis, since most of them relate to problems which the experts admit to be insoluble, and for all the others to subjects whose perfect comprehension is inaccessible to the average man. The average man does without the conclusions of scientific experiments, and he has nothing to do with a rationality that he cannot, in any case, differentiate from irrationality; it shows only one attitude towards things and events; that of arbitrary judgment 29. "

We notice that Trotter's observations, and especially his way of commenting on them, favor “foxes” as Pareto defines them (Class I residues) in the previous article. But it should not be deduced from this that the “lions” (Residues of Class IL), therefore constitute the rest of the herd. Because, let us remember, the part of irrationality is very important in the Class I residues; while those of Class II., who understand, in the first place, the tendency to conservatism and the importance of the tribe, show little receptivity to the voice of the herd. The vast majority of the mass should not be separated, on the one hand, into "lions", and on the other into "foxes", since Pareto (like Machiavelli who was the first to propose this animal analogy) concentrates his attention to the study of the elite. Trotter presents the group as a perfectly autonomous unit of individuals, which itself makes the rules which it obeys. He gives little room to the influence of a leader, of a ruling elite, and never talks about the role of the dominant male in the herd. But this gap does not bother us in any way, since it is the behavior of the mass, as taken as a whole, and its causes, which we mainly discuss in this chapter. 



[29] Ibid. 



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“In light of the considerations just discussed, this crude acceptance of irrational belief should be taken as normal. The mechanism by which it appears still requires some examination, since it cannot be denied that the facts conflict remarkably with popular views when it comes to the part of reason that enters into the formation of opinion. It is clear from the outset that these beliefs are invariably regarded as rational by the one who makes them his own, and he will defend them as such, and will say of the one who opposes them that he is unreasonable. The religious man says of the atheist that he is superficial and irrational, and vice versa; for the conservative, the astonishing thing about the progressive is his inability to consider the voice of reason, and to accept the only solution to public problems. An examination reveals the fact that the differences do not arise from the implication of errors and mechanical fallacies that logic sometimes produces, since even the politician can avoid them because they are so easy to spot, and since no reason can be found. to assume that one party involved in such controversies has less logical mind than another. The difference arises rather from the fundamental assumptions of the antagonists, each showing hostility. These assumptions are derived from the suggestion of the flock. For the progressive, certain basic conceptions have acquired the quality of instinctive truths, they have become "syntheses of a priori", due to an accumulation of suggestions to which he has been exposed; and a similar explanation applies to the atheist, the Christian and the curator. Everyone, it is important to remember, finds in the consequence the demonstration that his rationality does not suffer from any criticism, and he can easily find there the errors of his opponent - for whom this particular series of assumptions has not been criticized. not made acceptable by the herd's suggestion alone [30]."

Trotter remarks that the human mind seldom refrains from criticizing the assumptions arising from the suggestion of the "flock". And he points out to us that this prompts him to seek rational justifications for the latter; for example, such reasoning led him to say that altruism results from an observation showing that it is "paid" in the long term. Thanks to 



[30] Ibid. 



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intelligence that the evolution of his species has given him, Man is constantly looking for justifications and rational explanations for his behavior which, in a large majority of cases, are false or erroneous, or are deliberately false in the aim to produce valid reasons. This finally brings us an explanation for the need for the governing elite, presented at the very beginning of the first chapter of this essay, to give a form to the intention having only a distant relation to the real goal. This article would, moreover, be a perfect conclusion to what Trotter is explaining to us at this point, since it takes up exactly its general principles, in his own way. Then he finally admits the existence of a respect for an intellectually superior class, whose suggestions may outweigh those of the herd. However, he maintains (with reason, historians and political science experts tell him) that the education of the common man "being what it is", non-logical propositions will always prevail over those which are not. are logical, since the power of suggestion of the results of the method and of the scientific experiment has no force over it. 

He recalls that when free communication is made possible by the imposition of a freedom of expression, the agreement or the disagreement with the voice of the herd acquires the qualities of an identity or of a dissociation with this. last, respectively. If we frankly transpose Trotter's biological explanations to the field of political science, the herd and its force of suggestion becomes the structure of society and its orthodoxy, of which we have said and will repeat throughout this essay that they must be preserve as well as we can. This is why free communication must imperatively and strictly be established by the State, and must remain dependent on the infrastructures that it will have designed to make it exist. Otherwise, the structure of society will collapse, its components will go astray like the individuals of the herd who no longer obey the common voice, then, each having thus become particularly vulnerable, and the whole species that we can metaphorically consider that the Nation and its cultural identity will gradually disappear. 

As Trotter says when he speaks of the individual expressing his agreement or disagreement with the voice of the herd, "knowing that what he does will cause the disapproval of the herd, he must have the same deep feeling of it. insecurity that would accompany a physical separation with



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this one ; while knowing that what he does will be approved, it will give him a sense of moral uprightness, pleasure, and stimulate him in all his actions, just as the animal following another is stimulated in his action by the neighbor who follows him in turn. In either case, it is clear that no explicit expression by the herd is necessary to bring up the appropriate feelings; they come naturally from within, and have the qualities of the dictates of consciousness. "

Trotter takes consciousness, feelings of guilt and duty, as innate manifestations of gregariousness; this is an opinion disputed by some psychologists. Indeed, their existences and their intensities, just like their non-existence in humans, can be the result of learning, and the latter are indisputably absent in many individuals.

Sociology seems to have gone to the limit of its possibilities when it comes to teaching us how society works. This does not seem to be the case with psychology; this science continues to bring us its daily share of new discoveries, some of which are surprising. What Dr. Watson's behaviourism teaches us today can reasonably lead us to assume that his contribution to the exercise of power might well lead us to one day revise certain principles of political science.



[31] Ibid. 



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III. SOCIAL CIRCULATION

THE THREE CLASSES.

Whether a few theorists like it or not, the fact is that human society is never homogeneous, that individuals are physically, morally and intellectually different. We must therefore take this fact into consideration when theorizing any political science, any study of society and any study of history. And we must also consider: that social classes are not entirely distinct from one another, even in countries where a caste system prevails; that, in modern and civilized countries, the circulation of individuals between the different social classes is very rapid.

We must consider this factor (with the aim of simplifying its explanation) only from the point of view of the influence it exerts on the social equilibrium, and endeavor to reduce the number of groups and groups as much as possible. the modalities of movement of individuals between classes. Thus, we will be able “arbitrarily” to define a single phenomenon having effects similar to those, combined, of the others.

Consider that in each branch of human activity, each individual is assigned a "mark" which corresponds to his or her abilities, just as one assigns a mark of "general average" at the end of a school examination, university. - silent or professional. For example, the best lawyer will be awarded a score of 10 (out of the 10 on our scale); and we will assign a grade of 1 to the one who does not manage to have clients (we will give a grade of 0 is the one who is a moron). To the individual who has managed to make millions - honestly or not, whatever in the context of this explanation, since it is intelligence that we are evaluating, and not a combination of intelligence and moral principles - we we will give a score of 10. To the one who has won tens of thousands, we will give a score of 6 (that is to say, slightly above an established average of 5). To a woman, in the branch of politics, such as Astasie [33], to another such as Madame de Maintenon (1635- 




[32] See the article “L'Équilibre social” in Chapter II, entitled “Stage of development of society”.

[33] Aspasia (Aa7taoia, Aspasia), born in Miletus, in Asia Minor around the year 470 BC, and died around 400, was a Greek hetairian and the companion of Pericles. Cultured courtesan,



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1719; mistress of Louis XIV), and to Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764; mistress of Louis XV), we will give a mark between 8 and 9. This is because these three women have succeeded in seducing men of great power, and have thus could influence their decisions, and even the course of their careers (we would give them a score of 1 0 if they had been able to take power, and represent it officially). If, on the contrary, they had only seduced these men for the sole reason of giving them pleasure, without in any way influencing them, we would consider them nothing better than ordinary courtesans who know how to shine only by their beauty, and we would give them a rating of 0. To the crook or crafty manipulator, who knows how to abuse other people's trust without ever going to jail, we will give a rating between 8 and 10; it is according to the number of geese that he plucked, and the amounts of the sums that he was able to extract from them. To the little thief who puts up with a cutlery stolen from a restaurant, and who, despite the meagerness of his theft, gets caught by the police, we will give a mark between 0 and L To a poet such as Carducci [34], we will give a mark between 8 and 9 (it will be according to the appreciation of each one), but not 10, since it did not rise to the level of Dante, for example. To the scribbler who manages to get published, but who, however, annoys the reader and has never known any honor, we will give 0. We could give scores with much better precision to chess players, among other similar cases, since we could precisely identify the games they won. 

In doing so, we should be able to distinguish, at least roughly, what the elite in a society are, and the candidates for elite access. We observe, in passing, that the capacities and intelligences are not evenly distributed in the human species, and that the higher one goes up in the scale of the levels of intelligence, the less there are individuals. The same observation applies when one goes down, below a certain threshold of stupidity; there is an average between the two extremes, it won the respect of many influential men, and especially of Pericles and Socrates. This is how she became an influential politician in Athens. We know it because Plato, Aristophanes and Xenophon, in particular, mention it in the writings they left us.



[34] Giosuè Alessandro Giuseppe Carducci was an Italian poet (1835-1907) who particularly distinguished himself by becoming the first Italian to receive the Nobel Prize for literature, in 1906. 



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where, however, we do not yet find the greatest number of individuals.

In the governance system of oligarchic collectivism, the three classes described by Karl Marx exist, but their struggles among themselves (and more particularly that of the lower and middle classes against the elite) are only appearances of struggles. For, here, we do not borrow the social structure in three classes from political science; but to the military, with, from the top of the pyramid of hierarchies to its base, respectively: the class of officers; the class of non-commissioned officers, and the class of private soldiers. 

THE ELITE.

The ruling elite of oligarchic collectivism commands the rest of the social body; it only performs intellectual and abstract, bureaucratic and representational tasks, and it enjoys privileges prohibited to the other two classes. Right at the time of the Russian revolution of 1917, the revolutionary Bukharin described the elite as "a bourgeoisie which loses nothing when it transmits the production of goods from one of its hands to another, since power of the state of our time is nothing more than a company of entrepreneurs jointly holding immense power, headed by the same people who occupy leading positions both in the offices of banks and in those of the unions. The difference is that, under such conditions, the bourgeoisie receives its income, not from a union office, but from a state bank. "

Members of the elite transmit orders to the middle class, which must respect them, and then enforce them by the lower class. It is thus that the individuals of the middle class, who are in direct and often physical contact (police, administration, small managers and executives of industry and commerce) with those of the lower class, assume a role of "buffer." »Intermediaries between the ruling elite and the lower class. For members of the ruling elite, like those of the passive elite, should never be in direct physical contact with individuals of the lower class; they must appear “inaccessible” to them. This detail helps to stimulate the feelings of awe and almost divine respect that must be felt by individuals of the lower class for those of the elites; it is in this way that members of the elites can participate in the myth, the purpose of which was explained in the previous article, in this same chapter.



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The lower class can never directly confront the elite (even verbally) and, possibly, force them to admit their mistakes, or denounce their extraordinary privileges, since any physical contact between individuals of these two classes is made impossible (des secretaries, guards, advisers, spokespersons, chiefs of staff and other representatives acting as intermediaries, and also places of residence protected from intrusions or whose addresses are kept secret, only serve to maintain this distance between the elite and the rest of the population).

THE MIDDLE CLASS.

The middle class comprises, for the most part, the capable and intelligent individuals of the whole of society, but who do not have access to the elite or any of its privileges (although these intelligences and abilities could, on their own). alone, amply justify this promotion). Just as it happens in the elites, individuals of the middle class are members from birth; but here, it is, overwhelmingly, economic and cultural advantages which are naturally responsible for this transmission by blood of social status. And it is these latter characteristics that allow the middle class, in addition to being in regular physical contact with the lower class, to make the latter obey the orders transmitted to it by the ruling elite. Of course, the middle class is there to organize the social life of the whole of society, including the elites, taking on roles and tasks of (for example): policeman, clerk, journalist, store manager or d agency, subordinate manager, doctor, head of post or department, scientist, architect, teacher ...

THE LOWER CLASS.

The lower class is made up of the least able and least intelligent individuals in society as a whole. This does not mean that the less intelligent and the less able born into the elite and the middle class will automatically be “transferred” to the lower class; these two other classes undergo a natural degeneration which is limited by the means of the circulation of individuals between classes. Just as there are manifestations of degeneration in the classes 



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middle and upper, individuals with higher abilities and intelligences are similarly kept in the lower class. They are, more often than not, because of their subversive tendencies or their poor morals or a vice, and they are, almost always, individuals of Class II. ("Lions"). The most capable and intelligent Class I individuals ("foxes") of the lower class, commonly manage to rise into the middle class, because they are opportunistic enough to achieve their ends, and even into the middle class. the elite - albeit exceptionally in the latter case. Generally speaking, the lower class has a high percentage of Class II individuals. within it. It is in the lower class that the similarities between the pyramid of hierarchies of the army, with, at its base, the ordinary soldiers and the corporals of the army, and the pyramid of the hierarchies of the civil society, with, to his of small employees and foremen, are the most glaring similarities.

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE THREE CLASSES.

We find subclasses within each of the three classes, exactly, again, as we find in the military, with, for example and in the case of the officers who form the elite, sub-lieutenants, lieutenants, captains , etc., and thus up to the supreme rank of army general. And, just as the movement of individuals from the whole of society between the three classes is conditioned, so is the movement of individuals between the subclasses, regardless of their abilities and intelligences once again. Two factors, in particular, condition the movement between the subclasses: orthodoxy, and social origin. We find this other characteristic in the military of almost all countries: the son of a general will be able to become a general himself, much more easily than the son of a captain will be able. Three reasons come to explain this phenomenon: the first two are "natural", and the third is "artificial".

1) A general has knowledge and personal experience that enables him to explain to his son how to climb the hierarchy. 2) All individuals tend to favor the upliftment of their children to the extent of their power to do so; it is a filtered manifestation of the survival and survival impulses of the species 36. 3) The packaging of



[36] See the article titled “The Psychological Assessment”, t * Part, c. ii. 



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elevation to higher levels of responsibility through orthodoxy, and through implicit access to secret knowledge of the actual functioning of society.

In order to rise to the rank of general, the most capable and intelligent of the military will experience greater difficulty in doing so if he is the son of a lieutenant than if he is the son of a lieutenant. general. The three reasons justifying this fact, which have just been presented, each explain it more or less than the other two, on a case by case basis. This functioning which, on the whole, and all things considered, appears to us as “natural” or “logical”, is the expression of a Class II residue. [37] In the middle class, movement between three subclasses is conditioned by the same three reasons. However, the third of these reasons, orthodoxy, is always defined in its formulation by the elite, and always subject to the approval of the individuals specially responsible for its application [38].

It is thus that: in the civil society of the system of oligarchic collectivist governance, the chief of staff of a ministry may never manage to rise to the post of minister, regardless of his capacity and intelligence; that, under the same conditions, the small framework of an industry can never manage to rise to the post of director of department; that, under the same conditions, a worker may never succeed in rising to the post of foreman. 



[37] See the article “Maintenance and renewal of elites”, Part I, c. iii.

[38] That is to say the political police, the Central Party, the unions and the militias.



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III. THE ELITE.

INFLUENCE OF THE ELITE ON SOCIETY BEHAVIOR.

From the perspective of the ruling elite theory explained later in this chapter, a society is that of its elite. The strength or weakness of a nation, its culture, its capacity for endurance, its prosperity or even its decadence, depend directly on the nature of its elite. More particularly, the way of studying a nation, of understanding it, of predicting what will happen to it, requires, before any other consideration, a careful observation of its elite. Political history and political science are, above all, the history and science of the elite, of its origins, evolution, composition, structure and the changes it has undergone and which she knows in the present tense. Seen in this way, the ruling elite theory produces a principle by which the myriad events of political life - which sometimes seem incomprehensible or absurd to us - can be put together and made coherent and intelligible. Although this approach to history in general, and the history of the ruling elite in particular, may seem arbitrary, it can be observed that, in truth, all historians force themselves to write it this way (even authors and historians such as Tolstoy or Trotsky, whose general theories seem to contradict it).

Even if the theory must ultimately decide that the movements and revolutions of the masses are the cause of the facts and the turning points of history, the latter only attain historical significance when they succeed in altering the institutions and the way. composition of the ruling elite. Thus, the analysis of the ruling elite (indirect if not direct) will produce understandable history and political science.

NATURAL ANTAGONISM BETWEEN THE MASSES AND THE ELITE.

Where there is antagonism between the elite and the masses, the elite always emerges victorious if united. If the masses do not have a genuine leader (that is, one who is not an agent in the secret service of the ruling elite, or bought or corrupted by it) to lead their struggle, the protesting masses are disorganized and perpetually weakened by all the weight of 



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organized pressure; they cannot prevail against a ruling elite whose members stand in solidarity with each other, and agree on a common goal. The ruling elite can only be overthrown under two conditions; and again, these do not guarantee anything.

In the first, if there is disagreement and division among members of the ruling elite, either (or both) of the opposing factions feels compelled to seek support from the masses. . It is then that this faction can become that leader that the disorganized protest masses need; she will know how to run them effectively. The dissident faction of the conservative ruling elite sometimes shows itself capable of emerging victorious.

In the second, new leaders emerge “spontaneously” from the mass of protest in order to lead it effectively. If, then, the ruling elite is unable, or does not have all the willpower, to crush or corrupt those leaders who oppose it, then it can be overthrown.

In both cases, however, although the process of organized opposition may take the form of an effective struggle of the protesting mass against the ruling elite, and thus demonstrate its supremacy, it is only, in reality, the emergence of 'a new ruling elite that will take the place of the old one. The mass system ruled by an elite remains; the voice of the people to lead the people is still an unattainable goal.

THE LEADER'S METAMORPHOSIS.

When the leader of a mass movement attains the status of Head of the Nation, a psychological process invariably transforms him into another person. In the majority of cases, during the very first days of his career, the new leader is sincerely convinced of the excellence of the principles which he has advocated. He was driven forward by a clear vision, and an even more ardent desire to do the common good. He was inspired by the flexibility of his own mind and by a warm sympathy for those who supported and followed him. His feelings are genuine, as long as he has not yet been confronted with the reality of an organization already established and capable of offering paid employment, in which he must found his own party. This does not necessarily mean that wherever an already well organized party exists, the new leader



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seeks, from the moment he enters the scene, to serve his personal interests; but all its moral qualities do not long resist the call of power.

Because the one who once came to power and its light always shows reluctance to return to the position, comparatively obscure, he occupied before. Awareness of power always breeds pride, and an unwarranted belief in personal greatness. The leader has an awareness of his worth, and of the need of the masses to follow him, which combine to produce in his mind a recognition of his own superiority (real or perceived). The latter awakens the need to command others that exists in each of us (whether this drive is repressed or not). Every man seeks to expand his prerogatives; whoever has acceded to power will seek, almost always if not always, to consolidate it in order to keep it, and even to enlarge it in order to multiply the ramparts to protect his position. Thus, he gradually takes distance from the masses, and, consequently, with the knowledge of their expectations and their concerns.

Typically there is a stage in the leader's psychological transformation during which he identifies with the group (Nation, party, etc.), whatever it may be. He becomes a bureaucrat who identifies completely with his organization, confusing his own interests with those of the latter. Any criticism of his party, or of the Nation if he is its elected leader, be it objective and justified, is taken as a personal affront. This is the cause of the obvious inability of all party leaders to observe a calm demeanor and detachment when faced with negative criticism. When the leader is personally criticized, his first instinct is to make it understood that it is his party or the Nation he represents that is targeted, as a whole. Criticism of the group is seen as a defamatory statement directed against its leader, personally; the leader's criticism is perceived as an act of a subversive nature against the whole group, and it is even denounced as a betrayal made to the group (that is to say to the Nation when the group is one).

Moreover, the despotism of the leader does not find its origin only in a vulgar thirst for power or in an uncontrollable egoism; it often comes from a deep and sincere conviction of that personal value (greatness) of which we spoke above, and of the value of the services that he thinks he has rendered in the service of the common cause. These psychological changes 



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themselves form part of a larger process, quite frequent in the emergence of democracy. It is a process of growth that some historians who have identified it have called “Bonapartism”; a word of course derived from the two Bonaparte, and more particularly (against the expectations of many) of Napoleon III. The despotic power of Bonapartism was not theoretically based on the claim of a right willed by God, or acquired by inheritance. Its theoretical and historical foundations were democratic, and they included a stage of popular revolution; this democratic basis was preserved with care and consistency. The two Napoléons presented themselves as representatives of the Nation democratically elected by the people. Their democratic and legitimate rights to act as delegates of the people, and to represent the will of the people, were confirmed by series of unanimous plebiscites. The first Napoleon was elected consul by a large majority; as consul for life, then (in 1804) as emperor. The second was twice elected President of the Republic, and, finally (in 1852), as emperor too. Napoleon III not only recognized his popular sovereignty as the source of his power; he made sure that this sovereignty was the theoretical basis of all the actions he undertook. He made himself popular in France by declaring that he saw himself only as the “executive organ of a collective will” expressed during elections, and that he placed himself entirely at his disposal, ready in any circumstance. to accept its decisions. With great cunning, he repeated over and over again that he was nothing more than an "instrument", a "creation of the masses".

The "Bonapartist-type" leader declares, with more ardor than simple justification requires, that he is the most perfect embodiment of the will of the group or of the people. Everything is allowed to him to go there, since he is only the symbol of the group as taken as a whole. The intermediary political organs (the upper and lower chambers of the Senate, for example) continue to exist and act, but they are subordinate to the Bonapartist leader, because only he can fully express the will of the people. Senators and deputies are only his agents, and only through him are they the agents of the people. Once elected by the people, no one can oppose their will in any way. He embodies the majority, and any resistance to his will is denounced as an anti-democratic act. The leader of such a democracy is irremovable and irreplaceable; he could not contradict himself when he spoke; it is infallible. It is reasonable, and even 



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necessary that the adversaries of the government be eliminated in the name of popular sovereignty, because the one elected by the people acts within the limits of the rights conferred on him as a representative of the collective will, established in his position by the fact of 'a spontaneous decision. It is the voters themselves, we are sure, who demand, through the voice of the leader they have elected, that he employ severe repressive measures, that he resort to the use of force, and that he concentrate the national authority in his hands.

All of this is above mere pretension; Bonapartism justified by the principle of representation can be considered as the ultimate and logical outcome of democracy. Even more: at the moment of judging, not only from the experience of our own time, but from that of the Greek city-states, the states of the Republic of Rome and the medieval city-states, Bonapartism is also the culmination and logic of democracy (although perhaps not invariable). Bonapartism, as one or another stage of its development, is the most striking and typical political structure of our time. The great Nations which, from the Renaissance period to the present day, adopted the political formula of democracy and its practices of parliamentary representation, have, without any exception during our last century, shown a powerful tendency towards Bonapartism. ; a trend which in Germany, Russia, Italy and France has reached full maturity, and which is no less marked, for example, in the United States and England.

It is a serious historical error to equate Bonapartism with one of the different forms of despotism. Bonapartism is not a simple military dictatorship; it is not the traditional and hereditary despotism - or inherited according to the will of God - of absolute monarchy; it is not the classic oligarchic leadership by a small hereditary caste. Mature Bonapartism is a popular and democratic despotism founded on a democratic doctrine, and, at least when it appears, it undertakes to respect a democratic form. If Bonapartism, in fact rather than in theory, denies democracy, it does so by raising democracy to its ultimate stage.

MAINTENANCE AND RENEWAL OF ELITES.

In any society, the elites are never static. Their structures, their compositions and the nature of their links with the 



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rest of society are always changing. Of course, elites change with the death of their members and with their replacement by other individuals. There is nothing significant about it. If each member of the elite who dies were replaced by another with similar characteristics, the elite, as a whole, and seen from the perspective of a historic regrouping, would always be the same. It is therefore not simple replacements of individuals that influence social development, but the change in their types, and that of their relations with each other and with the rest of society.

If, at the time of the selection of members of the elites, there existed a condition of perfectly free competition, so that each individual in society could, without encountering any obstacle, rise as high as his talent and ambition allow him , the elites would then include, at any time and in perfect order, the most capable people in society, and those most able to claim this membership. Under such conditions our society would be extraordinarily dynamic and strong, and its weaknesses would automatically disappear through the simple act of natural selection.

However, a condition of this kind is never encountered in reality. There are always obstacles and network connections that interfere with the free movement and wills of individuals who have the capacity to rise up, and that we can meet in all social circles. Special selection principles, which differ in their sayings from one society to another, affect the composition of the elites in such a way that it is not the best individuals who are selected for leadership and representative positions. Because weakness is a criterion that settles in these principles, and no gradual and normal evolution from day to day comes to compensate for it. If these weaknesses of the members of the elites become too numerous or too great, then the elite, as a whole, becomes vulnerable to a revolution which renews them massively and all at once; all the individuals who presented the qualities to rise to this elite, but who encountered obstacles so far, come to replace the members of the old elite who have become helpless.

The most frequently encountered obstacle to rising within the elite is the aristocratic principle. But democratic regimes have adopted it and then apply it in another way; discreet or secret government agencies, responsible for internal security, are in charge, and these extensively use 



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for this mission the networks of elitist private circles and the dominant secret societies. Belonging to the elite is also an economic or influencing power which cannot be entrusted to an individual exempt from any means of pressure, or who, by his intelligence and his capacities, easily escapes the control of his actions. He must be held in one way or another, so that his actions and his speech always serve the good of the Nation. There must be neither dissent nor decadence within the elite; the elite is made by the state, it belongs to the state, and it must serve the best interests of the state, in small as well as in greater degree. Napoleon Bonaparte, when he took power, had found a remarkable means of ingenuity to make more quickly disappear the heirs of the old elite who could not be favorable to the Empire, and to control the circulation of the elites of 'in general; it is a French writer, and not a thinker of political science who explains it to us, but he relies on proof that a good historian would not have rejected.

"Today rich families are between the danger of ruining their children, if they have too many, or that of dying out by sticking to one or two: a singular effect of the Civil Code which Napoleon did couldn't have dreamed of.

"- On the contrary, it is an effect which Napoleon perfectly thought of and which he deliberately sought, witness this passage from a letter to his brother Joseph, King of Naples, a text from which Le Play and his school have drawn the happiest left:

"" My brother, I want to have a hundred fortunes in Paris, all having risen with the throne and remaining only considerable; since they are only trusts and all that will not be them, by the effect of the Civil Code will disperse [...] Establish the Civil Code in Naples: everything that is not attached to you will be destroyed in a few years, and what you want to keep will be consolidated. This is the great advantage of the Civil Code. The Civil Code must be established among you; it will consolidate your power, since through it all that is not in trust falls, and there are no more great houses than those which you erect as fiefs. which made me preach a Civil Code and led me to establish it "39. "

Members of the elite and their children are discreetly helped, regardless of their real abilities; individuals with higher abilities who appear outside the elite circle are



[39] HONORE DE BALZAC, historical note of the author in La Fausse Maîtresse, j. The Century, 1841. 



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thus sacrificed, and kept in their inferior social and economic positions, to a very large extent. If this principle is properly applied, if the elite is a “closed” circle and usually inaccessible to the rest of the mass, degeneration inevitably appears. The percentage of weak and inferior individuals within the elite inevitably increases; while, at the same time, that of individuals with higher capacities grows within the mass. A critical point, where the elite is destroyed and overthrown by a group of leaders collectively more capable, smarter and more daring than it, is ultimately reached.

This is what happened to Sparta; the gateway to the elite of Sparta (the caste of "Citizens") was kept closed to other social categories of the population (the Périèques 40 and the Helotes 41). To some extent, the Spartan elite maintained their good health by killing their weak and inferior children, but this extreme measure was not enough. Despite this tradition of sacrifice and the most extreme of disciplines, unique in history, the Spartan elite experienced a quantitative decline, and an even greater qualitative decline, which ultimately led this City to its defeat, during the Battle of Leuctra, in 371 BC, against the Thebeens. For generations, Sparta had held Thebes to be an ally of minor importance on which it believed it could impose its superiority eternally. Of what would only have been a defeat in a Nation where society is less strictly controlled, and where the natural renewal of the elite ensures its good health, Sparta never recovered, and fell into oblivion. general.

From these considerations follows the fact that a “relatively flexible” renewal of the elite - made up and down the social pyramid and between the upper, middle and lower classes - is necessary for the maintenance of a society. dynamic and strong. And conversely: follows the fact that a closed elite which renews itself from the inside exclusively, or even almost exclusively, is threatened, either by a revolution or by an invasion by another Nation. 



[40] In ancient Greece, the Periecs (in ancient Greek nspioucoi / Perioikoi) were free inhabitants, but not citizens of Laconia and Messinia. Their name means “those around” (from jrspî / peri, “around” and wherecoç / oikos, “dwelling, house”).

[41] In ancient Greece, the Helots or Helots (in ancient Greek EïAxûteç / Heilôtes) were a population of Laconia and Messinia enslaved to the Spartans, whom they supported. Their status was similar to that of the serfs of the Middle Ages: attached to the land, they were the property of the Lacedaemonian state. They were therefore not commodity slaves, which existed elsewhere, but were rather rare. Hostism was also found in other Greek societies, such as Thessaly, Crete or Sicily. 



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In theory, the access of lower and middle class individuals to the elite should be free and natural, exclusively and naturally filtered by skills. But this does not matter if, in fact and in most modern Nations, especially since the end of the last century and the beginning of our own, the suitors are kept in their original social circles, thanks to the means briefly presented above, and which will be described in detail later. In the countries of old Europe, everyone has the right to rise according to their abilities, to become a millionaire and the boss of a company, but only in theory. Because in fact, almost since the time of the Great War, these suitors can no longer access wealth and become great entrepreneurs, with a few rare exceptions [42]. Conversely, there have been societies where, in theory, access to the elite was closed (thanks to rigid control by heredity), but where, in fact, and sometimes if not quite often, the means of patronage. , the adoption and the review of access to citizenship opened the door a little. This was especially the case during certain periods of the history of Athens and Rome.

But, knowing that a perfectly free renewal of the elite, according to the sole criterion of capacity, does not exist in any nation, a dynamic and strong society cannot be ensured only by punctually opening this access. Added to this problem is that of defining the kind of individuals who can be admitted to the elite or should not; it is all the more complicated to implement since today, even access to the middle class from the lower class is also controlled (in many Nations, but not yet in all [43]). We have emphasized that the elementary residues of a given society do not change, and that the same holds true for the four fundamental behaviors [44]. However, the character of any society is determined, not only by those basic residues and behaviors that exist in the mind 



[42] It is the same in the United States since the fears that arose out of the John D. Rockefeller case.

[43] France and Germany are the countries where traffic is the most limited. For example, the German elite have always closed the door to their access to Goethe, while it is essentially to this writer, however, that they owe the abandonment of French as the language of superior intellectual expression. 




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of each individual, but also by the “distribution” of derivatives by social class. However, this latter distribution can change rapidly. In other words: a given society will include a relatively stable percentage of crafty individuals (for example); but a huge difference between the form of this society and its development will appear depending on whether these cunning individuals are largely included in the elite, or evenly dispersed in the population (i.e. upper, middle and lower classes), or again. majority in the middle and lower classes.

The residues which exert a considerable influence on the equilibrium of society are Class I. (instinct for combinations of residues) and II. (persistence of groups [or aggregates]). All the problems of society arising from the circulation of elites find their origins in what the definitions of these first two Classes of residues tell us.

The individuals whose personality is rather well summarized by the definition of Class I of residues are the "foxes" that Machiavelli describes [45]. These live on expedients or opportunities which they seldom fail to seize, and they believe in the gains of deception and cunning far more than of labor. They do not attach themselves to anyone or anything, and they do not believe in anyone or anything, except themselves and their personal interests. They don't care about religion, the Nation, laws and morals, and even their own families. However, they are quick to take advantage of those attachments in others which they regard as laughable weaknesses of the mind. They are often those princes of blood whom Frederick II despises, and whom he recommends to keep well away from business.



[44] See the article “The Psychological Assessment”, f rc Part.

[45] “Everyone understands how laudable it is for a prince to be faithful to his word and to always act frankly and without artifice. In our time, however, we have seen great things done by princes who disregarded this fidelity and who knew how to impose it on men by cunning. We have seen these princes finally prevail over those who took loyalty as the basis of all their conduct.

We can fight in two ways: or with the laws, or with force. The first is specific to man, the second is that of beasts; but as often this one is not enough, one is obliged to have recourse to the other: it is therefore necessary that a prince know how to act in time, and as animal and as man. This is what the ancient writers taught allegorically, saying that Achilles and several other heroes of antiquity were entrusted to the centaur Chiron, to feed and raise them.

By that, in fact, and by this teacher half man and half beast, they wanted to signify that a prince must have in a way these two natures, and that one needs to be supported by the other. The prince, having to act like an animal, will try to be both a fox and a lion at the same time: for, if he is only a lion, he will not perceive the snares; if he is only a fox, he will not defend himself against wolves; and he also needs to be a fox to know the traps, and a lion to frighten the wolves. Those who simply stick to being lions are very clumsy. »NICOLAS MACHIAVEL, The Prince, chap. xviii, 1532, J.-V. Périès trad. 



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important state. They live only in the present, without regard for the facts of the past nor for those which will occur; that's why they always show enthusiasm for novelty, for change and for adventure. In economic affairs, they are interested in speculation, promotion and innovation. They are inventive and willingly take risks. But they are reluctant to use force.

Individuals whose personality is rather well summarized by the definition of Class II. of residues are the "lions" of Machiavelli. They are able to resort to the use of force, which they prefer to cunning when having to solve problems. They are conservative, patriotic, respectful of traditions and firmly linked to supra-individual groups such as family, religion and the nation. They are sensitive to the notion of posterity for themselves and for their actions, and concerned about the future. In economic affairs, they are prudent, thrifty and orthodox. They are wary of novelty and hold “strong personalities” and “sense of duty” in high regard. They hate the opportunists; in other words, the "foxes", or at least they stay away from it.

Historically, ancient Athens is one of the best examples of states where the elite were predominantly made up of individuals belonging to Class I residues, and an unusually large proportion of these were found in the other classes of his population. This is a remarkable fact, since the proportion of individuals belonging to Class II. are almost always in the majority in the middle and lower classes. Athens owes much of its glories to this atypical distribution, but it also owes its reverses of fortunes to it. In all areas, economic, political and cultural, Athens welcomed novelty with enthusiasm, and showed itself ready for all adventures. After the defeat of Persia, during the battle of Salamis, in 480 BC. BC, Athens found it impossible to return to tradition. Taking the immediate advantage of her fleet which she had built to serve the purpose of war, she continued to expand her trading empire in the eastern part of the Mediterranean.

When it no longer seemed necessary to her to spare allies in her war effort, she set about building temples and statues which would strike the imagination and impress foreigners. It honored the poets and their philosophers who had attacked values, traditions and ancient 



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ways of living. But this glory was very short, if we compare its duration to the whole extent of its history. For it was constantly weakened from within by these Class I individuals, for they constantly formed conspiratorial and dissident groups and factions that engaged in rebellions. It was this weakness that prevented Athens from showing endurance during the long trials of the Peloponnesian wars.
 
These Class I behaviors and tendencies which defined the form of all her actions made her too ambitious, compared to her real means. Athens refused the peace proposals when it could have drawn honors and territorial and commercial benefits from them, and she threw herself headlong into the expedition to Sicily which brought her ruin. The opportunism and cunning which characterized its collective behavior could not constitute the solid foundations which would have enabled it to resist epidemics, massacres, sieges, incessant aggressions and defeats.

Sparta is the extreme reverse of Athens, because it was a Nation where Class II individuals. were overwhelmingly in the majority in all social classes of its population, and in its elite in particular. In Sparta, attempts at innovation, change, were crimes. Everything that society could do there was regulated by ancient customs, religion and traditions valued by time. The life of the individual had no value there; society and its preservation were the most important things there. All adventurous projects and distant expeditions were promptly dismissed there.

From this peculiar collective behavior, Sparta drew an extraordinary endurance in the face of adversity; but she never surprised the world in anything (except with the high quality of her arts and crafts in jewelry, pottery, etc.). It bequeathed no philosophy to posterity, no wealth, and very little remarkable architecture. Sparta never had the ambition to build a great empire; his armies fell back to return home after defeating the Persians. In spite of some defeats and a population subjected to a difficult daily life, and often very hard, Sparta was victorious during the wars of the Peloponnese. But in the 4th century, when the conditions of life and the war changed, she could not survive any longer. Due, in this other case, to a virtual absence of Class I individuals in his society, and more particularly in his elite, Sparta was unable to adapt to the evolution of history; too conservative, this evil was the only cause of its complete and definitive disappearance.



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The plurality of residues, which offer the best resistance against aggressors, and which, simultaneously, allow cultural evolution and prosperity, is defined as follows: a broad representation of Class I individuals, active in society, and more especially in the lower class; a significant presence of individuals most strongly marked by a Class I personality in the elite, but having to live there with an equal proportion of Class II individuals. ; an elite whose access is open enough for its natural renewal to be possible.

We could describe this latter composition in another way: a society having faith in a myth or an ideology specially constructed for it (or already existing, but adapted to its characteristics [history, space and time]); a strong collective identity, and a strong sense of belonging to the group, capable of stimulating physical endurance and the spirit of sacrifice; an elite constantly in search of the best minds in the whole of society, and not only within it, and showing itself capable of seizing all the opportunities appearing in its history (which must preserve it from degeneration). However, the elite must not be cynical or rely exclusively on cunning and deception to continue to exist and impose their will on the other two classes; it must also show righteousness and steadfastness, and an ability to use force when an internal revolt or external aggression threatens it.

But a composition of this sort does not last long; we could make it a rule. The typical - which is not universal, however - cycle of the development of an organized society unfolds as follows:

A group (Nation) is established, then freezes in this form after a period of wars of conquest or internal disturbances (revolution). At this stage, the ruling elite is mostly made up of Class II individuals, because wars and revolu- tions are sustained by faith, by forces, by a capacity for endurance and will. At the end of this consolidation, the actions of Class I individuals, who form a small minority, multiply, intensify, and begin to produce effects; this causes an increase in the percentage of individuals of this Class within the elite - by "contagion" and by co-option. The "foxes" gradually take the 



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places of "lions"; at the same time, the percentage of "lions" in the two other classes of society, middle and lower, remains high.

The manipulation of Class I individuals can lead to a period of great prosperity. At the same time, however, the elite as a whole loses its faith and the benchmarks which have allowed the establishment of society, and above all, any identification with the group as a whole, from which it is detached. From there, she begins to consider that all her problems can be solved by cunning, by deception; it resorts to force with growing reluctance. Finally, there comes a time when the elite shows itself to be definitively incapable of resisting the aggression of an external enemy, whose will is animated by a strong majority of Class II individuals. inner revolt encouraged, directed and properly organized by a charismatic and competent leader, Class II. him too.

Very often, the elites mainly made up of Class I individuals are themselves the artisans of their own overthrow, then complete disappearance.

Let's summarize this evolution in the simplest way, reducing it to a matter of strength - keeping in mind that the will and ability to use force remains the typical expression of Class II individuals.

When considering whether or not force should be used in a society, whether its use produces a benefit or not, one asks oneself a question that does not make sense. Because the use of force concerns only those who wish to preserve a certain uniformity of society - that is to say the composition and proportions of its classes, and the status quo -, nor those who wish an evolution towards more authoritarian power; the violence of some then surpasses that of others and thus produces a conflict. In truth, when a partisan or ruling elite presents the renunciation of force as a virtue, it implicitly disavows the arguments of the insurgents who try to escape by force the norms and this uniformity of society (similar argument to that of the civil disobedience of Henri-David Thoreau). If, on the contrary, he admits the benefits of resorting to force and uses them, he admits, implicitly, to impose conformity on the insurgents by the use of public force. When an insurgent of the lower (or even middle) class declares itself opposed, in general, to the use of force, he really means that the use of force by the authority constituted to enforce conformity to dissent the gene in its own claims. 



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And if, on the contrary, he praises the virtues of strength, he really thinks of the advantage that could be derived from it by those who seek to free themselves from certain aspects of social conformity. These latter explanations cover only one aspect of a problem. In addition, the argument that will be used can be extended, and directed against the use of force in all senses of the word, both literally and figuratively. Typically, such arguments betray a high concentration of Class I individuals within an elite, and they are used to weaken its representatives belonging to Class II, when the spokesperson of that elite communicates them to the rest of the community. the population or to other Nations. This expression of disagreement among the elite, in fact, concerns the respective merits of cunning and force, and betrays an attempt to tip the scales in favor of a doctrine that says: never must give in to violence, and show that resorting to cunning and deception is always more profitable, without any exception.

Suppose the case of a country ruled by an upper class that recruits all the smartest individuals, regardless of social class, and leaves none in the middle and lower classes. In this case, these last two, even if they are allied, do not have the slightest hope (unless they are discreetly helped by a foreign country, and again this does not guarantee anything) to overthrow the upper class, at least as long as the struggle continues in the field of intelligence. However, if this struggle simultaneously involves the use of intelligence and force, this superiority of the elite could be weakened. For, in the majority of cases, individuals who rely only on cunning, and on their ease to deceive without scruples, are naturally reluctant, or become so, to resort to violence; no matter how smart they are, this is their vulnerability.

This is why, still in the case of this last imaginary example, if the circumstances make that we find a strong concentration of Class I individuals in this elite which absorbs the best intelligences of the whole society, this will lead to a high concentration of Class II individuals in



[46] These explanations, which refer to dissent and revolutions, are also valid in the context of diplomacy. Pacifism, as praised by the dominant powers, is an implicit disavowal of the use of force to lead to an exit (or the creation of an exception) from the international status quo, and, simultaneously, its recognition when 'it serves to preserve the status quo. "Pacifism" means the exact opposite, when this word is used by weak Nations. In the latter case, this use is part of an ideological attack against the international status quo, in order to justify the violence of insurgents or a group seeking to seize power.



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the middle and lower classes, who show no reluctance to use violence. If this distribution is confirmed over time, the balance of power between the elite, on the one hand, and the middle and lower classes on the other, becomes unstable, in favor of the latter (even more so if they ally ). Knowing that the only handicap remaining in the middle and lower classes will be a lack of intelligence necessary for the good use of the force of which they are capable, their possible action against the upper class, and their chances of being victorious, will not depend than the appearance of a leader at their head.

However, history teaches us that, in such a case, this leader is often an upper class dissident who has become so because of having been sidelined or deliberately weakened by the other members of his group. This one is still animated by a strong will, and he has every reason, to overthrow the upper class to which he no longer belongs only symbolically or has belonged.

The result of such revolutions, following a situation identical to that of the imaginary example we have just presented, and which occurs frequently in history from antiquity to the present day, is a social revolution. followed by a sudden and radical cleansing of the country's elite, which manifests itself in a reestablishment of the balance in favor of Class II individuals. (Machiavelli's “lions”, therefore). Despite the cost in victims and various sufferings that these social revolutions cause, they are, in certain circumstances, both necessary and beneficial for the whole of society. But, again in the case that we have just seen, we must keep in mind that it is illusory to think that the middle and lower classes overthrow the upper class, and take power by a social revolution, by the fact of their only common will (or that, unique, of one or the other of these two classes, as many believe). The masses can never revolt successfully if their action is not led by a leader (or by a small group of leaders), who is always a capable and ambitious individual, or who comes from the elite and has been ostracized. by his peers (a member of the nobility, very often in this case), either who is from the middle or lower class, and to whom the door of access to the elite has been deliberately and clearly closed (an intellectual, member middle class, often in this other case).

Therefore, as long as the elite are wise enough to leave the door open for the most capable individuals



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of society, without distinction of class, and that it only proceeds with a filtering to favor the candidates of Class II, it virtually grants itself effective protection against the risk of a social revolution. If a social revolution occurs, a replacement of the elite follows, or, more exactly, as history teaches us, its renewal. Because, in this case, the old elite is never completely replaced; some of its members remain in place within the new elite (they were dissidents, or frustrated malcontents who did not dare to revolt, or even opportunists who turned cascades at the last moment 47). In any case, here again, this renewal often proves to be beneficial, to a greater or lesser extent, for the whole of society, and more particularly for the middle and lower classes which remain ruled by an elite. , and whose quality of life still depends on the latter.

The circulation of the elites is therefore highly dependent on social changes, in a majority of cases. So, although one can arrive at objective conclusions about the vitality of a society when compared to another, one cannot make any objective judgment when defining what type of social structure is best for it. , internally, from the point of view of what is commonly referred to as the “public good”. However, from a more distant point of view, such as that of history, the resistance of this society to external aggressions is a consideration which trumps that of the public good. For a good defense against external threats is impossible to reconcile with the best public good at home. If we agree on a definition of the public good saying that it concerns the search for well-being for all classes of society, and open access to the elite according to the capacities of candidates for entry alone in the latter, then such a public good will be beneficial to an external enemy, in particular if the latter primarily uses cunning and deception. If a Nation finds itself in such a situation that it cannot survive external aggression, continuing to worry about its well-being within its borders is absurd.

In order to survive, a society must provide access to its elite "relatively open" to individuals of all classes; the elite must above all not completely close the door to their access and only renew themselves from the inside, in all cases. 



[47] Talleyrand is perhaps the best historical example, personified, of the latter case. 



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Allowing the free will of individuals of all classes to speak out greatly improves the public good, understood in the sense of the well-being of society as a whole. Historically, the most enduring and dynamic societies favor a predominance of Class I individuals among their elites, and another of Class II individuals. in the rest of society. But it would be a mistake to conclude in so far as Class II individuals should therefore be excluded from the elite. If Class II individuals. are most widely represented in all social classes of a society, then the Nation does not develop any active culture, and degenerates into a hotbed of general brutality and absurdities striking all individuals at random. In this case, an inability to adapt to developments and changes in the world as a whole emerges, and disaster soon follows. The catastrophe threatens as much society where Class I individuals are in the majority and hold power; which, typically, lacks long-term vision, discipline and attachment to moral values ​​and traditions, the benefits of which have yet been demonstrated, and blindly believe in their ability to overcome future handicaps by resorting to tricks, tricks, and deception.

What has been said at this point is sufficient to establish a "law of the movement of the elites", which will serve not only to clarify our understanding of the societies of the past, but also to illuminate our analysis of the societies of our time, and even to predict the future of social evolution. If we analyze, for example, how nations such as the United States, and those of continental Europe evolved from the beginning of the 20th century, we notice that the mode of circulation of the elites during the previous century led to it. most of them on a condition that has favored an overrepresentation of Class I individuals within their ruling elites. This has dragged these Nations into alienating and mind-numbing forms of all kinds of gratuitous beliefs supported by unprincipled arguments. Often, it must be recognized, these beliefs are consequences of intention form rhetoric, and the use of which has spread to purposes unrelated to politics. The result of such conditions can be summarized as follows:

I. A small group of determined citizens can impose their will on officials and senior government officials who are reluctant to use equal violence. If the refusal of these leaders to use force is 



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primarily motivated by pseudo-humanistic feelings in which they sincerely believe, this loss of authority and responsibility occurs very quickly. But, if this same refusal is justified by a considered decision to resort to other means deemed wiser, the result will be as follows:

II. To resist violence, or to prevent its occurrence, the ruling elite will resort to corruption carried out according to a “diplomatic” approach, which will appear, most often, as a pact concluded between the “foxes” and the "Lions". Thus, the ruling elite bow to the threat of violence, but this is only an apparent submission, since this tactic consists of circumventing an obstacle that cannot be removed by a frontal attack. In the long term, this makes it possible to acquire a greater influence on the selection of candidates for entry into the ruling class, which is obviously, since the use of force has been refused, reserved for "foxes" and closed to " lions ”. Whoever knows best the art of undermining the strength of enemies of power, and of reclaiming through deception what seemed to have been abandoned under the threat of violence, can thus become “the leader of the rulers”. The one who revolts, but does not know how to bow, nor knows how to recognize the best time and the best place to do it, makes the most mediocre of rulers, and his presence is not tolerated within the elite only if it possesses other qualities great enough to outweigh this flaw.

III. All this further reinforces the predominance of the residue combination instinct (Class I.) within the ruling elite. And group persistence (Class II.), If it still exists, is only more weakened. Because the combination of residues maintains, precisely, the art and the capacity required to make the ingenuity of the substitutes of the displayed resistance, while the residues of type persistence of groups stimulate the frank resistance, since a powerful feeling of persistence of the group stimulates rigidity and intransigence.

IV. The policies and rules set by the ruling elite are not planned to apply to all future eventualities. The predominance of the instinct of combinations of residues and the cultivated weakening of group persistence occurs when the ruling elite becomes satisfied with the present and neglects the future. The individual prevails; it is valued more than



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the family, the community and even to the Nation. Material interest, that for the present time and for an immediate future only, prevails over the best interests of the community or the Nation, and over long-term prospects. The important thing is to enjoy the present, without worrying too much about the next day.

V. Some of these phenomena can also be observed in the context of international relations. Wars are essentially economic. Efforts are made to avoid conflicts with great powers, and strength is shown only to weaker powers. Wars are seen only as speculation. A country is often forced to be ready to repel an imminent attack from outside its borders, without being in any way responsible for this situation, however, and must, in order to defend itself against it, maintain economic conflicts which, it l hope, will never escape its control to evolve into a real armed conflict (or multiple armed conflicts). And yet, it is not so uncommon for armed conflict to be inevitable, through the fault of people who are not on the path to a predominance of Class I residues.

When we are faced with such circumstances, we are inclined to think that analogies with comparable past situations allow us to anticipate their future developments. One way or another, and in the aftermath of a disaster, more likely, social imbalances within ruling elites can be corrected. Internal revolutions and the consequences of external armed conflicts make it possible to reintroduce into them many Class II individuals, who, as we have seen, show themselves usefully capable of using force, and are quick to do so in order to maintain peace in society. Such a development would therefore imply an almost complete destruction of certain existing elites, and, consequently, that of the Nations they govern. In other cases, sufficient alteration in the character of these ruling elites may occur "naturally" and just in time to preserve the whole community. What happened in Munich in 1938 was, if we disregard the motives and means employed there and at that time, a remarkable example of what the circulation of the elites could be. It was during this event that the weakness of an exclusive trust in the instinct of combinations of residues (residues of



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Class I.); these combinations, however clever they were, could in no way solve the social problems of a mature world. And on the same occasion, the Munich incident revealed that only these two Nations, Germany and Russia, where a new distribution of the elites had already occurred, had already shown themselves capable of seriously preparing for a war. whose occurrence was certain.

THE SELECTION AND MANUFACTURING OF THE ELITES.

We have so far spoken of "elites" in the plural, because we must distinguish the ruling elite which governs from the passive elite which does not govern. The non-governing elite found in many branches of human activity - from the arts and sciences to more abstract activities such as the game of chess - exert no learned influence. - focus on political affairs, or even on culture, of which it can nevertheless be an important actor (we will understand why by reading the chapter of this same part devoted to internal security [Chapter IX.]). And we must not forget the existence of an elite which is not active in any category of human activity, and which is even the most passive of all because its individuals are only members of it. by the sole grace of the possession of a fortune or of a prestige acquired by the inheritance. Of these, whose existence we have only briefly mentioned so far, Frederick II recommends: “There is a species of amphibious being which is neither sovereign nor particular, and which sometimes is very difficult to govern: he is what is called a prince of the blood. The size of their extraction gives them a certain pride which they call nobility, which makes obedience unbearable and all subjugation odious. If there is some intrigue, some cabal or some plot to be understood, it is from them that it can come. In this state they can afford less than anywhere else; but the best course we can take with them is to strongly revive the first who raises the banner of independence, to treat them with all the distinction that belongs to their birth, to overwhelm them with all these honors. outsiders, but to keep them away from business and to entrust them with the conduct of the troops only with good signs, namely, when they have talents and can be trusted in their character. What I say about princes extends to 



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princesses who must never, under any pretext whatsoever, interfere in government [48]. "

The character of any society is above all the character of its elite, as the first article of this chapter explains; his capacities are those of his elite; its history can only be properly understood by analyzing the history of its elite; any attempt to predict its future must be based on evidence extracted from studying the makeup and structure of its elite. The sociologist and economist Pareto arrived at the same conclusions as the researcher and eminent specialist in the study of the elite, Mosca, who, for his part, reduced the elite to the "political class [49]", as he did. names it generically.

In many societies, at all times and even more in this century than ever, the movement of the elites is not exclusively conditioned by the competence and intelligence of the candidates. In the political system of oligarchic collectivism, as in that of many monarchies until the first half of the 19th century, it is even frequent that the capacity and intelligence of individuals welcomed into the elites do not constitute dominant criteria, even when they come from the middle and lower social classes and have no fortune or reputation acquired by inheritance. However, it should be kept in mind that the elite of the collectivist oligarchic system is renewing itself very largely from within, and that it only rarely opens the door to candidates from the middle and lower classes. It does so, in truth, only under the exception, to appease the masses, and especially to produce before them false proofs of the existence of democracy, and, again, by not considering as a priority the criteria of capacity and intelligence, but, rather twice than one, that of orthodoxy.

The ruling elite that adopts and imposes on all of society the governance system of oligarchic collectivism typically has a majority of Class I individuals (“foxes”) within it, and its Class II members. ("Lions") are little by little rejected. However, these Class I individuals quickly assume the conservative behavior of Class II individuals, only for fear of power slipping away from them.



[48] Frederick II, Die Politischen testamente, 1752.

[49] Gaetano Mosca's essay devoted to the elite, and more particularly to the “political class”, Elementi di scienza politica, (1896), has remained relevant since its publication, and continues to be authoritative, in despite the changes in society since the beginning of the 20th century.



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in one way or another ; which leads to behaviors and reflexes (which can be formalized to become real official or unofficial rules), collectively and internally, which escape all logic. Thus, collectivism, which was nevertheless claimed at the time of the revolutionary stage which preceded the seizure of power by members of this same elite, is abandoned in favor of deeply conservative behavior.

These last details make it possible to better understand that at the time of the selection of candidates for entry into the elite of an oligarchic collectivist system, it is orthodoxy which prevails over the criteria of competence and intelligence. . And, the elite, when they manage to “fossilize” themselves in their conservatism, no longer regard skills and intelligence as more than accessory qualities, even dangerous because they can call into question the non-logical aspects of orthodoxy. (often numerous), while the criterion of orthodoxy is more and more severely evaluated, and is considered satisfactory only from the thresholds of dogmatism, even fanaticism when the power fears a revolution or the attack of an external enemy.

After that, this elite, fully aware of the risk of dissent that can occur - at one time or another, and for reasons impossible to anticipate - in the minds of the most (or least) individuals. ) orthodox, wants to ensure that it cannot exist. This is why it establishes an additional condition for entry into the elite, which consists of a compromise on the part of the candidate, whatever his nature, since, after all, the more serious it will be, the better it will dissuade the future member. of the elite to revolt later. This compromise must be known only to a few members of the elite, and to its agents whom it has charged with exploiting or organizing its nature. The diversity of the compromises is as vast as what the common law justice counts of offenses, and, better still, than what the opinion of the society counts of moral faults. The investigation of morality which precedes the admission of a candidate within the elite includes the search for his possible defects, or better, the collection of his possible faults of which it is possible to obtain material proofs or testimonies. that we cannot doubt, or that we can easily pass off as real. This first leverage must serve to convince the candidate to compromise again and again and in various ways, in order to collect a choice of various severities of compromise throughout his life as a member of the elite. The proofs of 



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these compromises, which must be as numerous as possible to be indisputable, are brought together in files which immediately become the greatest secrets of the Nation, and the best kept.

Thanks to the particular method which has just been presented, the member of the elite who manifests a dissident behavior may be invited to return to the orthodoxy which he had shown when he was admitted into the elite, on pain of public disclosure of one of his faults, and being called to appear in court. Or again, the sampling of these, which the elite collectively dispose of, allows in this circumstance, for example, to expose a first fault of low gravity, an act that the one it concerns will have to interpret at the same time as a warning, and as a punishment for his wrongdoing. If, despite the damage inflicted on him, he persists, then a second of his faults, of greater gravity, is immediately revealed, and so on. When the misconduct is considered serious and detrimental to the entire elite, or to some of its most powerful members, the sanction is accompanied by a temporary or permanent exclusion of the elite. Speaking of the most serious wrongs that a member of the elite can commit (i.e. a secret relationship with an outside enemy, or the disclosure of state secrets), the sanction can be a set of hostile and persistent actions which must ruin him in addition to his exclusion, and discredit him even more, and so until no one in the whole country takes him the slightest consideration, and gives him the slightest mercy. . Finally, the penalty can be death, inflicted in a violent and rapid manner, or in the form of an illness leading to it slowly and painfully. Further explanations concerning this very particular subject, completed with some examples, will be presented in the last article of this book.

Typically, the compromises that ensure the loyalty and orthodoxy of an elite member are: sexual practices that society perceives as shameful, or which may be punishable by imprisonment; false betrayals which the one they concern believes to be genuine; implications in various frauds, etc.

However, the elite member who is guilty of misconduct - big or small, it doesn't matter - is always asked to repent publicly before being sanctioned. As for the one who is guilty of a more serious fault (treason, 



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public revelations, etc.), it will be sanctioned with discretion, so that the masses are not influenced by a bad example, and also so that they do not come to doubt the orthodoxy of the elite , because it must maintain its appearance of infallibility in all circumstances. Finally, this compromise offers the ruling elite, collectively, a power of authority over each of its members. For example, when a member of the elite has been chosen to occupy high positions of leadership and representation (minister, vice-minister, ambassador, chancellor, etc.), the compromise by which one usually ensures his orthodoxy can be used to force him to make a decision that he would otherwise have refused to make on his behalf, or to resign.

Members of the ruling elite are especially concerned by the system just presented, which does not mean that those of the passive elite, who do not exercise governance functions, are. not. Here are the reasons.

The members of the passive elite are often individuals who, because of their superiority in a human activity, real or presented as such, have made themselves known to the whole of society, and, as such, are presented to it. - explicitly or implicitly, whatever - as examples. As in the case of candidates for entry into the ruling elite, in a system of collectivist oligarchic governance, we also ensure the political orthodoxy of candidates for entry into the passive elite. A singer or a conductor, a sports champion or an opera dancer, a poet or a philosopher, a talented scientist or a great industrialist, are all highly likely to speak publicly, just as much as they are. are likely to express their dissatisfaction with the country's policies, its leaders, or the like. When they do, they discredit the ruling elite, and at the same time they undermine social order. Because, since they are loved by a large percentage of the population, and more particularly by a large percentage of the middle and lower classes, all they can say and do is often followed by imitation by all those who are looking for better informed opinions than their own. Worse yet: one of these members of the passive elite can also have a political ambition, and take advantage of the celebrity and the sympathy that the Nation has for him (because he thinks, rightly or wrongly, that it acquired) in an attempt to become a leader [50]. 

All members of the passive elite are therefore subject to the same rules as those of the ruling elite, to a lesser extent and often using different methods, however. Because, unlike members of the ruling elite, those of the active elite: know only little secrets, since these do not concern politics or the ruling elite; have an existence which is known to the whole Nation only by the grace of the press, which can, at any time and suddenly, stop talking about them on the orders of the ruling elite (through the directors of the major newspapers, also members of an elite); can interact with the press and with the masses, in the majority of cases, only through the intermediary of a secretary or a personal representative who himself owes his place only to his orthodoxy and his status of political police spy [51].

But, on the whole, the ruling elite have little fear that such a problem would arise with a member of the passive elite, for all of them seldom have the skills and knowledge to do so. a political leader, and typically they are too attached to the benefits of their status, and their careers and celebrities too dependent on the press and political power.

The system of hierarchy of elites which best suits oligarchic collectivism, because it has been tested and perfected in Russia for more than two hundred years, is called “table of ranks 52”. The Russian table of ranks was partly inspired by the hierarchical model of the court of Versailles, designed in the 16th century (especially for women), and by that of the organization and structure of the Republic of the Two Nations, Lithuanian and Polish, designed in 1569.

This latter hierarchical model of government administration can be seen as the very first form of what we popularly call “bureaucracy” today. Weber studied it in his essay, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 5î. There he distinguishes three typical models of power



[50] These cases are not so rare, and one of the best known and most recent that could be cited as examples, is that of the famous English journalist Walter Duranty, who has taken advantage of his popularity and the Pulitzer Prize which was awarded to him for propaganda in favor of the enemy of his own country.

[51] See the last article in this book on this subject.

[52] Taôejih o pamax.

[53] Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (Economy and Society), was published after the death of its author, Max Weber, in 1922. Unfortunately, it has not yet been translated into Russian or



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political: 1) “legal authority” (based on modern law and the system of state bureaucratic administration, typical in liberal democracies established on rational and legal political doctrine); 2) “traditional authority [55]” (based on the patriarch, feudal and patrimonial); 3) “charismatic authority [56]” (family and religious). He explains that political authority is a power that those who are subject to it recognize as legitimate. The transition of the typical models of power that he thus defined takes place according to the system of “cycles of history” (from three to five stages, approximately) proposed by several other historians and sociologists of our time, and counting among the most prominent 57; that is to say, states evolve from charismatic authority to traditional authority, to settle definitively on legal authority. Of course, only the model of legal authority interests us here, since, in our time, the overthrow of governments immediately follows, without transition and almost always, new legal authorities.

The table of ranks was proposed in Russia during the reign of Tsar Peter the Great, and adopted on January 24, 1722 58, at a time in history when there was a conflict with an authority exclusively acquired by heredity in the nobility of Boyards. It was not officially abandoned until November 11, 1917, by decree of the Bolshevik government. It fixed the hierarchy of three distinct and fundamental elites in the 18th century: the elite of the court, in charge of political affairs; the elite of civil servants; the military elite of officers. There were fourteen ranks of importance and power in each of these elites, and, from its adoption by Peter the Great, middle and lower class individuals who managed to distinguish themselves, either by their bravery or by their ability and skill. intelligence, could enter the elite - the old boyar system looked only at heredity, at first, then came age and experience. It is in French for the moment, although it is an indisputably major work by this sociologist.

[54] Legal herrschaft: Reiner typus mittels bùrokratischen Verwaltungsstabes. (Kap. III., §§ 3. 4., <Die Typen der Herrschaft>).

[55] Traditionale Herrschaft. (Kap. III., §§6. 7.).

[56] Charismatische Herrschaft ihre Merkmale und Vergemeinschaftungen. (Kap. III., §§ io.).

[57] We can at least cite Toynbee, Spencer and Sorokin.

[58] “Taôaib o pattzax-b ecmx-b uuuoeb,“ outtcKiix-b, cmamcKUXb u npudeopuux-b, Komopue “t> KomopoMb Kjiaccm huhu; u Komopue bt, odnoM-b aiacctb. "- neip 1 24 HHBapa 1722 r. 



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It was only possible to reach the top five ranks of the rank table with the personal approval of the Tsar. As soon as he entered the fourteenth grade of the ranks table, an administrative employee or a soldier was at the same time admitted to the nobility (deopnncmeo); as soon as he reached the eighth rank, his children acceded to the privilege of hereditary nobility.

The table of ranks underwent some modifications and improvements thereafter, mainly because of the problems posed by the arrival in the elite of illiterate individuals, and even sometimes illiterate. In 1767, Czarina Catherine the Great gained some popularity among the elite of civil servants, instituting automatic promotion for them to a higher rank every seven years, regardless of their merits and faults. In 1845, Tsar Nicholas I raised access to the hereditary nobility to fifth rank; then to the fourth for administrative employees, and to the sixth for army officers, in 1856. Lenin's father, the current State Councilor (deûcmeumejibHbiù cmamcKuû coeemmiK), was himself a member of the White Russian elite elevated to fourth rank, which made him a member of the hereditary nobility as well.

Despite the abolition of the table of ranks since the Revolution of 1917, its use is gradually returning in the Soviet Union, but it is not official since it contradicts the Soviet revolutionary doctrine and myth. For example, last year, 1943, the hierarchical system of army officers - that is, the elite of the army, above the middle class of non-commissioned officers, and of the lower class of soldiers - again adopted the fourteen ranks of the Tsarist rank table (from second lieutenant 59 to the supreme rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union 60). Also, access to high degrees of responsibility in civil administration is accompanied by special privileges, such as more spacious official accommodation, located in buildings and quarters reserved for the middle class or the elite, a car of function, a cleaning lady 61, etc.

The criteria for selecting new members of the elite by the current elite, to serve the purpose of their regular and ordinary renewal, have varied considerably from one civilization to another.



59 MnaaniHii neHTeHaHT.

60 MapinanoM CoBeTCKoro Coicoa.

61 There is even a law, passed on February 8, 1926, regulating the working conditions of domestic workers. 



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Weber provides us with clues in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. But, when heredity is not called for, the elites always recruit according to criteria of bravery, exceptional ability or intelligence, and, of course, orthodoxy.

The Russian rank table, as defined in 1835, and until 1917.

At the same time, Peter the Great had also decreed a special table for ladies-in-waiting at the Russian court (IlpHflBopHbie / ïaMbi Pocchhckoh HMnepHH) - the female elite we could say -, comprising seven degrees, since the Grand mistress of the court to the maid, by the way 



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by the wives of the private councilors (> KeHbi AeMCTBMTenbHbix TaiiHbix coBeTHHKOB) and those of the brigadier generals (rocb- flaMbi).

A version adapted to the oligarchic collectivism of the table of ranks can be used nowadays; it suffices to change the titles, and there is no need to keep the masses informed.

The wealth of goods traditionally accompanies access to the elite, but this is not what oligarchic collectivism wants, as is explained in detail in the first chapter of the part of this book devoted to the economy. .

Perhaps the reader will be surprised to learn that the best method of selecting members of the political elite of the oligarchic collectivist power system was invented by Plato, more than 300 BC. what has been said to make more sense on this subject since has never been anything but theories of Platonic inspiration. In his Republic, Plato reasoned only through the logic of political power; nothing that is religious or irrational in nature ever tints his words. The reader will have no difficulty, when reading what follows, to imagine how the Platonic "guardian of the state" can be both effective in his decisions and able to defend himself against the aggressions coming from the United States. inside and out. But, of course, nothing can guarantee that Plato's elite would resist the inevitable phenomenon of degeneration better than any other. The famous political theorist did not benefit from the same point of view, nor the same wealth of information as Pareto, Mosca, and others.

Plato begins first of all by getting the reader to accept the unstoppable logic which leads to his teaching, by using a few comparisons and metaphors which are not as abstract as it may seem to us a priori.

“And if it is up to others to lie, it is up to the city leaders, to deceive, in the interest of the city, enemies or citizens; to any other person the lie is forbidden, and we will affirm that the private individual who lies to the chiefs commits a fault of the same nature, but greater than the patient who does not tell the truth to the doctor, than the pupil who hides from the pedotribe 62 his physical dispositions, or that the sailor who deceives the pilot about the state of the vessel and the crew by not informing him of what he or one of his comrades is doing.

62 The pedotribe (7tm5oTpi6eç) was the “children's trainer” in physical education. 



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“Now, for the mass of men, are not the main points of temperance the following: to obey the chiefs, and to be master of oneself with regard to the pleasures of wine, of love and of the table ? "

"We must not tolerate either that our warriors receive gifts and be friends of riches.

“Because we would say, I think, that poets and storytellers make the greatest mistakes about men, when they claim that many unjust are happy, while the righteous are unhappy; that injustice benefits if it remains hidden; that justice is good for others, but for oneself a damage. We would forbid them to make such speeches, and we would order them to sing and to tell the opposite [...].

“[...] you need good judges and good doctors. [. . .]

"The most skilful doctors would be those who, beginning from childhood to learn their art, would have treated the greatest number of bodies and the most unhealthy, and who, not being themselves of a healthy complexion, would have suffered of all diseases. Indeed, they do not heal, I think, the body by the body - otherwise it would not be appropriate that they were or ever become ill -, but the body by the soul, and the soul which is or which becoming ill cannot cure any evil well.

"But the judge, [...] commands the soul by the soul, and it is not appropriate for the soul to be brought up in the company of perverse souls, nor for it to have traversed the series of all crimes, for the sole purpose of power, with acuity, to conjecture by herself the crimes of others, as the doctor conjectures the diseases of the body; on the contrary, she must have remained ignorant and pure of vice if we want, beautiful and good, to judge healthily what is just.

"This is why honest people show themselves simple in their youth and are easily deceived by wicked people: they do not have in them models of feelings similar to those of perverts.

“Also, [...] the good judge cannot be young, but old; he must have learned late what injustice is, that he must have known it not by lodging it in his soul, but by studying it for a long time, like a stranger, in the souls of others, and that science, and not his own experience, make him clearly feel what evil it constitutes.

“Such a man [. . .] would be the noblest of judges. 



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“And that would be the right judge [...]; for he who has a good soul is good. As for this clever and suspicious man, who has committed many injustices and believes himself to be clever and wise, he certainly shows consummate prudence when he deals with his fellows, because he refers to the models of their vices which he has in him; but when he meets good people who are already advanced in years, he appears foolish, incredulous, irrelevant, ignorant of what a healthy character is, because he does not possess the pattern. in himself.

"But as he finds himself more often with wicked than with good men, he is considered wise rather than ignorant, in his own eyes and in those of others.

“So [...] it is not in this man that we must seek the good and wise judge, but in the first. For perversity cannot know itself and know virtue, while the virtue of a nature cultivated by education will, over time, together come to know itself and to know vice. It is therefore for the virtuous man, it seems to me, and not for the wicked, that it belongs to become skilful.

“So you will establish in the city doctors and judges as we have described them, to care for the citizens who are well constituted in body and soul; as for the others, we will let those who have an unhealthy body die, and those who have a soul perverse by nature and incorrigible, we will put them to death.

“This is for sure the best thing to do, for the sick themselves and for the city.

"But it is obvious ... that young people will be careful not to need judges if they cultivate this simple music which, we said, breeds temperance.

"And is it not true that by following the same indications, the musician who practices gymnastics will manage to do without the doctor, except in cases of necessity?

"In his very exercises and in his labors he will aim to stimulate the generous part of his soul rather than increase his strength, and, like other athletes, he will not regulate his nourishment and his efforts with a view to bodily vigor. .

"Now [...] those who founded education on music and gymnastics, did they do so to form the body through both the soul? [...]

“It is fortunate [...] that both were established primarily for the soul. Have you not noticed what is the disposition of mind of those who devote themselves to gymnastics all their 



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life, and do not touch the music? or those who do the opposite? [...]

“[...] I have noticed that those who indulge in unadulterated gymnastics contract too much harshness in it, and that those who exclusively cultivate music become softer than decency would like. And, however, it is the generous element of their nature that produces harshness; well directed it would become courage, but too tense it degenerates into harshness and bad humor, as is natural.

"[...] does not gentleness belong to the natural philosopher?

"Too relaxed, it softens it more than it should, but well directed, it softens it and orders it. [...]

“Now, we say, our guardians must unite these two natives. Shouldn't we therefore bring them into harmony with one another? And doesn't their harmony make the soul temperate and courageous? [...]

"While their disagreement makes her lick and rude?" If, then, a man allows music to delight him to the sound of the flute and to pour into his soul, through his ears, those sweet, soft and plaintive harmonies of which we were speaking earlier, if he passes his life to hum, shining with joy at the beauty of the song: first of all it softens the irascible element of his soul, as fire softens iron, and makes it useful, useless and hard as it was before ; but if he continues to indulge in charm, his courage does not take long to dissolve and melt, to the point of being reduced to nothing, to being excised, like a nerve, from his soul, leaving him "to be a warrior. without force ". [. . .]

"And if he has received from nature a soul without courage this result is not long in coming: if, on the contrary, he is ardent, his heart weakens, becomes impressionable and quick for trifles, to get carried away, and calm down. Instead of brave, he is irritable, short-tempered, and full of bad humor. [. . .]

“On the other hand, what happens if he devotes himself entirely to gymnastics and good food, without worrying about music and philosophy? First of all, does not the feeling of his strength fill him with pride and courage, and does he not become braver than he was? [...]

"But what if he does nothing else and does not trade with the Muse?" Even if he had some desire to learn in his soul, as he tasted no science, took part in no research, no discussion, or any other exercise in music, this desire became weak, deaf and blind: he is neither awake, nor cultivated, nor free from the matrix of sensations. [. . .]



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“From then on, I think, such a man becomes an enemy of reason and of the Muses; he no longer uses speech to persuade; in everything he achieves his ends by violence and savagery, like a ferocious beast, and he lives in the midst of ignorance and coarseness, without harmony and without grace. [. . .]

“For these two elements of the soul apparently, the courageous and the philosophical, a god, I would say, gave men two arts, music and gymnastics; he did not give them for the soul and the body, if not by incidence, but for these two elements, so that they harmonize with each other, being stretched or released to the proper point. [. . .]

"Consequently, the one who most beautifully mixes gymnastics with music, and in the best measure applies them to his soul, that one, we shall say quite rightly, is a perfect musician and a perfect harmonist, much more than the one who regulates the strings of an instrument between them. [...]

“We will therefore also need in our city [. . .] of a leader in charge of regulating this mixture, if we want to save our constitution. [...]

“Such is our teaching and education plan in its general lines; for, what is the use of dwelling on the dances of our young people, their hunts with or without a pack, their gymnastics and horse competitions? It is quite clear that the rules to be followed in this depend on those that we have laid down, and that it is not difficult to find them. [. . .]

"After that what remains for us to determine? Is it not the choice of the citizens who must command or obey? [...]

“Now, it is obvious that the old will have to command and the young will obey. And that among the old men we must choose the best. But are not the best of the plowmen the best able to cultivate the land? [. . .]

"So, shouldn't our leaders, since they must be the best of the guardians, be the best able to guard the city? [...]

“And doesn't that require intelligence, authority and dedication to the public interest?
" Certainly.

“But aren't we especially devoted to what we love?
“There is necessity.

“Now, a man loves above all what he believes in community of interests with him, what he considers the success as his and the failure as his. [...] 



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“We will therefore choose from among the guardians those who, after examination, will appear to us to have to do, throughout their life and with all their good will, what they consider to be profitable to the city, without ever agreeing to do the opposite.

"These are indeed those who are suitable [...].

"I therefore believe that we must observe them at all ages to see if they remain faithful to this maxim, and if, fascinated or constrained, they neither abandon nor forget the opinion which obliges them to work as hard as possible. great good of the city. [. . .]

“Do you not agree with me that men are involuntarily deprived of goods, and of evils voluntarily? Now, isn't it bad to be deceived about the truth, to be in the right, good? [...]

"I express myself apparently, [...] in the manner of the tragic. I say that one is stolen when one is dissuaded or that one forgets because time in one case, in the other reason, steals your opinion from you without your knowledge. [. . .]

“I say you are abused when grief or pain forces you to change your mind. [. . .]

"So you will say, I think, with me that one is fascinated when one changes one's opinion under the spell of pleasure or the oppression of fear." [...]

“Thus, as I said earlier, we must seek the most faithful guardians of this maxim which prescribes working for what we consider to be the greatest good of the city. We must test them from childhood by engaging them in actions where we can especially forget and be deceived, then choose those who remember, who are difficult to seduce, and exclude others, right? not ? [...]

"And we must also impose on them work, pain, fights, in which we will ensure their consistency.

“So [...] we must make them compete in a third kind of test, that of fascination, and observe them: just as we lead foals in the midst of noise and tumults to to see if they are fearful, it is necessary, during their youth, to transport the warriors in the middle of frightening objects, then to bring them back towards the pleasures, to experience - with much more care than one does not feel the or by fire - if they resist the spell and show themselves to be decent in all these circumstances, if they remain good guardians of themselves and of the music they have learned, if they always conduct themselves with rhythm and harmony, and are finally able to make themselves eminently useful to themselves and to the city. 



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"And the one who will have undergone the trials of childhood, adolescence and manhood, and will come out pure, we will make him head of the city and guardian, we will honor him during his life and after. his death, granting him the insignia reward of tombs and monuments in his memory; but whoever is not, we will exclude.

"This [...] is how, in my opinion, the choice of chiefs and guardians should be made, to describe it only in general, and without going into detail. [. . .]

"Therefore, to be really as exact as possible, is it not appropriate to call, on the one hand, accomplished guardians those who watch over the enemies of the exterior and the friends of the interior, in order to remove to some the will, to others the power to harm, and to give, on the other hand, to the young people whom we just called guardians, the name of auxiliaries and defenders of the thought of the chiefs? [. . .]

"Now [...] what means will we have of making believe some noble lie - one of those which we described earlier as necessary - mainly to the chiefs themselves, and, if not, to other citizens?

“One which is not new, but of Phoenician origin [...]; it concerns something which has already happened in many places, as the poets say and have made believe, but which has not happened nowadays, which perhaps will never happen, and which, for admit it, requires a lot of persuasive eloquence.

“[...] and I will try to persuade the chiefs and soldiers first, then the other citizens, that whatever we have taught them in raising and educating them, whatever they thought they had the right to know. feeling and experience were, so to speak, only a dream; that in reality they were then formed and brought up in the midst of the earth, themselves, their weapons and all that belonged to them; that after having fully formed them, the earth, their mother, brought them to light; that, consequently, they must regard the country which they inhabit as their mother and their nurse, defend it against who would attack it, and treat the other citizens as brothers, as children of the earth like themselves.

“You are all brothers in the city, we will tell them, continuing this fiction; but the god who formed you made gold enter into the composition of those of you who are able to rule: therefore they are the most precious. He mixed money in the composition of the auxiliaries; iron and brass in that of ploughmen and other craftsmen. Usually, 



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you will beget children similar to yourself; but as you are all related, it may happen that from gold is born an offspring of silver, from silver an offspring of gold, and the same transmutations occur between the other metals.

“So, above all and above all, the god orders the magistrates to watch carefully the children, to be careful with the metal which is mixed with their soul, and if their own sons have any mixture of brass. or iron, to be without pity for them, and to grant them the kind of honor due to their nature by relegating them to the class of craftsmen and plowmen; but if from these latter is born a child whose soul contains gold or silver, the god wants him to be honored by raising him either to the rank of guardian or to that of auxiliary, because let an oracle affirm that the city will perish when it is guarded by iron or brass.

"Do you know any way to make this fable believe?"

" No, [. . .] at least for the men you speak of; but it can be made to believe in their sons, their descendants, and the following generations. And that will be very apt to inspire them more devotion to the city and their fellow citizens, because I think I understand what you mean.

“So our invention will go in whatever way the renown chooses to lead it. For us, let us arm these sons of the earth and make them advance under the guidance of their leaders. Let them approach and choose the most favorable place in the city to camp, the one where they will be best able to contain the citizens of the interior, if there are any who refuse to obey the laws, and to repel attacks from outside, if the enemy, like a wolf, comes swooping down on the herd.

"After having established their camp and sacrificed to whom it is convenient, let them pitch their tents, shall they not?"

" Yes."

"Such that they can protect them from the cold and the heat?"

" Without a doubt ; because it seems to me that you want to talk about their homes.

"Yes, [...] houses of soldiers and not of businessmen. [...]

"The most terrible and the most shameful thing that shepherds can do is to breed, to help them keep their flock, dogs which intemperance, hunger, or some vicious habit, would cause to harm the sheep. and become like wolves, dogs that they should be. [...]"



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"Should we not take all possible precautions so that our auxiliaries do not act in this way with regard to citizens - since they are stronger than them - and that they do not become alike?" to savage masters instead of remaining benevolent allies? [...]

“Now, doesn't the best precaution consist in giving them a really good education?

“But they received it [...].

“It is not permissible to say so. But we can say, as I did earlier, that they have to receive the right education, whatever it is, if they are to have what, better than anything else, will make them sweet to each other and to those in their care. [. . .]

“Besides this education, any sensible man will recognize that it is necessary to give them homes and goods which do not prevent them from being as perfect as possible guardians, and which do not lead them to harm other citizens.

"So see [...] if in order to be such they must live and find accommodation in the way I am going to say: first neither of them will have anything of their own, apart from the objects of first necessity: then neither will have any home or store where not everyone can enter. As for the food necessary for sober and courageous warrior athletes, they will receive it from the other citizens, as wages of the guard which they assure, in sufficient quantity for a year, so as not to have any remainder and to n 'in point missing; they will take their meals together and live together, like soldiers in the field. For gold and silver, they will be told that they always have in their souls the metals they have received from the gods, that they do not need those of men, and that it is ungodly to to defile the possession of divine gold by joining it to that of mortal gold, because many crimes have been committed for the coinage of the vulgar, while theirs is pure; that they alone among the inhabitants of the city it is not permitted to handle and touch gold, nor to go under a roof where it is found, nor to carry it with them, nor to drink from silver or gold cups; that in this way they will save themselves and save the city.

"On the contrary, as soon as they have land, houses and money of their own, as keepers as they were, they will become thrifty and plowmen, and allies, despots enemies of other citizens; they will spend their lives hating and being hated, plotting and plotting, fearing adversaries from within far more than those from without, and running to the edge of ruin, themselves and the rest of the city."



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"For all these reasons shall we say that it is necessary to provide
custodians of housing and possessions as I have indicated, and
will we make a law accordingly, or not?"

"Yes, certainly [...] 63. "

63 PLATO, Republic, 1. iii. 



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IV. THE MIDDLE CLASS.

ROLE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.

A large place has been accorded to the elite so far, because of their decisive role in maintaining the structure of society, and in the choice or construction of the myth which is the foundation of the latter. The role of the middle class can only be decisive when it revolts against the elite; otherwise it only exists to physically maintain and change the structure of society as a whole, according to the model and the rules defined by this elite. Comparison with the military social model 64 makes the middle class an exact equivalent of a caste of non-commissioned officers, from - roughly - the rank of sergeant to that of "chief warrant officer 55". In general, belonging to the middle class, and the conditions for entry into it, are conditioned by a skill and intelligence superior to those generally encountered in the lower class, and inferior to those generally encountered in the elite. Exceptions to this last rule remain, as we have seen and explained in detail in the preceding articles and chapters, and they may be more or less numerous; it is according to the degree of freedom of social movement from class to class, and from subclass to subclass, defined by the ruling elite. The less free the social movement, the greater the percentage of these exceptions, and vice versa. One only exceptionally meets superbly capable and intelligent individuals in the middle class of a society where social movement is very free, since the elite are quick to welcome them to consolidate their power, and the dynamism and strength of the community. Nation at the same time.

In a collectivist, oligarchic system of governance, where the emphasis on orthodoxy is so great that it commonly trumps all other considerations, the percentage of superior capable and intelligent individuals in the middle class can be very high. important - which over time builds a general frustration that leads to a revolution.



64 See I crc Part, c. iii., “Social Circulation”.

65 CmapiuuHa.



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On the other hand, fully satisfying the need for intellectual abstraction of the middle class, and granting it broad economic freedom in no way guarantees its orthodoxy; the opposite effect may even occur. Because the surplus of abundance generates boredom in many individuals, who come to revolt for the sole reason of "breaking boredom".

A balance between the two extremes can be found, but it cannot guarantee that the structure of society will be maintained for long. The following article explains the best method.

MID-CLASS CONTROL.

As we have seen, the middle class is always the one through which an internal revolution occurs, the one which sometimes manages to impose its will on the elite, the one which has the capacity to raise the lower class, then to lead. his subversive action with intelligence. This is why most of the surveillance efforts, and the control of the social and economic structure of the whole of society (planning), concern the middle class. For the average capacities and intelligences of the individuals of this social class are always superior to those of the lower class; its needs and interests are "traditionally" abstract, compared to those of the lower class which are more practical, because they are encouraged by immediate material and survival contingencies. It is from this typical need for abstractions, and above all, the opportunity it is offered to devote to it, that indiscipline and dissent can emerge - especially when Class II individuals. (the "lions") are in the majority.

In socially advanced and economically rich countries, the middle class enjoys an intermediate status between the elite and the lower class, which offers it three main advantages, in compensation for the complex and abstract human activities that its abilities and intelligence allow it. : 1) freedom from physical labor (which is often arduous); 2) an average salary higher than that which individuals of the lower class must be satisfied with, and therefore better general well-being and leisure activities adapted to the need for abstraction; 3) the enjoyment of appearances of social belonging which stimulate the areas of the brain which produce sensations of pleasure [66].

In the collectivist oligarchic system, the higher average salary granted to middle-class individuals gives them autonomy of action in space and time, which complicates their monitoring and control. 



[66] See the article "The Psychological Assessment", I crc Part, c. ii. 



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It is difficult and costly to ensure that an individual does not engage in discreet activities of political subversion, sabotage or the like, if his economic means allow him to go where he wants when he wants, without distance constraints, to frequent places requiring expenditure, and to devote, without conditions for survival, part of his salary to activities which may prove harmful to the public good. In short, the individual of the middle class enjoys, in countries where broad freedom is granted to the entire population, a well-being and autonomy of action very close to those enjoyed by members of the elite, but without being held to any orthodoxy by the system of compromise. Because, on closer inspection, we understand that individuals of the lower class, even in countries where they are accorded greater freedom and well-being, have an average salary which reduces their freedom; this salary should just be enough, or roughly enough, to ensure their survival. The lower class bringing together the greatest number of individuals in a Nation, this one is therefore its greatest human force; that thanks to which the leaders of the revolutions manage to take power by resorting to violence. This is why, in the collectivist oligarchic system of governance, the ruling elite ensures that the average salary of the lower class is not higher than what is sufficient for the survival of its individuals, which, indeed, offers the same advantages - by resorting to a different means - as the method of compromise.

There is therefore, in the system of collectivist oligarchic governance, a necessity, evident because it is vital for the maintenance of the social structure, to limit the average wage of the middle class. This method is possible because, after all, there is no risk to be left to the individuals of this class, in compensation for this restriction of freedom and autonomy, the two other advantages which they usually enjoy: the emancipation from physical labor, and the enjoyment of appearances of social belonging. History teaches us that, in oligarchic collectivist systems of governance, the middle class accepts this reorganization of its earnings without revolting. However, this state of dependence should be maintained as long as possible; the consolidation of the power of the collectivist oligarchic system of governance, and the planning of the economy that goes with it, allow, a few years after the installation of the new political regime, 



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to return to the middle class part of the additional average income which has been confiscated from it, while ensuring its orthodoxy. Here's how.

The problem of the increase in the average income of the middle class, compared to that, reduced to the strict minimum, which is granted to the lower class, is not so much a question of sum as of the freedom granted as to the use which can be made. be done (this was explained above). Controlling the freedom of action of the middle-class individual is possible, even when he enjoys additional income, by offering him a choice of pleasures and abstract activities the cost of which is borne by society. economic structure of the company, as soon as the planning is effective. The problem to be solved, from this point of view which does not exist in the other forms of government, then consists only in the (partial) elimination of a stage of the cycle of the domestic economy which is only transitory: that of the worker who only receives a sum in cash with one hand, to give it with the other. The best examples demonstrating the pointlessness of this step are: the employee of a food store who gives a significant proportion of his income to the same store to obtain his food in exchange; the civil servant who returns a significant proportion of his income to his employer, to avoid his taxes, etc.

The incomes of the middle class, in the system of oligarchic collectivist governance, can therefore be given: on the one hand in cash, on the other in goods and services adapted to its need for abstraction (subscription to the network state movie theaters, gymnastics halls, miscellaneous stores, etc.). This knowing that it is even easier to take part of this income at its source, to pay: the tax; various health and pension contributions; supplies of electricity, gas, water, heating, telephone, etc.

Thanks to this system that planning makes possible: to a middle-class individual whose salary is 2000, in theory, only 666 are given in cash, without this hindering his survival at stake. And, upstream of this transitional economic stage, planning makes it possible to offer each individual of the middle class, for example, housing adapted to their social status, in a residence distinct from those reserved for individuals of the lower class. 



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V. THE LOWER CLASS.

ROLE OF THE LOWER CLASS.

The lower class of the collectivist oligarchic system of governance is indeed the same that Karl Marx calls the “working class” - although capitalism here serves only the interests of the state, and in no exception those of individuals. It exists in this form only to ensure the production of goods and services necessary to maintain the structure of society, under the physical direction of the middle class, and according to the directives decided by the elite. For, let us remember, the lower class cannot, and must never, come into physical contact with the elite; she can only know about the latter what the press tells her. The role of the lower class is only decisive in these terms, and it can only be so when the middle class urges it to rise, and a leader shows himself capable and intelligent enough to stimulate his passions. and organize its revolutionary actions.

The comparison with the military social model makes the lower class an exact equivalent of a caste of ordinary soldiers, from (roughly) the rank of first class to that of corporal or master corporal. Membership in the lower class is, to a large extent, determined by mere birth in that environment. Then, higher capacities and intelligences, when associated with orthodoxy (or the reverse, according to the order of importance defined by the elite), allow to emerge from it to rise to the upper classes.

LOWER CLASS CONTROL.

The lower class can, to a relatively large extent, be assimilated into as closed an environment as the elite are, and the persistent frustration they often experience hardly and exceptionally favors orthodoxy. This is why individuals of this class rise much more rarely than those of the middle class to the elite - they only do so during short periods of internal revolution. Superiorly capable and intelligent individuals are only exceptionally encountered in the lower class, when social movement from class to class, and from subclass 



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to subclass is relatively free. In the governance system of oligarchic collectivism, the percentage of these individuals can be quite high. In this case, their deliberate retention in this class is a security measure aimed at reducing their percentage in the middle class, since it is through the latter that revolts come, as history teaches us. In other words: the elite use the lower class as a social place of confinement for the highly capable and intelligent individuals who are unorthodox (or whose orthodoxy is in doubt). For: 1) existence in the lower class naturally implies important economic and social limitations which prohibit any fruitful exploitation of higher capacity and intelligence; 2) the mistrust and fear that the elite must nurture in society as a whole to maintain its structure exacerbates social and cultural differences, and encourages orthodoxy; it does not matter, in the case of the lower class, whether it is sincere or feigned; 3) the lower class is constantly fed with beliefs and distractions which prevent it from any logical analysis, and therefore from paying any attention to any logical reasoning.

It is in the lower class that the elite must place and conceal the majority of the militia's strength, and that it must recruit its members [67]. 



[67] See the article “The militia” F rc Part, c. ii “Internal security”, and the article “Counter-espionage”, Part IV, c. ii. "Espionage and counter-espionage". 



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VII. THE MINORITIES.

MINORITIES, A TOOL FOR THE CONQUEST OF POWER.

What we call "minority" is a group of individuals intellectually united by: the feeling of a particular social belonging; belief in a religion, myth or political doctrine; ethnic or racial origin; a common and particular physical or intellectual characteristic (infirmity, abnormally high intelligence, cretinism, etc.). It is the natural tendency of individuals, like animals, to recognize one another and to come together that marks the differences, and thus gives rise to minorities within all societies. The feeling of belonging to a minority is, in a large majority of cases, the manifestation of an abstraction justified and explained by metaphysical considerations, not very logical, but which give rise to conflicts whose stake is systematically logical, since it is survival. For example, the one who, in the minority, claims the right to believe in a myth, may be excluded from the rest of a society, and thus fear for his survival. It would be enough for him to give up the claim of this belief to solve this problem, but being in the minority is not always the consequence of an abstraction of this kind.

Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, just like anarchists, communists, fascists and National Socialists, can be minorities whose existences are justified only by abstractions; this is not the case with Negroes, Arabs, Asians, Jews, nor the Indians of North America and the aborigines of Australia. We can even extend this category of differences to national or regional origin, even when no physical characteristic makes it possible to differentiate the minority individual from the majority: the German or the English in France, the Scotsman in London, etc.

The definitive and irremediable belonging to a minority can still be justified by another physical characteristic such as blindness, deafness, paraplegia, mongolism or any other peculiarity of this kind, accidental or by birth, it does not matter.

[68] See the article “The Psychological Assessment” Part I, c. ii, “Stage of development of society”.



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Finally, we find social and economic minorities between these two extremes of abstraction and the physical. It is a question here, for example: of individuals with abnormally high capacities and intelligences, because they are inevitably and naturally rejected by the groups of individuals with lower capacities and intelligences; bourgeois, because they are usually rejected by groups whose economic means, cultures, tastes and even opinions are inferior; criminals, because they are naturally rejected by all classes in all societies; the mentally ill (regardless of the form or intensity of their differences in behavior), because they are, even more than criminals, rejected in all societies and by all their social classes.

We have placed these latter categories “between two extremes”, because it is always possible that an individual's superior ability and intelligence will regress, or that he will deliberately give up making use of it, or even he tries to hide them; because the bourgeois can be ruined and thus end up naturally in the lower class; because the mentally ill person can be cured, or therapy can force him to behave, at least in appearance, like an individual of the majority.

This definition of minorities being made, we understand that they form, all categories combined, a large group of individuals in almost all societies. The exceptions are; on the one hand, primitive and tribal societies where minorities are non-existent or very poorly represented, or even eliminated; on the other, the Nations which are born of migrations, such as, in particular, the United States, where, in absolute terms, the notion of majority does not exist or is perpetually subject to debate and disagreement.

However, in all countries, Nations, societies and even primitive and tribal groups, it is still possible to identify or invent minorities. At its simplest: a disagreement, even minor, within a group of individuals will give rise, on the one hand, to a majority, and on the other to a minority.

It has been implicitly understood in the previous chapters that majority groups are not necessarily dominant, since the elite, which is a small minority within any nation, any society and any group, dominates at all. points of view, and manages, through the use of authority and force, to annihilate any ostracism and any rejection of it by the rest of society. This is the only exception, since, on the other hand, minorities are always subject to the dictatorship, implicit or explicit, of a majority.



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MINORITY CONTROL.

As a consequence of all that has just been said, any minority is highly receptive to initiatives that can be taken in its favor. Because, in order to be able to resist the social, cultural and economic pressures of the majority, minorities are naturally on the lookout for all opportunities for alliances. It is therefore important for the elite, and for the balance of the nation's social structure, never to neglect minorities, so that internal enemies, and even less external enemies, cannot seize the opportunities they are looking for. Just as we must use their lives to divide the masses well enough by various opinions in their favor, we must not, however, oppose them too strongly against each other. Frederick II already remarked in his time: “The other Christian sects are all tolerated here; we shut our mouths to the first who wants to start a civil war, and we cover the opinions of innovators with the ridicule they deserve. I am neutral between Rome and Geneva. If Rome wants to encroach on Geneva, there is worse; if Geneva wants to oppress Rome, Geneva is doomed. In this way I can reduce hatred of religion by preaching moderation to all parties, and I try to unite them by showing them that they are all fellow citizens, and that one can love a man who wears a red coat. , just as much as anyone who wears a gray one. "

All minorities have a leader or spokesperson who represents them, or are waiting to have one. Minority leaders and spokespersons must therefore be firmly and secretly held by the elite, or at the very least well monitored, and anything they may say or do must be subject to the prior approval of the elite. elite, or decided by it with the utmost discretion. And when a minority does not yet have a leader or spokesperson, it is still the elite who must appoint one for them, with the greatest precaution and with equal discretion, so that they serve the interest of the Nation above all, and shows as an example the most basic of orthodoxies - unless the political police prove that there is better interest in making him an agent provocateur [70]. Because of the passions and temptations that



[69] Frederick II of Prussia, Die Politischen testamente, “De la politique”, 1752.

[70] See the article "Counter-espionage", Part IV, c. ii. 



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are highly likely to influence the discourse and actions of these elite secret agents with minorities, and thus alienate them from orthodoxy, the infallibility of their service must be guaranteed by compromises of the same nature as those to which the elite themselves submit 71. When this method of controlling minorities is properly and systematically used, we find an over-representation of Class I individuals at their heads, and of Class II individuals, through whom revolts ordinarily come, subject to their authorities; this is the best formula.

If the leader or spokesperson of a minority has shown as much orthodoxy with the elite as diplomacy to temper the passions whose interests he defends or represents, then the gateway to he elite will be open to him, in compensation and as a reward for his compromise. And, from their points of view, all individuals of the minority he represented will perceive this spectacular display of official recognition by the elite (and, implicitly, by that of the whole Nation) as the reward of all their efforts, all their patience, and all their sacrifices. Finally, this recognition will constitute a historical symbol, strong and lasting, proof of the interest that minorities have, in general, in choosing the path of diplomacy and peaceful debate rather than that of force.

History is full of anecdotes of successful revolutions by minorities, mostly religious, led: either by leaders that the elite had neglected to bribe to ensure their loyalty; or by others who had forged alliances with external enemies. When the elite thus controls all the minorities of the Nation, they also hold the power to use their demands, through their leaders and spokespersons, to support all kinds of draft laws and adjustments. domestic policy. This will effectively serve the form of intention method, which serves as an alibi for true intention. [72]

Of all possible minorities, the abstract ones which are religious and political must be the best watched, and their leaders and spokespersons the most compromised of all. And because these are virtually the most formidable internal enemies, it is thanks to the collaboration of their leaders and spokespersons that it is possible to weaken them as much as they need to be, while taking care never to make them completely disappear however. For as long as they exist, and the elite tolerates them in the form they have chosen for them, it is towards their masses that all their isolated members naturally continue to direct themselves, and that no external enemy can. use them for his own account. And so it is that no member of any minority can escape the scrutiny and will of the elite. 



[71] See the article “Control of the elites”, F rc Partie, c. iv, "The Elite".

[72] See the article “Differentiating between saying and doing” I crc Part, c. i, "The Method". 



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112 



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VII. POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS,
UNIONS, CORPORATE WORKERS
AND ASSOCIATIVES.

OF THE NECESSARY PLURALITY OF EXPRESSIONS
POLICIES AND THE ILLUSION OF CHOICE.

The referendum has been tried in government bodies (Switzerland and some states in the United States) and in many smaller organizations. In theory, it serves to involve the participation of the whole group in political decision-making, and thus to strictly apply the principle of democracy. But in practice, we notice that it does not work. Only a small percentage of the group participates in the referendum, and leaders have no trouble asking the popular vote questions in a way that influences the outcome according to their expectations. Robert Michels 73 says in this connection: “The referendum is open to criticism to the same extent and for the same reasons as any other form of direct popular government. What can be objected to him above all is the lack of competence of the masses, as well as the lack of material time. Bernstein 74 rightly says that even though the most important political and administrative functions were alone subject to popular vote, the happy citizen of the future would find such a quantity of questionnaires on his desk every Sunday that he would lose many. quickly any sympathy for the referendum.

"But the referendum is found above all in opposition, in questions which require a great promptness of decision, with the political character, militant of the party of which it reduces the ease of mobilization [75]."



[73] ROBERT MICHELS (1876-1936) was a German sociologist specializing in the behavior of elites in politics. He distinguished himself by the observations and theories that he sets out in his essay, Les Parties politique: essays sur les tendencies oligarchiques des democracies (Zur Soziologie des Parteiwesens in der modernen Demokratie; Untersu- chungen iiber die oligarchischen Tendenzen des Gruppenlebens), published in 1911.

[74] EDOUARD BERNSTEIN was a theorist of German socialist democracy, and a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany politician. We owe him the essay, Theoretical Socialism and Practical Social Democracy (Die Voraussetzungen des Sozialismus und die Aufgaben der Sozialdemokratie), published in 1899.

[75] ROBERT MICHELS, The Political Parties: essays on the oligarchic tendencies of democracies; Five. Part., “Attempt to limit the power of leaders”, Chap. L, “The Referundum”; 191 1. 



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These questions, which require quick answers, are precisely those that most influence the future of organizations. The aptly named “Ludlow Amendment” 76, which called for a final popular referendum in the event of a declaration of war by the US Congress, was certainly one of the best examples of the application of the principle of the democracy. Many said that the opponents of this vote who nevertheless defended democracy were either very poorly enlightened or very hypocritical. Nevertheless, this proposal was completely ridiculous from the point of view of the practice; a war cannot wait for the conclusions decided by the heavy and complicated mechanism of the popular referendum. In truth, the form of intention, which must be distinguished here from real intention, which indeed inflamed some passions, had nothing to do with democracy; it was the visible expression of a fear of the coming war, and of opposition to the American administration of the day.

The most striking use of the referendum, on which it is appropriate to linger, is the Bonapartist plebiscite (Hitler and Stalin followed the models of the two Napoleons), where the vote associates the fiction of "the will of the people" with this. which has already been decided by history.

The autocratic tendencies of the organizations have not, of course, escaped the sincere and staunch defenders of democracy, and measures to eliminate them have been proposed. Michels debated the results obtained with four of these measures: the referendum, the “renunciation”, unionism and anarchism. What he calls "waiver" refers to a system frequently presented as beneficial to workers' organizations which have sometimes used it. Starting from the reasoning saying that the anti-democratic reflexes of the leaders come from the exceptional privileges inaccessible to the ordinary individuals which are granted to them, some think that these tendencies will disappear if these privileges are denied to them too, if they perceive salaries identical to those of ordinary individuals, if they can only enjoy the same living conditions, social and cultural environment as the latter.



[76] The Ludlow Amendment was proposed as a supplementary amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, to make the decision of the people mandatory prior to any declaration of war against another country decided by Congress, except in cases where another country would attack first. Indiana State Democratic Party Representative Louis Ludlow submitted this amendment several times between the years 1935 and 1940. Supporters of the Ludlow Amendment argued that ordinary citizens, who would be called to go fight and die for the country, therefore, had to be consulted regarding the important military affairs of their country. It was not, however, included in the US Constitution. 



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It is certainly a fact that there is a very intimate relationship of influence between the exercise of power and privilege. But, in practice and in all cases, this artifice of renunciation causes more harm than good; first: because, with the exception of a few cases of small organizations and others that were persecuted, leaders never give up their privileges (which are self-imposed), and always find logical apologies for the nature and quality of their efforts to overcome this obligation. Second: when a leader effectively renounces privilege, he ceases to be a Democrat and becomes a fanatic who is often more tyrannical than those others who are softened by privilege. Third: the "trade unionist" policy aims at the defense of democracy. Reflecting the anti-democratic tendencies of state and political parties, unions instruct workers not to get involved in politics, and to focus on the goals and efforts of their own organizations, unions and cooperatives. The naivety of this proposition is quite visible. Trade unions and cooperatives are not exempt from the self-righteous tendencies of all organizations; they are even the soil where they grow best. Getting rid of political parties would not make the autocracy disappear, and would leave the trade union autocracy without rivals.

Finally, anarchism, which was the first movement to study in detail the autocratic tendencies of organizations, brought the clearest and most consistent conclusions. Knowing that



[77] The renunciation of the extraordinary privileges of political power is applied by Thomas More in the collectivist society which he describes in his famous book Utopia, published in 1516, contrary to what Plato explains (c. 428-347 BC). . AD) in La République. In the Republic of Plato, the small minority of the "guardians" (that is to say the elite) of society is freed from daily chores which are nevertheless obligatory for all, because fundamental principles justify it. More does not accept it in Utopia, because he proposes a truly egalitarian society in all things, without exception. The subsistence of the representatives of the minority guardians of the Republic is the fruit of the work of others. More lingers on this point to change it: every Utopian must ensure his own subsistence, without exception. But, in the light of this detail, insignificant a priori, one notices an enormous difference between the scale of values ​​of Plato and that of More: the setting in community of the company in the Republic serves different a posteriori objectives, not to not say radically opposed to those of Utopia. The purpose of all the rules which must maintain the collectivization of the society of the Republic is, in fact, opposed to the idea of ​​equality; it only aims to maintain a small minority forming the elite in power, and even to isolate it from the rest of the population. The ordinary citizen of the Republic was expected to have blind faith in an idea which made him liable to mercy, and never to covet the special privileges of the elite.



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any organization gives birth to autocracy, so in order to make democracy a reality, we must renounce the creation of any organization, whatever it is: State, political party, trade union, etc. This point of view, which the history of anarchy shows that it can produce very noble individuals, is completely detached from the realities of human society which, necessarily, includes organizations. Anarchism, therefore, can be nothing but a completely unrealistic faith, only capable of integrating the life of an isolated individual, and never a serious political movement.

Political or trade union commitment, activism, can give individuals the impression that they are emerging from themselves, that they are working for the common good and a better world. But, in this case, he is generally forbidden to think for himself, to seek his sources of information elsewhere than in the breviaries generously chanted during meetings, where, as everywhere, it is memory and conformity. that are expected. He is generally forbidden to use his imagination if he wants to enjoy the security and action he expects by joining an organization, and avoid being called a counter-revolutionary or a utopian. He must show allegiance to leaders, to “spiritual fathers”, to providential men, to responsible leaders. Even in the challenge of hierarchical structures of dominance, the anarchist who wants to go beyond his individual freedom must still be part of a hierarchical structure of dominance. There is revolutionary conformism just as there is conservative conformism.

Michels says in this connection: "But the fact that anarchist leaders are, in general, morally superior to the leaders of the organized parties and struggling in the political field does not prevent us from finding in them some of the qualities and claims specific to leaders as such, regardless of the party to which they belong. The psychological analysis of the character of each of them would easily furnish proof of this. The theoretical struggle against all authority, against all constraint, a struggle to which many of the most eminent anarchists have sacrificed many years of their lives, has not been enough to stifle their natural ambition for power.

“All that can be said is that the instruments of domination used by the anarchist leader belong to an era that political parties have already passed. These are the means of apostle and orator: the dazzling power of thought, 



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greatness of sacrifices, depth of convictions. Their domination is exercised not over the organization, but over souls. It stems, not from their technical indispensableity, but from their intellectual ascendancy, from their moral superiority [78]. "

It is not surprising that the test of experimentation shows the invalidity of all these methods and theories in practice; social life cannot do without organization. The mechanical, technical, psychological and cultural conditions of the organization demand a hierarchy, and the guarantee that the leaders, rather than the masses, exercise control. Autocratic tendencies are not arbitrary, accidental or temporary, but inherent in the nature of the organization.

All this, which is the general conclusion of all of Michels' study, and which he called "the iron law of oligarchy," a law which, on the basis of the evidence available to us, seems apply well to all social movements and all forms of society. It shows that the democratic ideal of government by the people and for the people is impossible. Whatever social changes, whatever happens to economic relations, whether ownership is individual or collectivized, organizations will always be present, and, through the existence of these organizations, the existence of a government. oligarchic will be perpetuated. “This is how the social revolution would bring no modification to the internal structure of the mass. The victory of the socialists will not be that of socialism, which will perish at the very moment when its followers will triumph [79]. " 

"These phenomena seem to demonstrate to the obvious that society cannot exist without a 'dominant' class, that the latter is the necessary condition for the former and that the ruling class, while being subject in its composition to frequent partial renewal is nonetheless the only factor whose action is shown to be sufficiently durable in the history of human development.

“In accordance with this conception, the government or, if one prefers, the state cannot be anything other than the organization



78 ROBERT MICHELS, The Political Parties: essays on the oligarchic tendencies of democracies; Five. Part., “Attempt to limit the power of leaders”, Chap. IV., "The Prophylactic Action of Anarchism"; 1911.

79 ROBERT MICHELS, The Political Parties: essays on the oligarchic tendencies of democracies; Six. Part., “Oligarchic tendencies of the organization”, Chap. IL, “Democracy and the Iron Law of Oligarchy”; 1911. 



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of a minority. And this minority imposes on the rest of society the "legal order", which appears as a justification, a legalization of the exploitation to which it subjects the mass of helots, instead of being the emanation of the representation of the majority.

“The latter would still find itself unable, or even perhaps unable, to govern itself.

“Even though the discontented crowds succeed in stripping the bourgeoisie of their power, this is, according to Mosca, only an appearance: there always and necessarily arises, within the masses, a new organized minority rising to the rank of a ruling class. Eternally minor, the majority of men would thus be forced, even predestined by the sad fate of history, to undergo the domination of a small minority coming from its flanks, and to serve as a pedestal for the greatness of an oligarchy [80]. "

However, from his iron law of oligarchy, Michels does not conclude that we must abandon the struggle for democracy, or, more strictly, for a reduction to a possible minimum of those autocratic tendencies which will always exist of. anyway. “The existence of leaders is a phenomenon inherent in all forms of social life. Science does not therefore have to investigate whether this phenomenon is good or bad, or rather both. But it is on the other hand of great scientific interest to establish that any system of leaders is incompatible with the most essential postulates of democracy.

"We now know that the law of the historical necessity of the oligarchy is based in the first place on a series of facts provided by experience 81."

“The masses will never be sovereign except in an abstract way. So the question that arises is not how it is possible to achieve an ideal democracy. Rather, we must ask ourselves to what extent and to what extent democracy is desirable, possible and achievable at any given time. ”[82]



80 Ibid.

8 1 ROBERT MICHELS, The Political Parties: essays on the oligarchic tendencies of democracies; Six. Part., “Oligarchic tendencies of the organization”, Chap. III., “Final considerations”; 191 1.

82 Ibid. 



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THE CONTROL OF ORGANIZATIONS.

All the organizations in a country which are not part of the government apparatus, but which, however, bring together large numbers of individuals, are virtually checks and balances. For example: it is common in our time for a trade union to obtain (by the threat of the use of force, or by the direct use of it, without warning) concessions from the political elite or those of industrialists, or both at the same time. When this happens, nothing is opposed, in theory and a priori, to this organization, galvanized by its victory, formulating new demands using the same means of pressure. And even, she may consider overthrowing the government to take power. It is thus, very often, that the elite renews itself, and this is why the new elite very quickly takes steps not to be overthrown in its turn. This is what Napoleon III did immediately after having definitively seized power in a coup d'état. Among other among the most striking examples, he integrated into his urban plan for Paris characteristics which were to make it possible to repel by force, efficiently and easily, possible popular riots, and to make construction difficult. of barricades across arteries.

But there are better things to do than plan for retaliation by force against an internal revolution. The best defense against this danger is to include in the elite the leaders of each organization which is a virtual counter-power, and to associate with this offer some extraordinary privileges traditionally reserved for the ruling elite. This is as simple as it is effective a way of compromising them, or of compromising almost all of them, for, always, a few resist. Having gained power and some privileges within their organizations, these leaders have already acquired a mind set that makes them receptive to this offer. Those who take offense and refuse de facto place themselves in the position of an enemy of the ruling elite, and they must, at the same time, be aware of the risk of failure that this decision poses to them. Because the ruling elite will use all its powers and all its administrations to weaken and discredit them, including among those who have followed them until then. The ruling elite fear above all the opponent who shows himself capable of the greatest integrity and bravery, since these two qualities engender charisma; his first priority 



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is to make such men disappear, one way or another, no matter how.
This is why the elite must show the leaders of the organizations that they give them consideration, and that they are always attentive to the problems of the majorities and minorities they represent. It must regularly grant them the honor of receiving them well in order to consult them before taking decisions which will reduce the freedoms of their citizens, and to find, with them, compromises which will be, in truth, only extensions of their privileges. And if they show themselves to be docile and orthodox, it must help them remain the leaders of their organizations, by offering them wide access to the press so that they can show themselves and be heard in their best light. And to their rivals who will see the compromise and try to make it their argument, it will close access to the press, and thus muzzle them.

This is how the elite can prevent riots and popular revolutions, and by limiting them, when the leaders of labor unions and corporatist unions can no longer prevent them, strikes and peaceful demonstrations. without a future. Even in contestation, the masses continue to be Orthodox.

Speaking especially of corporate unions, history teaches us some of the advantages that the elite have in controlling them well. In France and England at the beginning of the 14th century, the new statism policy included the immediate confiscation of the property of Jewish merchants and Italian bankers, and their expulsion, and also the disappearance of the Champagnes fairs, including the importance was however crucial for the economy. With results expected in the longer term, the taxes to be used to finance the governmental machine and the army were to come from the privileges and the monopolies guaranteed by the ruling elite to the associations of traders, artisans and other entrepreneurs. For it was in exchange for the latter's help in collecting taxes that their Jewish and foreign competitors were thus eliminated, which guaranteed them good profits. The interests of the consumer were thus sacrificed for that of the producer who had become the most efficient tax collector. The prices of goods rose, and economic growth and technological innovation were halted. On the contrary, the means and techniques used by the associations of traders for the collection of taxes were improved (by the creation of rules and means of control), and became more and more effective. Foreign traders and artisans, or those



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of the country who refused to join these guilds, were ostracized, and thus condemned to starvation.

Oligarchic collectivism can only work in a country if the economy is completely under its control. The control of the economy is mainly ensured by: 1) the orthodoxy of the trade unions and corporatists; 2) the capture within the ruling elite of the most important industrialists and traders, using as bait extraordinary privileges which they cannot refuse; 3) the existence of an arsenal of various penalties (fiscal and administrative) which, together, quickly eliminate all those who refuse one or the other of the first two measures and who criticize it publicly; 4) the vigilance of a Central Party 83 and a political police 84 throughout the country.

DANGEROUS IDEOLOGIES.

Speaking strictly of the governance system of oligarchic collectivism, the greatest internal enemy of the ruling elite is: 1) religion when political power is supported by an atheistic political or philosophical myth; 2) atheist political doctrine when political power is supported by a religious myth; 3) extremist political doctrine when political power is supported by a moderate political or philosophical myth; 4) religious fanaticism when political power is supported by a moderate religious myth.

For example: National Socialism, Fascism and Communism threaten the social structure of a society based on moderate economic liberalism, or on moderate progressivism, and vice versa; Catholicism (a religion which is also a very hierarchical organization with a leader) threatens the social structure of a communist-based society, and vice versa. History has taught us that the Roman Catholic Church feared Protestants, and even persecuted and chased them away. Any extremist political or religious doctrine can only survive if no other which is so extremist comes to compete with it; this is why it must be imposed on society through the daily use of threats, fear of a designated enemy, restrictions and violence (we are talking here about psychological violence, such as was explained above [85]).



[83] See “The Central Party, I C1C Party, c. ix “Internal security”.



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The political doctrine which preaches the greatest possible individual freedom generates the greatest inequalities; the great inequalities generate the greatest discontent; the discontented are the most sensitive to the calls of extremist doctrines. The reverse of this theory is true, because the unease of civilization results less from economic disparities than from hierarchical alienation. If, in capitalist countries, economic disparities are often a function of hierarchical disparities, in socialist countries, where economic disparities are less obvious - since they necessarily exist - the hierarchical disparities are the same. In many countries, for example in idealistic Italy (and in some regions of Germany where, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the socialist movement took root), equality must be manifested, among other things, by the use common to all the members of the party to mutually familiarize themselves with each other (in order to reinforce the psychological feeling of belonging to the herd, and thus to give birth to the illusion of equality in the minds of the mass): the the most miserable day-laborer calls out like his peer, by familiarity with him, such an illustrious intellectual. But neither the rulers and the ruled, nor the ruling classes and the ruled classes disappear for all that.

[85] "The necessity of violence to lead the masses well", Part I, c. i. "The method". 



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IX. INTERNAL SECURITY.

THE CENTRAL PARTY.

Oligarchic collectivism must offer society the illusion of political diversity so as not to be a dictatorship, and so that no one can ever accuse it of being so. Although this system of governance resembles socialism in many ways, it is not really based on any doctrine, for its sole purpose is to maintain the elite and maintain the structure of the whole society. . This is why the middle and lower classes must conform to obligations, modes of existence and of thought greatly inspired by socialist doctrine; while the elite are exempt from it, while having to force themselves, as much as possible, to maintain the myth (socialist-collectivist, or communist, or national-socialist) on which the whole of society is based. The elite of the collectivist oligarchic system of governance therefore have a duty to hide their extraordinary privileges from the middle and lower classes. Any breach of this duty, even when it is accidental, must be officially shown to the rest of the population as a fault, and publicly sanctioned by the courts or by means of other penalties (fines, dismissals, disgraces, etc. ), more or less symbolic; it is according to its severity. The maintenance of the structure of all society, and, in particular, the obedience and orthodoxy of middle and lower class individuals, depends greatly on the maintenance of the myth of "principles of natural law" and "rights". eternal and inalienable individuals ”, etc. Otherwise, the repeated indecency of members of the elite regarding their extraordinary privileges soon leads to the destruction of the myth, inevitably accompanied by revolts launched and led by “lions” (Class II residues.) Of the middle class - for the lower class, alone, accustomed to obeying, is naturally more ready to resign than to revolt.

We saw, in the previous chapter, that the leaders of the main political parties, labor and corporate unions, and associations, are invited to join the elite. The moment these accept this offer, they must also bow to the universal orthodoxy dictated by the imperatives of oligarchic collectivism, and cultivate two distinct modes of thought which oppose each other: that which is based on the myth that 

[84] See the articles “The Police”, I crc Partie, c. ix “Internal security”, and “Counter-espionage”, Part IV, c. "Espionage and counter-espionage".

 
 
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maintains the structure of all of society, and one that allows the elite to retain their intellectual superiority and the authority they wield over the middle and lower classes. Together, these two opposing modes of thought form a "double thought" which we have hitherto called "orthodoxy", and whose force is greater than that of all laws, since it is placed above all "traditional" ethics and morals, generally taught to middle and lower class individuals in all societies. The orthodoxy of oligarchic collectivism is immoral when one seeks to compare it with what most religious and philosophical doctrines teach, since it is based on an idea of ​​inequality between men whose sole argument is the power 86. Class I individuals ("foxes") accept this orthodoxy more readily than Class II individuals. ("Lions"). The former get used to it very quickly and without great difficulty; the latter have a tendency to question it. Knowing, as we have seen: 1) that the presence of Class II individuals within the ruling elite is necessary for the latter's survival, and that (and because); 2) Class I individuals easily abuse the privileges and powers that elite access has afforded them, and favor compromise over use of force when faced with an enemy. strong and determined, the need for surveillance of each of their members is imperative.

A "Central Party", a body of guardians of orthodoxy recruited with discernment, and whose faith is regularly tested, must be formed to prevent the faults and the errors of the members of the ruling elite, like those of the other elites who do not 'exercise no political power (ie business and industry, scientific, cultural and artistic elites, etc.). Of course, the number of these guardians must be large enough that they also monitor the elites of the regions and districts, whose orthodoxy can easily be weakened by the geographical remoteness of the highest spheres of power (usually grouped together in a city ​​which they have thus made the capital of the country, and from which all major decisions originate). Finally, the guardians of the Central Party must build and constantly renew networks of agents and informants who, collectively and ultimately, allow effective surveillance of the three classes of society.

[86] The premises supporting this argument have been explained in the article titled "The Psychological Assessment", f rc Part, c. ii “Stage of development of society”.



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The Central Party of a collectivist oligarchic system of governance can only guarantee the maintenance of the structure of society when it comes in the form of a secret organization:

1° over which no member of the elite, alone, can exert his influence;

2° reciprocally, whose leaders cannot exercise any direct and official political or economic power at the level of the whole Nation, in addition to their duty of surveillance and maintenance of orthodoxy (so that they can never put their secret and extraordinary knowledge in the service of their personal interests or of a conspiracy against the ruling elite);

3° whose integrity of each member and each executive is guaranteed by: the cultivation of an esprit de corps; a very hierarchical organization; a system of access to degrees of secret knowledge regulated by merit; intelligence and cunning; current and past identities, economic and social status, and backgrounds of friends, relations and family members; character strengths and weaknesses; and, above all, by an orthodoxy which attains perfection only when it is fanatic and motivates the most extreme sacrifices, ideally reinforced by celibacy;

4° whose conduct of each member is strictly regulated: by the observance of a common system of codified rules, based on a highly metaphysical and humanist version of the unifying myth; by renouncing the secrets of private life; by the obligation to maintain regular and frequent contact with other members, and to be ready to assist them, individually and collectively; by renouncing individual ownership, and by co-ownership of individual real estate with other members, so that these belong virtually, and ultimately, to the organization;

5° in which each executive must be kept firmly in secrecy by at least one compromise, prior to his promotion from the degree of subordinate member;

6° which concentrates its recruiting effort on individuals occupying positions of power, but who have not been admitted within the ruling elite (executives and subordinate executives of the administration, commerce and industry, small industrial and independent); 

7° organized in local companies of 30 to more than 100 individuals - of which 1 to 2 are agents of the political police charged, at the same time, of their surveillance and their protection -, and placed under the political direction of a national council located in the administrative capital and in permanent contact with political power;

8° all of whose notes and written reports must be cremated after use, so as to leave no written record of his mission;

9° all of whose proven members are required to reflect on the current problems of government and society, and to propose solutions to the extent of their specialties and capacities, so that they can be debated during secret assemblies with a view to their subsequent proposals to the ruling elite when relevant.

As indicated in point 4, the myth on which the action of the Central Party is based must be highly metaphysical and humanist in inspiration and altruistic in its formulation, since it must be a form of intention. The real intention, which here is the maintenance of the elite in power, and nothing else, could satisfy and stimulate the minds of all the members and cadres of a Central Party of this kind, since, in in fact, a tiny percentage of this organization belongs to this elite, and preferably to regional elites maintaining a relative geographical distance from the centralized government of the administrative capital. Just as a religion (which is a myth) can effectively serve as a form of intention for the establishment and maintenance of a power which will only be political in practice, as history has told us. learns, the myth which unites the individuals of the Central Party will gain from being richly accompanied by mystical and secret rites and symbols, which will be so many non-logical verbal substitutes for the rules of action, and hierarchies, which must guarantee the effectiveness of the Central Party in its mission of monitoring and maintaining the elite in particular, and the social structure of the country in general. In addition, the individuals of this party will be encouraged to the exceptional orthodoxy that is expected of them by the flattery naturally associated with the idea of ​​belonging to an exclusive, privileged, secret group, and closed to a large majority. of mass. Man has a natural fascination with secrecy and mystery which easily distracts him from his personal concerns, and which the ruling elite, therefore, would be foolish to neglect to gain from them. 



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The Central Party can - it is according to the combination of social, economic and historical factors and variables, and the program of actions defined by the elite: 1) keep its existence and its mission secret; 2) or have an official existence which reveals only the form of intention of the ruling elite; 3) or manifest itself in the form of a political party having a doctrine inspired by its myth, but which is formulated in a manner acceptable and almost comprehensible to individuals of all classes of society. In the last two cases, the real intention of the Central Party must never be officially admitted; otherwise, of course, the myth upon which orthodoxy is based - whether it is religious or political in nature, whatever - would be recognized by all (including Central Party members themselves) as a deception.

In the third and last case, the mission of the Central Party is twofold, because, in addition to that which has just been described, it must make an open and official propaganda of the myth by which the elite retains its power. This additional mission is required when the elite suffers from discredit among the middle and upper classes. For, officially claiming independence from the political power held by the elite, as well as independence of mind and opinion, the Central Party has the power to restore the myth in the minds of the masses.

As point 6 suggests, by recruiting primarily executives and subordinate executives who have not been able to rise to the upper class of the elite, the Central Party is increasing the power of the elite everywhere, and in all cases where it cannot exercise it officially by using official laws. Such a power, which owes its great effectiveness to its clandestine form and to its great orthodoxy, is exercised in the following forms: with a great capacity for influence, since this is anonymous and practiced by individuals who must claim to act in their name alone, and never for political reasons; a current and daily action of espionage of all the suspicious acts and gestures among the population which escape the official surveillance of the administrative services (police, political police and counter-espionage, justice, taxes, etc.) , and of all the signs of revolt against orthodoxy and against the elite that can be shown by individuals of the middle class in particular; monitoring and investigation of individuals seeking access to the upper class of the elite, and, when the latter do not meet the conditions, setting up “obstacles” to prevent them from doing so, by consultation with the political police.



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Finally, the Central Party constitutes the ultimate and effective bulwark of the elite, both against internal revolutions and against the aggressions of an external enemy, since its members must preserve the secrecy of its organization, and that of their own affiliations to it. -this.

This model is very much inspired by that of the Masonic lodge of the Grand Orient, in France, which functions there, both as a discreet guardian of orthodoxy, and as a political police.

THE POLICE.

The best police force was created in France, and it is its model that will best serve an oligarchic collectivist system. This font was created from the end of the reign of Napoleon I, in 1815, on the basis of that of the Empire. The counterrevolutionary politician and theorist Joseph de Maistre says that the aristocracy that administers the state in monarchies is "pyramidal," because, he remarks, "in all countries and in all possible governments, the great jobs will always belong (with some exceptions) to the aristocracy, that is to say to the nobility and wealth most often united 87 ”. This base, which was also that of the French Empire police, was a very centralized administrative machine, with a pyramidal administrative hierarchical system as described by Maistre. Napoleon I had developed a system of dictatorial control of the Empire; the administration was closely linked to the national police structure with the aim of establishing political surveillance and repression. The power of this system was slightly reduced after 1815, but the power of the police remained relatively centralized; in this state, it was, potentially, a powerful political tool for an ambitious elite.

When Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, elected President of the Republic since the revolution of 1848, transformed the Second Republic into a dictatorship and an empire, from his coup d'état of December 2, 1851, he succeeded in large part thanks to judicious manipulations of the powerful police then become a highly bureaucratized administration. A year after this event, Napoleon III gave his dictatorship the appearance of an empire mixed with institutional changes borrowed from his uncle's First Empire.

[87] JOSEPH DE MAISTRE, Study on sovereignty, L. 2, chap. II. "From the monarchy", 1794 (post.). 



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One of these institutions, in particular, was a national police system thought of as the backbone of strengthened central mass control. In harmony with what we might call a “Bonapartist tradition”, the new regime was founded on foundations including the re-creation, in January 1852, of a Ministry of General Police (which only lasted for one year, however) . The political police again became a directorate of the Interior (directorate of general security) from June 1853 until November 1859, when its powers were entrusted to a “Prefect of police” (general directorate of public security). ). The Ministry of the General Police of 1852 was at the origin of a complete reorganization of the police force which lasted until the very recent invasion of France by the Germans in June 1940.

Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte wanted, on the one hand, to restore the system of Napoleon I, and on the other to build a strong police machine. This is how he created the modern French police. Above all, he wanted a strong political police force that would effectively maintain the social structure both throughout the country and in the capital. The power of the police at this time had been built by the previous interior ministries since 1790, and organized from its chief down to the bottom of an administrative hierarchy. In Paris, a Prefecture of Police, under the orders of a ministry, was virtually an arbitrary government of the capital. Outside the capital, a prefectural system inherited from the First Empire geographically divided France into eighty-six administrative units called “departments”. Each department was divided into “arrondissements” which included each of the “cantons”. And each canton included several "communes", or "municipalities". There were assemblies of elected officials from the communes and others for the departments, and they had some powers of initiative at their levels which gave them regional authorities and over the various administrations.

But it was the central government that controlled everything, thanks to the existence of a supervisory system headed by a hierarchy of civil servants, all placed under the authority of the “prefects” who assumed the roles of heads of departments. . The prefects applied the directives and laws, created by the central legislative power located in the capital, transmitted through various ministries. Part of the respective roles of all these political and administrative actors was to administer 



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the police, whose highest management was the Ministry of the Interior.

The reforms of 1852 improved this pyramidal system of authority, notably with the superposition of a new political police structure designed to become the central pillar of government: that which would ensure mass surveillance, and which would occupy control of access to regional and national elites. A new doctrine accompanied this change: the police were to obey, above all, central political power, and should not feel guided in their missions by feelings of national identity and patriotism. They were to be only the "eyes, ears and hands" of power. Such a body would provide the state with a political police force capable of keeping it informed of everything that might be happening in the country, including the most insignificant events happening in the smallest village.

The goal of such surveillance was to acquire the ability to nip any subversive movement in the bud. During the tumultuous period of the nineteenth century, exposed to all kinds of new doctrines invented by innumerable thinkers, theorists and more or less reactionary philosophers, the French political elite had acquired the deep conviction that the police could. alone, restore order and maintain it both in the present and in the future.

A police organization was devised so that the simple campaign police officer could be directed from the Ministry of the Interior of the capital, passing through a whole hierarchy of powers and responsibilities.

The tasks of the local police offices were to be uniformly carried out by a corps of small subordinate police officers each appointed from the capital. It was imagined that this immense organization, properly directed, would envelop the social structure in a network of police from which nothing could escape. Demobilized army non-commissioned officers would be encouraged to join this force, under the direct command of "ordinary commissioners 88" from the many municipalities. At a cantonal level, "cantonal commissioners 89" would be responsible for the constant surveillance of the communes, and would command the ordinary commissioners and the municipal police. 

[88] On the organization of the police in France, recommendations from Charlemagne-Émile de Maupas to Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, 1852.

89 Ibid. 



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“Principal commissioners” would reside in each arrondissement, and would command the cantonal commissioners. Then, a "central commissioner 91" would supervise the work of all the police in a department, under the supervision of the prefect, representative of the judicial authority, himself placed under the orders of a higher authority.

Above the department, general directorates of the police were to be set up. These new entities would command police personnel from large regions, each grouping together several departments. The creation of twenty-five regions was integrated into the project, each with a director general of the police station in its largest city. These directors general were to be given extraordinary powers. In their cities of residence, they would also assume the role of chief of the municipal police. Those of the most important cities of the country, such as Lyons, Bordeaux and Marseilles, the directors general of the police would be the supreme political influences; real governors placed at the head of police prefectures similar to that of the capital. They would be in direct relation with the ministries of the capital, and also with the courts of justice, the military commanders, the officers of the gendarmerie, the bishops, all the police commissioners, the mayors and other civil servants of the administration. In addition, each directorate-general would receive large secret funds to be used to pay covert police officers, recruited from all social classes, all professions, and of both sexes, in charge of underground police tasks. These agents would work constantly, and would not stay more than one or two weeks in a small locality, and never more than three months in the same department. They would be unknown to the prefectural authorities, because he said to himself that “the work of the political police could not be properly done in a department if its prefect took care of it [...], because who [...] would deliver a secret to a prefect whom a new minister could replace [92] "
It was finally decided that a certain number of "inspectors [93]" would operate in each region, and that they would make constant tours of the region to ensure the good work of the mobile and administrative personnel.

90 Ibid.
91 Ibid.
92 Ibid.
93 Ibid. 



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Finally, the regional directors would report on their work to a “Special Police Department [94]” in Paris; in other words to a minister or to a person of equivalent rank. The operation of this last high administration would be coordinated with that of a "General Security Directorate [95]" of the Ministry of the Interior; thus, the hierarchy of the police already established would be covered by another "special policy".

All this organization would only slightly increase current expenses, since all police officers below the rank of Director General would continue to be paid with funds collected in the localities where they are stationed. Consequently, it would only be in exchange for a modest expense that the government would benefit from the “best instrument for precisely and continuously evaluating public opinion, [96]” and the necessary antidote to the effervescence of “an order of things based on universal suffrage [97]”.

This radical change and monolithic police power was never fully realized as it was, but the General Police Department looked a lot like the example of this project. In addition, the numerous changes which the organization of the French police underwent thereafter made it evolve largely towards a centralized police power - ordinary and political - identical in substance.

Although this 1852 proposal was apparently inspired by precedents dating from the time of the First Empire, it was intended to serve other ambitions and a radically new way of looking at political power, which we can easily compare with many other political novelties brought by Napoleon III and a few other thinkers of this period (notably that of state banks, allowing effective control of the economy and of new industrial projects desired by the state). The historical context of the Second French Empire only superficially resembled that of the First. In a period marked by social tensions, by the impact of modern industrialization, by innumerable innovations and technical, economic, social and cultural evolutions - such as, first and foremost, the developments of the railway and telegraph, and their consequences on the perception of time and space -



94 Ibid.

95 Ibid.

96 Ibid.

97 Ibid. 



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this idea of ​​a centralized police force foreshadowed the modern police forces of oligarchic collectivism, as of all forms of government, all over the world.

The second stage which definitively marked this transition was the use of Masonic lodges as auxiliary organizations of political police [98]. In France, this step was completely crossed between the last years of the XIX E century, and the very first ones of this XX E. Through haste and poor planning, in 1904, the French middle and lower classes were able to learn about an aspect of state affairs that should have been kept secret: the selection apparatus. elites which, in the collective mind of the masses, is not supposed to exist since, defying all political and religious moralities and beliefs, its public explanation would threaten the stability of the social structure.

During the end of 1904, the deputy secretary of the masonic lodge of the Grand Orient de France, Jean-Baptiste Bidegain, informed a member of parliament that, by order of the Minister of War, General Louis André, his organization ordinarily undertook to carry out police investigations on the officers of the French army, in order to determine which would be those which would reach higher ranks, and those which would be badly noted because of their beliefs or their lack of orthodoxy. Since the end of the Second Empire, the dominant political ideology in France was socialist, and the new elite was atheist and anticlerical. Its first objective was therefore to gradually replace all the senior officials and key figures in the country, mostly Catholic Christians, by new young elected atheists and progressive socialist sympathizers. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the period of the reign of Louis-Napoleon, inspired by the thought of Saint-Simon, had been in France a transitional stage between the belief of the masses in an old religious doctrine (Catholicism) , and a new political doctrine (socialism, initiated by Saint-Simon). This incident became a scandal that was quickly called the "affair of the cards". All the newspapers covered it regularly throughout the following year (1905), and still occasionally until around the beginning of the 1930s; several books on the "cards affair" were published during this period. This affair should never have happened, if the new elite had first ensured the orthodoxy of the

[98] Let us pay homage to Frederick II, again, for having had the idea first. 



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members of parliament, and especially that of the heads of the press and publishing houses. Because, in this case, it would have been easy to accuse Bidegain, either of delirium, or of political subversion, or of an anarchist terrorist.

As soon as it occupied France, in May 1940, Germany: naturally replaced the old elite with a new one which it installed in a new capital, Vichy; reformed the police machine; destroy the political police and surveillance network of the old orthodoxy, including the Grand Orient de France, to replace it with a new one; put in place tight control of the press and culture, and powerful propaganda; and institutionalized a land use planning program imagined a few years earlier by Étienne Clémentel - who can be considered as one of the founders of modern oligarchic collectivism and industrial and economic planning.

THE MILITIA.

The demands of orthodoxy and secrecy prevent the Central Party from getting involved in its task beyond what has just been explained. However, maintaining the structure of society often requires actions that no political power, nor any organization claiming a popular ideology, can accomplish without exposing itself to criticism from the masses. The elite, through the Central Party which is its secret servant, and the political police, must therefore have a whole troop of small people to carry out the tasks of low police. Still, individuals who prove themselves capable of this are not receptive: neither to political doctrines nor to those which are religious, and their parents have not taught them respect for ethics and the kept word. They are quick to do whatever the stranger who pays them, and who holds them in fear, asks them. They are found in great numbers in the lower class, and in smaller numbers in the middle class when the missions expected of them require intelligence and a little education.

The system of governance of oligarchic collectivism makes it easy to attach the service of such individuals, forcing them to serve by the threat of an existence without income which will lead them to the streets, then to oblivion, then to death. slow, and in exchange for an existence certainly miserable and dishonorable, but preserved from these frightening evils. This is how we make of them the lost souls that Dante describes in his Divine comedy, when Virgil shows him Hell, and who together form the militia of 



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the elite. The men of this militia will be able to quietly torment individuals of all classes of society who speak out against orthodoxy, or who have been cunning enough to evade justice, or who must be compromised, or still who seek to rise to the upper class of the elite when the latter does not wish to welcome them into its midst; his wives will be able to seduce them the better to dishonor and lead them astray. As the militia men are all of little value, and have been permanently stripped of all respectability at the time of their recruitment, it does not matter, therefore, that the individuals against whom they are sent manage to lead them to the front. a court of law, or even that their mission causes them to lose their lives.

Suitably led by agents of the political police and the Central Party, the militias serve above all to complete the preservation of the social and economic structure of the lower and middle classes, and to contain the attempts at insurrection by their individuals. But, since they are most widely represented in the lower class, they will prove effective in controlling ordinary crime (since it can never be completely eradicated), or in putting its forces in the secret service of the world. 'State.

SOCIETY NETWORKS.

As explained in Chapter II. (Stage of evolution of society) of this part, the spirit of man is so made that he seeks security from groups whose members resemble him. From the infinite diversity of combinations of choices, tastes and opinions that the human mind can make, so many groups spontaneously appear. The small minority of the most capable and intelligent men take command of these groups which follow them blindly, like sheep in a flock. When, on the initiative of an individual who sees himself as a leader, an informal group acquires the formal existence of a “club”, “circle”, “friendly”, “sect”, “association” "," Union "," federation "," union "," party "or even" secret society ", it gives birth to a network of individuals very similar in its functioning to a multicellular organism.

The elite find a natural interest in knowing these networks well, even when they are insignificant, because, through the police, the political police and the Central Party, they are, collectively,



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invaluable help: in the surveillance of all individuals in society; the preservation of the social structure of society as a whole; to the movement of individuals between social classes.

In the strict context of internal security, it is appropriate for the ruling elite to order its concerned organizations to promote the orthodoxy of all network leaders, in order to know and control their actions, which are theirs, on a day-to-day basis. members and what they do. Better still: it is on its initiative that the creation of these networks must come back, if it wants to kill the insurgency in the bud, and organize, with the greatest precision, the political, social and economic evolutions of the Nation. . And, when taking this initiative, it must make it a general mission that it will delegate to the Central Party, because the State must never seem to sponsor any of the country's networks - otherwise, at least half of the Nation would be wary. of them, and would seek to create others, free from all surveillance and control. Either way, the elite will still be well advised to impose official registration with some administration on any group that seeks to claim its existence and form a network. Thus, it will be possible to identify groups with dissident tendencies or which are highly likely to engage in seditious acts, or which the moral of the myth which ensures the maintenance of the structure of society condemns.

Finally, any system of oligarchic collectivist governance must create and organize from scratch its own clandestine dissent - as Fouché, the first, imagined and then undertook - in order to control it and ensure that she can never succeed in any plot. And since political dissent can be supported by several doctrines and myths, it is necessary to create and maintain the existence of so many networks of dissent opposed to the ruling elite (as the case may be: anarchist, communist, national socialist, fascist, liberal-economic, religious, etc.). By taking the form of organizations, these secret dissent networks can be rendered harmless by the installation in their breasts of a strong autocratic mentality, and, possibly (as the case may be), of a culture of metaphysical discourse. and secrecy which prevent any clear and logical reading of the real intentions of their leaders. 



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TECHNICAL SURVEILLANCE.

The spectacular advances in science that humanity has known in less than a century now make it possible to know, at any time, whether an individual is at home or not, with whom he is, and what he says. Because, thanks to a minor modification of a personal telephone set ", an operator of the telephone company located at a central office, or who is in connection with it, only has to plug in a socket connected to the exchange. earphones to do this. Since the telephone companies of almost all countries are owned by the state, it is therefore easy to replace all telephone sets with new models thus modified, and then to make administrative arrangements that make the possession of a personal telephone is compulsory. In addition, electrical engineers will continually improve the sensitivity of the microphones, which will make it possible to hear with great clarity what is being said throughout a house from a telephone. telephone, even when the interior doors are closed.

The recent development of the Super-Emitron by Lubszynski, Rodda and McGee 100, which allows television cameras to be easily transported outside television studios, allows us to consider with serenity the coming, from here a few short years, of miniature cameras which will occupy no more space than a packet of cigarettes, and whose mass production will make them very affordable. With the participation of technicians from the telephone companies (Post Office in England), or those of electricity, it will then be possible to offer each household a direct connection to a national television network 101, and, for a fee. attractive price, a receiver of



[99] The act of picking up and hanging up the handset of a telephone set opens and then closes the connection with the telephone exchange, thanks to a switch mechanism which prevents the electric current from coming and going from the loudspeaker. and the microphone. If this switch acts only on the speakerphone of the handset, the microphone will remain permanently connected to the network, and a telephone exchange operator will only have to plug in a headphone jack to listen to everything that is available. said near such a telephone set.

[100] The Super-Emitron, a camera image dissector tube (or cathode ray tube) manufactured by EMI, was developed in 1934 to succeed the RCA iconoscope. Its sensitivity, and therefore the quality of the image it emits, is 10 times higher than that of the previous Emitron (405 lines against 343, and an image angle of 45 °); the BBC has used it regularly and successfully since 1937.

[101] Currently, the estimated cost of wiring to transmit a video signal capable of accepting frequencies above 1.5 MHz is £ 900 to £ 1000 per mile, and it could transmit a signal up to a 8 mile distance without repeaters. But the transmission of the video signal by electromagnetic waves and using antennas is in 



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television which will be equipped with a miniature camera. Thus, to the sound that it is already possible to capture in each focus, the image will be added. Of course, installing such equipment in public places, cafes, restaurants, hotels, railway stations and bus stations would greatly improve surveillance. The justification for their installations would be very well accepted by the whole population: permanent information available everywhere for the television receiving tubes, and the safety of honest people everywhere for the transmitting tubes. Only criminals and agitators could complain about it.



evolving. 



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X. ORGANIZATION OF POWER.

REMINDER OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

It is time to summarize in general principles all that has been said in this first part devoted to domestic politics, and as a preamble to the presentation of the form that the political power must take in a system of oligarchic collective governance. Together, these principles define political thought, constitute a way of seeing social life, and form a tool for political and social analysis. We can even apply them concretely to the analysis of any period in history. We can also notice that they are present in the writings of Machiavelli, implicitly as this author has made it a rule. Others, such as Pareto, Mosca, Michels, and Sorel, have described them explicitly. In this list are indicated in brackets the points of view opposed to the rules of oligarchic collectivism, or which serve as forms of intentions to politicians and myth-writers. Because, to fully understand what a thing is, it is also necessary to know what it is not.

1 ° An objective science of politics and society which can be compared, in its method, to other empirical sciences is possible. It must describe social facts and establish a correlation between them. And, on the basis of the facts of the past, it makes it possible to formulate more or less probable hypotheses concerning the future. This science must imperatively be neutral of any practical political goal; that is, as with any science, its conclusions must be tested against the facts that anyone can observe, whether rich or poor, ruler or ruled , and must in no way be dependent on a priori arising from an ethics or an ideal.

(The opposing views say that no science of politics is possible, because of the great richness of "human nature" or for some similar reasons; or that political analysis is always dependent on programs. practices intended to improve - or destroy - society, or again that all political science is a "science of the study of social classes" which is correct when it concerns the "bourgeoisie", but is not so for the "proletariat" As the Marxists claim). 



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2 ° The first object of political science is the struggle for social power in its various open and hidden forms.

(The opposing views say that political thought is about improving the welfare of society, establishing its prosperity, and rules to bring happiness to all citizens, and other ideas coined from time to time. other by theorists and philosophers).

3 ° The law of political life cannot be discovered by an analysis which takes the words and beliefs of men at face value. Words, programs, declarations, constitutions, laws, theories and philosophies must be compared to the vast body of social facts, in order to be able to understand their real political and historical meanings.

(The opposite view says words are important, since what men say, offer to do, or have done is the best evidence of their intentions.)

4. Logical or rational action plays a relatively minor role in political and social changes. It is misleading to believe that, in social life, men act deliberately to consciously achieve goals. Non-logical action, stimulated by the variables of changes in the environment, instinct, impulses and interests of the moment, is the one that regulates evolutions, regressions and upheavals.

(The opposite view says that rational, thoughtful action is responsible for all evolutions, regressions, and upheavals. History should be seen as the chronology of men's rational attempts to achieve their goals.)

5 ° To understand the changes in society, it is necessary to identify as a priority the social divisions between the political leaders and the mass that is governed, between the elite and the rest of the society of which individuals are not part. .

(The opposing views: either deny the existence of these divisions, or consider their importance to be of minor interest, or believe that they are bound to disappear anyway.)

6 ° The sciences of history and politics concern, above all, the study of the elite, of its composition, of its structure, and of the modalities of its relations with the rest of society which individuals do not not gone. 



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(Opposing views say that history is first and foremost about the study of the masses, or important people, or even institutions.)

7 ° The first goal of any elite and any class of leaders is to retain their powers and privileges.

(The opposite view says that the first purpose of leaders is to serve the community. This perception of political leadership is almost invariably held by all spokespersons for political leaders and governments, if only virtue of the obligation of respect which they owe to those in whose name they speak. Among these spokespersons, we find almost all the men who write on the subjects of society and politics, and whose texts are authoritative.)

8 ° The power of the elite is based on force and deception. For it to be effective, the force can be hidden, most of the time, or be shown for the sole purpose of the threat. Deception does not necessarily imply willful and conscious lying; it is the lie by omission that is most often used.

(The opposing views say that the government of society is fundamentally a right delegated by God, or by "natural law," reason, or even justice.)

9 ° The social structure, as a whole, is integrated and supported by a political formulation which is, most often, inspired by an accepted religion, an ideology or a myth.

(The opposing views say that either formulas and myths are "truths" or they are not social determinants.)

10 ° The rules established by an elite coincide more or less with the interests of those who are not part of it. Thus, despite the fact that the first intention of any elite is to retain its powers and privileges, there are nevertheless real and significant differences in social structures, from the point of view of the governed masses. However, these differences cannot be properly assessed in terms of form intentions and ideologies, but in those of: a) resistance of the community relative to other communities; b) level of civilization attained by the community - that is, its ability to express a wide variety of creative interests, and to achieve a high degree of material and cultural evolution relative to other societies ; c) freedom - that is, the security of each individual against the arbitrary and irresponsible exercise of power.



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The opposing views deny the existence of significant differences within social structures, or, more frequently, estimate these differences in a formal and purely verbal way, by comparing, for example, the philosophies or the ideals of two periods data from History.)

11 ° Two opposing tendencies can be observed in each elite: a) an aristocratic tendency by which the elite seeks to retain the power of each of its members and their descendants, and to prohibit the coming into its ranks of individuals of the classes lower; b) a democratic tendency which opens a door of access to the elite for individuals of the lower classes.

(Opposing views would deny the existence of these tendencies, and some would argue that one of the two can be suppressed, and thus an elite could become: either completely closed or completely open. The most common view today is a "popular" one, saying that there is no mechanism to close access to the elite anyway, since only ability and intelligence naturally condition this access. )

12. The second of the two tendencies described in point 11, above, always ends up winning. This is why no social structure is permanent, nor is any static utopia possible. The social struggle, or the "class struggle", never knows an end - it is moreover that which makes history.

(The opposing views see the possibility of a stabilization of the social structure. The class struggle, say these, must disappear, and will disappear anyway, to make way for a kind of paradise on earth that will be a "Classless society", because they do not manage to accept the fact that the elimination of the class struggle would be equivalent to the elimination of the blood circulation - which, in fact, carries many diseases -, which would entail the death of the whole structure.)

13 ° Complete and very rapid renewals periodically affect the composition and structure of the elites: they are the result of revolutions.

(The opposing views: either deny the reality of revolutions, or view them as unfortunate accidents that could easily have been avoided.)

One could notice that these principles are closer to the instinctive points of view of individuals with a "practical mind" - who are moreover active participants in the social struggle - than to those of theorists, reformists and philosophers. This 



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is quite natural, because the principles are only generalizations of what practical-minded individuals do, and have done; while theorists, very often, by comparison, isolated from any direct participation in the social struggle, are able to imagine society and its laws exactly as they would suit them.

GENERAL PRESENTATION OF THE GOVERNMENTAL MACHINE.

Men find pleasure in implementing the feelings that animate them. We find proof of this spontaneous disposition in their need for rites and external worship in order to maintain their beliefs and to maintain a religious feeling in them. No religion could be perpetuated without religious ceremonies. The structure of any society governed by an elite cannot be maintained without a theatrical representation of power. The princes are crowned kings in great cathedrals with incredible pomp, the presidents multiply the official and grandiose appearances, the elections are festivals based on very codified rituals.

Oligarchic collectivism is not exempt from these representations; its elite can only exist and last as long as it accepts to perpetuate the ritual of the Democratic Republic.

The vogue for mysteries in 14th century Europe was born from the desire to represent the scenes of the Passion to life, from the need that society had to see God. The oligarchic collectivism of our time must show one; he will be called "president", "chancellor", "prime minister" or "secretary general", his coming and all his appearances will be surrounded with pomp, the best writers in the country will write his speeches, his photograph will be exhibited everywhere, the more gullible will worship him like a god. Le Bon explains that "As soon as a certain number of living beings are united, whether it is a herd of animals or a crowd of men, they instinctively place themselves under authority. of a leader.

“In human crowds, the real leader is often only a leader, but as such plays a considerable role. His will is the nucleus around which opinions are formed and identified. It constitutes the first element of organization of heterogeneous crowds and prepares their organization into sects. Waiting,



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he directs them. The crowd is a servile flock that can never do without a master [102]. "

To be loved, the leader must be omniscient and infallible. In monarchies, whether a king or a prince admits to having made a mistake, this would be tantamount to opening a door to questioning the correctness of his future enlightened decisions and judgments. This is why the leader must be surrounded by an array of ministers and advisers who will be held responsible for any mistakes he may make, then replaced by new ones, and so on. Just as the minister will know how to find and dismiss the secretary or the adviser who will have "misled" him in his judgment.

The governance system of oligarchic collectivism secretly designates who will be the next leader; and, to ensure that the voters choose him, he promotes, just as secretly, popularities among masses of elite members less able than himself. The elected official and his competitors will thus be propelled to the front of the political scene, so that the mass of the middle and lower classes see only them and no one else, and are naturally brought to have to make a choice. The chronic dissatisfaction of the middle and lower classes always places them in the expectation of a "change", since orthodoxy only serves the maintenance of the elite in power, and never their interests. After the appeasement and euphoria of the population following the election of its new leader, there followed a period of waiting for the materialization of the improvements promised; in the oligarchic collectivist governance system, this expectation always precedes disillusionment, then the feeling of having been deceived. But it is precisely this last feeling which, when a new electoral period arrives, will nourish the enthusiasm of the masses for the speeches of the next leader whom the elite will again have chosen for them.

In absolute terms, one could notice that the mechanism of popular elections, compared to the monarchical system which appoints a king elected for life, allows the elite to make the masses believe that a leader can make mistakes, and that 'she can have the last word by the power of her right to vote. In this, the mechanism of the election of the leader by a popular referendum is a valve which, if it does not on its own make it possible to prevent any

[102] GUSTAVE Le Bon, Psychology of crowds, chap. III., "The Leaders of crowds", §1, 1895. 



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inner revolution, greatly delays its coming - since it will happen anyway, if no other device is planned.

When he has just been elected and as soon as he exercises his function, the leader of the system of oligarchic collectivism governance remains dependent on the enormous administrative machine when it comes to making decisions: he is only a pawn of a political game to exalt the passions, hopes and beliefs of the masses. Because he must rely on the information and figures sent to him by an army of officials. And in any case, he cannot, alone, assimilate from day to day this enormous quantity of information and figures; this is why it must delegate the major part of its analyzes and decisions. In addition, the role of head of state in the twentieth century consists above all of representation to the masses he is supposed to lead, and to other members of the elite and foreign heads of state. He has the obligation to preside over ceremonies (appointments, commemorations, funerals, presentation of medals, etc.), to constantly receive and visit. So much so that, in truth, he ignores everything that happens in the country, and that is why he has no choice but to place blind trust in his ministers and advisers who, collectively and implicitly decide for him.

But, concerning this last point, it is necessary to differentiate the decision-making which answers a concrete problem of the present time, and that which must anticipate the still abstract problem of the future. In other words, and when noticing that, in this sense, a leader is therefore supposed to make decisions which will only be followed by concrete and observable effects when he has been replaced by another leader, would arise for the entire ruling elite the legitimacy of this action. This is why, in the system of collectivist oligarchic governance having the appearance of a democracy with a leader at its head, the decisions concerning the future are really debated, in secret, by the Central Party, and virtually and collectively. decided by him. And as most of the problems to be solved of the present time have been anticipated by the Central Party, sometimes several years in advance and before the election of the current leader, and that the latter must, in any case, defer to his ministers and advisers in order to be able to take the most appropriate decisions, he does not actually take any decisions himself.

As in any democratic republic, the constitutional system of the chambers can be applied: laws, motions, decrees and taxes will be voted by a senate which can be composed 



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an upper chamber and a lower chamber. It does not matter who appoints these lords, peers, senators, deputies or representatives, for all are members of the elite, and all - or almost all - must be Orthodox and members of the Secret Central Party, and abide by the rules, principles and beliefs thereof. When we look at them more closely, the political doctrines that all these legislators can claim will only be variants and modifications of the core of orthodoxy to which we can finally give the name, for this circumstance, of "conserva - tism ”,“ tradition ”or“ founding republican values ​​”. And besides, all the assemblies of the legislators will have to take place in a building with a grandiose architecture, adorned with all the symbols whose adoration has conditioned their belonging to the elite, and which are there to remind them. Disputes between legislators of different tendencies must exist to spark debate, but in fact they only relate to details of the form of the irremovable orthodoxy.

In any case, as was explained in a previous chapter, when speaking of the popular referendum, the votes of laws, decrees and taxes are dictated by history and by the imperatives of the present time and the immediate future, and not by the will of a member of the elite or by the aspirations of a majority of society.

As has been heard above, the immense richness and diversity of the day-to-day problems that a government has to solve imply the existence of specialized administrations employing the best experts in the country. All of these experts, or almost all, belong to the middle class, and are grouped together in ministries each representing a specialty of current affairs common to any state. These specialties can be further separated into sub-classes of specialties, each of which can be handled by sub-ministries, departments, offices, etc. The specialties of political affairs, and the degree of importance which may be accorded to each of them, depend in part, for example, on whether the country is in a situation of war against another or not, on whether the country is at war with another or not. elite fear the imminence of a revolution or not, the shape of the country's economy, etc.

If the country is at war, the most important political affairs specialties will be: war, economy and industry, internal security, and information. And these specialties will each have to be administered by a specialized ministry.

But, if the country is not at war, these four specialties will retain the same importance anyway; the difference 



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will deal with the addition of a few other specialties to this list, and the number of specialists and administrative officers each employs.

Of course, the leadership of each of these ministries must be provided by a member of the elite. But, as these senior administrators cannot control everything from day to day, neither can they, and it would be unwise to leave them alone to make decisions, even at this lower level of responsibility - compared to that of chief. of State-, many members of the Central Party must occupy most of the managerial positions of all the ministries, and ensure, in addition to their current and ordinary obligations, an extraordinary, discreet and unofficial task of general supervision and monitoring the orthodoxy of all subordinate officials. Information gained from this discreet surveillance of state affairs should not be reported to heads of ministries, but to specialized and secret police offices.

The functioning of the Central Party as a network allows very rapid exchanges of information and permanent influence between the corporate specialties, guarantors of the safety and efficiency of oligarchic power as a whole, and of the maintenance of the social structure. For this effectiveness, as we saw in the previous chapter, is itself guaranteed by the high levels of orthodoxy and personal involvement expected of each member of the Central Party. This is how the prevention of the degeneration of orthodoxy, sedation, espionage and sabotage in the government machine can be effective.

The strength of a country lies in the ignorance of its people; let this come to know the truth in all things, and he will pass away. 



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149



INFORMATION



WHO CONTROLS THE PRESENT CONTROLS THE PAST.
WHO CONTROLS THE PAST CONTROLS THE FUTURE.



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151 



I. THE OPINION.

WHAT IS PUBLIC OPINION.

Metaphorically, public opinion is an automobile that brings a family - that is, society - from point a to point b. If the head of the family driving it is drunk or neglects its mechanics, its chances of reaching point b with all of its family are considerably reduced. He can also have his car stolen by someone who covets it, and who covets everything on board, if he leaves it unattended for too long. During his journey, he must regularly put gasoline in his tank, check the engine oil and water, and have foreseen the possibility of at least one puncture; and he should also not neglect the basic needs of the whole family during a long journey: water, food, etc., and even more if there are young children, a weak and old person, on board. That is, the ruling elite can never abandon public opinion to itself.

Edward Bernays, one of the founders and masters of modern propaganda - whom he calls "public relations" -, nephew of Freud and promoter of his thought, follower of the works of Le Bon and Trotter, says that "public opinion is a term describing an unstable group of individual judgments as elusive as Mercury. Public opinion is the result of an aggregation of individual opinions, sometimes uniform, sometimes in conflict, of the men and women who make up society, or any group within that society. Anyone who wants to understand public opinion must first understand how the mind of the individual, the cellular unit of the group, works.

“The intellectual equipment of the average person consists of a mass of judgments about most of the matters which affect their daily mental and physical life. These judgments are the tools of his daily life, but they remain judgments which are not established on the basis of research and logical deductions. The judgments of the common man are based on dogmatic expressions which have been accepted because they come from his parents, his teachers, his church, his social and economic environment and other leaders.

"The 'public relations' advisor [hear propaganda, because Bernays doesn't like to say that word] must 



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understand the social implications of an individual's thoughts and actions. Is it purely by accident that a man belongs to one church rather than another, and that he belongs to a church? Is it by accident that Boston women prefer brown eggs, and New York women prefer white? What are the factors that will push a man to change his political party, or to change his diet?

“Why do some communities resist the [alcohol] prohibition law - why do others abide by it? Why is it so hard to start a new political party - or fight cancer? Why is it so hard to fight for sex education? Why does the free trader denounce economic protectionism, and vice versa?

“If we were to form our own judgments about each topic, there are many things we would have to learn on our own that we would then take for granted. We would still be eating raw food, and we would not be living in a house - in fact, we would have to lead a primitive life.

“The public relations consultant must take into account that people who know little about a subject almost always make final judgments about it [103]." 

From there, Bernays quotes a passage from Trotter's point of view, which we have presented [104], before proceeding further.

"The reader will have from his own experience an almost infinite number of occasions during which the amateur has been fully prepared to deliver the opinion of an expert, and to offer a clear judgment on a subject in which everyone is concerned. , except him, admits that he doesn't know much about it.

“During the Middle Ages, society was convinced of the existence of witches. People were so convinced of it that they burned those they suspected of witchcraft. To this day we find an equal number of people who believe, with the same firmness and in one way or another, in spirits and spiritualism. These do not burn the mediums so far. But people who have not done any research on this subject nevertheless debate it with surprising passion, and rise up



[103] EDWARD BERNAYS, Crystallizing Public Opinion, t "Part, c. I." What constitutes public opinion ", 1923.

[104] See the article “The Psychological Assessment”, I crc Part, c. ii. "Stage of evolution of society". 



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against disturbing the dead. Others, not better informed, consider mediums to be divinely inspired people. Not so long ago, smart people knew the Earth was flat. Until today, the common man is convinced of the existence of a mysterious force which he has only heard to be called "atomic energy", and nothing more.

“We can take it as an axiom that the ignorant are often intolerant of a point of view contrary to their own. The aggressiveness that has been expressed about public affairs is proverbial. Humanists have engaged in many disputes over pacifism and militarism; and when an argument concerning an abstract subject opposes parties, they easily deviate from it to fool one or the other.

“We find out how true all of this is by looking at the records of congressional assemblies, and finding there the controversies in which personal attacks outweighed logic. During a recent opposition to a proposed tariff measures, an opponent defender of protectionism published a long criticism in which he tried to confuse the character and disinterest of his opponents. Logically, his speech should have been based only on the economic, social and political values ​​of the proposal, as presented.

“About a hundred powerful American bankers, businessmen, various professionals and economists have come together to disapprove of this plan. They declared that the "American Valuation Plan", as it was named, would endanger the prosperity of the country, that it would be detrimental to diplomatic relations, and that it would harm the common good of each country. with whom our commercial and industrial relations are close. This group's opinion was widely followed, but the secretary of the Ways and Means Committee accused them all of acting in the name of personal and economic interests, and of lacking patriotism. Prejudice here prevailed over logic.

“Intolerance is almost inevitably accompanied by a genuine and natural inability to listen, understand and accept opposing points of view. The competent scientist, who may be receptive to any promising suggestion concerning his own specialty, may also, outside his field of expertise, be surprised to refuse to hear a point of view opposed to his own. In politics, for example, his understanding 



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of a problem may be fragmentary; however, he would passionately enter into a discussion about whether or not a subsidy should be given to fishermen, a subject he knew nothing about. Here we find, with remarkable uniformity, what a psychologist has called "logic-proof components" {"probatio diabolica") [105].

“The probatio diabolica has always been in us. Scientists have exhausted themselves to death for refusing to admit the flaws in their theories. Intelligent mothers give their children food that they urge others not to give theirs. A particularly significant example of this behavior is the tendency of races to hold onto their religious beliefs long after they have lost their meaning. Principles of dietetics, hygiene, and even those based on geographical considerations which have changed for more than a millennium, are still prisoners of probatio diabolica; we can assimilate them to dogmas [106]. "

At this other point in his explanation, once again, Edward Bernays quotes, to support his argument, the sequel to the excerpt from The Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War, by Trotter, which we presented extensively in the previous one. part. If Trotter, in this sequel, clearly uses concepts elaborated by Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason, and which he developed in Prolegomena to all future metaphysics, the comments made by Bernays suggest that he did not. not noticed. For essentially cultural and geographic reasons, Bernays more likely studied the philosophy of science in the context of a Protestant Christian education, than from the point of view of Kant, and of epistemology as defined by Zeller. ("Erkenntnistheorie", theory of knowledge) 101, and he seems to derive his teaching exclusively from Trotter, and from Freud, his uncle, on this particular subject.



[105] This psychologist is, in fact, the Swedish scientist-inventor, philosopher and theologian Emanuel Swendenborg (1688-1772). The probatio diabolica, or "proof of the devil", is an equivalent of the presumption of innocence, that is, when the "burden of proof" involves proof which cannot be furnished by reason of its nature. . In theology, no material evidence can demonstrate the existence of the devil; but, the probatio diabolica makes it possible to affirm that the devil exists, since no proof that it does not exist can be brought. (N. D. E.).

[106] Edward Bernays, Ibid.

[107] However, although Barneys does not use the word epistemology or borrows the jargon of this discipline in a recognizable way in his writings, let us specify that its origin is English ("epistemology"), constructed in 1856 by James Frederick Ferrier to translate the German "wissenschaftslehre" ("Fichte's problematic"), even if the proposition put forward here by Goldstein is also accepted, further increase of Trotter, and of Freud, his uncle, concerning this subject in particular. 



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“Thus, the public relations advisor must take into consideration the a priori judgment of all the audiences to which he may be called upon to address, before taking any steps aimed at modifying those things in which the public has a faith. established.

“It seldom pays off to use names, or to attempt to discredit belief itself. The public relations advisor, after examining the sources supporting the old established beliefs, must: either discredit the old authorities, or create new ones by establishing an admissible opinion of the masses directed against the old established beliefs, or in favor of the new ones. ].

OPINION AND ITS CONTROL.

Gustave Le Bon laid the foundations for any reflection on the fabrication of (mass) opinion very well. “By studying the imagination of crowds, we saw that she is impressed above all by images. These images are not always available, but it is possible to evoke them by the judicious use of words and formulas. Wielded with skill, they truly possess the mysterious power once attributed to them by adepts of magic. They create in the soul of the most formidable storms, and also know how to calm them. We would build a pyramid much higher than that of old Khufu with the only bones of men victims of the power of words and formulas.

“The power of words is linked to the images they evoke and which are quite independent of their real meaning. Sometimes it is those with the most ill-defined meaning that have the most action. Such, for example, the terms: democracy, socialism, equality, freedom, etc., the meaning of which is so vague that large volumes are not sufficient to specify it 109 [...].

“Reason and arguments cannot fight against certain words and certain formulas. They are pronounced with meditation in front of crowds; and, as soon as they have been spoken, the faces become reverent and the foreheads bow. Many


[108] today (N. d. E.)., Ibid.

[109] GUSTAVE Le Bon, Psychology of crowds, Book IL, c. ii. “Immediate factors in the opinions of crowds”, §1. "Pictures, words and formulas", 1895. 



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consider them forces of nature, supernatural powers. They evoke grandiose and vague images in souls, but the very vagueness that blurs them increases their mysterious power. We can compare them to those formidable divinities hidden behind the tabernacle and which the devotee only approaches with trembling.

“The images evoked by the words being independent of their meaning, [they] vary from age to age, from people to people, under the identity of the formulas. Certain words are temporarily attached to certain images: the word is only the call button which makes them appear.

“Not all words and formulas have the power to conjure up images; and there are some who, after having evoked it, wear out and no longer awaken anything in the mind. They then become empty sounds, the main use of which is to exempt the one who employs them from the obligation to think. With a small stock of formulas and commonplaces learned in youth, we have everything we need to get through life without the tiring need to think about anything 110 [...].

“With all its progress, philosophy has not yet been able to offer crowds any ideal which can charm them; but, as they need illusions at all costs, they direct themselves instinctively, like the insect going to light, towards the rhetoricians who present them to them. The great factor in the evolution of peoples has never been truth, but error 111 [...].

“The crowds have never thirsted for truth. Faced with the obvious which displeases them, they turn away, preferring to deify error if error seduces them. Whoever knows how to delude them is easily their master; whoever tries to disillusion them is always their victim [...]. "

In an article following this one (§3), Le Bon speaks of the role of (historical) experience as a factor in modifying the opinion of the masses, but what he explains, and the time scales that he suggests, brings us back to roughly what we explained more fully in Chapter II. of this part, devoted to the Stage of evolution of the company, and, at the same time, takes us away from the subject of the control of the opinion in the short term.

“In the enumeration of the factors capable of impressing the souls of crowds, one could entirely dispense with mentioning reason, if it were not necessary to indicate the negative value of its influence. 



[110] Ibid.

[111] GUSTAVE Le Bon, Psychology of crowds, Book IL, c. ii. “Immediate factors of the opinions of crowds”, §2 “The illusions”, 1895.

[112] Ibid. 



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“We have already shown that crowds cannot be influenced by reasoning, and only understand coarse associations of ideas. So it is to their feelings and never to their reason that orators who know how to impress them appeal. The laws of logic have no effect on them. To convince the crowds, we must first be aware of the feelings by which they are animated, pretend to share them, then try to modify them, by provoking, by means of rudimentary associations, certain very suggestive images; knowing how to retrace your steps if necessary, and above all guess at each moment the feelings that are aroused. This need to ceaselessly vary one's language according to the effect produced at the moment when one speaks strikes down all studied and prepared speech in advance with impotence: the speaker follows his thoughts and not that of his listeners, and, by this fact alone, its influence becomes completely null.

“Logical minds, accustomed to being convinced by rather tight chains of reasoning, cannot help resorting to this mode of persuasion when they address crowds, and the lack of effect of their arguments makes them difficult. always surprises. The usual mathematical consequences based on the syllogism, that is to say on associations of identities, writes a logician, are necessary ... Necessity would force the assent even of an inorganic mass, if it were able to track identity associations. Without a doubt ; but the crowd is no more capable than the inorganic mass of following them, or even of hearing them. Let us try to convince by reasoning primitive spirits, savages or children, for example, and we will realize the low value that this mode of argument possesses [113] [...].

"It is not with reason and it is most often in spite of it, that feelings such as honor, self-denial, religious faith, love of glory and of the fatherland are created in us. , which until now have been the main driving forces of all civilizations [114]. "

When the ruling elite seeks to influence opinion, it must, before doing anything: carefully assess the possible consequences associated - and perhaps undesirable - with the change


[113] GUSTAVE Le Bon, Psychology of crowds, Book IL, c. ii. “Immediate factors of the opinions of crowds”, §4 “Reason”, 1895.

[114] Ibid. 



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of opinion; determine with the greatest accuracy to which categories (social, professional, etc.) of the mass it wishes to address in particular, in order to determine the most effective and simplest means of achieving this; to find the form of the intention which must allow the real intention to materialize.

“Whatever ideas are suggested to crowds, they can only become dominant if they take a very absolute and very simple form [115] [...].

“The ideas being accessible to the crowds only after having assumed a very simple form, must, in order to become popular, often undergo the most complete transformations. It is especially when it is a question of somewhat elevated philosophical or scientific ideas, that one can see the depth of the modifications which are necessary for them to descend from layer to layer to the level of the crowds [116] [...] .

“We cannot say in a completely absolute way that crowds do not reason and cannot be influenced by reasoning. But the arguments which they employ and those which can act on them are, from the logical point of view, of such an inferior order that it is only by way of analogy that one can qualify them as reasoning.

“The lower reasonings of crowds are, like the higher reasonings, based on associations; but the ideas associated by crowds have between them only apparent links of analogy or succession [117] [...].

“Association of dissimilar things having between them only apparent relations, and immediate generalization of particular cases; such are the characteristics of the reasoning of crowds. These are arguments of this order that those who know how to handle them always present to them; they are the only ones who can influence them. A chain of logical reasoning is totally incomprehensible to crowds, and this is why it is permissible to say that they do not reason or reason wrongly, and are not influenced by reasoning [118] [...].

“Everything that strikes the imagination of crowds is presented in the form of a striking and clear image, clear of all


[115] GUSTAVE Le Bon, Psychology of crowds, Book L, c. iii. "Ideas, reasoning, and imagination of crowds", §1 "The ideas of crowds", 1895.

[116] Ibid.

[117] GUSTAVE Le Bon, Psychology of crowds, Book L, c. iii. "Ideas, reasonings, and imagination of crowds", §2 "Les reasonations des foules", 1895.

[118] Ibid. 



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an accessory interpretation, or having no other accompaniment than a few marvelous or mysterious facts: a great victory, a great miracle, a great crime, a great hope. It is necessary to present things in block, and never to indicate the genesis. A hundred petty crimes or a hundred small accidents will not strike the imagination of crowds at all; while a single great crime, a single great accident will strike them deeply, even with results infinitely less fatal than the hundred small accidents put together. The influenza epidemic which, a few years ago, killed 5,000 people in Paris alone in a few weeks, hardly struck the popular imagination. This real hecatomb was not reflected, in fact, by any visible image, but only by weekly statistical indications. An accident which, instead of these 5,000 people, would have killed only 500, but on the same day, in a public square, by a clearly visible accident, the fall of the Eiffel Tower, for example, would have on the contrary produced on the imagination a huge impression. The probable loss of a transatlantic which, for lack of news, was supposed to have sunk in the open sea, for eight days struck the imagination of the crowds. However, official statistics show that in the same year, a thousand large buildings were lost. But, of these successive losses, much more important in terms of the destruction of lives and goods than that of the transatlantic in question, the crowds were not concerned for a single moment [119] [. . .]. "

We could say, when analyzing the message that strikes the masses and its speaker, that they borrow from the style of lyric theater, or from that of the tenor of the bar pleading the defense of his client. Le Bon says that all convictions of crowds take religious forms, even when the myth or political doctrine is atheistic.

“When one examines closely the convictions of crowds, both in times of faith and in great political uprisings, such as those of the last century, one finds that these convictions always take a special form, that I cannot better to determine than by giving it the name of religious sentiment.

“This feeling has very simple characteristics: adoration of a supposedly superior being, fear of the magical power that is supposed to be in him, blind submission to his commands, 


[119] GUSTAVE Le Bon, Psychology of crowds, Book I., c. iii. "Ideas, reasoning, and imagination of crowds", §3 "The imagination of crowds", 1895.



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impossibility of discussing its dogmas, desire to spread them, tendency to consider as enemies all those who do not admit them. Whether such a feeling applies to an invisible God, to an idol of stone or wood, to a hero or to a political idea, as long as it presents the preceding characteristics it always remains of religious essence [120] [...].

“The convictions of crowds take on those characteristics of blind submission, fierce intolerance, the need for violent propaganda which are inherent in religious sentiment; and that is why we can say that all their beliefs have a religious form. The hero that the crowd cheers is truly a god to her. Napoleon was so for fifteen years, and never did a divinity have more perfect worshipers. None more easily sent men to death [121] [...] ”. And today we could add Stalin and Hitler.

“The beliefs and opinions of crowds form [...] two very distinct classes. On the one hand, the great permanent beliefs, which last for several centuries and on which an entire civilization rests, such as, for example, in the past, the feudal conception, the Christian ideas, those of the Reformation; such today, the principle of nationalities, democratic and social ideas. On the other hand, the momentary and changing opinions, most often derived from general conceptions, which each age sees born and die: such are the theories which guide the arts and literature at certain times, those, for example, which produced romanticism, naturalism, mysticism, etc. They are as superficial, more often than not, as fashion, and change like it. These are the small waves that are constantly born and vanish on the surface of a lake with deep water [122] [...].

“It is very easy to establish a fleeting opinion in the souls of crowds, but it is very difficult to establish a lasting belief in it. It is also very difficult to destroy the latter once it has been established. It is, most often, only at the cost of violent revolutions that it can be changed. Revolutions even have this power only when belief has almost entirely lost its empire over souls. Revolutions then serve to finally sweep away what was almost abandoned already,



[120] GUSTAVE Le Bon, Psychology of crowds, Book I., chap. III. "Religious forms which all the convictions of crowds take", 1895.

[121] Ibid.

[122] GUSTAVE Le Bon, Psychology of crowds, Book IL, chap. IV. “Limits of variability of beliefs and opinions of crowds”, §1 “Fixed beliefs”, 1895.



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but what the yoke of custom prevented from abandoning entirely. The revolutions that begin are in reality beliefs that end. The precise day when a great belief is marked to die is easy to recognize; this is where its value begins to be discussed. Any general belief being little more than a fiction can only subsist on the condition of not being subjected to examination 123 [...]. "

It is tempting, at this moment, to have recourse to the evaluation of Sorokin's cultural tendencies, as he exposes them in Social and Cultural Dynamics (4 vol., 1937-1941) to make a table which will complement strongly. well the explanations of Le Bon.



Spiritual current


Spiritual and materialistic current


Materialist current


Weaned materialist current


Transcendental


Mixed style


Materialist


Detached


Supersensitive


Heroic


Naturalist


Protestor


Religious


Noble


Realistic


Revolt


Symbolic


Elevation


Visual


Exceeded


Allegorical


Sublimation


Illusionist


Extreme


Static


Patriotic


Day by day


Quest for sensations


Veneration


Moralist


Amusing


Titillating


Anonymous


Embellishment


Interesting


Depraved


Traditional


Flattering


Erotic


Maniacal


Immanence


Educative


Satyric


Provocative






Innovative


Exhibitionist






Eclectic


Depreciated






Syncretic


Vulgar






Fashionable


Ugly



Here, Sorokin divides the tendencies of society into classes which he calls "spiritual current" ("ideational art"), "spiritual and materialist current" ("idealistic or integrated art"), "materialist current" ("sensate art "), and" weaned materialist current "(" late sensate art "). According to him, the historical period ending in the 5th century BC was marked by a spiritual current. The fifth and fourth centuries BC were marked by a spiritual and materialist current. The period between the third and the first century BC was marked by a materialist current (rise of the Roman Empire). The period between the 1st and the 4th century AD (fall of the Roman Empire) was a stage of transition from one current to another. The period between the 5th and the 12th century (period of barbarism) was marked by a spiritual current. The period between the 13th and 14th centuries (Renaissance) was marked by a spiritual and materialistic current (integration of the values ​​of the ancient Greeks and Romans). Finally, the period between the 15th century and ours was, and still is, marked by a materialist trend. The beginning of the “materialist period” that we are going through was marked by the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg. But the


[123] Ibid. 



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innumerable scientific discoveries which marked this short period between the last century and our own are probably preparing us for an entry into a period of transition, or a period of "weaned materialism" [124] which, in theory, should lead our civilization towards a long period of chaos.

This is why maintaining the belief of the masses requires tight control of information (education, press, culture). Because, in this regard, Sorokin's evaluation system draws our attention in particular to the upheavals caused by the appearance of the printing press, and, more exactly in what concerns us here, the sudden loss of control. of information by the Church and by the elites of almost all the western countries of the fifteenth century.

“But even though a belief is strongly shaken,” Le Bon tells us, “the institutions which derive from it retain their power and are only slowly erased [...]. There are great difficulties in establishing a general belief, but when it is definitively established its power is invincible for a long time; and, whatever its philosophical falsehood, it imposes itself on the brightest minds [...]. As soon as a new dogma is implanted in the souls of crowds, it becomes the inspiration for its institutions, its arts and its conduct. The empire which he then exercises over souls is absolute. Men of action think only of realizing it, legislators only apply it, philosophers, artists, literati are only concerned with translating it in various forms [...]. And so it is that, thanks to general beliefs, men of each age are surrounded by a network of traditions, opinions and customs, from which they cannot escape and which always make them very similar to each other. to others. What mainly leads men are the beliefs and customs derived from these beliefs. They regulate the smallest acts of our existence, and the most independent mind does not dream of avoiding them. There is no real tyranny except that which is exercised unconsciously on souls, because it is the only one which cannot be combated [...].

“The philosophical absurdity often presented by general beliefs has never been an obstacle to their triumph. This triumph does not even seem possible unless they



[124] We do not include in this aside the “Systems of Truth” of Sorokin, as he exposes them in the I st volume of Social and Cultural Dynamics, because, in spite of its great interest, it seems to us rather to be due to an intuition of its author rather than a deduction supported by proven arguments. 



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contain some mysterious nonsense. It is therefore not the obvious weakness of current socialist beliefs that will prevent them from triumphing in the souls of crowds. Their real inferiority compared to all religious beliefs is due only to this: the ideal of happiness which the latter promised to be realized only in a future life, nobody could dispute this realization [125] [...]. "

The collectivist doctrine to be imposed on the middle and lower classes is, indeed, an excellent substitute for religion and its myths and cults. And again, looking more closely, we see that many religions suggest asceticism and the renunciation of consumption to the masses. Such is the case of Buddhism, the myth of which relates the story of a rich and powerful prince, Siddhartha, who, one night, gives up his servant his cloak, his jewels and his horse, then takes on the attire of a poor hunter. He then began a life of asceticism, and devoted himself to austere meditative practices. Of course, he realizes that these practices have not led him to a greater understanding of life, and, starving, he ends up accepting a bowl of rice pudding from a young girl's hands, thus ending his new principles. He changes his mind, and advocates "the middle way", which consists in denying both deprivation and abuse. But Siddhartha, now Buddha, had thus disappointed the five disciples who followed him; these even took this change for a betrayal, and immediately abandoned it. Strangely, one might say, deprivation appealed to them more than well-being. And it is more readily this first ascetic part of Buddha's initiatory journey that inspires many Buddhists, even today - we could make the same remark by taking for another example the life of Saint Anthony, or that of the Jesuits and the founder of this order, Inigo Lopez de Recalde de Loyola.

In Catholicism, in fact, it is the image of Christ suffering martyrdom on a wooden cross, rather than that of Christ on the Mount of Olives, when he asked his father to prevent him from drinking his chalice to the dregs, which is chosen and which is the object of a cult motivating all kinds of deprivations and frustrations. Seeming to have been inspired by Buddha, Saint Matthew says in his Gospel: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and worm consume, where thieves



[125] Ibid.



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break through and burglarize ”. Then again, a little further, “Jesus said to her: If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then [127] come, and follow me ”.

“We have already noticed that the changes which occur in these opinions are sometimes much more superficial than real, and that they always bear the imprint of the qualities of the breed. Considering, for example, the political institutions of the country where we live, we have shown that the apparently most contrary parties: monarchists, radicals, imperialists, socialists, etc., have an absolutely identical ideal, and that this ideal is due solely to mental structure of our race, since, under similar names, we find in other races an ideal quite contrary. It is not the name given to opinions, nor misleading adaptations that change the bottom line [...]. The role of the philosopher [who writes the doctrine for the elite] is to seek out what remains of ancient beliefs under the apparent changes, and to distinguish what, in the shifting stream of opinions, is determined by general beliefs and beliefs. soul of the race [...].

“In literature, in art, in philosophy, the successions of opinions are still more rapid. Romanticism, naturalism, mysticism, etc., are born and die in turn. The acclaimed artist and writer yesterday are deeply despised [128] hand. "

Le Bon seemed to believe that the press is free and independent of political power. Perhaps he was not sufficiently interested in this subject, or perhaps Taine, his teacher, did not find it advisable to completely enlighten him, because then he could easily have learned that the first newspapers, such as, the Relation Aller Fùrnemmen und gedenckwurdigen Historien [129], in Germany, The Spectator [130], in England, the Gazette [131], in



[126] Mathieu, 6:19.

[127] Mathieu, 19:21.

[128] GUSTAVE Le Bon, Psychology of crowds, Book II., C. iv. “Limits of variability of beliefs and opinions of crowds”, §2 “Mobile opinions of crowds”, 1895.

[129] The weekly newspaper Relation Aller Furnemmen und gedenckwurdigen Historien (Communication of all important and memorable stories), was undoubtedly the first newspaper in history, created in 1609, in Strasbourg, by Johann Carolus.

[130] The daily The Spectator was created in 1711 by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, with the aim of shaping the morality of the people, and "to bring philosophy out of closets, libraries, schools and colleges, to be replaced by realities debated in clubs, assemblies, tea tables and cafes ”.

[131] The Gazette was created in 1631 by Théophraste Renaudot, with the support of Richelieu, real organizer of the kingdom's policy, and reformer of the elite, under Louis XIII. 



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France, Vedomosti, Russia, were means, still considered astute in their respective times, to shape the opinion of the middle class (since the lower class was still largely illiterate, and unlikely to afford the luxury of buy a newspaper printed on paper).

But Le Bon understood the mechanisms of public opinion in society so well that what seems to be his ignorance of the relations between the press and political power was perhaps, in fact, only the expression of a wish. stake or fear. Because he adds that “it is certain that the seers, the apostles, the leaders, the convinced in a word, have a very different force than the deniers, the critics and the indifferent; but let us not forget either that with the current power of the crowds, if a single opinion could acquire enough prestige to impose itself, it would soon be clothed with such a tyrannical power that everything would immediately have to bow before it, and that the age of free discussion would be over for a long time. Crowds sometimes represent peaceful masters, as Helio-Gabale and Tiberius were in their hours; but they also have furious quirks. When a civilization is ready to fall into their hands, it is at the mercy of too much chance to last very long. If anything could delay the hour of collapse a little, it would be precisely the extreme mobility of opinions and the growing indifference of crowds to any general belief. [133] "

The great advantage enjoyed by the collectivist oligarchic system of governance, and which enables it to resist all internal revolutions for a long time, is that it leans - preferably - on the doctrine of socialism. Thus, the middle class through which all internal revolutions arrive, as we have seen, can virtually not count on the indispensable support of the lower class. "Questions of doctrines, such as socialism, recruit truly convinced defenders only from the completely illiterate strata: workers in mines and factories, for example [134]".

Le Bon was the first to explain - but not the first to understand, as we know - that "Spying on opinion is ...

[132] The Vedomosti (BeaoMocra, the Gazette), created in 1703 by a proclamation (ukase) of Tsar Peter the Great, was the first Russian news newspaper; he reported to the people military victories and the news of diplomatic relations.

[133] GUSTAVE Le Bon, Psychology of crowds, Book IL, c. iv. “Limits of variability of beliefs and opinions of crowds”, §2 “Mobile opinions of crowds”, 1895.

[134] GUSTAVE Le Bon, Psychology of crowds, Book IL, c. iv. “Limits of variability of beliefs and opinions of crowds”, §2 “Mobile opinions of crowds”, 1895. 



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essential concern of the press and governments. What is the effect produced by an event, a legislative project, a speech, that is what they need to know all the time; and the thing is not easy, for nothing is more mobile and more changeable than the thought of crowds, and nothing is more frequent than to see them welcome with anathemas what they had acclaimed the day before. It only confirms, without knowing it, the need, discovered by the Western Eurasian elites as early as the 17th century, to make the press one of the tools of state power. And, by virtue of what has just been said, but contrary to what had been applied in the 17th and 18th centuries, the press must essentially be designed to appeal as much to the lower class, now literate and economically capable. to access daily information, in order to maintain the socialist doctrine and the feelings that can be extracted from it (humanism, charity, asceticism, rejection of materialism, fraternity, resentment towards a middle class presented as "petty bourgeois" and selfish. For, as we now know, everything must be done to maintain a cultural distance between the lower class and the middle class, and vice versa, so that the two can never find common demands, let alone form alliances. against the elite. The elite must use its power of control over information to create cults around its members, especially aimed at the lower class, because the average is less naive. And, at the same time, it must regularly find scapegoats, designated as responsible for all kinds of betrayals, in the ranks of the middle class or abroad. However, this does not exclude members of the elite from being publicly punished from time to time, in order, this time, to provide both the middle and lower classes with proof of the existence of "justice" and of "the equality of all men in rights" in the country.

Bernays spoke about the relative malleability of public opinion. He first explains that the resistance of the masses to accept a suggestion, and then to make it their belief afterwards, when this first obstacle is crossed, depends greatly on whether it can match its current beliefs and its culture. , which he calls "public conscience" (public conscience). The masses passively accept a suggestion that accords with their public consciousness, without even noticing that this suggestion is propaganda. But when, on the contrary, we seek to suggest something to him that is opposed to his public conscience, Bernays 



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calls this a "regimentation". Because, in this second case, the masses accept it with difficulty, and are quick to identify the suggestion as an insidious propaganda which is imposed on it by force. He concludes on this point by saying that uniformity of opinion is largely natural, and is only partially artificial, and that public opinion may just as well be the producer of "insidious propaganda" itself. than its product.

He cites some historical examples of political elections showing that the masses can be totally insensitive to the propaganda disseminated by the press, and, to everyone's surprise, elect a candidate that the majority of journalists had criticized, and had already designated as the loser.

He concludes, on the subject of the malleability of public opinion in general, that, because of the importance of "channels of communication to thought", the prior study of the relations which exist between public opinion and the organs which maintain it, or which are capable of causing it to change, is of vital importance.

PROPAGANDA.

Political science teaches nothing about propaganda, while the most democratic of political regimes, like all modern political regimes, cannot do without it if they want to exist for a long time. The reluctance of governments today to use the word “propaganda” explains this absence to a large extent (except in Germany and Russia); the words "communication" and "public relations" are more readily used. Propaganda spontaneously evokes in most minds the art of making political posters well, while it points to all the means of controlling what the masses think, from the school education program of primary schools to the radio communique. Present-day Nazi Germany makes extensive use of propaganda aimed at its population, and in 1933 it created a ministry specifically responsible for dealing with it. In the Soviet Union there are a few administrations specially charged with this task, although Marx's doctrine strongly criticizes these activities. Marx speaks of "bourgeois propaganda" to designate the newspapers as tools of the control of the



[135] Reichsministerium fur Volksaufklârung und Propaganda, RMVP, or Propagandaministerium (Reich Ministry for People's Education and Propaganda). 



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society and keeping the ruling elite in power. Prior to the Revolution of 1917, Lenin suggested that propaganda (and political "agitation") should only be used in the form of teaching "scientific socialism" to workers to revolt.

However, he launched a “Monumental Propaganda Plan” presented in two main projects: 1) the decoration of buildings and town planning, and the use of surfaces “traditionally used for flags and posters” to place signs. revolutionary slogans and commemorative plaques; 2) the erection of monuments and statues "in plaster and temporary" in honor of the great figures of the revolution [136]. A list of sixty-nine personalities to be honored has been drawn up, and it includes famous revolutionaries and political figures, scientists, philosophers, poets and authors, Russian artists and composers, and foreigners as well. A People's Commissariat for Education (Hapo / mkffl KOMHecapHaT npocBemeHHa) was created one month after this Plan, in May 1918; it is also responsible for administering the culture of the country, in general. It includes a Department of Visual Arts (Hso-HapKOMtipoc, OTflen H3o6pa3HTem> Hi> ix HCKyccTB), itself subdivided into numerous sub-departments, each specialized in a specific field (theater, ballets, painting, sculpture, painting and revolutionary posters, etc.). In today's Soviet Russia, the pervasiveness of propaganda at all levels of society makes it very effective.

One special aspect of propaganda in the Soviet Union deserves our attention in particular, for it would find natural application in the collectivist oligarchic system of governance when shaping the minds of the middle and lower classes; it is the “New Soviet Man” (Hoeuù coeemcKuù uenoeeK), or the “Future Man” or “Communist Man” as Trotsky calls him. He says, more generally, that “If we looked at the decadent and Symbolist schools, with all their offspring, from the point of view of the development of art as a social form, they would appear to us only as scribbles, as an exercise. of craftsmanship, such as the appearance of instruments. The original arts had no goals. Those who had goals



[136] MonyMeumanbuan nponazanda. This plan was launched on April 12, 1918 by the Council of People's Commissars (CoBeT HapoflHtix KonraccapoB, Sovnarkom) at the monuments of the republic, and it also ordered the removal of monuments erected in honor of the tsars and their servants. 



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had no time to devote to art. Now we must pursue great goals by means of art. We cannot say whether revolutionary art will succeed in producing a "high" revolutionary tragedy. But socialist art will revive tragedy - without God, of course. The New Art will be atheistic. He will also revive comedy, because the New Man from the Future will want to laugh. It will give new life to the novel. He will give full rights to song and poetry, because the New man will show his love in more beautiful and stronger ways than the old people did, and he will think about the problems of birth and death. The New Art will revive all the old forms that arise during the development of the creative mind. The disintegration and decline of these forms is not absolute; that is, they do not mean that these forms are absolutely incompatible with the spirit of the New Age. All that is necessary is, for the poet of the new epoch, to rethink in a new way the thoughts of Humanity, and to re-experience his feelings in a new light [137] [...]. "

“It is difficult to predict the extent of government by the people that the Man of the future can reach, or to what heights he will raise his technique. Social construction and autonomous psycho-physical education will become two aspects of one and the same process. All the arts - literature, dramatic theater, painting, music and architecture will give a beautiful form to this process. More exactly, the shell which will contain the cultural construction and the self-education of the Communist man will develop all the vital elements of contemporary art to their highest point. Man will become immensely stronger, wiser and more subtle; his body will become more harmonious, his movements more rhythmic, his voice more musical. The forms of life will be dynamic in their grandeur. The average human type will rise to the height of an Aristotle, a Goethe, or a Marx. And, above this chain of mountains, new peaks will rise still higher [138]. "

The reader will easily have understood that the lyrical-religious words and syntax which Trotsky employs here to describe the “New Man” themselves form propaganda specially written for the masses; it is not a work of reflection intended for the ruling elite.



[137] LEON TROTSKY, Literature and Revolution, chap. 8, “Revolutionary and Socialist Art”, 1924.

[138] Ibid. 



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The Soviet New Man, whose demeanor and way of life might be inspired by those of Plato's Guardian, must be totally devoid of his individuality, in good physical and mental health, and he must be an enthusiastic and tireless promoter of the doctrine, socialist; all qualities which make it a “communication tool”, just as a gramophone could be, constantly broadcasting the discourse of the same record.

To arrive at such a result, of course, this man must be subjected to a highly intellectual teaching of the doctrine (scientific socialism), and obliged to a firm discipline. He should not feel in solidarity with any ethnic tribe, should not admit individual property and should have the greatest respect for collective property administered by the State; he must be ready to sacrifice himself for the community, just as the supernumerary cell of the multicellular organism does. He must, of course, be an atheist, convinced that the human race is an evolution of that of the monkey, that nothing will be left of him after his death, and that the purpose of life is to be of use to the whole. of the society. According to Soviet theory, such a man, so free from all contingencies and worries, and whose basic daily needs would naturally be met by the existence of a fully state-run economy, should be happy.

The New Man has an obligation to regularly attend various assemblies, meetings, events, and political parties, which enable him to constantly keep informed and improve. He should also be involved in volunteering on weekends, join study and reflection meetings, and work from time to time in sovkhozes [139] in order to maintain his physical form and stay in touch. with workers and nature. He must triumph against the appeals of his lowest instincts, and lead, on the whole, an existence marked by a certain austerity, quite similar to that of the Jesuits.

Around 1920, the idea of ​​the New Man was extended to women, but in a more passive form adapted to them. Its very first role is, of course, that of reproduction; then come those to go to school, to develop specialized professional skills, to get involved in political life, to become a member of the Party, and even to rise to the middle class to occupy an executive position in the administration.


[139] Coexo3 (coicpameHiie ot CoeemcKoe xosnûcmeo), state-administered farms. 



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“The systematic study of the psychology of the masses,” explains Bernays, “revealed to the students the potentialities of the invisible government of societies by the manipulation of the motivations which make the man act in the group. Trotter and Le Bon, who approached this subject in a scientific way, and Graham Wallas, Walter Lippmann and others who continued this work from the angle of research on group thinking, established that the group has mental characteristics distinct from those of the individual, and is motivated by impulses and emotions that cannot be explained on the basis of what we know about the psychology of the individual. This is why the following question arises: if we understand the mechanism and the motivations of the group spirit, would it not be possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will, without them even? are aware?

“The recent practice of propaganda has proven that it is possible, at least up to a point, and with certain limits. Mass psychology is, for the moment, still far from being an exact science, and the mysteries of human motivation are also far from being revealed to us all. But, at least, theory and practice could be combined, and thus produced excellent results which let us know that in some cases we can effect some changes in public opinion with a satisfactory degree of precision. , focusing on certain mechanisms, just as the motorist changes the speed of his machine by adjusting the flow of fuel. Propaganda is not a science practiced in the laboratory, but it is no longer entirely the empirical affair it was before the advent of the study of mass psychology. It is today scientific in the sense that it seeks to base its operations on the defined knowledge which comes from the direct observation of the spirit of the group, and which comes from the application of principles whose consistency and relative constancy have been demonstrated.

“The modern propagandist systematically and objectively studies the material on which he works, with the same spirit as that of the researcher who works in the laboratory. If the topic of the day is a nation-wide sales campaign, it studies the field by means of press surveillance, or with the participation of a body of investigators and pollsters, or even through personal study of a small group in a given region. 



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It determines, for example, which characteristics of a product are less attractive to the public, and in which new direction the public is heading. He will not fail to seek to know to what extent the woman influences the choice of the man when he must choose an automobile, his suits and his shirts.

“Scientific precision of the results should not be expected, because many elements of the situation still remain out of its control. He can know with a satisfactory degree of certainty that, under favorable circumstances, an international aeronautical flight will produce a spirit of goodwill, even making it possible to consummate a political program. But it cannot be certain that any unexpected event will cast some shadow on the public's interest in the flight, or that another aviator will not do something more spectacular just a day before. Even in the narrow field of public psychology, there must always be a wide margin for error. Propaganda, like economics and sociology, can never be an exact science, for the simple reason that its subject and matter, as is the case with these other two sciences, depend on human beings.

“If you can influence the leaders, with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group they dominate. But it is not necessary for the men to be assembled on the occasion of a public meeting or a street riot, so that their judgments can be influenced by means of mass psychology. Because man is gregarious by nature, he feels like a member of a herd, even when he is alone in his room with the curtains drawn. His mind retains the patterns that the influences of the group have imprinted on it. A man sits in his office to decide which stocks to buy. He imagines, without a doubt, that he is considering his purchases according to his own judgment. In truth, his judgment is a mixture of impressions imprinted on his mind by outside influences which control his thinking unbeknownst to his conscience. He buys shares in a certain railway company, because the day before he saw its name make some headlines in the press. This is why his name spontaneously came to mind, or, perhaps, because he remembers a pleasant dinner taken in one of those fast trains of this company; either because it cultivates a progressive policy with its employees, or because it has made a reputation for honesty; or because he heard that J. P. Morgan bought some of his shares. 



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“Trotter and Le Bon concluded that group thinking does not think in the strict sense of the word. Impulses, habits and emotions take the place of his thoughts. When she forms an opinion, her first instinct is usually to follow the example of a leader she deems trustworthy. This is one of the most firmly established principles of mass psychology. It works by establishing the growing or diminishing prestige of a vacation and leisure location, by causing bank success, or stock market panic, by creating a bestseller or the success of a movie. .

"But when there is no prominent leader to lead by example, and the herd has to think for themselves, they do so by resorting to clichés, flattering words not supported by logical arguments or images that contain a group of ideas or experiences. A few short years ago, it was enough to associate the name of an election candidate with the word "interests" for millions of people to vote against him, because anything that could be associated with the idea of ​​" interests "seemed necessarily corrupt. Recently the word "Bolshevik" has produced similar effects, and has been used by people who want to frighten the public and keep them away from a political line of action.

"By playing with old clichés, or by manipulating a new one, the propagandist can sometimes sway the emotions of a large mass of individuals [...].

“Men are rarely aware of the real reasons behind their actions. A man may believe that he is buying an automobile because, after carefully studying the technical characteristics of all similar models available on the market, he has concluded that it is the best. He certainly influenced himself to make his choice. In truth, he bought it, perhaps because one of his friends whose judgment he holds in high regard bought one last week, or because his neighbors thought he didn't have them. means to afford one of this category, or because its color is the same as that of its college fraternity [140].



[140] In the United States, a "fraternity of college" (fraternity, in English), is a kind of very closed club, similar to Freemasonry, but in which one enters during his student life, and where one is admitted at the end of tests or initiation rites (N. d. E.). 



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“It was essentially the psychologists of the school of Freud who drew attention to the fact that many of man's thoughts and actions are substitutes for compensation for the desires he has been taught to repress. He can desire a thing, not for its intrinsic value or its usefulness, but because, unconsciously, he sees in it the symbol of something else, the desire that he is ashamed to admit, even in secret for himself. . A man who buys an automobile may think that he wants it in order to be able to move around, whereas owning this machine will be a burden on him, and that he would prefer to walk to maintain his physical health. He actually wants her because it's a symbol of social standing, a proof of his business success, or a way to please his wife.

“The general principle that men's actions are very largely motivated by hiding from their own understandings is as true in mass psychologies as it is in that of individuals. It is obvious that the gifted propagandist has an obligation to understand the real motives, and not just accept the reasons for which they claim to act.

“It is not enough to understand only the mechanical structure of society, the formation of groups, divisions and loyalties. An engineer can know everything about the cylinders and pistons of a locomotive, but unless he also knows how steam behaves under pressure, he cannot move his machine forward. Human desires are the steam that keeps the social machine running. It is only by understanding them that the propagandist can control this immense machine with defective joints that is modern society.

“The old propagandist based his work on the mechanics of psychological reaction, then in vogue in our high schools. He assumed that the human mind was just an individual machine, a system of nerves and a nerve center, reacting with mechanical regularity to the stimulus, just like an automaton without a will of its own. It was the preacher's special function to produce the stimulus which would cause the expected reaction of the individual buyer [...].

“Imagine the old sales model used for a big meat producer looking to increase their sales of bacon. He would repeat in countless full-page advertisements: 



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"Eat more bacon. Eat more bacon because it's cheap, because it's good, because it gives you energy reserves."

“The new sales model, which includes the group structure of society and the principles of mass psychology, would first ask: 'Who influences the eating habits of the public?' The answer, of course, is: "Doctors." The new seller will then suggest that doctors say publicly that it is healthy to eat bacon. He knows, with mathematical certainty, that many people will follow the advice of their doctors, because he knows the existence of the psychological relationship of dependence of men on their doctors.

“The old school propagandist, using almost exclusively the appeal of the printed word, was trying to persuade the individual reader to buy a certain article, immediately. This approach finds its example in a type of advertising long considered ideal, from the points of view of simplicity and efficiency:

"You (perhaps with a finger pointed at the reader) buy O'Leary rubber soles - Now."

“The publicist sought, by means of repetition and emphasis directed at the individual, to break or penetrate resistance to the sale. Although this appeal targeted fifty million people, it targeted them each individually.

“The new sale has noticed that it is possible, by reaching out to mainstream men through their groups, to create psychological and emotional currents that will work better. Instead of rushing against the resistance to the sale by direct and frontal attack, it seeks to remove the resistance to the sale. It creates circumstances that will shake the emotional currents, so that the buyer becomes a demander.

“If, for example, I want to sell pianos, it is not enough to cover the whole country with such a direct appeal as:

"YOU, buy a Mozart piano NOW. It is not expensive. The best artists use it. It will last for years."

“These arguments may all be true, but they are in direct conflict with those of other piano manufacturers, and in indirect competition with the arguments of a radio manufacturer, or of automobiles, each competing for a prize that is the consumers money. 



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“What are the real reasons why the buyer intends to spend their money on a new automobile rather than a new piano? Is it because he has decided that he wants a service called locomotion, more than he wants the service called music? Not quite. He buys an automobile, because right now the custom of the group is to buy automobiles.

“The modern propagandist, therefore, will strive to create circumstances which will change this custom. He will appeal, perhaps, to the need to feel safe in a house, which is fundamental. He will hope to develop public acceptance of the idea of ​​a room specially dedicated to music at home. It can do this, for example, by organizing a fair-exhibition of music halls at home, furnished and decorated by renowned decorators who themselves exert an influence on the buying groups. He improves the efficiency and prestige of these music rooms by decorating them with rare and beautiful tapestries. Then, in order to generate great interest in the exhibition, he or she organizes an event or ceremony. And at this ceremony are invited key people, people known to influence the buying habits of the public, such as a famous violinist, a popular artist and a leader of society. These key people affect other groups, growing the idea of ​​the home music room in a place of public awareness that did not exist before. The juxtaposition of these leaders, and the idea to which they give great importance, are then projected to the widest possible audience using various advertising channels. Meanwhile, well-known architects were convinced to make the music room an integral architectural part of their plans, with, perhaps, a quite charming corner niche for the piano. Less influential architects, on the other hand, will feel compelled to imitate what the men they consider to be the masters of their profession do. They are the ones who will popularize the idea of ​​the home music room.

“The music room will be accepted because we have made it the thing, the object of the subject. And the man or woman who has a music room, or has arranged a corner of the living room to make it a music corner, will naturally think of buying a piano to fill it. It will come to mind as an original and personal idea. 



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At the time of the old sale, the maker would say to the potential buyer, "Please buy a piano." The new sale reversed the process, and prompted the potential buyer to say to the manufacturer, "Please sell me a piano."

“The value of the associative process in propaganda is demonstrated when it is used for a large real estate project. To convince how much Jackson Heights 141 was a socially enviable neighborhood, everything was done to bring out this associative process in people's minds. A charity performance of the Jitney Players 142 was organized for the benefit of the victims of the earthquake in Japan, under the auspices of Messrs Astor and a few others 143. The social benefits of the place were planned - a golf course and a sports and recreational activities pavilion. When the post office was opened, the public relations advisor had tried to arouse the interest of the whole country in this really insignificant event, by making its date coincide with that, anniversary, of a milestone in history. the American Postal Service; and it was on this same date that the inauguration of the whole project took place.

“When he was tempted to show the public the beauty of the apartments, a competition between interior designers was organized, and there was a prize for the best furnished accommodation in Jackson Heights, awarded by a jury made up of celebrities. . This competition attracted the interest of important personalities, and therefore millions of people who were informed by newspapers, magazines and other forms of advertising, which had the effect of definitively establishing the prestige of this district, and the interest of the population for its development [144]. "

What strikes us about Bernays' teaching is that he does not seem to make any distinction between state propaganda and advertising for private companies. But it is true that Bernay, if he is unanimously recognized as one of the greatest specialists in propaganda, along with Harold Lasswell, Walter Lippmann


[141] Jackson Heights is the name of a neighborhood in New York City, United States, which experienced significant development from 1916 to 1923, when construction was completed; it is this development that Bernays is talking about here.

[142] The Jitney Players are a famous traveling classical theater company in the United States. Their charitable performance in Jackson Heights, for the benefit of the victims of the September 1, 1923 earthquake in Tokyo, took place on the following September 15.

[143] The Astor family, well known in the United States, is an old and wealthy family of entrepreneurs.

[144] EDWARD BERNAYS, Propaganda, chap. IV. "The Psychology of public relations", 1928. 



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and Joseph Goebbels, is nonetheless American, and we know that in his country the public economy and the private economy are often closely linked, to the point that it is sometimes impossible for the simple observer to dissociate them . The interesting lesson to be learned from this latter lesson is that, really, propaganda, public relations, and publicity all benefit from the same observations in the general fields of psychology and sociology. Whether we seek to persuade the masses to adhere to political or religious doctrine, or to buy an automobile, the logical intellectual path, method, and even means will be so similar as to be interchangeable.

It is not absurd to conceive of the promotion of a personality, on the occasion of a political campaign, as one could conceive, according to the associative process method developed by Bernays, the promotion of a brand of razors. . In addition, one can confidently imagine that the masses will be much more passionate about a personality than about an ordinary object of everyday use. For there is a psychological phenomenon of identification of each ordinary individual of the mass with the leader he admires, in addition to the phenomenon of veneration.

Incidentally, now debating a detail mentioned by Bernays when he talks about the Jackson Heights real estate project: the idea of ​​making a theatrical performance for the benefit of the victims of an earthquake in a distant country a means of propaganda is striking. Striking, first of all because it stimulates, across borders and races, the feeling of gregariousness and mutual aid that Trotter describes in a scientific way, but above all because it is used in this context to the promotion of a real estate project. Until then, it was common in politics, of course, to stimulate these kinds of feelings. But Bernays explains here its use from the point of view of a scientist describing a theory, and integrating it into a wide variety of planned actions.

In Propaganda (1928), he cites other examples of the application of the associative process, some of which concern the means of changing the clothing habits of the masses, and which have been proven with success. The associative process method would therefore make it possible to associate a dress habit with the belief in a political doctrine. This idea is not new, but the enormous advantage of the associative process is that it would encourage individuals to request a certain style of clothing from the manufacturers, so that they can better identify with their fellows, in accordance with the phenomenon of herd explained by Trotter. 



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So far, this could only be done by requiring the wearing of a uniform (for schoolchildren and soldiers) - what Bernays would probably call regimentation, but certainly not good propaganda.

For example, orthodoxy could be largely stimulated within the mass, suggesting that they wear clothes of a certain color, similar to that imposed on the police or the military. In the minds of those who dressed in this way, a mechanism of identification would ensue, quickly leading to a change in their behavior. Simply because an individual would wear a jacket and trousers of the same color as those of the military or the police, he would naturally behave, to a certain degree, like a military or a policeman, whom he would feel "emotionally". Close, in accordance with Trotter's observations.

In this way, it is possible to obtain a general mobilization of the population and to suggest a common impetus, not physical against a foreign assailant, but psychological against the solitary individuals within the borders who refuse to join the herd. of the Orthodox. Due to the great diversity of human behavior, and the natural formation of groups stimulated by his quest for originality, it is inevitable that a greater or lesser percentage of individuals refuse to wear the same color. and the same dress style as those of a majority group in numbers. But this expected phenomenon would bring the benefit of a natural formation of social classes closely associated with orthodoxy, and a strengthening of their respective social structures. For example, an individual would be unwillingly unwilling to engage in conversation with another who is not wearing the same color or style of clothing as himself. During the French Revolution of 1789, the distinction of social classes was popularly indicated by the breeches (the “sans-culottes” were individuals of the lower class, pejoratively designated by the elite of the ancien regime; as well as clothing took on a strong political meaning).

Because, let us remember at this moment, the lack of orthodoxy of an individual makes him the internal enemy of a Nation whose social structure is stable. It is a common principle in politics to divide and lead. Divide et impera said Trajano Boccalini in La Bilancia politica (1678), taking up Julius Caesar, divide for better reign said Louis XIV and the Habsburgs, divide ut reigns said Napoleon 1 st. 



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Divisions among the masses must be created or encouraged in order to discourage alliances that could threaten the ruling elite, and to help those who seek to move closer to political power.

Following the Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks sometimes, and temporarily and alternately, allied with the Left Revolutionary Socialist partisans [145], with anarchists and a few ethnic Russian groups of nationalists against the white movement (Ee / ioe deuoKenue), against the Revolutionary Socialist Party (Ilapmux coijuajiucmoe-peeojitoijuoHepoe) and against some anarchists. This was done to better establish the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (or Bolshevik Party) as the sole ruling party of the Soviet Union. Other similar alliances were temporarily tied between various dissident factions, such as the Workers' Opposition (PaôôuaH onnosûuun), until Joseph Stalin's total victory in the mid-1920s.

If Bernays says that the masses are quick to reject propaganda when it is too overt, the German sociologist and economist Werner Sombart demonstrates that this is not necessarily true, by an example dating from 1934, and which is observed in Germany. But, on closer inspection, this is only a matter of historical and economic context, as the methods are roughly the same and are certainly based, too, on Le Bon's observations.

"Although, as we have been able to establish, the power and prestige of the state does not depend on the participation of many or even all of the inhabitants any more than does the flowering of the community depend on it. , statesmen and philosophers have, however, since Plato, been constantly concerned with the question of how to form and unify the state. And in our time, when we readily attribute to the state a democratic aspect or - if one fears this ominous term - a popular aspect, the question has been particularly discussed.

“For some time now, the incorporation of the individual into the state has been called 'integration', and efforts have been made to set up a whole system of integration measures.



[145] Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party (llapmim jieeux coifuajiucmoe- peeojiiotiuoHepoe).



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The means and methods used to awaken the consciousness of "we" are as follows:

"1 ° Meeting of the inhabitants with a view to making contact, an explanation, the proclamation and the defense of the goals pursued by the State: Victory celebrations, Remembrance celebrations with speeches and patriotic songs, processions historical, labor camps, children's parties, regional costume parties, and so on; during these assemblies, music plays the role of an important factor;

“2 ° Explanatory, encouraging, exciting propaganda, through speech, writing and image, addressed to people gathered for a political purpose; "manifestos" from the head of state or government; newspaper and magazine articles; portraits of the Head of State in all inhabited premises; plastic representations of the main aspects of public life in a still or animated form; patriotic plays; speeches by T.S.F .; cinematographic propaganda (the most used for some time); to all this is added the constant and lasting influence of civic education given from primary school to university;

“3 ° Concretization and exhibition of common symbols. A symbol of this kind is constituted by the head of state or the "guide", who shows himself personally or whose portraits are disseminated (think of the integral power that had, in the old Austro-monarchy. Hungarian, the known image of Franz Joseph in white uniform). This is the role of flags, orders and decorations, uniforms, toys, celebrations in honor of "great men", honors given to the dead in war and so on.

“As integrating factors, we can also cite the attributions of the State in the form of taxes, laws, elections, payment of annuities, unemployment relief, tributes to be paid by enslaved peoples, etc.

“If one asks whether and to what extent the various integration measures are achieving their goal, the answer to this question is difficult. Among a people like the German, of a solitary, non-political, heavy, critical nature, all attempts at psychic influence encounter an infinitely stronger resistance than among a fiery and credulous people like the Italian. On the other hand, the effect produced is perhaps more lasting, if the integration policy chooses its objectives well. What can be developed especially in our people is a nationalist and in any case patriotic mentality, a mentality which, as we have seen, is more in the domain of understanding. 



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We [Americans] are less enthusiastic. But one should always keep in mind that a true community cannot be created artificially. We cannot "do" it. All that is in our power is to be ready to accept it. If it is granted to us, it is by grace.

“In short, we can take comfort in saying that the integration process is not so important. That the State be powerful and flourishing, that the men lead an existence there worthy of the man and do not complain of their fate, all is there. In this case, nationalism and patriotism usually arise on their own. To achieve this goal, an order of the kind advocated by German socialism can undoubtedly play its part. How this order should organize the life of the State, the considerations set out in this part of my work must have shown. All that remains is to sketch the broad outlines of a reasonable order applied to the second of the major areas of life, the economy [146]. "



[146] WERNER SOMBART, Deutscher Sozialismus (German Socialism - A New Theory of Society), c. XV "The Community", art. or. "How the individual can be acquired to the State". 1934. 



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II. THE PRESS.
THE ROLE OF THE PRESS.

In the twentieth century, the press is the most powerful of all the forms that information can take. It is the press which prepares the masses for the elections; who is the first to tell him the name of the new leader and tell him his first speech; who is the first to announce the laws, decrees and taxes; who is the first to announce births and deaths, princely marriages, the entry of a new individual into the elite, disasters in distant lands, new inventions and discoveries, fashions and their ends , what is good and what is not, what she should think of a thing or an individual and should not think of it. The press has the power to transform the unknown and the incompetent into a popular and adored celebrity. The press, if it wishes, can even make exist, in the minds of all individuals in society, on the same day and everywhere, an idea, thing, individual or event that does not exist.

Bernays reminds us that “if we set out to compile a list of the men and women who, because of their position in public life, could undoubtedly qualify as public opinion makers, we would get the Who's who. It would, of course, include the President and members of his cabinet; senators and deputies; the governors; the presidents of the chambers of commerce of the main towns; the heads of the hundred or so larger companies; union secretaries; the secretaries of the main corporate associations and the great masters of fraternal organizations; the presidents of national ethnic and religious associations; editors of major newspapers and magazines; the presidents of the main charitable organizations; the top twenty theater and cinema producers; a hundred designers and fashion personalities; the most popular religious figures; the presidents of the most important schools, universities and faculties; the most powerful financiers, bankers and businessmen; the best sportsmen, and so on.

“Such a list would bring together several thousand people. But it is well known that most of these leaders themselves are sometimes led by people whose names very few know. 



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Bien des sénateurs et des députés ont fait carrière et se sont élevés en suivant les suggestions d'un chef local dont seule une petite minorité de gens, à l'extérieur de la machine politique, ont entendu parler. D'éloquentes personnalités religieuses peuvent bien avoir beaucoup d'influence sur leurs communautés ; elles tirent leurs doctrines d'une autorité ecclésiastique qui leur est supérieure. Les présidents des chambres de commerce dictent la pensée des entrepreneurs locaux à propos des affaires publiques, mais les opinions qu'ils émettent sont habituellement inspirées par une figure nationale. Le candidat à une élection présidentielle peut être "enrôlé" en réponse à "une demande populaire pressante", mais il est bien connu que son nom est choisi par une demi-douzaine d'hommes autour d'une table dans une chambre d'hôtel [147]. » Et nous pouvons ajouter que : toutes les catégories d'individus qu'il vient de citer forment l'élite ; que tous ses membres doivent se connaître entre eux et s 'entraider pour former une sorte de fraternité assez unie pour toujours se tenir prête à former un front commun contre la critique des classes moyenne et inférieure ; et aussi qu'une large majorité de ses membres n'a pu s'y élever que grâce à la presse. 

La presse a, collectivement, un immense pouvoir ; encore récemment, c'est elle qui a précipité (involontairement, nous le croyons), puis prolongé la grande crise économique qui a commencé en 1929. C'est pourquoi l'élite d'un pays doit en contrôler la presse aussi bien qu'elle contrôle le fonctionnement des ministères, et n'y laisser aucun étranger créer son journal, sa radio ou sa télévision. Ce que la masse, et quelques penseurs irrespon- sables ou immatures, appellent « la liberté de la presse » est une dangereuse utopie.

Avant la fin de ce siècle, il y aura un récepteur de télévision dans chaque foyer, et les journaux auront disparu. La presse aura alors définitivement étendu son pouvoir, car elle ne laissera plus aucune trace écrite du passé, plus aucune preuve de son existence. Ainsi, l'élite aura enfin acquis le pouvoir de faire disparaître ses erreurs, et de créer autant de triomphes qu'elle le veut; elle détiendra le pouvoir divin des dieux, et pourra se manifester devant la masse sous la seule forme immatérielle de son image, belle et réalisant d'incroyables prodiges. Sans avoir à se déplacer dans aucune église ni aucun temple, depuis son salon, sa chambre ou même son lieu de travail, chaque individu de la société pourra 

[147] EDWARD BERNAYS, Propaganda, chap. III. "The New Propagandists" (1928). 



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Many Senators and Members of Parliament have made their careers and raised themselves on the suggestions of a local leader that only a small minority of people outside the political machine have heard of. Eloquent religious figures may well have a great influence on their communities; they derive their doctrines from an ecclesiastical authority which is superior to them. Presidents of chambers of commerce dictate the thinking of local entrepreneurs about public affairs, but the opinions they express are usually inspired by a national figure. The presidential candidate may be "drafted" in response to "pressing popular demand," but his name is well known to be chosen by half a dozen men around a table in a hotel room [147]. And we can add that: all the categories of individuals he has just mentioned form the elite; that all its members must know each other and help each other to form a kind of brotherhood united enough to always be ready to form a common front against the criticism of the middle and lower classes; and also that a large majority of its members were able to rise there only thanks to the press.

The press collectively has immense power; until recently, it was they who precipitated (unintentionally, we believe) and then prolonged the great economic crisis which began in 1929. This is why the elite of a country must control its press as well as it controls the functioning of the ministries, and does not let any foreigner create its newspaper, its radio or its television there. What the masses, and some irresponsible or immature thinkers, call “freedom of the press” is a dangerous utopia.

Before the end of this century, there will be a television receiver in every household, and newspapers will be gone. The press will then have definitively extended its power, because it will no longer leave any written trace of the past, no longer any proof of its existence. Thus, the elite will have finally acquired the power to make their mistakes disappear, and to create as many triumphs as they want; it will hold the divine power of the gods, and will be able to manifest itself before the masses in the only immaterial form of its image, beautiful and performing incredible wonders. Without having to move to any church or temple, from their living room, bedroom or even their workplace, each individual in society will be able to

[147] EDWARD BERNAYS, Propaganda, chap. III. "The New Propagandists" (1928). 



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listen and see the elite speak directly to him; and so he will worship his members as his ancestors worshiped the gods. By controlling the present in this way, control of the memory of the past will also be possible, and therefore the future of Nations will no longer be left to chance. 

CONTROL OF THE PRESS.

It is easy for a state to control the press because: First, it has the immediate power to create laws regulating the establishment of newspapers, radio and television.

Secondly, today it has the power to ensure or prohibit the distribution of newspapers, to jam enemy radioelectric broadcasts, to authorize or prohibit the installation of electric cables in the streets.

If this state has chosen oligarchic collectivism, it also has its Central Party and the power to silence all dissent. Newspapers may well be owned by individuals claiming full freedom of expression, since these are members of the elite, and their journalists are members of the Central Party. The directors of all the printing houses are also members of the Central Party, and the distribution of printed matter to all shops, clubs, cafes and libraries is handled by one or two distribution services, one of which is the directors are members of the elite or of the Central Party. Finally, a corporatist press union - and a few trade unions at the start, since they must disappear - can oppose, as they wish and on the pretext of some humanist or metaphysical argument, to the distribution of any kind. what journal or book.

Thus, the elite no longer even need to officially use censorship, because it seems that it is the people themselves who rise up against the low morality of a writing and make it disappear. The Central Party has no difficulty in obtaining the necessary finances for the creation of a newspaper or a radio station, nor in obtaining the authorizations, nor in ensuring the dissemination of news throughout the country. No newspaper or radio contradict each other, and all peddle, at the same time, the same information decided or authorized by the elite. A central news agency, run by a member of the elite, and all of whose employees are supervised by members of the Central Party, provides all the press in the country, and inexpensively, with all the news from from home and abroad. 



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The plurality of political opinions and religious beliefs tolerated by the elite is ensured by as many channels of information or programs as necessary, and their orthodoxy by their directors, members of the elite, journalists, members of the Central Party, and proofreaders, members of a corporate union. This triple filtering makes it impossible to disseminate any words opposed to orthodoxy, and maintains social peace in the country as one finds it in a beehive, thanks to bees living in harmony in the service of the queen.

The names and addresses of buyers of printing materials are carefully noted by their manufacturers and importers, members of the Central Party; the same is true for paper purchased in bulk. The purchase, ownership and use of radio transmitters are subject to the prior obtaining of an authorization issued by the police, or by the Ministry of Information Finally, scientific progress, associated with an administrative provision, may allow -to be one day to know with exactitude the names and addresses of each owner of radio and television receiver, exactly as we know today those of each telephone, thanks to a simple number. Any government administration will then be able to address each individual personally at any time; this will also make it possible, for example and in the case of a known ideological deviance, to select for him information which will have to bring him back to orthodoxy. And, from there, it will even be possible to create specially designed educational and information programs, for example: for shoemakers, postal workers, mechanics, teachers and teachers, doctors, etc. 



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III. CULTURE.

LANGUAGE, DETERMINATIVE OF CULTURE.

Any act of sedition, any revolution, can only exist through the verb and its transmission from individual to individual. The authority of all the elites was first weakened by the word before being definitively destroyed. As Marx explains, "he who does not know history is doomed to relive it"; this was the common fault of almost all the elites who have disappeared and been forgotten.

Many regional dialects and peculiarities have disappeared in this century, and one of the first benefits of state-organized secular education and curriculum planning was the standardization of language. One could criticize, on the one hand, the conservative minds who defend cultural identities; on the other, the progressives who make themselves the partisans of a universal language which would allow all the peoples of the world to easily and perfectly understand each other. It is true that a language is an effective barrier against the external enemy, and that it reinforces, among the masses, the feelings of cultural identity and patriotism. One of the first things the victors do for the vanquished is to force them to learn their languages; just as the first act of the vanquished who are still organizing themselves in resistance movement is to resist this pressure by cultivating their native language.

Immediately after the Battle of Hastings which opposed the army of Harold Godwinson, Anglo-Saxon king of England, to Duke William of Normandy, in 1066, the victorious French hastened to impose the use of the French language in England. The new court and the new nobility of England spoke exclusively French (and Latin), because they knew only these two languages. But the English population, although passed under French domination, nevertheless resisted this cultural pressure, and it retained the dialects of its different regions, and Old English mainly - it was not until the end of the French occupation, and the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, so that the beginning of standardization of an English language could begin, that is to say from the 15th century, then the arrival of Shakespeare, from the beginning of the 16th century, so that the final standardization of a language common to all English begins. 



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The new elite of England, however, tried to denigrate the Anglo-Saxon language, by presenting it as that of "inferior people", as much as possible, but nothing worked, and so during more than two centuries. following. William of Normandy tried to learn the language of his new subjects, in vain; he had to have the new legal texts written in Latin and Anglo-Saxon (old English) exclusively. Due to the obstinacy of the new elite in expressing themselves in French, the Anglo-Saxon language, spoken by the old one, experienced a strong decline (around the 12th century), but never a complete disappearance.

Also, this elite promoted a new rich poetry in the French language as a means of conquest, this time cultural. The Song of Rolland, written around the middle of the 12th century by Turoldes of Saint-Peterborough, the Romance of Tristan and Iseult, actually written for the first time by the Anglo-Norman poets, and the legends of King Arthur and Merlin, are the best known examples today. But, again, it was a failure; by the end of the 13th century, French was everywhere in England considered a foreign language. The Anglo-Norman intellectual elite, however becoming more and more isolated, tried until the beginning of the 14th century to impose French in the clergy and in the universities, and imposed by decree, in 1325, that at Oxford , "All conversations had to be held in Latin or French 148". But in 1332, by an act of Parliament, and as a consequence of political changes, French was to be taught to children of the upper class, so that they could know the language of the enemy. It was the Hundred Years War, and the Black Death of 1349-1350 which led to a better consideration of the lower class and the language it used, which made the use of French permanently disappear in England. In 1349, English was again imposed in schools; in 1362, the Parliament finally prohibited the use of French in the courts of justice, on the grounds that it was "quite unknown [150]".

The English of this time owed an important part of its origins to Old German (Saxon), and none to French, nor even to Latin. 


[148] "All conversation be in Latin or in French". 

[149] "[. . .] French be taught the children of the upper-classes so that they might know the tongue of the enemy". 

[150] "French is much unknown". 



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The hopes of conquest of the French by culture and language started from good reasoning, but they had infinitely less chance of succeeding than if they had been of Germanic or Danish culture. In this other case, it would have been easy, following the conversion of the English people to the use of German, for example, to completely absorb it culturally, and thus to make it an extension of France. , definitely; and today England would undoubtedly be very different from what it is.

From this little history lesson, and a few similar ones, we know well the close relationship that exists between language, culture and political power, and we can define a method which, if it would not allow surely to conquer a foreign country by the weapon of culture, with the power to shape the feelings of the mass as one wishes. Furthermore, we know that it is the poets and thinkers who enrich the language of a people; but we also know that this enrichment very often carries the seeds of all kinds of demands directed against the elite. We also know that, reciprocally, the ruling elite does indeed base its power on the intellectual superiority it has over the mass of the ruled. This was explained at length in the first part, and allowed us to understand why the first of the rules of oligarchic collectivism says that ignorance is strength. [151]

TO DEPLETE THE LANGUAGE IS TO CONTROL THOUGHT.

The richness of a language conditions the expression of thought, and even the scope of reflection. If, to ensure his survival, Man must daily free himself from repetitions of actions (physical or intellectual and abstract, it does not matter), and the extent of his vocabulary is limited to what is strictly necessary for his survival , then he will never be able to revolt against the elite and triumph even less, and he will not even have the capacity to understand the arguments of an agitator. Impoverishment, and also the “standardization” of the vocabulary of the lower and middle classes, are further guarantees of orthodoxy, and effective means of nipping internal revolutions in the bud. All popular revolutions,



[151] Of course, the syntax of this rule, like that of others, is made deliberately elliptical and devoid of its arguments, so that only members of the ruling elite can fully understand its full meaning. The masses must be invited to understand that their ignorance preserves them from all the difficulties of modern life, taken over for them by the State, and from all the parasitic thoughts that would otherwise slow down the impetus of their collective strength. in all things. 



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since the arrival of the thinkers Hegel and Herder, have drawn their energies and found their myths in highly metaphysical abstractions which cannot be expressed with the help of a vocabulary adapted to the only basic needs of survival and ordinary social interaction. One of the most remarkable examples of this fact provided by history is that of Germany. Until the arrival of Hegel, and especially Goethe, during the period between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, the German language was so poor that the Prussian elite used French at court - similarly in Russia. Frederick II of Prussia wrote his many writings in French, and he wrote in German only when addressing his army and drafting principles of military strategy. In War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy has one of the characters say that "even being born in Russia, he thinks in French", because for him French represented not only the way of speaking, but also that of thinking. Germany, like Russia, could not begin to elaborate abstractions and to debate philosophies in their languages ​​until late, thanks to some of their poets. In Germany as in Russia, the overthrow of the old elite could only be possible thanks to the doctrines, written with a high degree of abstraction, by Hitler, Marx and Lenin.

If, in a country where one wishes fully and durably to establish an oligarchic collectivist governance system, the masses express themselves in a rich language, then they must be impoverished.

Recently, Charles Kay Ogden has reformulated the principles of construction and articulation of language, in order to make it common to all the degrees of intelligence of a people, and to rid it of all the words which mislead thought towards a higher level. level of abstraction. “All over the western world, it is recognized that people meet frequently, and that it is not just fun to talk; because what is called the most elementary of courtesies prompts one to say something, even when it is difficult to find anything to say to each other. "All civilized men," says the late Professor Mahaffy, whose Principles of the Art of Conversation 152 prompt this reflection, "feel, or should feel, this need as a duty; it is the universal work to which we all have to ".

[152] SIR JOHN PENTLAND MAHAFFY, The Principles of the Art of Conversation, 1888.



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Those who do not comply are punished by lack of love or neglect of society.

“There is undoubtedly an art of saying something when there is nothing to say, but it is also certain that there is an art, no less important, of clearly saying what one wishes. say when there is too much of an abundance of means to do it. And conversation seldom reaches the level of an intellectual pastime, if there is no adequate method of interpretation to do so.

“Symbolism is the study of the influence of language and symbols of all kinds in the relations between men, and, in particular, of their influence on thought. It prompts us to be interested in how symbols help or prevent us from thinking about anything.

“Symbols direct and organize, register and communicate. Saying that they direct and organize, record and communicate, we must distinguish, as always, between thoughts and things 15 ^. It is thought (or, as we will ordinarily say, reference) that is directed and organized, and it is also thought that is recorded and communicated. But, just as we say the gardener mows the lawn, when we know that it is the mower that actually performs this task, although we know that the direct relation of symbols is accomplished with thought, we also say that symbols record (group and associate) events, and communicate facts.

“By excluding essential elements when expressing ourselves through language, we easily bring up problems and difficulties. And these problems and difficulties disappear as soon as the expression is examined more carefully. Words, as we now know, do not "mean" anything in and of themselves, although the belief that they do have meaning was universally accepted. [154] "



[153] The word "thing" is inappropriate for the analysis undertaken here, because in popular usage its meaning is restricted to material substances - a fact which has led philosophers to favor the use of the word "entity. "Or" object "to designate anything in a general way. It seemed desirable, therefore, to introduce a technical term to denote anything that we could think of or that we could refer to. Although the meaning that philosophers give to the word "object" is that of its origins, it has known an unfortunate history which today creates confusion. The word "refer", therefore, has been adopted in its place, although its etymology is questionable, when related to other derivatives such as "agent" or "reactant". But, even in Latin, the present participle (vehens in equo) occasionally admits variations according to usage, and, in English, an analogy with nouns, such as "reactive", "measure", and "incident" can be imposed. . This is why “refer”, in what follows, must be considered as an equivalent of “thing”, and not of an active person, and must not give rise to any confusion (N. D. A., C. K. Ogden). 



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Ogden explains that recognizing the meaning of words depends on the sounds they make when speaking them, and that without this translation into distinct sounds from one another, words cannot be recognized as such. And he adds at this moment that this distinction is unconscious when we use a language learned during our childhood, since no effort of conscious reflection is necessary to choose the words. On the contrary, the use of a foreign language learned after the native language, thanks to a comparison with the latter's words, requires an effort of conscious reflection. One of the main characteristics that differentiates poetry from strictly scientific jargon is that poetry forces us to consciously dwell on the sensual (and sometimes metaphorical) character of each word, whereas scientific jargon is precisely designed to exclude this possibility.

Then, the interpretation of the meaning of words depends on the psychological context in which they are expressed. To recognize them as sounds with a distinctive character, we need a context that brings the word together, and others are more or less similar. And to recognize a word as such, it must form a context associated with experiences other than sounds.

“It is only when a thinker makes use of words that they can mean anything; they then become instruments. But in parallel with this referential use which, in order to accomplish any reflection, must make language an intellectual and conscious activity, words have other functions which, grouped together in a single category, serve to communicate emotions. These can only be properly examined when the context of the problem of strict statement and intellectual interpretation has been circumscribed. The importance of the emotional aspects of language is not downplayed, however, and anyone with a particular interest in primitive and popular languages ​​may well need to reverse the order of this approach. Many difficulties, really, arising from the behavior of words during conversation, even between scientists, oblige us, from the beginning of our analyzes, to take into account its "non-symbolic" influences.


[154] C. K. OGDEN, The Meaning of Meanings, chap. I. "Thoughts, Words and Things", 1923.

[155] Experiences here covers sensations, images, feelings, etc., and perhaps the unconscious changes in our state of mind, explained in the article Sociological Assessment in Chapter II. (Stage of evolution of society) of Part One. 



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But for the analysis of the meaning of the "meanings" which concern us in the first place, it is better to start with the relations between thoughts, words and things, as we can find them in the cases of thoughtful discourse devoid of emotion, diplomacy and other parasitic elements. And, to carry it out, the distant relation between words and things is the characteristic which must attract our attention the most.

“This can be simply illustrated by a diagram (below), in which the three factors that are found in all statements that one can make, or understand, are placed at the corners of the triangle; the relationships between them will appear on the sides. This last fact can be formulated in another way, pointing out that the base of the triangle provides information very different from that of the other two sides.

“There are causal relationships between a thought and a symbol. When we speak, the symbolism we use is caused, on the one hand, by the reference we make, and, on the other hand, by social and psychological factors - the purpose for which we are referring, the proposed effect of our symbols on other people, and our own attitude. When we hear what is said, together, the symbols force us to perform an act of reference and to adopt an attitude which will be, depending on the circumstances, more or less similar to the act and attitude of the speaker.

“There is also a relation between the thought and the referent; more or less direct (as when we think of a colored surface presented to us), or indirect (as when we think, or refer to, Napoleon), in which latter case there may be a long chain of "signs-situations" which intervene between the act and its referent: word, historian, contemporary story, visual witness story, the person himself (Napoleon).

“There is no relevant relation to be established between the symbol and the referent other than the one which is indirect, which consists in its use by the one who would like to make a referent. 



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THOUGHT OR REFERENCE
symbol means refer
(an attributed relation)

*TRUE



* The real symbol is distinguished from the real reference as follows. A true symbol = one that correctly registers an adequate reference 156. The true symbol is usually a set of words in the form of a clause or a sentence. It correctly contains (recorded) an adequate reference when it will cause a similar reference to appear in an appropriate interpretation. It is false when it contains (recorded) an inadequate reference. For example, if we say, "Charles I, died in his bed making witty remarks," our symbol is more likely incorrect than our reference is false, as there is no clear suggestion that the referent is death, of Charles I, in his bed. But, in many cases, such a bold exegesis is gratuitous, and it is then more difficult to decide whether it is the symbol which is incorrect, or the reference which is false. In the opposite case, when we say, “The sun is trying to disappear,” or “The mountain is rising,” we can clearly make references no more different than if we had to make a scientific description of the situation; but we can mean that these assertions are to be taken "literally". By saying that we consider an assertion "literally", we mean that we should interpret our symbols as primary symbols, that is, as names used with a reference set by a given discourse context. When, for some reason, such as poverty of language, we do not see any symbol, we can arbitrarily choose one whose referent is analogous to our own, and effect the transfer of that symbol. Then, if the one addressing us fails to see that such symbols are metaphorical, or only approximate, and considers them literally, then the false arises - in other words, the correct symbolization of a false reference by which the interpreter could well be wrong. On the other hand, if the speaker makes a true reference, but uses symbols that a person who correctly interprets them is making false references, then the symbol is incorrect.

[156] It is useful in English to be able to enjoy a term such as "adequacy", by which we can distinguish the meaning according to which a symbol can be true, from which a reference is true. In sentences such as "What he said is incorrect", the ambiguity is evident; we don't know if it was the symbol or the reference that was wrong. In more subtle cases, where the word "proposition" is innocently introduced, confusion often ensues which, in the absence of this distinction, are difficult to elucidate. The term "adequacy" has the advantage of suggesting the difficult question: in what sense the reference is able to define a degree, if it is able (N. D. A., C. K. Ogden). 



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"That is, the symbols and referents of our diagram are not directly connected (and when, for grammatical reasons, we are forced to establish such a relation, it will only be imputed, as opposed to 'a real relation'), but, only indirectly, will establish a relation between them passing through both sides of the triangle. It may seem superfluous to insist that there can be no direct connection between, let's say, the word "dog" and some common objects that we may see in our streets, and that the only connection that could be made is that which consists in our use of this word when we refer to this animal. However, we will notice that the kind of simplification typical of this theory (which was once universal) of direct meaning relations between words and things is the source of almost all the difficulties that the experience of thought encounters [157]."

Ogden's theory is not necessarily easy to understand in its formulation, but the idea that he drew from it was not less lacking in clarity than in interest. A few years after the publication of The Meaning of Meanings, in 1932, he developed “Basic English 15 *” and offered his general education.

Basic English “is a language made up of 850 words that allows us to express, clearly and simply, almost everything we can say using a classic vocabulary of 15,000 to 15,000 words. Knowing that no other language can be so reduced while retaining its character, as English is now the natural or official language of more than 500 million people, it was primarily designed as a general medium of international communication. Its vocabulary can also be used in association with international nomenclatures of sciences, as with other terminologies. Its structure challenges grammarians to reconsider their categories from the point of view of Universal Grammar, which mainly focuses on a new approach to the functions of the Indo-European verb, and above all on a new application of the theory of linguistic functions.

“Seen from this angle, Basic seeks less to change the way we express ourselves than to encourage a different attitude to the meaning of what we say. It offers foreigners a means of communication which will not present any difference compared to standard English; it offers those whose English is


[157] Ibid. 



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native language an educational tool, with which contexts and connections can be analyzed in the interest of a full appreciation of the resources of language as a whole. In other words, all the improvements in grammatical uses that it may reveal will be indirect; but, from the point of view of a grammar perceived as a science, he has certain suggestions to make which involve profound upheavals [159]. " 

Ogden wrote a dictionary of 850 elementary words which are also roots of his vocabulary: around 500 nouns, 150 adjectives and 82 verbs. They can each be extended by the use of a list of suffixes. He explains that the knowledge of these 850 words is essential for the practice of Basic, to which must be added 150 words necessary for the exercise of a specific profession, of which 50 must be extracted from a specialized sub-category of the chosen profession. This gives us a vocabulary of exactly 1000 words to converse, read the newspaper, carry out routine administrative exchanges, and work. But it also recommends learning 200 other words of foreign origin necessary to fully understand news from the rest of the world. He estimates that there are 1000 words covering all possible professional activities, separated into generic categories such as business, industry and science.

Prefixes and suffixes allow, of course, to specify antonyms, genres, plurals, etc.

So:

Adding an "s" at the end of a word in Basic indicates the plural, as in French (eg cats [cats] is the plural of cat [chat]) Adding an "er "est" is "at the end of an adjective allows you to change its intensity (eg. 'faster' [faster than] is faster than fast, and 'fastest' [the fastest] is the fastest of all) .

Adding a "ly" at the end of a word creates an adverb (eg: 'friend' becomes friendly [amicalement]). Adding a "un" to the start of a word creates an antonym (eg: friendly becomes unfriendly).


[159] C. K. OGDEN, Basic English: a General Introduction with Rules and Grammar, "Introduction", 1932. 



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About sixty verbs of classical English which are kept in Basic can only be used as nouns (attack, awakening, base, control ...). It follows, for example, that one does not say “I will make a control”, but “I will control”.

A few other thinkers, inspired by Ogden's approach, pointed out that it was possible to replace many names with initials (e.g. CM for major, EP for elementary school) and to put parts of several words together. to make them into single words and contractions, as is already done in the Soviet Union (e.g. in the Soviet Union, political bureau (IloJiHTHHecKoe ôiopo) becomes Politburo (IJojiumôfopo), and communist youth of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (KoMMyHHCTHHecKHH cok) 3 moho ^ okh) becomes Komsomol (Komcomôji); in general and among other examples in other countries, Ministry of Information could become Mininfo, and Chamber of Deputies Chamdép.

To serve the more specific purpose of orthodoxy, and of a humanist and metaphysical doctrine allowing the maintenance of the oligarchic collectivist social structure, the words which designate things, ideas or individuals can be replaced by others having more or less force; it is according to the feeling that one wants to suggest. For example, deviate to "lack orthodoxy", stink or sabotage to "utter an ideology contrary to orthodoxy", enter a state of grace to "access the elite" and fall from grace to "be banished" , annoyance for anger, accommodating for luxurious, auditory for “blind” and looking for “deaf”, understanding for “observing orthodoxy”, enlightening for “spying”, disinterested or altruistic for “getting involved with faith and free of charge in the service of the dominant ideology or government authorities ”, etc.

In summary, and from a general point of view, the advantages other than those mentioned by Ogden, as well as those of conversions of certain words to initials and of contractions are: 1) a general improvement in the application of orthodoxy in the middle and lower classes; 2) a dissociation of the actions and the parasitic feelings which usually accompany them; 3) simplification and considerable savings in time, effort and learning for administrative staff who use a typewriter on a daily basis. 



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THE CONTROL OF CULTURE AND EDUCATION.

Who makes politics, makes History; who makes history, makes culture. The culture of a modern country can be metaphorically compared to a work carved out by political and economic events, which are, to a large extent, but not necessarily, the work of the ruling elite - they are the successions of political facts and economic factors that build history.

However, when the ruling elite do not control political and economic events, they still have the power to present them to the masses as they see fit, by co-opting for this a body of clerks and historiographers selected from criteria of competence and orthodoxy. The facts of politics are usually recorded in writing, and these writings are piously preserved, then archived by date in large warehouses. As a majority of these writings are secret, the warehouses where they are kept are well guarded by employees of the administration, whose elite have previously ensured their loyalty. Then, a small committee of archival experts is tasked by the ruling elite to offer limited access to these archives to the body of historiographers, so that they can build and tell the story of the country to the masses. It is thanks to the orthodoxy and to the historical and literary knowledge of these historiographers that the history of the country will be written in terms as flattering as possible, and that the realities of political power, on the contrary, will be presented in simplified terms. or ignored. And it is according to the essays, biographies, monographs and other chronologies that these historiographers presented to the masses as the best historians of their time will write, that the textbooks will be written in turn.

There is therefore a need to preserve the writings of the whole governmental machine, and to publish a more or less large part. Otherwise, the mass would gradually lose the sense of its identity, its individuals would become emotionally detached from the herd, and it would no longer be possible to control their thoughts and actions.

When the committee of expert archivists judges that political and diplomatic secrets have become old enough to no longer be secret, and that they no longer risk offending an allied country or the people, they make them available to historiographers. Immediately, historiographers present them as shattering realities - which no one can doubt, since the elite admits them half-heartedly, and regularly devotes their editors.



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At the same time, the press fills its pages with a few well-chosen extracts, and praises their authors, which stimulates the natural curiosity of the minds of the men who constitute the mass. This is how history is made, that it maintains, incidentally, historiographers and their popularities, and that, from there, everything that the latter can say will be considered as evangelical truth until well after 'they are no more.

History is full of myths and it is the source of popular beliefs. The Bible, the Torah, the Koran and Homer's poems and chronicles are the oldest books of history that we know of, hence their great value for the most part. This does not mean that they only tell fabrics of lies, but that they embellish in some cases unflattering realities, and that they bring back in others popular beliefs of yesteryear about which we would otherwise know nothing.

Geoffrey Chaucer can be considered today both as the founder of the English language and as one of the earliest objective chroniclers of society in his day - especially with The Canterbury Tales, written in the late 14th century. th century -, and he exercised the activity of diplomatic messenger.

The English, because of their intense maritime and commercial activities, were among the first to regularly publish works devoted to the changes of borders in the world, to international treaties and to international negotiations. Lewis Hertslet, bookseller in the British Foreign Office between 1810 and 1857, then his son and his successors took care of it with great regularity. It was around this same time that the Foreign Office, and a few other British Crown Departments, became actively involved in the editing and publication of essays, with the aim, not only of informing the masses, but also to convince her. This undertaking was, in many respects, a diplomatic response to the emergence of public opinion, that is to say of the growing political importance of all those opinions which were not necessarily those of the government, is which were communicated by the press, the local assemblies, the universities and the salons of an intellectual and political elite Western Eurasian then in full expansion and become very mobile. The effects of these opinions varied between countries and the origins of political and social institutions. 



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Even in the very autocratic Russia of the Tsar at that time, ministers had to take into account the words of a foreign elite knowing the Slavic world and speaking Russian, when maintaining relations with the Austrian and Ottoman empires. There was, during the reign of Napoleon III, an attempt to publish a selection by the Quai d'Orsay, but, for fear of revealing information that Germany might find valuable, it failed. Conversely in Germany: the Reichstag forced Bismarck to give up the publication of the first volume of the White Papers. In 1861, the United States State Department launched an annual series of diplomatic publications which in turn had a long following, the Foreign Relations of the United States. A little later, the French government undertook the publication of its Yellow Books which, like the blues of the English, discussed the negotiations and their developments.

The documents thus published by the foreign ministries were sometimes incomplete, and even falsified. From there it happened that diplomatic cables were deliberately written in terms that naturally intended them for publication. Those who did so intended to influence parliamentarians and public opinion; that is why they also made selections of articles and documents to serve a propaganda purpose. Foreign ministers and ambassadors also did so, in order to justify the conduct of their missions, and to create arguments against, or in favor of, rivals and allies. During the end of the last century, most governments engaged in the publication of volumes of diplomatic documents, the vocation of which was less to instruct and educate the masses than to disseminate misleading information or to defend points. of view. These undertakings were also motivated by the emergence of new systems of government which replaced monarchies and empires everywhere, and they were carried out by diplomats working closely with intellectuals who we can consider to be the ancestors of our current "orthodox historians". .

The historians of this period whose patriotism was most zealous are to be found among the Germans. In the words of the French historian Gabriel Monod, 19th-century Germany was nothing more than a "vast laboratory of history," [160] and the writing of history became a tool for making a sense of cultural identity and patriotism.


[160] GABRIEL MONOD, On the Progress of Historical Studies in France since the XVf 



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German historians have been particularly concerned with exacerbating the political virtues of Prussia; the best example is Heinrich von Sybel, who was the founder of the Historische Zeitschrift [161], and the director of the Geheimes Staatsarchiv PreuBischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian State Secret Archives). Under his auspices, and with funding from the Prussian Landtag (State Diet), von Sybel launched, in 1878, what was to become the monumental collection of the Publikationen aus den kôniglich-preufiischen Staatsarchiven (Publications of the Royal State Archives Prussian), arrested in 1913. These covered both domestic and foreign policy issues. Von Sybel even made himself quite clear in his intention, when he wrote in the preface to the first issue of the Publikationen: “A people who do not know where they come from do not know where they are going either. Its political education can only be done in the right way if it is consistent with a full awareness of its historical development, and this is not imaginable as long as the original documents remain inaccessible ”.

Von Sybel's words touched the then French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was already considering the possibility of publishing its own diplomatic archives. [162] French historians were of course very interested in the events of 1870-1871. They believed then that the French defeat against the Prussians was partly due to the poor quality of teaching in the schools of the country. Émile Boutmy, the director of the newly created Free School of Political Sciences, declared in 1873 that the French public had been too easily distracted during the summer of 1870 by a nationalist and frivolous press [163]. French historians therefore had to make it their duty to instill in citizens a minimum of knowledge concerning international affairs, so that such calamities would not recur in the future. Bonapartism had definitely disillusioned France at that time. A New Rising Generation of Republican and Century Intellectuals, "Historical Review", 1876.

[161] Historical review, the first number of which was published in 1859.

[162] Minutes of the Diplomatic Archives Commission, April 6, 1880.

[163] This declaration should also include the political opinions of its author, a member of the Cercle Saint-Simon, and party on a crusade against a press that was still predominantly liberal at that time. 



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Socialists believed that France should emotionally separate itself from its immediate past, if it wanted to regain its power. The diplomat, historian and then future Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gabriel Hanotaux [164], proclaimed that a new era called for a new History [of France] [165]. But rewriting history was something that could not be done without new documents, or, anyway, without freer access to those of the old one. It was largely thanks to this intervention by Hanotaux that, in 1874, a Diplomatic Archives Commission was created at the Quai d'Orsay. It was the Minister of Foreign Affairs himself who founded the Commission on Diplomatic Archives, Élie Decazes. He asked his members to recommend for publication documents which would allow his readers to acquire a real and healthy diplomatic education, because he wanted to offer to the French diplomatic envoys the means and procedures of the past policy which had given France its greatness. .

Composed of archivists, booksellers, distinguished historians and active diplomats, all inspired by the Prussian enterprise, the Commission decided in 1880 to launch the editing and publication of the instructions given to French envoys during the period 1648- 1789 (ie between the end of the Thirty Years' War and the drafting of the Treaty of Westphalia, and the first French Revolution) [166]. The writing of the following collections gave rise to much discussion, for, although the periods of which they spoke were sometimes quite old, some of their events were always delicate to deal with, or called into question the ideological meaning that the elites had given them until now. there, and which, in some cases, could even call into question the myths on which had been founded the current Constitution.

The geographer and historian Bertrand Auerbach, who edited a tome reporting the instructions given to representatives to the Imperial Prussian Diet in Regensburg, was also greatly embarrassed when he commented on his diplomatic documents, suggesting that German nationalism should be was developed in reaction to the persistent French interference in the internal affairs of Prussia.



[164] Died on April 11 last.

[165] Gabriel Hanotaux, Mon Temps, vol. II, 1938.

[166] The title of this first volume was, Collection of Instructions given to Ambassadors and Ministers of France from the Treaties of Westphalia to the French Revolution, edited by the historian Albert Sorel, who thus became one of the founders of the Diplomatic History of France (NDE). 



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This was obviously not what French diplomats wanted published and read by all, when this volume was submitted for examination by the Commission in 1911. Auerbach's comments were modified, and some documents deleted before its publication. .

Those who had to write and publish the voluminous series, much more recent and especially more important, The Diplomatic Origins of the War of 1870-1871, experienced much less setback, however, which is not without being surprising. The purpose of publishing this collection was, for the most part, to reveal to the masses the recent history of their country, and to draw their attention to the weaknesses of Bonapartism, and of liberalism in general. By contrast, the way the texts were drafted was also favorable to rising socialism. Their publication was launched in 1907, just after the formation of the government of President George Clémenceau, and they stimulated, to some extent, the new triumph of the Radical Party, founded in 1901 by various socialist collectives such as the Ligue des Droits de L'Homme, the Grand Orient de France and the French League of Education. During the electoral campaign which had brought Clémenceau to power, the ex-Minister of Justice and Worship under the reign of Napoleon III, Émile Ollivier, had tried to use his no less voluminous memoirs [167] as a means of propaganda for rehabilitate Bonapartism.

From this last event, the historians who took part in the meetings of the Commission readily believed - not without a few good reasons - that their publication work had altered the course of history. They attributed the revival of French nationalism, which helped Raymond Poincaré, himself a member of the Commission, to be elected President of the Republic in 1913. Immediately after the 1914-18 War, Hanotaux voted for his colleagues in the Commission for giving the French people the spirit of continuity favorable to the best interests of the country, and for making them aware of the opportunities that awaited them. A deep knowledge of history had, it seemed, helped France regain its superiority over Germany.

During the war there was a general craze for publishing diplomatic archives to teach the masses their stories. The elites of the various countries naturally needed the support of their masses to engage with confidence in the World War,


167 EMILE OLIVIER, L 'Empire libéral, published in 17 volumes, 1895. 



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as is the rule in politics, and each also had to do everything to demonstrate that she had taken no part in its conflagration. The Russians published their Orange Book [168], the Germans their White Book [169], the Austro-Hungarians their Red Book [170], the French their Yellow Book [171], the English their Blue Book [172], the Belgians their Gray Book [173], and the Serbs their Blue Book [174].



[168] July 10, 1914.

[169] August 27, 1914.

[170] July 2, 1914.

[171] March 17, 1913.

[172] August 4, 1914.

[173] July 24, 1914.

[174] June 16, 1914.



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IV. HOBBIES.

THE ROLE OF LEISURE.

It was the elite of the Roman Empire who were the first to understand the value of entertaining the masses. In each conquered territory, the Romans established a capital, in which they hastened to build a circus in which games were to take place, or an amphitheater in which plays and comedies were performed. We can now roughly estimate that the Roman Empire, when it was at the height of its history, around the year 117 AD, must have represented the enormous population of 160 million people, only twenty million less than the population of the entire Soviet Union, and twenty million more than that of the United States. No elite, neither before this time, nor after until the beginning of our present century, in the era of the great British and French colonies, had the task of maintaining the social structure of such a large number of individuals. One may wonder how such a thing was made possible, when we consider that the Romans had neither telegraph, nor railroads, nor newspapers, nor anything in general which could have allowed the speed necessary for the transmission of the instructions of the power of central Rome.

But we know that the Roman elite of that time had solved this insurmountable problem of the shortening of time, by building in each of its conquered territories small replicas of Rome. These territories became administrative provinces, each placed under the authority of a governor appointed by the emperor. The conquered peoples were not placed in a state of serfdom; they were assimilated into the mass of a vast single people whose language, way of life, customs and religious beliefs they learned. In each urban administrative center administering each province, the Romans erected enormous edifices, statues and urban decorative elements, in order to strike the imaginations of the conquered peoples, such as those of sailors and commercial and diplomatic envoys. Whoever saw them was immediately impressed, and must deduce that only a superior race of individuals could have built them; a race against which any hope of conquest was necessarily madness. It is easy to understand that his imagination, thus overwhelmed, must have further magnified the descriptions he made of it to his leaders on his return. 



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To further seduce the conquered peoples, most of whom had previously been led by barbarian warlords, and had seen their lives regulated by obscure customs and beliefs, the Romans had built these large amphitheatres, whose architecture and the subject was inspired by the racetracks of the ancient Greeks.

In short, we were dealing with a rather welcome invader, who rewarded the vanquished instead of harshly punishing them, who brought them the comforts of modern civilization and laws that better correspond to logic, trades hitherto unknown which allowed everyone to make a living from their work, networks of paved land roads, canals and sea lanes fostering trade and cultural exchanges, and even surprising distractions that made you forget all the ordinary misfortunes of existence , and dispelled any argument for a revolt.

In the environs of Rome at that time, as in its distant provinces, “the admirable aqueducts, so justly celebrated by Augustus, filled the thermae, or baths built in all the quarters of the city with imperial magnificence. The baths of Caracalla, which were open at fixed times for the services of the senators and the people, indiscriminately, contained more than sixteen hundred marble seats, and there were more than three thousand in the baths of Diocle. yours 175. The high walls of the apartments were covered with mosaics which imitated painting by the elegance of the design and by the variety of colors. One saw there the granite of Egypt artistically encrusted with the precious green marble of Numidia. Hot water flowed uninterruptedly in vast basins through large massive silver mouths; and the most obscure of Romans could, for a small piece of copper, obtain every day the enjoyment of a sumptuous luxury capable of arousing the envy of an Asiatic monarch. From these superb palaces we saw a crowd of dirty and ragged plebeians, without coats or sandals, who went about all day in


[175] Olympiodore, apud Phot., P. 197.

[176] Seneca (epist. 56) compares the baths of Scipio the African in his country house at Liternum, with the ever-increasing magnificence of the public baths in Rome, long before the establishment of the superb baths of Caracalla and Diocletian. The quadrant that was paid to enter was the fourth part of the ace, roughly the eighth of the English penny. 



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the streets and in the Forum to learn news or to quarrel, who lost in an extravagant game that which should have supported their family, and spent the night in taverns or in infamous places, given over to the excesses of the grossest debauchery [177].

“But the liveliest and brightest amusements of this idle multitude were the circus games and the shows. The piety of the Christian princes had suppressed gladiatorial combats; but the inhabitants of Rome still regarded the Circus as their abode, as their temple, and as the seat of the republic. The impatient crowd would run before daybreak to occupy the places; and some spent the night uneasily under the porticos in the neighborhood. From dawn until nightfall, the spectators, sometimes three or four thousand in number, indifferent to the rain or the heat of the sun, remained with their eyes fixed with eager attention on the tanks and on their leaders, and the soul alternately agitated with fear and hope for the success of the color to which they had become attached. To see them, one would have thought that the event of a race was to decide the fate of the republic 178. They were no less impetuous in their clamor and in their applause, whether they were given the pleasure of a hunt of wild animals, or of some play. In modern capitals, theatrical performances can be regarded as the school of good taste and sometimes of virtue; but the tragic and comic muse of the Romans, who aspired only to imitate the genius of Attica [179], had been almost condemned to silence since the fall of the Republic;



[177] Ammien (I. xiv, c. 6; and I. xxviii, c. 4), after having described the luxury and pride of the Roman nobles, declaims with the same indignation against the vices and extravagance of the people .

[178] Juvenal, Satire XI; 191, etc. The expressions of the historian Ammien are neither less powerful nor less animated than those of the satirical poet; and both painted from nature. The number of spectators that the Circus could contain is taken from the Town's Notifiai. The differences that we meet there prove that they were not copied; and this number seems incredible even when one considers that, on these occasions, all the inhabitants of the country flocked to the capital in droves.

[179] In fact, they sometimes composed original pieces.

Vestigia grœca

Also despere et celebrare domestica facta.

Horace, epist. Ad Pison., 285; and the learned and obscure note of Ironside, which could have given the name of tragedies to the Brutus and to the Decius of Paeuvius, or to the Cato of Maternus. The Octavia attributed to one of the Senecs still exists, and does not give a great opinion of Roman tragedy. 



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and the stage was then occupied by indecent farces, effeminate music, or by the spectacle of vain pomp. The pantomimes 181, which sustained their reputation from the time of Augustus until the sixth century, expressed, without speaking, the various fables of the gods of antiquity; and the perfection of their art, which sometimes disarmed the severity of the philosopher, always arousing the applause of the multitude. The vast and magnificent theaters of Rome still had three thousand dancers and as many singers to their credit, with the masters of the different choirs. Such was the favor which they enjoyed, that, in a time of scarcity, the merit of entertaining the people made them except from a law which banished all foreigners from the capital, and which was so strictly executed, that the masters of the liberal arts [182] [183] ​​could not obtain exemption from it. "

The Romans were the first to understand the usefulness of leisure in preserving the social structure. They precisely defined its contexts and themes, and they elevated their mastery to its highest degree. The era of barbarism, ignorance and obscurantism which followed for several centuries the fall of the Roman Empire, quickly erased this knowledge, like all the great political, social, economic, architectural, scientific and cultural advances of this civilization. Western Eurasia was not able to attain such a high level of evolution again until the Renaissance period - and placing this rather around the 17th century would perhaps be even more correct. Already in the sixteenth century, however, Étienne de la Boétie correctly noted a fact that we must take as sound advice, although his still immature mind revolted: "It is certain that with freedom one immediately loses control. bravery. Submissive people have neither ardor nor pugnacity to fight. They go there as if tied up and numb, painfully fulfilling an obligation. They do not feel the ardor of freedom boiling in their hearts, which scorns danger and makes you want to to win,



[180] In the time of Pliny and Quintilian, a tragic poet was reduced to the sad resource of renting a large room to read his play to the assembly he had invited there. See Dialog. From Orationibus, c. 9-1 1; and Pliny, epist. vii, 17.

[181] See Lucien's dialogue, titled Saltatione, t. ii, p. 265-317, ed. Reitz. The pantomimes got the honorable name of xsipooofoi, and they were required to have a tincture of all arts and sciences. Burette (in the Mém. De l'Acad. Des Inscript., T i, p. 127, etc.) has given an abridged history of the art of pantomimes.

[182] Ammien, I. xiv, c. 6. He complains that the streets of Rome are full of girls who could have given children to the State, and who have no other occupation than curling their hair; and 'jactari volubilibus gyris, dùm expressunt innumera simulacra, quœ finxere fabulœ theatrical.'

[183] ​​EDWARD GIBBON, History of the decadence and the fall of the Roman Empire, t. 6, c. xxxi, p. 38-42, 1788. 



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by a beautiful death with his companions, honor and glory. In free men, on the contrary, it is as much as you want, to what the better, each for all and each for himself: they know that they will receive an equal share of the evil of defeat or the good of victory. But submissive people, lacking in courage and liveliness, have low and limp hearts and are incapable of any great deed. Tyrants know this well. So they do all they can to better weaken them [184]. And he added: "This cunning of the tyrants to stupefy their subjects was never more evident than in the conduct of Cyrus towards the Lydians, after he had seized their capital and taken them captive. Croesus, this king so rich. News was brought to him that the inhabitants of Sardis had revolted. He soon reduced them to obedience. But not wishing to sack such a beautiful city, nor to be obliged to keep an army there in order to control it, he considered an admirable expedient to secure possession of it. He established brothels, taverns, and public games there, and issued an ordinance requiring citizens to attend. He was so well with this garrison that afterwards he no longer had to draw the sword against the Lydians. These wretches amused themselves by inventing all kinds of games so that, from their very name, the Latins formed the word by which they designated what we call hobbies, which they called Ludi, by corruption of Lydi. [. . .]

“Not all tyrants have so expressly declared that they want to effeminate their subjects; but in fact, what he formally ordered, most of them did in secret. Such is the natural inclination of the ignorant people, who are usually more numerous in the cities: they are suspicious of those who love them and trust those who deceive them. Do not think that there is no bird which is better taken with the pipée, nor any fish which, for the delicacy of the worm, bites earlier on the hook than all those peoples who allow themselves to be promptly lured into servitude, for the slightest sweetness that they are made to taste. It's a marvelous thing that they let themselves go so quickly, as long as they are tickled. The theater, games, farces, shows, gladiators, curious beasts, medals, paintings and other drugs of this kind were for ancient peoples the bait of servitude, the price of their ravished freedom, the tools of tyranny. This means, this practice, these enticements were those which the ancient tyrants employed to put their subjects to sleep under the yoke.



[184] Étienne de la Boétie, Speech on voluntary servitude, 1549.



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Thus the half-witted peoples, finding all these pastimes beautiful, amused by a vain pleasure which dazzled them, got used to serving as foolishly but more badly than little children learn to read with brilliant images [185]."

However, this mastery of leisure for the masses has still not been renewed, and even less equaled in this twentieth century; this, in spite of great scientific advances that the Romans could not even have imagined. A few experts in political science and mass psychology are only rediscovering all of its relevance today.



[185] Ibid. 



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ECONOMY

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.



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I. STATE OWNERSHIP.

DEFINITION, SCOPE AND MANAGEMENT OF
STATE PROPERTY.

The elite, which has no control over land ownership in the country, is doomed to disappear very quickly; and this control must also extend to goods of other nature. A state derives its income from the tax on the income of workers, and from other taxes on the activities of industry and commerce. How could a state ensure that these revenues are collected, if the country's industry and commerce gradually fall into foreign hands, or into those of a group of individuals seeking to seize power? using the means of economy?

It is to prevent such dangers that the elites of some countries nationalize the largest corporations, and sometimes even all industrial, agricultural and commercial activities. But when that happens, the masses realize that they are no longer ruled by the elite of a democratic country, but by that of an authoritarian and despotic political regime. He then loses faith in the myth that supports political doctrine, and he begins to hate the elite before thinking of rebelling against them. The exceptions are rare and extraordinarily difficult to maintain, for it is in the nature of man to perpetually seek to improve his social condition, and never to be satisfied with what he has. Even among animals, there is a struggle between males to appropriate the most beautiful females, or several females, or to become the dominant male of the whole herd. No more to humans than to animals could we make admit the social virtues of the renunciation of domination and equitable sharing.

The purpose of oligarchic collectivism is to circumvent the difficulty of simple collectivization, the doctrine of which bears alternately and ordinarily the name of "socialism" or "communism". Oligarchical collectivism may be identical to socialism or communism in principle, but not in plain sight or knowledge, since, after all, oligarchic collectivism does not claim, really and sincerely, to be based on any political or religious doctrine. It is not based on any doctrine, nor on any myth; he uses them all to turn them into forms of his sole intention which is, let us remember again, power.



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Of course, we could easily find, among the elites of countries ruled by oligarchic collectivism, individuals who sincerely believe in a political doctrine, and who sincerely believe in serving the masses on its behalf. But if we could make these people lie down on a couch and encourage them to indulge themselves according to the method of Dr. Freud, we would quickly discover that this claim is only there to serve as a pretext for concerns which do not interest the masses. . Cases of leaders who have come to sincerely believe that they are what those who follow them believe they are, are common. To say that in history there have been princes, kings and emperors who cared, sincerely and truly, for the better well-being of the masses they led would not necessarily be a mark of naivety; but none of these monarchs would have willingly ceded their place to anyone other than their own child, simply by persuading him that the latter is better suited than him.

The oligarchy makes it possible to satisfy the mass of the ruled by creating and maintaining for them the illusion of a democratic political system and of the referendum, where it believes itself to have chosen those who run it when there is no nothing. As a keen observer of the political organizations that he was, Michels definitely and completely enlightened us on this point, and Machiavelli had done it before him. We saw the synthesis in a previous chapter [186].

And, speaking here of economics, the elite of the oligarchy exercises total control, present or virtual, not only over land ownership, but also over all other kinds of goods, down to the individuals themselves.

We say here "present", speaking of a good whose owner is currently and officially a member of the elite, or a group of members of the elite; we say “virtual”, speaking of a good that the elite can appropriate at any time, using for this the extraordinary powers of laws, decrees, regulations, and those of the political police and secret networks. . For example, a peasant will not be able to keep his farm and his land for long if no one around him dares to buy his wheat, milk and eggs. Because it is easy for the elite of oligarchic collectivism, thanks to the police networks,



[186] See “On the Necessity of the Plurality of Political Expressions and the Illusion of Choice. ", I" c Part, c. Viii, "Political, trade union, corporate and associative organizations." 



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militiamen and members of the Central Party, to persuade all these people to do or not to do such and such a thing. Thus, if he wants to save his family from famine and foreclosures, this peasant will soon find himself forced to sell his farm and his land at the price that one wants to offer him. The same will happen to the employee, or even the manager, whom no company wants anymore; all his property will also be quickly seized when he says he can no longer pay his taxes and other common expenses. The same will happen to the owner of a company, whose workers, really led by a small local leader of the workers' union, will chain strikes and demands that are impossible to satisfy, and who will be subjected to all kinds of harassment by the administration, and who will no longer see to whom he can sell what his factory makes. The same will happen to the administrative employee, the policeman or the soldier, when he is accused of treason, or when rumor has it that he is a traitor, a debauchery or a madman, even when he is not however, will not be.

We said "to the individuals themselves", because the one whom no one dares to employ, or even to help in any way whatsoever, will have no other choice but to do whatever one can ask of him. in exchange for a modest shelter and a little bread, if he does not want to die of cold and hunger, or if he does not want his children to be taken from him and permanently placed in a state institution . Because political power, in order to exist, cannot be regulated in its principles by the same morality as that of individuals, but by reason of State, and, like Pascal's heart, the State sometimes has its reasons. whom reason does not know.

"It is therefore necessary that a prince who wants to maintain himself learns not to always be good, and to use it well or badly, according to the necessity", Machiavelli tells us again. will agree, that all the good qualities which I have just enunciated are found united in a prince. But, as this is hardly possible, and the human condition does not allow it, he must at least have the prudence to flee these shameful vices which would make him lose his States. As for other vices, I advise him to protect himself from them, if he can; but if he cannot, there will be no great inconvenience in letting him go with less restraint; he should not even be afraid of incurring the imputation of certain faults without which it would be difficult for him to maintain himself; for, on examination of things, we find that, as there are certain qualities which seem to be virtues and which would destroy the prince, so there are others which appear to be vices, and from which may result [187] nevertheless its conservation and well-being."



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But this system would risk collapsing on itself, if each member of the elite, making its reason of state his own, could thus acquire whatever he desires. A few might imagine conspiracies to seize power in the country for themselves. Others might become powerful enough to influence the economy according to their personal interests or whims. This kind of degeneration would inevitably occur, and then, through emulation, it would recur many times, and thus lead the country into chaos. But oligarchic collectivism is not a monarchy whose existence hangs by only one head; it is his strength to always have more than one could cut.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY.

It is for all the reasons which have been presented so far, and for a few other incidental ones, that oligarchic collectivism must make exist in the minds of the illusion of a private economy as free, apparently only, as that of 'liberal democracy. In the country governed by this system, we must find as many private and individual owners of companies and land as in the freest of all the others, as many small artisans and traders, peasants, independent doctors and 'private hospitals, etc. But, in reality, any leader of a company employing a number equal to or greater than a few dozen workers must be either: a member of the elite; a member of the Central Party; an individual of known orthodoxy who is a Central Party sympathizer or selflessly helps the political police; an individual on whom the political power has an effective means of pressure which it can use at any time - through the political police or the Central Party, for example.

The leaders of the largest industries in the country, that is, those with a number of employees equal to or greater than a thousand, have great responsibilities, both economic and social. This is why these must imperatively be individuals of great orthodoxy; they cannot be held back by simple sympathy with the elite or the Central Party, and it would be unreasonable to rely on pressure tactics to hope for their zeal in return.


[187] Nicolas Machiavelli, The Prince, c. xv, 1532.



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For, in truth, the progress of science and industry have brought civilization into a new era, where the good health of a country and its social structure depend at least as much on industrialists as on politicians. The security of a country no longer depends exclusively, since the end of the last century, on a good army, a good police force and good politicians; it depends more and more on its industry and its scientists. This is why industrialists must be politically involved in everything they do, and must not consider anything that does not serve, above all, the economic and social interests of the Nation.

However, they must continue to appear to the mass understanding as what they ordinarily believe they are, and nothing more: individuals of superior intelligence and ability motivated by profit alone. For if they can freely express their patriotism, they must refrain from publicly professing any political or religious doctrine, or even from advocating for any member of the political elite in particular. This is because each of them must always be ready to serve the ruling elite, collectively, which they must regard as the state. Anyone who knowingly departs from this cardinal rule must immediately be removed from his titles and functions, quickly ignored by the press, and retired; it would only bring nuisances and scandals.

Half of them are children of the elite. The other, whose orthodoxy has been perfectly assured, was admitted there at the end of Plato's method of selection [188]. Each of these manufacturers cannot act without the prior advice of a personal advisor. Personal advisers should never appear publicly, for they are, in reality, mere messengers employed to convey information and instructions which they receive from the political ruling elite or its police. Collectively, genuinely and secretly, members of the industrial elite pursue an economic objective dictated, unwittingly, by a political plan which may only be regional or national, or international. Their existence and their common efforts are part of an oligarchic organization of state control directly inspired by the old Russian feudal model reformed by Peter the Great, who conceived



[188] See "The selection and manufacture of the elites", I crc Partie, c. iv, "The Elite". 



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the overall wealth of the country, including its individuals, as an inalienable heritage. In the more recent and bureaucratized version of this model: the State retains all power over the economic life of the country, if not all the economy that it assimilates to its heritage 189, although this does not appear in the constitution, nor in any legal text. To achieve this, he has at his disposal a wide variety of laws, different immediate powers and influence that we have spoken of, and still others that we will discuss shortly.

In general, knowing that no guarantee of property rights can exist in a country governed by the system of oligarchic collectivism, except on paper, or for companies that are too small to exercise any economic or political influence, or even for industrialists who are entirely subject to the state, the ruling elite and its administration have full latitude to reorganize the distribution of assets and powers, when they wish to create a new class of servants.

In this context - which includes the Platonic way of selecting and educating industrialists - "management of society" does not mean property in the sense ordinarily understood in liberal democracies, but the administration of a state patrimony. Therefore, what appears to be industrial property in the minds of ordinary mass individuals can, in reality, be revoked at any time by the political elite. This revocation, applied as a sanction, will take on the appearance of voluntary dismissal or resignation, accompanied by a transfer of commercial and land titles, also voluntary. Whether the fault committed is a simple error of appreciation, a shameful or dishonest individual enrichment, or even a lack of orthodoxy or a deliberate betrayal, it will be the lack of social responsibility that will officially be invoked before masses.



[189] The word heritage (BômuuHa, in Russian in the meaning given here) comes from the word father. The Latin patrimonium marks the difference between what comes from the mother (matrimonium, "marriage") and what comes from the father. In feudal Russia, patrimony meant a large set of goods (generally inherited from the father): land ownership as much as the rights and goods of the serfs, up to the serfs themselves. There were two types of patrimony: that of the princes who could dispose of it as they saw fit, and that of the ordinary man (generally a peasant) who, being in the fief of a prince, could not be nor sold. nor traded without his consent. This is why the princes also held administrative and legal powers over the serfs who lived in their fiefdoms.



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The Soviet Union adopted a very similar principle in 1921, which was embodied in the “New Economic Policy” (HoBaa 3KOHOMHHecKaa noniiTHica), and Lenin dubbed it “state capitalism [190]”. But it was Saint-Simon and his followers who arrived at the most successful theory of capitalism, industry and science in the service of collectivism. Saint-Simon, who had made a specialty of studying the transition from the feudal system to industrial society, saw industry as the dynamic of social progress, and was the first to think about the oligarchic political system. As early as 1803, he had the idea that the world could be better governed by a "Newton Council", bringing together twenty-one wise men selected from among the most brilliant scientists, and elected for life according to a "mode of election such , that it is impossible for particular passions to acquire sufficient strength to dominate the general interest [191] ”. Auguste Comte, who was secretary of Saint-Simon, insists on the need to base any analysis of society, and therefore any subsequent policy, on a knowledge of social facts [192].

Saint-Simon even developed a doctrine which was to give birth to an almost religious faith in the minds of industrialists thus used by the political elite, to which he unambiguously gave the title of Catechism of Industrialists. It comes in the form of a small pocket manual of sixty-six pages, in which each industrialist can find all the questions he can ask himself about his role in society, followed by the answers [193].

In the industrial class, the positions claiming the greatest orthodoxy and the highest qualities are those of owners and directors of banks, railways, maritime, river and airline companies, military construction companies, automobile companies, etc. naval and aeronautical companies, major steelworks and steel companies, companies producing and distributing water and electricity, mining and petroleum exploitation and distribution companies, post office, telegraph and telephone, radio stations and television, the main newspapers and magazines of the country, taxi, bus, tram and metro companies, land and insurance companies, lotteries, casinos and racetracks, literary publishing companies , large agricultural cooperatives, large dairies and flour mills, the first civil engineering companies and bridges and roads, department stores, companies production and distribution of alcohol and tobacco.



[190] “State capitalism [rocyaapcTBeHHtiH KairaTajiioM] would be a step forward, when compared with the current system of our Soviet republic. If, in approximately six months, state capitalism can be established in our republic, this would be a great success and a sure guarantee that within one year socialism will have established itself firmly and permanently, and will have become invincible. in this country. [...]. Socialism is inconceivable without a great capitalist machine based on the latest discoveries of modern science. It is inconceivable without a planned state organization that maintains forces tens of millions of people to strictly observe a unified system of production and distribution. »VLADIMIR ILITCH LENIN, The Significance of the New Policy and its Conditions, April 21, 1921.

[191] CLAUDE-HENRI DE SAINT-SIMON, Letters from an inhabitant of Geneva to his contemporaries, 1803.

[192] “In this regard, we cannot raise any doubt by considering successively the astronomical, physical, and chemical studies, and especially finally the various biological studies, where, by virtue of the extreme complication of the phenomena, the good observations are so difficult and still so rare, precisely because of the greatest imperfection of positive theories. By following this irresistible scientific analogy, it is therefore evident in advance that any social observations, whether statistical or dynamic, relating to the highest possible degree of complication of natural phenomena, must require, more necessarily still than all the others, continuous use of fundamental theories intended to constantly relate the facts which are accomplished to the facts accomplished; contrary to the deeply irrational precept that is so doctorally supported today, and whose easy application floods us with so many idle descriptions. The more we reflect on this subject, the more we will clearly feel that, especially in this genre, the better we have linked known facts, the better we will be able, not only to appreciate, but even to perceive, as yet unexplored facts. I agree that, with regard to such phenomena, even more than with regard to all the others, this logical necessity must seriously increase the immense fundamental difficulty which already presents, by the nature of the subject, the first rational institution of sociology. positive, where one is thus obliged, in a way, to create simultaneously the observations and the laws, given their indispensable connection, which constitute a sort of vicious circle from which one can only get out by using first of badly elaborated materials and badly conceived doctrines. The whole of this volume will make it possible to judge how I fulfilled such a delicate intellectual function, the correct prior appreciation of which will, I hope, earn me some indulgence. Regardless, it is evident that the absence of any positive theory today is what makes social observations so vague and inconsistent. The facts are not lacking, no doubt, since, in this order of phenomena even more clearly than in any other, the most vulgar are necessarily the most important, in spite of the childish pretensions of the vain collectors of secret anecdotes: but they remain deeply sterile, and even essentially unnoticed, although we are immersed in it, for lack of intellectual dispositions and speculative indications, essential to their true scientific understanding. Considering the excessive complication of such phenomena, their static observation can only become truly effective by directing itself henceforth according to a knowledge, at least sketched out, of the essential laws of social solidarity; and it is even more evidently the same with dynamic facts, which would have no fixed meaning if they were not first linked, were it only by a simple provisional hypothesis, to the fundamental laws of social development. »AUGUSTE Comte, Cours de Philosophie Positive, t. 4, 48th lesson, pp. 419-422, 1839.

[193] For example: "Q: What is an industrialist?"

"A: An industrialist is a man who works to produce or to put within the reach of the various members of society, one or more material means of satisfying their needs or their physical tastes; [...]. all the industrialists together work to produce and to put within the reach of all the members of the society, all the material means of satisfying their needs or their physical tastes, and they form three great classes which one calls the cultivators, the manufacturers and traders." CLAUDE-HENRI DE SAINT-SIMON, Catechism of industrialists, Prem. notebook, p. 1, 1823. 



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In short, the State must exercise strict control over all industrial activities producing essential goods and services, and whose cessation or capture by an internal or external enemy could weaken or paralyze the country.

Control of industry by selecting the most orthodox and able owners and managers is not enough, for an industrial society frequently employs enough men to collectively form a military force in its mind. that a disgruntled and conspiratorial director could employ, and pay, against the ruling elite or against the organs of state. This is why, when a company employs a certain number of employees, it is necessary to impose on its owner or its director the existence of trade unions, whose managers can thus report everything that happens there, including what its manager does not know. Thus, if an industrialist commits some fault, not only will the ruling political elite have the means to sanction him individually according to the modalities that we have seen, but also, it will be possible, thanks to the trade unions, to make his employees turn against them. him, and encourage him to resign or correct his mistakes himself. In addition, the political elite will be able to cleverly use labor unions to precipitate the closure of a society that has become supernumerary, useless, or whose activity is detrimental to a more useful one.

Incidentally, the trade unions will have the task of organizing the training of young apprentices, of identifying those who are distinguished by their capacities and by their intelligence, and of teaching them orthodoxy.

On the occasion of the meeting of the Committee of the Soviet Communist Party which decided on the adoption of the New Economic Policy in 1922, Lenin said that “the trade unions must collaborate closely and constantly with the government, and all its political and economic activities are guided by the vanguard of the class-conscious working class [...].

“On the basis of these principles, the role of the trade unions in the economic and administrative affairs of the proletarian state must immediately take the following forms:

“1 ° The trade unions must help in the hiring of personnel in companies and administrative bodies working for the economy; nominate their candidates for these and say what their experiences, abilities and everything else are.



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The right of decision belongs only to the companies and administrative bodies which bear full responsibility for the activities which are theirs. The companies and administrative bodies must, however, consider with the greatest attention what the trade unions say about the candidates they propose to them.

“2. One of the most important functions of the trade unions is to promote and educate the factory managers elected among the workers, and among the mass of all workers in general. We already know of such heads of factories who give full satisfaction, and also of hundreds of others who fulfill only more or less their responsibilities; very soon, therefore, we will have to have a few hundred individuals of the first species, and thousands of the second. This is why the trade unions must show more consistency and prudence than they have had until now to systematically identify all the workers and all the peasants capable of occupying such positions with the greatest fervor and efficiency. , and to ensure the progress they make as they learn the art of leading men.

“3 ° the workers' unions must get involved further in the activities of the planning organs of the proletarian state, by establishing economic plans and also plans for the production and purchase of stocks and raw materials for the workers. workers, by selecting for this the factories and factories which they know are attached to the State, or that they are about to be rented or sold by their current owners, etc. 194 Workers' unions should not exercise any official and direct function in controlling the production of private or hired companies; they should only get involved in the regulation of capitalist private production by coordinating their actions with the competent bodies of state. In addition to their participation in all cultural, educational and propaganda activities, the trade unions must also, and more and more, incite the working class, and the mass of all those who work in all the activities of society. in general, to help build the state economy. They must familiarize all these people with all aspects of economic life and with all the details of the industrial process -


[194] At the time when this plan was thus decided, many companies and factories still belonged to completely independent industrialists, who had no special relationship with the new Soviet elite, and who showed no desire to do so. to have. The Bolsheviks therefore had to take them or bring them under their control as quickly as possible, in order to complete the revolution. 



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from the acquisition of raw materials to the marketing of manufactured products - and to teach them a concrete knowledge of the single State plan for the socialization of the economy, and of the practical interests the peasants will derive from it.

“4. The establishment of wage scales and offers, etc., is one of the essential functions of trade unions in building socialism, and in involving their participation in the management and organization of industry. In particular, disciplinary tribunals must constantly improve discipline at work and the ways in which it is applied, so that production can increase; but they must not interfere with the normal and ordinary functions of the courts of justice of the People in general, nor disturb the hierarchical organization and the good management of the factories.

“The list of the most important functions of the trade unions in the work of building the socialist economy must, of course, be drawn up in more detail by their better-informed officials, and by government bodies. Taking into account the experience drawn from the enormous work that has been done by the trade unions to organize the economy and its good administration, and also the mistakes of a few incompetent and irresponsible, unskilled, who have caused some disasters that have resulted in a place of administrative confusion, it is of the utmost importance, in restoring the economy and strengthening the Soviet system, that intense practical actions be taken now, designed so that they can be continued for many years to come. many years, and designed to provide workers and all classes of workers in general with a hands-on apprenticeship in the art of maintaining the economy of the whole country.

The Central Committee of the Bolshevik Communist Party [195]."



[195] VLADIMIR ILITCH LENIN; Role and functions of labor unions during the New Economic Policy; art. 7. “The role and functions of trade unions in private companies and administrative organs of the proletarian state”, Decision of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, June 12, 1922.

[196] By the way, this text reveals to us that Lenin reasoned with the mind of a fine strategist. From the point of view of the Russian industrialists of this period, the various and varied worries which overwhelmed them very regularly seemed to be due only to "successions of bad fortune", and they could not therefore hold anyone responsible. Considered as “bourgeois”, and therefore, as “enemies of the working class” and profiteers, they were popularly baptized “men of the NPE” (for New Economic Policy). From the second half of 1926, a new policy was undertaken to put an end to the existence of private and independent industries, which first consisted of a huge increase in taxes. Then, on October 11, 1931, a resolution completely and officially banning private commerce and industry was passed. But, already by this date, independent industrialists had practically ceased to exist, and they had been sent to serve sentences in labor camps. 



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In addition to what has just been explained, a union of industrialists can be created, in order to make them a collective force with an official existence, and to continue to inculcate in each one a general doctrine - according to the model of the Catechism of the industrialists of Saint-Simon, for example - which they will be able to profess around them.

It is understood at this point that the industrialists of a system of oligarchic collectivist governance are men of confidence of the State, and that they should only be the disinterested craftsmen of its economy, like the bees harmoniously creating life and abundance in the hive. However, this system of wealth creation can still be improved, because, when it reaches its full maturity, and all the industrialists collaborate without anyone failing in their duty, they can still usefully manage the heritage that the Nation entrusts to them. . For example, one can sell his business to another, and use the money he receives from it to serve other needs of the state, in a foreign country this time, and thus extend the power of the country to the - beyond its borders. This way of doing things, if the political elite knows how to be cunning, allows strategists and soldiers to wage a war on other ground than that of the battlefield, without having to fire a single cartridge or fear the slightest loss. human; we will explore this particular subject in more detail in the next part, devoted to foreign policy and war.

Depending on individual abilities and experiences, members of the industrial elite and those of the political elite are interchangeable. The industrialist who will have served the State with the greatest integrity and orthodoxy will be able to leave the industry to usefully bring his experience and knowledge to politics in general, and to planning in particular. The director of a large armaments construction company may be called upon to leave his post to take one as Minister of War; the incumbent owner of an aircraft manufacturing plant will be able to sell his own to run the country's railways, or take care of air mail;



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the brilliant lawyer will be able to leave his cabinet to administer the judicial machine of the State; the manager of a large radio station could be appointed minister of information. But, because of the secrets that the State has confided to each, and of which they have become guardians, none will be sent back to the middle class, and even lower, even when they have not been able to fully rise. up to the tasks entrusted to them. As for the one who, through an excess of altruism and naivety, thinks it good to be publicly indignant about the reality of political power, those even who have admitted it to their midst will have to silence him.

In any case, the political elite must demand of its administrations, of the Central Party, and of the trade unions when the latter can, to monitor its industrialists as much as if they were spies in the pay of its greatest enemy. , and to have a permanent and perfect knowledge of their slightest deeds and gestures as well as of all their words. Because when weakness or fatigue overcomes a single man who happens to be a great industrialist, it is a percentage of the economy of the whole country that is threatened, and therefore the stability of the social structure. It is the evocation of this kind of example that should allow us to fully understand why Plato was so demanding when he said how the guardians of the City should be chosen, and why their lives should be preserved from vices. of materialism.

If all these industries are to be placed under the vigilance of the political elite, on the other hand, some freedom must be left to small traders, manufacturers and farmers. Because, in any case, all these are directly dependent on the controls of various administrations and the police, large cooperatives, dairies and flour mills, and other producers and wholesalers of raw materials and manufactured goods.

For reasons which are obvious enough that there is no need to justify them, special attention must be paid to agriculture; it must be carefully preserved from all evils. The quality and its production, as well as its quantity, must be strictly controlled by state inspectors. We must help farmers when their production is in decline, and limit their sales of crops, when their importance is large enough to lower prices considerably, and therefore reduce everyone's income too much. 



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Because to keep the mass of farmers well, it is of course necessary to create networks of cooperatives which will buy all their crops and goods from them and then resell them to retailers, and which will thus be able to impose fixed prices on them everywhere similar in the country, so that the masses never have to complain about too high prices, nor that some criminals see the opportunity of trafficking. It is not dangerous, however, for farmers to sell their goods directly to the masses, without an intermediary, because farmers are - traditionally one might say - poor traders, and above all because of the extra effort they can devoting to this small business is not worth the returns and quickly discourages them. On the other hand, we must absolutely prohibit them from the activity of distillery, because we know the damage caused to the social structure of strong alcohols sold everywhere at good prices and in quantities.

All of these methods are tricks; they offer the ruling elite the advantage of not having to use force.



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II. THE ECONOMY.

THE CONTROL OF CONSUMPTION.

Gustav von Schmoller's socialist economy consists of a social regulation of capitalism in the manner of the Manchester School [191]. Schmoller wisely rejects the idea of ​​the sovereignty of the people, which he describes as absurd, as well as the true parliamentarism of democracies, having noticed that, in the end, genuine parliamentarism inevitably leads to the situation of “chaos and anarchism”. »A political domination of the middle or lower class at the expense of the social structure. Because he understands the interest of a strong ruling elite, which educates and leads the masses thanks to a well-established hierarchical structure.

The French, in general, and some economists in particular, often locate the origins of state intervention in the economy and private affairs at the time of Colbert and Richelieu - even that of Louis XI. Schmoller places them under the German monarchy of Hohenzollern, because, according to him, the ruling elite of that time finally managed to firmly impose its authority on the masses, while being loved by them. It is only in this way that oligarchic collectivism can exist durably, indeed. But Schmoller is an ideologue who does not seem to perceive the political universality of power as a finality; it simply starts from the principle that there is a collective rationality and a general interest which must dominate class conflicts.

The other economist, also a socialist and from the same generation, Adolph Wagner, offers us a more scientific and above all more enlightened approach to economics, while sharing Schmoller's vision. He notes the need to pit the authority of the political elite against the failures and irrationality of liberal laissez-faire economics, and explains that



[197] The “Manchester School” describes an economic liberalism similar to the laissez-faire liberalism of Adam Smith, and has been described as such by Ferdinand Lassalle, founder of German socialism, and better still (according to Adolph Wagner ) by John Prince-Smith in his Handwôrterbuch der Volkswirtschaftslehre (1866), “a summary of the whole system of the Manchester School” (The Foundations of Political Economy, t. L, c. II, “Le Patrimoine ( and capital) ”, 1893.

[198] In French in the text. 



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the liberal economy is structurally incapable of organizing economic activities in such a way that they suitably meet the “interests of the community” (Gemeininteressen), and allow the production and equitable distribution of “common goods” (Gemeingùter ) having to satisfy “collective needs” (Gemeinbedùrfnisse).

From these remarks, Wagner dwells extensively on public goods and state spending, and he remarks that "the more civilized society, the more expensive the state is." He gave this discovery the name of “Wagner's Law” (Wagnersches Gesetz), which has been universally recognized as valid and important by all economists since. According to Wagner, a comprehensive comparison of different countries at different times shows that, among the civilized and economically developed societies that interest us, the activity of government machines and their regional representations and administrations is increasing, and thus increasing public expenditure. As a result, these States must both continue to assume the most basic functions of governance, and create new ones to adapt to demographic and economic changes in society. In this way, the economic needs of the masses are met by the state and its regional representations.

Knowing that Wagner's law seems to apply perfectly to practically all modern countries, and that it allows, suddenly, and to a certain extent, to formulate predictions concerning the evolution of public expenditure, it allows us to note the existence of an infernal spiral: States are called upon to face an incessant increase in their expenditure.

Knowing that the population is constantly increasing, in spite of wars, and that the incessant progress of science entails more and more expenditure, and have as an immediate corollary a mass which wants to access the fruits of this progress, the expenditure of the States increases proportionally . Tax increases will solve this problem, but not forever, since, logically, there will come a time when the masses will have to free themselves from an income tax which will be equivalent to the totality of what they earn.



[199] ADOLPH WAGNER, Grundlegung der politischen Oekonomie (The Foundations of Political Economy), 1893. 



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Wagner also notes that the simple movements and migrations of populations within the borders further increase these expenses, from where he proposes as a first remedy "a restriction on the freedom of movement" of the individuals who make up the masses, because he considers that 'it "is theoretically permitted [200]". Because “it follows from the foregoing that, from the point of view of the national economy and social policy and because of the consequences for the community and individuals, a restriction on the right to move seems justified in principle [201]. For example, "it offers less gravity than a direct restriction on the freedom of marriage, while indirectly leading to a restriction of the latter." It also results in other unfortunate consequences of modern law and modern economic life occurring less seriously. [202] "

However, Wagner remarks that “to limit the freedom of movement is to put an obstacle to the mechanism of circulation, in particular to the march of speculative production. The slowdown thus obtained is very favorable to all concerned, but above all to the workers and ultimately to the entire national economy. Because it leads to a better balance of production, consumption and the economic situation of the entire population. Outrageous speculation on the one hand and the crisis on the other are, if not avoided, at least mitigated; and change, which regularly takes place in a short period of time, is made more difficult. One of the most flawed sides of our current economic organization has thus been corrected. [203]

In the chapter of this essay devoted to information, we saw that the progress made in the field of mass psychology today makes it possible to reverse Marshall's law of supply and demand, by creating any part and in a very short time a request, even by suggesting to the masses a substitute offer. A good understanding of the techniques proposed by Edward Bernays allows them to be applied to pianos and dwellings, in order to create needs for things and for activities produced and available in the country. This then makes it possible to maintain the country's industry as a priority, and to considerably reduce imports of goods and raw materials. Better still, it would be quite possible to create for the masses a demand for things and for hobbies which would require very little expenditure from each of its individuals. 



[200] Ibid, 1. 1., 2. Sec. mr. “Migration law”, §77.

[201] Ibid.

[202] Ibid.

[203] Ibid.



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For example: using Barney's method to create in the minds of the masses the desire to grow vegetables and fruit, as a substitute for other hobbies involving higher expenses; or to promote the learning of DIY at home by creating various competitions stimulating emulation; or to extol the pleasures and virtues of gymnastics or singing, by offering some rewards and prizes to athletes or to beginner singers; or to better interest people in politics, by creating many political events and parties, etc.

Liberal economists are inexhaustible about the virtues of economic growth. Of course, economic growth makes industry develop, and that is a very good thing. But it also creates a considerable increase in consumption, which proportionally increases imports of raw materials, which penalizes the economy of the country as a whole, if it is unable to export as many raw materials or goods. . And when the country finds itself able to export as much as it imports, Wagner's findings teach us that this will necessarily entail direct and indirect public spending. Nothing costs a state more than a mass of which a large percentage of individuals can easily acquire an automobile, as is notoriously the case in the United States - and more recently in Germany. Because the State is then obliged to build and maintain more roads - which must be wider and wider -, to hire more and more police officers to regulate traffic, to import more and more oil if the country does not have enough, to employ more surgeons, doctors and paramedics to treat victims of traffic accidents, etc.

This abundance of new things, each more attractive than the other, pushes the masses to spend more and to go into debt when they do not have enough money to acquire them. With these loans, the country quickly comes to spend more than what it earns, and the mass of the money that is spent, the more that is borrowed, plus the interest on these loans, represents as much as could have been good. more usefully invested in aid to agriculture, science and industry.

A competent political elite must encourage the masses to save; the encouragement of savings strengthens the banks, which then have the means to lend to the State when it needs money, to lend to industrialists who create jobs in return, to lend the necessary money to the establishment of subsidiaries abroad which, in turn, strengthen the power and the economic and strategic expansion of the whole country - this last point will soon be explained at length. 



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This is not to say that a country should not owe debt to others, as debt is also a great defense against possible external aggression, and a great way to fortify the political elite. During a speech he made in December 1925, when Germany was experiencing the most serious economic crisis in its history, German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann declared, “You have to have a lot of debt, so that the creditor understand that it is his own existence that will be threatened if his debtor ever collapses. Economic matters of this kind create bridges of mutual political understanding and future political support abroad”.

The methods and tools of governance of oligarchic collectivism offer great latitude for maneuver to the expert economist, since, in fact, they include interventionism and economic planning, and, above all, they all find their origin in the historical school. and German economics - that is, at the opposite extreme of the Austrian and Manchester schools. As we have already explained, the oligarchic collectivist does not seek his origin in any political doctrine. However, he takes up the methods of socialism, and the ideas of theorists who have been cited so far in this essay, in addition to those of other thinkers, historians and theorists of politics and economics such as Louis Blanc, Henry George (on land ownership) and others. In form, it closely resembles state socialism whose origins are to be found in the thoughts of Hegel, Carlyle, and especially those of Wagner and Karl Rodbertus, and as described by Halévy. And its social structure is directly inspired by that of which Plato speaks in his Republic.

“The term [socialism] seems to have been created independently by two different schools, and moreover in two different senses: 1 ° In France, among the Saint-Simonians, among whom Pierre Leroux seems to have been the first to give it a precise meaning and make it the name of a doctrine: by that he meant the excess opposed to individualism, the theory which entirely subordinates the individual to society [204]. [...]. 



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“2 ° In England, in the School of Robert Owen. It became customary there during the discussions of the Association of ail classes of ail nations, founded by Owen in 1835 [205] - "It was then used, writes Mr. Élie Halévy, to designate the extremely popular tendency of Robert Owen, following which by a free swarming of cooperative associations, it was possible, without the help of the State, in revolt against the State to constitute a new economic and moral world. In August 1836, November 1837 and April 1938, Louis Reybaud published in the Revue des Deux Mondes three studies entitled Modern Socialists. [206] These articles were written in a tone of growing sympathy; the author opposed the sterility of the Jacobin, republican doctrine (crushed in 1834 at the cloister of Saint-Merri and at Lyon), the fruitfulness of these doctrines which raised new problems, no longer political, but economic and moral. These articles were brought together in a volume entitled Studies on reformers or modern socialists (1841). tervalle by Blanqui (the economist), in a course taught at the Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, the word, around 1840, happens to have become classic [207]. "

“On the different forms of socialism.

“State socialism has two very distinct forms: a. A democratic form: Chartism; socialism of Louis Blanc in 1848; Marxism today. This socialism pursues a political end: the complete democratization of the State, so that the State, which has become the direct emanation of the popular will, is at the same time, by a sort of necessity inherent in its essence, the servant of the interests popular - b. An aristocratic form (Hegel; Carlyle; Rodbertus; the conservative socialism of Adolf Wagner, who, since 1878, has inspired Bis-marck's social policy). Socialism thus conceived severed all links with the Anglo-French individualism of the eighteenth century. The individual exists only for the achievement of ideal and impersonal ends, art, science, religion, of which the State is the embodiment. But precisely because the individual separated from the State is an abstraction, in his incorporation into the State, the individual finds the realization of his true rights. This "state socialism" constitutes a kind of bureaucratic paternalism where the individual, in the alienation of his free will, finds the guarantee of his material and moral happiness [208]. "



[204] Revue encyclopédique, November 1833, t. LX, pages 1 14-1 16.

[205] Th. Kirkup, art. Owen, in VEncycl. Brit.

[206] The Saint-Simonians; Ch. Fourier; Robert Owen.

[207] ANDRE LALANDE, Technical and Critical Vocabulary of Philosophy, art. “Socialisme”, by Elie Halévy and Charles. Andler, p. 774, 1926. 



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“Beyond aristocratic socialism and democratic socialism, one conceives of a pure socialism, free from these political survivals, and which differs essentially from them. Democracy is only a negative doctrine, the defense of the individual against collective oppression (of religion, of government, of capitalism). This defense, however necessary it may be, goes only to the dissolution of evil powers; it is only liberating and destructive. The ideas of law, of justice, of equality by which it is expressed, leave men in a state of antagonism, stiffening and drought which is obviously not a sufficient ideal. Today it is still necessary to fight to guarantee all workers the fair remuneration that many of them do not get; this is why the majority of the so-called socialist systems have as their only program the realization of democracy to the limit. But true socialism requires something quite different: it believes it is possible to attain a state of spontaneity, confidence, and joy; he only claims liberty and equality in order to attain fraternity. He considers work not as a market value that must be made to pay at its fair price, but as voluntary participation in a collective work, the human transformation of things, the adaptation of the universe which constitutes all material civilization. He conceives of the normal relationship between the worker and his work by analogy with the attitude of the artist and the scientist.

“This more or less obscurely felt idea explains the real mentality of all sincere socialists; for them, the adoption of this doctrine is a kind of quasi-religious conversion, the appearance of a new conception of life and social relations, quite different from the claims, even the most legitimate, relating to the right to the integral product. labor [209]. "

But, let's give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. As the German scholar and historian specializing in state socialism, Charles Andler, points out, “A social question is the transformation of a moral ideal into a legal ideal. It arises when men no longer want to abandon the realization of this ideal to individual freedom, but demand it from society.



[208] ANDRE LALANDE, Technical and Critical Vocabulary of Philosophy, art. “Socialisme”, by Elie Halévy, p. 775-776, 1926.

[209] ANDRE LALANDE, Technical and Critical Vocabulary of Philosophy, art. "Socialism", by Charles Andler, p. 776-777, 1926. 



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From the point of view of German socialism, social questions cannot therefore be moral questions, since they are questions of law. And by this, German socialism after 1848 joined the old French Saint-Simonism. This belief of the Saint-Simonians according to which social questions arise only from an unrecognized justice, but that one can impose, and that which has most deeply penetrated the German theorists. However, for the Saint-Simonians, this need to depart from legality in order to impose law only appeared in critical periods, periods which alternately follow organic periods, whose reality they affirmed rather than demonstrated. Strictly speaking, an organic epoch could last forever, and the harmony between ideas and legal institutions could be perpetuated indefinitely. Social peace would be assured by the immobility of ideas; and if a means were found to stop the flowering of new ideas, nothing would have been done contrary to Saint-Simonian doctrine. In this, the Saint-Simonians are conservative. The German State Socialists go further here 210. "

By naturally drawing its lessons from socialism and its economists from its Saint-Simonian origins and from Wagner's law, the elite of the oligarchic collectivist state must achieve the difficult economic equilibrium of constantly stimulating industry while maintaining inflation at an extremely low rate, and also keeping economic growth close to zero. Such a thing is possible thanks to state control over wages, and a tax rate which must constantly be adapted to the economic performance of the industry.

On the whole, the economic and social model best suited to collectivism is not the one implemented in the Soviet Union, because, in several respects, it lends itself poorly, through its excesses, to the maintenance of an appearance. of a democratic state capable of maintaining the illusion of a minimum of liberalism. Only the ideas which can be adapted to this constraint should be retained, such as economic planning, the system of control of industry by the trade unions, and a few other methods which are presented in this essay. The common thread of the system which is exposed here is, on the one hand, state socialism and the German economic school inspired by Saint-Simonism, and on the other the enlightened despotism of Catherine II of Russia and Frederick II of Russia. Prussia, without the monarchy of course.



[210] CHARLES ANDLER, The Origins of State Socialism in Germany, concl., Pp. 463-464, 1897. 



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THE PLANNING.

The economist, sociologist and theorist of socialism, Werner Sombart, provides us with answers to the problem posed by Wagner, and he reports (in 1934) some facts and methods which enabled Germany to emerge from a terrible crisis in few years, and to strengthen the social structure to a level that this country had never known before. Recall that Sombart was one of the most influential sociologists in Germany between 1931 and 1938.

"The planned economy is not necessarily and simply opposed to the free private economy, but it is opposed to a chaotic, disorderly economy, without plan and without intelligence, this naturally from the point of view of the general economy. '' a large group of people, within which an unlimited number of well-ordered individual farms can exist (the age of capitalism is precisely characterized by the striking contrast between the planning that reigns in individual economies and the absence of a plan general economy). It would perhaps be more correct, therefore, to speak of a coordinated, organized, domesticated, intelligent economy, which one could also qualify as organic, if one realizes well the fact that one expresses thus the thing by an image and that one could say: it is a question of the creation of an intelligent whole as if this whole were an organism. In both cases, we are dealing with a "whole" whose parts must come together in a meaningful relationship. In reality, a national economy is not an organism, even if it is "orderly". [...]

“A true planned economy must have the following characteristics:

“1 ° The whole or, if you like, the whole. That is to say that there is a planned economy only when the plan embraces all the operations and economic phenomena within a large territory. Partial planning is a notion that contains an internal contradiction, like partial rationalization. This planning would be worse than no plan. It is only when one brings together by a reasonable connection all that occurs in the whole of the economic field, 



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that we have the right to speak of an ordered economy, that is to say planned. As regards the organization, it is absolutely necessary that each national economy be directed by a supreme planning council.

“However, it is not appropriate to overstate this total planning and assume that it should extend to the spoonful of soup we eat. Planning is not control, regulation, constraint, in all given cases. "Laissez-faire" is not incompatible with planning. And each "totalitarian plan" will contain enough indifferent areas, and therefore free, where the individual can do and let it do what he pleases.

“Another of the criteria of the integral planned economy must be:

“2 ° Y unity, that is to say a single center from which the plane emanates. This criterion is necessarily attached to the notion of the planned economy, is one of its essential characteristics, because it would be contrary to common sense to have several planning centers. But the single center could not be, in the present state of things, constituted by an international institution, a creation of the kind of the League of Nations. It seems, on the contrary, that this central body can only be, for the time to come and perhaps for all times, the national entity which finds its expression in the State. A planned economy can therefore only be a national economy. Two great contemporary trends meet here and must be united in the same bed. I therefore repeat what I have already observed when explaining the nature of German socialism [...]: the planned economy must be national, not only because the State alone can ensure the planning, but also because it is only within the framework of a national economy that sufficient account can be taken of these national features that we want to preserve. Likewise, the "national" economy must necessarily be planned, because only in this way will it be able to ensure the necessary unity of the nation, a unity which will always risk being compromised by economic systems based on a conception. naturalist and, therefore, on rivalry and class struggle. "The third of the criteria of the planned economy is:" 3 ° variety, a criterion which, I would like to demonstrate, is perfectly compatible with the other two, totality and unity, which at first seems singular. view ; moreover, variety is, in my opinion, one of the essential and necessary characteristics of the planned economy; it cannot be thought of without this character.



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Only blind doctrinarianism can reject the idea that an economy can only be reasonably organized by taking into account its multiple variety.

“But it is necessary that the variety of economic life manifests itself in various aspects. First in accordance with the goal and the meaning of the plan, in order to be adapted to the diversity of the national entities where this life is deployed. It would be crazy to want to apply a single plan to all national economies. What must be taken into consideration here and what must condition the plan is:

" at. the absolute and relative dimension of economic fields. How can the economy of a dwarf country, like Switzerland or Belgium, be subject to the same level as a giant state like Russia and China? What folly to want to impose the same economic organization on very populated and sparsely populated countries: on England or Germany, which respectively have 264 and 134 inhabitants per square kilometer, and on Russia, which has 15, to Finland which has 9, to Argentina or Brazil which has 4;

"B. the social structure of a given country. How to treat Bulgaria, Russia and Turkey, whose populations include 80 to 85% of farmers, or England and Germany, which have 8% and 30% respectively. In each given case a particular principle must be applied: here industrialization, there "reararization", and, within the same group of countries, what a difference, for example, between a country of peasants like Germany and a country, like England, where the rural class is almost non-existent. What a contrast between a country like Germany, where industrial craftsmanship still occupies a prominent place, and countries like Russia or the United States, which have never had craftsmanship comparable to that of Eurasia the West, or even England, where craftsmanship has ceased to play a role;

" vs. the national character, the cultural level and the whole history of a given country. A fresh or tired people, active or passive, very civilized or semi-civilized, each requires an economy appropriate to its nature. It is superfluous to note, in this connection, the differences which separate Russia from Europe, China from Japan, the Indies from England, Brazil from Switzerland, Germany from France.

“What is of all importance is that the planned economy applies as much variety as possible to the choice of forms, designs and economic systems. Nothing is more unreasonable than to be attached to a certain monism of the forms of economy and, for example, 



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to identify the planned economy with the public economy, the collective economy, state capitalism or collectivism. It is on this monism of solutions that all the reform projects of the utopians fail, because all the utopians are doctrinaire blind to reality; It is on this stumbling block that Sovietism would have also failed, if its leaders had not realized that there was better than that.

“It is in the nature of things that economic life, so varied, must take on various forms of organization and that the more it is developed in such and such a country, the more complicated the apparatus at its disposal must be. But, for it to be reasonably organized, its forms must above all be adapted to the aim it pursues or to the particular requirements of the various fields of its activity. But these fields present fundamental differences: agriculture and industry, trade and transport must be organized in various ways and, moreover, this organization varies within each branch.

"It is in this way that foreign and domestic trade, wholesale and retail trade, trade in large towns and small towns, trade in one article and that in many articles cannot be arranged in the same way. . How can a single economic system be applied to such different objects?

“Finally, a true planned economy will have to show an infinite variety in the choice of its means of action.

"This is how the national planned economy corresponds to this" economic "which Aristotle opposed to "chrematistics". And it is this national planned economy that we are advocating for Germany. We are not afraid of the word because we attach no idea to it that a German patriot, aware of his individual freedom, cannot also make his own. We do not mean by planned economy, we repeat, the setting aside of the private economy, which we want, on the contrary, to restore in its rights, provided that it is in a healthy form. The planned economy is for us only the creation of reasonable forms of economic life, it is the establishment of guidelines for the consolidation of the economic existence of the nation. In place of the two powers that have so far governed our economic life - chance and the desire for domination and gain of an ever smaller number of industrial and banking magnates - it is the will of the people, expressed by the voice of the State, who must become the guiding power. 



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“When we discuss the economic problem today, there is one point which particularly excites passions: that of the distribution, between Germany and foreign countries, of the production of the articles necessary for our consumption. We cannot, in this regard, speak of "autarky" without infuriating the opponents of this theory. This can be seen from the point of view of the struggle of opinions. In fact, this is what is most essential, a question of point of view, which cannot be discussed with the help of scientific arguments and whose solution is always of a personal nature. . What is opposed here is the private economy and the "national" economy. [...]

"[...] the" whole "that we advocate is a national economy gathered in a harmonious unit. It follows that the national economy must be, so to speak, "rounded", "closed", that it must be self-sufficient and rest in itself. If we defend the principle of the "national" economy, it is for strategic, ethnic and economic reasons. It is above all because we consider that socialism, namely a reasonable organization of the community, must be realized in an economic "body", whose life is, in its essence, independent of what happens abroad. .

“That being said, it goes without saying that German socialism rejects, as contrary to its most intimate essence, the hitherto reigning conception of the world economy. [...]

“Neither peace, nor free trade, nor good will, such is the sign under which we live, but, on the other hand, customs barriers, import bans, refusals of credit, mistrust across the board. . [...].

“Autarchy does not mean, of course, that a national economy must become fully independent or, as today's jargon says, 100%, that it must renounce all relations. international whatever it is. This goal could only be recommended by an obtuse doctrinaire and, moreover, it would probably never be attained. And why, in truth, would one pursue a goal of this kind? ...

“Considering the facts, I would already qualify as autarkic a national economy which does not depend in any way on its relations with foreign peoples, that is to say which is not obliged to have recourse to foreign trade to ensure its own existence, but which can, according to its good pleasure, import or export what it pleases. [...].

"The problem which, by virtue of this situation, arises for us, is to try to limit as much as possible our purchases of raw materials and food products from abroad. 



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“As far as finished food articles are concerned, we are quite close to the state of complete independence: production in 1933 covered nearly 80% of consumption (compared to 70% in 1926-27). What is incumbent on the State in this matter is the equalization of the volume of harvests of various years by means of storage. It would be necessary to arrive (which was understood without difficulty formerly) to always have in reserve the whole harvest of a year, at least in cereals. Moreover, a change in our consumption habits and an increase in our national production of foodstuffs will soon enable us to achieve complete independence.

“The importance of our imports of fodder products (nearly 400 million marks in 1932) could easily be reduced by making better use of our native production. According to specialists, we are making many mistakes in this area, which could be avoided by exploiting our meadows in a more rational way. At the same time, consideration should be given to gradually developing the cultivation of oleaginous plants.

“One of the weak points of our national economy is constituted by the textile raw materials, for which we pay an intolerable price abroad, namely more than 600 million marks in 1932. It will be a question first of all, this which will lead to a reasoned reform of our consumption, to manufacture more and more our clothes with textile materials that we can produce [...].

"[...]; we need to consume less cotton and produce more wool and hemp. It will first be necessary to develop sheep farming, which had been sacrificed almost entirely to the development of the world economy: a hundred years ago we still had 28 million sheep, 5 million in 1913 and about 3 million 1 / 2 today. We can very easily remove from our food budget the section "lamb meat" and reorganize the breeding of wool sheep. We also seem to be on the right track already. A specialist in the question, Th. Behme, expressed himself as follows on the occasion of the "Green Week" of 1933:

"" What is happening today? First of all, development of sheep farming. Then raising the quality of fleeces, that is to say wool, and consequently raising prices. , which have already risen a lot. Finally, working with wool in craft enterprises, adapted to the peculiarities of the raw material, because only experienced craftsmen can obtain an improvement in the finished product ". 



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“When you compare the German woolen fabrics exhibited at 'Green Week' with those seen at the exhibitions in previous years, you are struck by the progress made. [...] After its first groping steps, "German wool" is moving forward, in accordance with our economic interests and our taste.

“The problem is quite different, which consists in producing at home the inorganic raw materials and the semi-manufactured articles which abroad deliver to us in large quantities. The art of inventors is here to practice. The first step is to develop our own production as much as possible. We have already achieved this very fortunately for copper: our extraction, which in 1913 comprised only 49,000 tons of metal, reached 94,000 in 1930 and 1,17,000 in 1931, while our imports were, for over these three years, 23 1,000, 1,90,000 and 176,000 tonnes. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of iron and zinc (which Poland extracts today). On the other hand, the increasing use of scrap allows us to save iron ore and to free ourselves more from abroad.

"It will then be necessary to replace the metals extracted from ores imported by metals that we can produce at home, copper for example will be replaced by aluminum, etc."

"The emancipation of our consumption of petroleum products is also making encouraging progress: in 1933, we obtained from native raw materials 1.2 million tons of these products, that is to say 12% of our needs, against 8% for the year. 1931. If we consider only mineral oils intended for traction, Germany already covers its needs in the proportion of more than a quarter (26.8% in 1933 against 21.8% in 1931) . Complete self-sufficiency could be obtained without technical difficulties, because the hydrocarbon fueling of hard coal and lignite would allow us to satisfy our entire consumption of petroleum products.

"[...] it is certain that the supply of Germany, ensured by our own means, will be far from being as perfect and, above all, of coming back as cheap as it was the case when, in accordance with the principle of "free trade", the products came from countries where their quality was the best and their cost price the lowest. But we must, I repeat again, forgo some amenities when it comes to higher interests. 



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If so, we even have to agree to a lowering of our "standard of living". But, as we have seen, this does not always mean damage, even from the point of view of individual interest. [...].

“Our agricultural population forms less than a third of the total, which is certainly too little: we should return to at least the level of the year 1870, when we had 40 to 45% of peasants. [...] for a state, the agricultural population is more valuable and more necessary than the urban population employed in commerce and industry. So the supporters of German socialism advocate the rearrangement of the country. [...].

“I cannot share the objections raised against this new distribution of the working population. An argument has been made in particular, namely that the output of agricultural labor, I would rather say the productivity of the soil, increases more and more and that consequently, the capacity of consumption being more or less fixed, it would have to be apprehended. an overproduction of food items.

“We can answer this:

“1 ° our food needs are limited only for certain items such as bread; for the others, they are extensible: animal products and in particular dairy products, eggs, vegetables, fruits, honey, etc .; in addition, the quality of the products can be improved; and, even if the population of the cities did not absorb more agricultural products, that of the countryside could eat better by developing its own consumption;

“2 ° it would be desirable for agricultural production not to be limited to food items, but to include raw materials of plant and animal origin (hemp, wool, oil seeds, etc.);

“3 ° it is by no means established that the increase in the productivity of the soil is linked to that of the output of labor, so that the same number of workers can produce more. Perhaps the increase in production requires an increase in the rural population. If this increase does not happen by itself, it could be helped by bringing agricultural production back to the countryside which, as we have seen elsewhere. . .] is increasingly entrusted to factories. [. . .]

"Any planned economy, to be complete, and provided it sets itself the task of organizing economic life in a reasonable way, must, as we have already seen, provide for the coexistence and interpenetration of a varied number of economic forms and systems. We will find there the private economy, 



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and the economy for the market, and the collective economy to cover consumption; one will find there the peasant, land and craft economy; one will find there the cooperative and state economy. Capitalist enterprise will also be there, for there will still be many economic problems, the best solution of which will be capitalist exploitation. [...]

“An examination of our official statistics shows us that this report is, in Germany, rather favorable: [...] the peasantry and the craft industry have maintained themselves in a pleasing way. It is precisely these two systems of the economy that German socialism regards as those which best represent the national economy. In contrast to proletarian socialism, it places at the center of its concern not the proletariat, but the middle classes: it could even be defined (and criticized) as socialism of the middle classes. If he acts thus, it is in full consciousness, it is because he considers that it is the middle classes which are the most able to defend the interests of the individual as of the State: it is only in the peasant and artisanal exploitations that the man having an economic activity finds the possibility of developing fully, of giving its true meaning to work, the most important form of human life. Indeed, it is only there that it is a question of a creation, that is to say of an activity which is concretized in palpable, whole objects, it is only there that the work contains in itself. - even his goal, without being obliged to pursue a goal external to himself - as, for example, in industry - it is only there that the worker can consider his work as his own. However, it is these men alone, satisfied with their activity and having found the meaning of life in the accomplishment of this activity, who can be good citizens. [. . .] This proletarian mass is not linked to the homeland, is not rooted in the ground, it is constantly looking for new forms of life, it is always the rerum no varum cupidus, it is by definition always discontented and, when she rolls over on her bed in pain, she causes earthquakes, like the Enchantment Carlyle talks about. [...].

“[...] Various home industries can also be added to home production.

“One of the main objectives of this domestic activity is to enable women to work again at home and, on the other hand, to occupy the agricultural labor force during the off-season, by tying by long-term contracts.



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“The benefits of domestic production can, moreover, be extended to all sections of the population, even to workers who are employed in large-scale industry and who, consequently, are still only workers. Successful action can be taken in this area by allotment gardens, suburban settlements and the like. The worker can thus be put in a position to engage in sensible work and will no longer need to fill the void of his life with substitutes for dopolavoro 2n.

“But, where technology recommends or requires large enterprise, it will be a question of examining whether it will be included in the capitalist system or if the preference will be given to a collectivist or mixed system. The decision will have to depend on each species. Regularly, what must be made available to the public authority are:

1 ° large credit institutions;

2 ° the exploitation of the country's mineral resources and driving forces;

3 ° international, interregional and large city transport;

4 ° all industries working for the army;

5 ° all enterprises whose scope goes beyond the framework of private operation and which have already taken on the character of public utility establishments;

6 ° all enterprises for which a special reason would advise nationalization or municipalization.

“The other important companies could be abandoned to capitalism, under a system of control which we will talk about again, unless we prefer to resort to intermediary forms, such as the company under management or the cooperative. [...].

“Obviously, there must be something in business life above individual business leaders, something like a supreme leadership, corresponding to that which exists in the military. It is the Supreme Economic Council. And, in this way, the "principle of the leader necessarily leads to the planned economy, that is to say to socialism. [...].



[211] The Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro, or OND, is an association created in 1925 in Italy, the aim of which is to occupy the mass of workers with sporting activities, country walks, cultural and popular, charitable and social, etc. . Its equivalent in Germany is Kraft durch Freude (KdF), created in 1933 (N. d. E.). 



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"Our attitude on this subject is quite clear: the principle of competition, as a general principle of economic 'order' (or rather of 'disorder'), must be rejected by the true socialist, since rejects all social naturalism: socialism must precisely put an end to the insane regime of parallelism and opposition of private exploitations and create order where chaos reigned. [...].

“With regard to the various forms of competitive activity, we absolutely reject suggestive competition and destructive competition; with the abolition of the first one also disappears one of the most unpleasant manifestations of our time: advertising. [...]. The state authority must intervene in the matter and undertake a proper clean-up. In this respect, possibilities for reform are provided for in the German law of 12 September 1933 on advertising.

“On the other hand, material competition should not be excluded from the frameworks of a managed economy, but it should be incorporated into the general plan. [...].

“The immediate goal of any reasonable policy must be to make production permanent and continuous. [...].

"In my opinion, an objection to our point of view could be drawn from the fact that it is the foreigner who obliges us to a constant technical progress, whether in the field of the fabrications of war or in that of the production of the articles. export. Some concessions will have to be made here. [...]

"By stabilizing our methods of production, transport and sale, we are removing one of the causes of the periodic stoppages and disturbances of the economic process and, consequently, the ever looming danger of unemployment, the worst plague of the economic age.

“Other causes of this disease can also be ruled out by conscious management of the goal to be achieved. For example, the causes of this conjuncture of expansion which is peculiar to the period of great capitalism, with the crises which inevitably lead to too extensive and poorly directed production. We must have here a methodical policy of the conjuncture. "The strong fluctuations in the economy can only be avoided by keeping the action of investments stable. To obtain a constancy in the volume of investments, there are several means: exert an influence on the conditions of profitability (in particular on the interest rates). 'interest and on the volume of credit),



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directly control investments (in particular by monitoring emission and construction projects), modify public investments (by increasing or reducing the mass of labor due to the situation of private construction). If we manage to keep the volume of investments at a constant level, the national economy moves smoothly and smoothly. The parts of income that are not spent on consumption will then be spent on investments, so that the mass of money that is thrown into the market for purchases always meets the production costs already incurred. Supply will therefore always be faced with growing demand. "This is how Keynes sees future economic policy.

"Other disturbances in economic life - I call them simple crises of outlets -, for example the one we call today the world crisis, have occurred and will occur as long as we maintain the commercial link between the various savings, and when at some point in the flow the sale stops and the other members of the organization are crippled to an ever greater extent. As long as the simple market crises are caused by what is happening on the world market, they will reduce themselves to the extent that we detach the German economy from that market.

“However, even within the domestic economy, there is still enough scope for these market crises to occur. The main possibility is the case of war. In order to prevent the disturbances it causes in economic life, the problem of the war economy should be subjected to a full examination, which, moreover, has fortunately already been undertaken. Indeed, the theory of the economy of war is already, in our universities, the object of a special teaching.

“Another group of disturbances can be removed by the improvement of the system of our consumption: I am thinking in particular of the disturbances which are occasioned, for example, by variations in fashion. [...].

“According to the plan we have outlined for the organic distribution of the German economy, each sector requires a particular mode of management.

“The world of the peasant and artisan economy will have to be surrounded by the State with a wall of protection which will defend it from the interference of the capitalist spirit. Through special measures, the State must ensure that, in these two areas, each farm, 



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if reasonably managed, have a guaranteed income. In this regard, the principle of "subsistence" will have to be restored. The state will let individuals do as they please. What we can ask of the "private initiative" will relate mainly to the internal organization of the peasant and artisan enterprises to raise their production capacity, a highly developed cooperative system is all indicated, provided that it is devoid of everything. capitalist spirit. Moreover, the direction given by the State will be expressed through education and advice, which will make it possible to lend precious help to peasant and artisan organizations. An important task of economic policy will be to adapt these small farms to the requirements of consumption, both in terms of quantity and quality, and on the other hand to influence consumption so that it adapts to the conditions. rural and artisanal economy.

“As regards the economy of profitability, the main effort must have the effect, as I have already said, of preventing the principle of profitability from injuring superior interests. The state can directly influence the quantity and quality of production in public enterprises, but it will have to use detours in capitalist enterprises that still exist. The best means at his disposal to bring order to the latter sector is through the manipulation of credit. We have already said that the State must, at the very least, take direct control of the large credit institutions. [...]

“We must therefore organize a wise, but firm control system. This is understood to mean the obligation of a declaration relating to any new business foundation, any increase in capital, as well as any conclusion of cartels, and, consequently, the granting of concessions by the company. 'State: it is a legal situation that already exists in Italy. I spoke above of the need to have any invention declared and to be the subject of a concession. Likewise, the state must have the right to put an end to the activity of enterprises which, for whatever reason, have proved to be useless.

“To apply this policy of directing the economy, naturally a single, well-designed production plan is required, established on the basis of a" real economic balance sheet ".

"Within the limits that we have just sketched - to which we can still add the barriers posed by all the state measures that we understand under the term of" social policy ", and of which I have already spoken more high -, the capitalist economy will be able, temporarily, to have a "free" activity. Let's say instead: 



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impose new limitations on itself. To this end, it has already, over time, created specific bodies: the cartels. To them falls the task of establishing rational relations between production and consumption, and of regulating the prices on which the activity of this or that branch of the economy will have to be based. That the cartels must stop pursuing only a policy of profits, and instead put themselves at the service of the community, that is to say, all in all, exercise state functions (compulsory cartels?) And thus constitute a kind of capitalist set of corporations - this seems to me to be in line with an intelligent development of our economic constitution.

“The problem of property is not, for German socialism, an independent problem. The alternative which, for centuries, has given rise to so many violent struggles, often still fierce struggles, and which says private property or collective property, does not exist for us. Reasoning well, it is not a question of an or, but of an as well as: private property and collective property will subsist side by side. What should be noted above all is that private property itself is not unlimited, but dependent, that it is, if you will, a property given in fief - at least when it is. 'concerns the possession of the means of production or land. I fully subscribe to the way Othmar Spann sees the problem, when he says: "There is legally private property, there is in fact only collective property." The right to property no longer determines the principles of economic management, but the principles of economic management determine the extent and nature of the right to property: that is the important point.

"The State has still other possibilities to give, by an indirect influence, a right direction to the economy: these are the measures which we already know and to which any reasonably managed economy will preferably resort, because they constitute the better guarantee of an "organic" transformation of the current state into a new sensible economy. I'm thinking of fiscal policy, trade policy, monetary policy, etc.

“I only wish to point out that the methodical organization of economic life must naturally extend to our relations with foreign countries. When I spoke above of the organic distribution of the future economy, and consequently of the distribution of economic functions between the domestic economy and the economy of foreign countries, I indicated that German socialism 



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quite naturally aspires to create a national economy which is sufficient in itself, but nevertheless which no reasonable man could dream of a complete isolation, that is to say of a German autarky. Our relations with foreign economies will remain, however, it will be advisable not to abandon them, as above, to blind chance or, what amounts to the same thing, to the good pleasure of individuals eager for profit, but to submit them to the control of 'a supra-individual reason, that is to say of the State. The way in which economic relations with foreign countries will be regulated is perhaps even more important than the fixing of their volume, which I expressed by saying: "autarchy" is more important than "Autarky". But national autarchy resides in the fact that the categories in which we think of the international relations of the future are no longer those of free trade - where we found, in the first place, the disastrous most-favored-nation clause. - but that of a planned national policy: trade treaties, customs unions, preferential rights, quotas, import and export bans, barter trade, principle of reciprocity, monopoly of trade in certain articles, etc. [...].

"Since the war, we have been living in a "world crisis" of such magnitude that humanity has rarely known, except in the third and fourth centuries, perhaps even from the thirteenth to the sixteenth. century: in a time when all the relations of peoples between themselves and all the conditions of their internal life are being transformed and reformed. This crisis offers lost humanity the only possibility of finding the right path. It was sent to us by good Providence, to save us, and it must be considered and used by us as a means of salvation, so that it ultimately becomes a blessing.

“In the meantime, all the thoughts of the statesman must concentrate on one point: reestablishing the ruined economy and, above all, eliminating this unemployment which is such a heavy task for us. No one will deny that only the active intervention of the State, in particular by the creation of work opportu- nities, can remedy this. The problem arises thus: to undertake the fight against unemployment so that the measures taken by the State, that is to say the creation of work opportunities, at the same time contribute to the transformation of our national economy. [...]

“The state must therefore have the necessary purchasing capacity, which it then passes on to others. 



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“To obtain this purchasing capacity, two different means are available to the State: either it takes purchasing capacity from all those who already have it, or it creates it for itself. - even an additional one.

“The State comes into possession of the purchasing capacity that already exists: 1 ° by means of taxes; 2 ° by means of loans or lotteries; 3 ° by means of the donations he receives.

"If we neglect the cases where the State borrows from outside, or where the purchasing capacity which passes to the State comes from gold reserves which have been hoarded in kind, the purchasing capacity cannot come from than national income, ie the sum of the purchasing capacities that individuals have accumulated over the course of a year [212]. "

In the case of the New Economic Policy of the Soviet Union, which we have presented in full above, a few remarks must be made to the attention of the elites. In a centralized, planned economy, products and services are allocated by decisions made by a bureaucracy, according to a timetable, and prices are administratively set according to estimates of production costs that can easily turn out to be wrong ( underestimation) at the time of their concrete applications. As long as this system is a state policy, the system of price definition effectively makes it possible to extort resources from the mass. Moreover, as soon as the politics and propaganda of instilling fear and mistrust in the minds of the masses relaxes, prices become subsidies, and are used by the elite as a means of political seduction of the masses. So much so that in the end, everything that the planned industry produces, from food to housing, is subsidized without taking any efficiency criteria into account, which constitutes a obstacle to any rise in the average standard of living. This phenomenon is not desirable in a real liberal democracy, but it turns out to be as simple as it is useful for oligarchic collectivism.

Hitler's Germany is indeed a socialist and collectivist political system. It is based on a doctrine supported by very complete theories presented in books, and whose arguments are strong myths, rich and highly likely to maintain the spirit of the flock, and to give birth in the minds of a quasi faith, religious. These myths, very old for some,



[212] WERNER SOMBART, Deutscher Sozialismus (German Socialism - A New Theory of Society), 1934. 



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allow the German people to easily attribute them to themselves, and to be flattered and grown up by them. Uniforms, symbols, imagery, architecture are examples of the best information and propaganda can do in the 20th century. However, and curiously, its leader also seems to want to repeat, almost identically, the mistakes made by his model, Napoleon Bonaparte. Hitler did not take the time necessary to consolidate his power where he installed it; he moves on as soon as he has conquered a territory, and thus disperses his forces and weakens them. He has all the requisite intelligence, imagination and ingenuity that most other political leaders never had, but his ambition misguided; he lacks the wisdom of his direct political ancestor, Frederick II. It is easy for it to consolidate its power among the Ger- man peoples, and perhaps the Norse too, thanks to the doctrine and the myth which supports it, but the methods of the Communists of the Soviet Union would be much better suited to other peoples. who cannot identify with it. The Soviet Union, in fact, exists - miraculously one might say - thanks to an abstract and metaphysical political doctrine, which is not supported by any myth, but by a bureaucratic and autocratic organization as the sole unifying basis. Hitler's Germany is passionate and romantic; Soviet Russia is technical and devoid of everything that can fascinate men, and that is why it has much more need to resort to force than Germany within its borders to maintain orthodoxy and social structure.

Soviet Russia wrongly threw away old Russian myths and religion, and that is why it functions poorly within its borders; but, on the other hand, this is precisely what enables it to export its doctrine to the world more easily than Germany can.

National Socialist Germany owes the quality of its internal policy to the myth which supports its doctrine, and not to a high competence in internal policy which one could really find, for example, in Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte.

This is why the teaching that can be drawn from Sombart's testimony is only valid if it is associated with what was presented before in this same chapter. Industry disturbs Sombart in that the ideologist that he is sees in it only a mark of capitalism and profit. His point of view, regarding this particular subject, would change dramatically if he saw the role of the industrialist in society as we have done, and 



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as Plato did with the guardian of the city. This detail and a few others oblige us to make the following corrections and clarifications, which will conclude this article.

A minimum base salary, and a maximum salary, must be set by decree by the state. For example, if it is definitively established that an apprentice cannot earn less than 1000 francs per month, it will logically follow that his team leader will earn 1200, and so on up to the factory manager. . But it will also be established that the director cannot receive a salary more than three times higher than that of the apprentice, therefore 3000 francs. The industrial boss of his factory will belong, in fact, to the economic elite of the company, and his maximum salary of 3000 francs will be supplemented by special advantages provided by the State, according to the system invented by Plato. This provision should make it possible to eliminate the natural antagonism between workers and industrialists observed in all societies, and which is one of the main reasons for social unrest and economic dysfunction.

Inflation will be contained through state control over wages, and tight control over the amount of money issued by the central bank of issue.

Finally, the structure of society will be stabilized by zero growth, maintained artificially by a high tax rate, but which must be variable so that it adapts to increases and decreases in total industrial production. Nations collectively get an idea of ​​themselves through comparison with other Nations, which pushes them towards economic growth. It is necessary to grow in order to access the progress of science and industry, and also to face the problem posed by Wagner's law, in addition to what is already acquired and must be maintained in order to continue to exist and to serve . And, in turn, advances in science and industry in a given country cause its economic growth. If, under these conditions, the economic growth of that same country declines and then stagnates, then we say that it is entering a period of economic recession, simply because it can no longer maintain this perpetual cycle which, at the end of the day. looking at it does not necessarily lead to the best. The great control that oligarchic collectivism can exercise over the mass, beginning with strict regulation of wages, well-controlled inflation, and a discreet system of nationalization of industry, makes it possible to control mass demand, and to create substitute offers that will satisfy her, thanks to the progress already 



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accomplished in the field of information and propaganda. In this way, access to advances in science and industry can be limited to the state, which will use it to modernize its infrastructure and bureaucracy, and to reduce spending related to urbanization, education, medicine, etc. And the State will derive the benefit of an increase in its power over the masses, through current and exclusive access to a science that it cannot afford, or even to which access is legally prohibited.

Knowing that when the masses have current access - in particular through the purchasing capacity that their wages allow - to the latest innovations in science and industry, this translates into significant imports for the State, and therefore by a regular decrease in gold reserves if at least an equivalent volume of exports is not reached.

All this finally explains to the reader why the oligarchic collectivist state maintains, simultaneously and with the same care, a socialist doctrine and an industry directly inspired by the capitalist model. Collectivism makes it possible to control consumption and imports, and industry makes it possible to make the State strong, to offer it a great capacity of resistance against external enemies as against internal revolutions. "As in a well-organized government, the state must be rich and the citizens poor."

ECONOMIC SECURITY.

To speak of "economic security [214]" can mean two things which have little to do with each other. The first concerns the management of the country's economy, its industry and its exports and imports. The second concerns the dangers of acts of sedition within borders, and those of acts of sabotage and espionage by external enemies, which the first must fear. The first will be the logical continuation of everything that has been said in this chapter; the second should be understood as a natural transition to the fourth part of this essay, which corresponds to the realities of politics.

If we compare a country for a moment to the human body, the State is the brain which, thanks to the nervous system which extends it, controls all the organs and movements; and the industry is the heart,



[213] NICOLAS MACHIAVEL, The Prince, c. XVI, “The Partition of the Lands”, 1532.

[214] 3KOHOMunecKan 6e3onacHocmb in the text, which can also read “economic security”. 



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which, with its network of arteries and veins, supplies everything, including the brain. If the heart stops beating, the brain dies, and so does the whole body; but the beating of the heart remains controlled - not completely, but to a large extent, doctors tell us - by the brain.

As we have said, there is a strong relationship of reciprocal dependence between political power and industry, but political power remains the master. Thus, a large, prolonged general strike can be compared to a heart attack that can lead to the death of the whole body, as it affects not only the state and its political elite, but the entire population, since the new- born to old people. This is why, as we have said, the ruling elite must itself create or control the workers' unions in the country. And this is also why it must also create the industrialists, then firmly control their decisions.

The elite must also have an economic surveillance force attached to the political police, which will be responsible for overseeing all matters relating to the country's economy, and which usually escapes these controls. These are, in the first place, industrialists and foreign financiers who carry out their activities within the country. In addition, special laws and regulations must apply to these people, so that they cannot freely interfere in the economic affairs of the country, and even more so that they cannot get involved in industrial and economic activities which have a direct relationship with military security, such as the manufacture of armaments, and even the manufacture of special equipment and tools that can be used to manufacture military equipment, etc. This force must also have supervisory power over the banks, over financial and stock exchange activities, over the manufacturers of paper for coins and various securities, and over the printing presses of coins and securities.

By extension, similar limits should be imposed on industrial activities on which the country's military security indirectly depends. This concerns everything relating to: the supply and distribution of electricity, coal, gas and fuels in general; the steel industry ; rail, air and sea transport; spinning mills and tanneries; distribution and storage networks for agricultural products.

And the elite must still have another force for monitoring information, also attached to the political police, which will be responsible for monitoring the press, book publishing and printing in general, radio transmissions, the telephone and the telegraph. 



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A powerful, well-organized customs service with a large network of informants must exercise the utmost vigilance over imports, and must charge significant taxes on products that compete with those of the country's industry.

The soldiers form a mass of which we have not spoken so far; we finally come to it, and we will continue the discussion on this topic in the next part of this book.

There is, traditionally in history, an important and close relationship between economy and war, and therefore with armies, and in some respects there is even a relationship of interdependence.

First of all, as Frederick II already recommended, the ruling elite must be careful to treat the military with special consideration, because the military naturally possesses a physical force which they could use with ease, otherwise, to overthrow the military. ruling elite and seize political power by force, as Napoleon Bonaparte did in 1799, when he commanded the troops in Paris. Second, the armies must be placed under the control of civilian ministries and highly bureaucratized. Besides the control of the army that this last provision allows, these ministries - one for the army, one for the navy and one for the air force, in order to divide the power of the army - must logically spend a lot of time. orders to civil industry to acquire its equipment, ordinary materials and ammunition, supplies of mouths and fuels, etc. In this way, the State can create and maintain as it wishes factories which are only apparently private, by channeling funds through the armies.

This system offers three additional advantages:

1 ° It allows the armies to delegate military research to private industries, and thus to allow a significant saving by exploiting at the same time civil and military of the inventions carried out, and the machine tools which are used to manufacture them.

2 ° It allows, in the same factory, and thus for each factory in the country, to decide on the priority or exclusive beneficiary of a new invention, when it is very important and could not be made available to civilians, and therefore to draw a profit all the same.



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3 ° It makes it possible to create a system of concealment of public funds and of political decision-making, by asking, for example, a company which receives a payment from a ministry which will be increased, to proceed, “on its own initiative”. , to an investment abroad which must, in reality, serve a political interest - the choice of possible initiatives is very wide, and it inevitably affects diplomatic affairs.

And there is no shortage of ideas produced by the existence of a close relationship between armies and industry, since, as other examples, we could cite the opportunity to recruit officers who are loyal, competent and already experienced in commanding thousands. of men, to make them industrialists or directors of large factories. Or again, to ask the directors of factories that they regularly hire soldiers in their workshops and their offices, so that they, already accustomed to obeying faithfully to their hierarchy, and devoted to the service of their country, keep there a eye on civilian employees or teach them the principles of discipline and patriotic values.

Ultimately, such provisions allow an extremely rapid and total mobilization of industry in the service of the war effort, as if the workers, their foremen, their foremen and their directors, and thus even the engineers, for - keep a gigantic army which had been ignored as such until now.

Let us not forget that the elites of monarchies and empires have always been made of men who had demonstrated their qualities on the battlefield, or who were their descendants; political power most often finds its origins in war.

Regarding the dangers of sedition, sabotage and espionage that threaten virtually every industry, it is important that their management staff receive a minimum of education about them. The discontent who has a little charisma can easily bring indiscipline or mislead his colleagues at work, discreetly sabotaging a machine tool out of a simple spirit of revenge, infecting meat or a water tank on the orders of an enemy, or spy on a manufacturing method for the same. In principle, the recommendations which have been made so far in this book should greatly prevent such risks. Because it is also the role of the trade unions to channel the possible discontent so that they do not give rise to revenge of this kind; so that the resentments of individuals can be poured out through a collective action of the herd chosen by a chief. 



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Better to shut down a factory's production for a few days than the final destruction of some of its finest machines. The former soldier and the indicator who mingle with the crowd of workers are responsible for spotting the individuals who stay away from the herd, and others whose behavior is unusual or who ask too many questions. . Finally, the general education of the whole mass against these special evils of industry can also be done through posters which remind everyone what to do and what to say.

We have not cited any theoretician or seasoned practitioner of economic security because there is none, any more than economics identifies this specialty alongside the "theory of money" and that of "supply. and demand ”. In truth, economic security does not belong to economists, but to heads of state who, alone, and inspired by the facts of the past and diplomatic news, have the power to decide the degree of surveillance of the economy. the most appropriate. 



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259



FOREIGN POLICY

WAR IS PEACE.



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I. WAR AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

THE ARMY.

The soldier is the best servant of all types of government; it is an even more valuable aid for collectivist political systems, by virtue of the sole fact that, even in the most democratic countries, the army remains a collectivist society as hierarchical and as demanding with the individual as the army can be, more restrictive of communist societies. The hierarchy of the three classes of the army is explicit and constantly reminded of each of its individuals, with the help of gallons worn on uniforms, and by a specific label of which attention and salute are the main marks, more obvious ones. The soldiers of the lower class live in community in barracks where women are not admitted, and they sleep in large collective dormitories where all individuality is made impossible. Military society grants a little more privacy to the middle class of non-commissioned officers, but it remains there exactly what it is in civil society, the first serving the upper class of officers.

Strikingly, one does not enter the privileged circle of officers by climbing steps; one is admitted automatically, young, without previous command experience and without having had to demonstrate courage, by virtue of belonging to the elite of civil society, or of a higher education which, in a broad majority of cases, remains conditioned by membership in this elite. Just as the elite of civil society do, the elite of military society occasionally welcome a non-commissioned officer, when he has demonstrated exceptional qualities on the battlefield. In military society, the reception of the non-commissioned officer by the elite of the officers is a resurgence of the ennoblement of the old monarchical societies. The army of the Soviet Union is an exception to this rule, justified by an ideological doctrine of equality; there are colonels and generals who began their military careers at the rank of private.

But all the armies of all countries cultivate the same doctrine of asceticism, of renouncing one's will and individuality, 



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of the culture of the esprit de corps [215], of the sacrifice for an unspecified ideal which can be the king, the emperor, the Nation, the standard of the regiment or of the company of which it is made a worship, the hope for a coveted medal, or more simply camaraderie. Some former soldiers who have returned to civil society seek to forget their past and their memories of the war; others piously retain fond memories of camaraderie, a sense of security, and the tragic years of war which they nevertheless perceive as the happiest of their lives. But it must be said that after the War of 1870 which pitted the Germans against the French, the governments of these two Nations created, then maintained until today, a cult of the “hero soldier”. Death in war took on a meaning it had never had before, that of a voluntary and highly respectable sacrifice. The battlefield of strategists has become for the private soldier a "field of honor", and the political elites of Germany and France, immediately imitated by those of all the other countries, created or favored writing. a poetic and romanticized literature and songs which quickly gave birth to a myth of courage and sacrifice "under the flags". From the terrible fatality that it had been until then, because it took children from families, war gradually became a sacred experience. In 1890, the French government passed a law requiring municipalities to erect at their own expense, in their public squares, collective monuments in honor of soldiers who have "died for the country", a privilege until then reserved for highest dignitaries of the elite. It is from this date that we saw the appearance of a large number of "monuments to the dead", in France and Germany first of all, then in other countries.

But it must be said that the first signs of this novelty had logically accompanied the transition from the era of monarchies to that of nation states, at the very beginning of the last century, and even during the last years of the eighteenth century. There was, first of all, the event of the Levée en masse of 1793 in France, then, in this same country, the creation in 1795 of the first "national hymn", the Marseillaise, a song whose words encourage to war [216].



[215] In French in the text.

[216] The first words of this song are: “To arms, citizens, train, your battalions. 



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Napoleon Bonaparte created the Legion of Honor shortly after, in 1802; he was imitated, in Prussia, by Frederick William III, who created the Iron Cross (Eisernes Kreuz). Napoleon III again created the Military Medal in 1852; Queen Victoria of England created, in 1856, the Crimea Medal, to reward the soldiers who had been sent to Sevastopol to pull the armies of Napoleon III out of trouble. In 1914, a few weeks before the start of the Great War, the French government understood the value of creating a medal that could be granted more easily to ordinary soldiers, to encourage and reward them. This project was accepted and voted on at the end of this year, and this is how the Croix de Guerre was created.

In Russia, we understood the interest of decorations and medals from the transition period from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, and many distinctions were created for the military during this last century. But the new Soviet Union gave up this practice, perceived as bourgeois and individualistic, until 1930, when the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party finally decided to create the Order of Lenin (OpaeH JleHHHa), which does not exclusively reward soldiers and feats of arms.

During this war, one saw appearing, in Germany and in France especially, a whole propaganda imagery created for the attention of the masses, often presented in the form of postcards and vignettes. But at the same time another imagery was created presented in the same forms, showing ordinary soldiers dying in the arms of the Virgin or Christ, or rising to Heaven, carried away by angels. These images were to remind the families of the deceased that they had not died in vain, and that God knew how to reward their ultimate sacrifices. From that moment on, the elites maintained a cult of martyrdom who died for the fatherland, which was to consolidate the creation of a true religion around nationalism.

The army has therefore rapidly become, since the beginning of the 20th century, a true permanent society very distinct from ordinary and civil society, with its own uses, customs and rites and beliefs. There is a standing army in peacetime, which has a relatively small number of men, and which recruits massively by the use of force in wartime. Conscription helps build military strength in peacetime, prepares young individuals for the eventuality of war, and teaches them how to practice it.


"Let impure blood water our furrows." 



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But the army and conscription allow two other things in peacetime, both of which have nothing to do with war. The origin of the first of these two things is old and dates back to well before the 19th century; it is a question of purging civil society of its worst individuals, of those who, with a temperament inclined towards idleness, drink and violence, would otherwise serve it very badly. Thanks to the iron discipline it imposes on its men, and its law which punishes its deserters, the army serves to closely monitor these people, and to try to instill in them a healthier lifestyle, and the rules. most basic of life in society. The second thing, which the conscription brings in particular, is first a national census of young adults capable of performing logical tasks, followed by an accurate assessment of their temperaments, opinions, tastes and physical and intellectual capacities. . It is during their time spent "under the flags" that the officers, aided in this task by their assistants, the non-commissioned officers, can identify among them those who should be monitored when they are sent back to civil society. , and those who stand out from the mass by exceptional intellectual, moral, endurance, etc. qualities that society will gain by employing in responsible tasks (in administration or in industry; this is what a more in-depth second examination should determine).

WAR AS AN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL STIMULATOR.

It is recommended, at the end of the previous chapter, to establish a close relationship between the military and the industry. This is because, by reason of all that has just been explained, officers know men as well as psychologists, and know what makes them move forward as well. But also because the modern army has naturally established itself as an important player in civil society, in its economy as well as in its security. The Americans were the first to demonstrate this fact.

In 1916, an article in The Nation's Business, a newspaper published by the United States Chamber of Commerce, explained "that an economy mobilized [for the war effort] would bring about a sharing of responsibilities between the government and the industry ”. And, at the end of that same year, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce's Committee on National Defense wrote to the Du Pont company, that he hoped that "the ammunition issue would appear to be the best opportunity to encourage a new spirit of cooperation between government and industry ”. 



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A few months before the United States entered the war, the Advisory Committee of the National Defense Committee devised what has since become the entire system for purchasing supplies and war material, food control and press censorship. He spoke with representatives of the various activities of American industry, and recommended that industrialists also come together in committees to sell their products to the government, and to set their prices. Thus, there was one representative (Daniel Willard) for railways (which in the United States are private), one for ammunition and weapons (Howard Coffin), one for raw materials and minerals (Barnard Baruch), one for miscellaneous supplies (Julius Rosenwald), and one for labor supply (Samuel Gompers). The idea of ​​creating committees by industry, so that manufacturers can join forces and come to an understanding among themselves, was launched by Bernard Baruch.

One of the most important tools of this industrial organization of the war effort was the Conservation Division of the new War Industry Board, bringing together mainly the early industrialists of the country. The role of this Division was to encourage industry to save material resources, raw materials and men as much as possible, and to establish common labor and cooperation regulations in all factories. For example, propaganda aimed at the workers was to convince them that they were no longer working just for their subsistence, but out of patriotism and to help the war effort. Work in factories also became, thanks to this propaganda, a political activity similar to activism.

Thus the competition ordinarily inherent in the free enterprise of liberal democracies disappeared, resulting in its turn to the disappearance of the multiplicity of sizes, varieties and styles of the products of industry. A "standardization" (standardization) of sizes and measurements (of nuts, threads, fasteners, shirt collars, papers, etc.) appeared, and at the same time it simplified the lives of civilian consumers, like what was done in the army. From the point of view of these industrialists, the rationalized production of materials for war was a formidable lesson which, when applied to the manufacture of goods for civilians, made it possible to realize enormous savings of money, time and costs in research.



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Bernard Baruch observed that “'conservation' in times of war has abolished an unnecessary multiplicity in styles and models [...]. That it banned 250 different models of plows in the United States, not to mention the 755 types of drill bits previously made by countless small companies [...], and that mass production and distribution has become bare the law of the land [...]. This, from now on, will be the goal of the second quarter of the twentieth century: the standardization of American industry; to make wartime necessities a peacetime advantage."

It would be pointless, and even ridiculous, to list here the main drawbacks of war. We are therefore going to enumerate the advantages of war, since, not only there are some, but it has been shown that some stabilize societies, and that, paradoxically, they prevent them from disappearing completely.

First of all, war greatly stimulates the economy, industry and science, and it socially cleanses society; we have just seen how with regard to the economy and industry. War forces governments to encourage science in all fields: physics, mechanics, aeronautics, naval, chemical and even medical. This is all progress that then benefits all civilizations when wars are over. The war regulates a population growth which, at a certain point, produces nothing but unemployment, and a general boredom and idleness which inevitably spills out in the form of recessions and internal revolutions which do more harm still. War mobilizes minds, it excites the masses and makes people forget insignificant worries, it brings people together to give them a common identity and makes them move spiritually towards a common effort alongside the elite, it creates an understanding and a reciprocal admiration between the classes, it abolishes insignificant political disputes and irrelevant rivalries, it makes the masses dream of a singing tomorrows, it nourishes the spirits of hope, where, in peacetime, there is nothing striking or stimulating that anyone can hope for.

Perhaps there will come a day when the elites of each country will have reached a degree of maturity that will allow them to all get along, and to organize wars that will exist only in 



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the minds of the masses so that they finally calm down, and which, in the minds of those who will organize them, will be nothing more than amusing salon games. Perhaps science will finally find a better way to defeat the rampant demographics and ease the spirits.

The longest period of peace that Europe has ever known lasted only thirty-eight years: between the Congress of Vienna which ended the Napoleonic wars and the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815, and the armed intervention in the Crimea of ​​Napoleon III, his nephew, in 1853. Between these two dates, there were revolutions in almost all the countries of Europe, including two in France.

POLITICAL AND GEOPOLITICAL GEOGRAPHY.

The diplomat and the strategist must look at maps and atlases with a different eye from that of the geographer and the politician; he must look at them by making himself both a geographer and a politician, yes, but also observing, to the letter, the general principles which follow.

Geography has occupied an increasingly important place in the life of the peoples of Central Europe from the 18th century until today, and in particular in that of the Germans. Really, it gradually became a science in its own right in Germanic Europe, when it was included in this particular current of philosophical and scientific thought whose origins must be found in Emmanuel Kant; we will see how and why.

As the 19th century drew to a close, Germans' growing interest in naval power rivaled their long-standing interest in land power. When this degree of equal interest was reached, the geographer Friedrich Ratzel was the first to speak of “political geography”. In his Political Geography, or the Geography of States, of Circulation and of War (Politische Géographie oder die Géographie der Staaten, des Verkehrs und des Krieges), published in 1897, Ratzel laid down the main subject matter, and debated it. Inevitably, he saw war there as an important aspect of politics and geography. His scientific mindset obliged him to treat political phenomena from the angle of geography, but without referring to a particular Nation. Towards the end of his life, Ratzel allowed himself to slightly cross the boundaries of self-imposed scientific perception, due to an enthusiasm in his country for the burgeoning German naval power; but, clearly, he only did so reluctantly. The mention of this personal detail concerning Ratzel owes only our concern to draw attention to the dangers which there are, for the strategist, the politician and the diplomat, to confuse political geography and realities in policies.



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Some students and followers of Ratzel have happily crossed this limit he had set himself, mainly to better respond to the demands and hopes of politicians. It is worth mentioning in particular, in this regard, a Swedish professor of political science, Rudolf Kjellén, who intimately associated political science and geography to launch what he called "geopolitics" (geopolitik) . Like Ratzel, Kjellén saw the state as a growing organic entity. Kjellén even speaks of the existence of a "biology of the state" (staatsbiologie) [217]. It is about the expression of an adhesion of the new States of the beginning of our century to certain principles, to certain general conceptions of the world which quickly became for them like their flesh and their living substance, and which make that their Law perception is inextricably linked to the powerful myths embodied therein. This is what gave rise, for example, to the current slogan: "One people, one empire, one guide" (Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer), which sums up a general philosophy which alone allows , to grasp the unity which links in a coherent whole the constitutional organization of the German Reich and laws such as the “Nuremberg laws” against the Israelites, or those which prescribe the sterilization of degenerates. And Kjellén specifies something that Ratzel would perhaps have refrained from saying: that "the territory is not a fortuitous accessory or a detachable and interchangeable annex of the person of the State, but a content of its nature. ; content which, in many respects, determines the acts of this personality and all its development [218]. "

If Kjellén's geopolitics is one day to be regarded as a science, or at least as a discipline taught in universities, the great influence that Ratzel exerted on Kjellén will not make the former a "geopolitician" , nor a precursor of this geopolitics which now seems to have firmly taken root in Germany. Ratzel will remain a geographer attached to the study of politics and strategy,



[217] RUDOLF KJELLEN, Der Staat als Lebensform, 1917.

[218] Ibid, p. 80. 



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to be classified in the same category as Alfred T. Mahan and Halford J. Mackinder. On the other hand, it is difficult to question the relevance of the observations of the geographer Karl Haushofer, who fully accepted the term geopolitician, and who gave an interesting follow-up to the bases laid down by Kjellén. But, it is indisputable, Ratzel did lay the foundations for the teaching of political geography without which Kjellén and Haushofer would undoubtedly be strangers today, and the word "geopolitics" even more - it all revolves around this. notion of the State considered, in a certain sense, as an "organic entity". This concept of organic entity - which we have seen regularly appear in Sombart's speech - can easily be associated with political science, because it has appeared in several branches of science, and because we can calmly presume that it comes from Darwinism and from some other advances in the field of biology made during the last century.

But the basis of Ratzel's analysis remains the “space” (raum) occupied by political groups, and which constitutes the fifth and final part of Political Geography. This idea was also taken up again by Kjellérn and Haushofer, and represented in the form of a "living space", comparable in its idea to "the house where we live", and called lebensraum (habitat).

The interest of Haushofer's work lies in the synthesis he made of the observations of Ratzel, Kjellén, and also of Mackinder, of which we will speak later, which allowed him to make geopolitics an intellectual concept, and a method policy. He defined himself as a theoretician belonging both to the body of geographers and to a group of specialists in political science.

If we try to identify the concepts of “spaces” of geopolitics, we only find five fundamental ones. Two of these five concepts are applications of theoretical geography; two others are proposals for the organization of the world, one is an idea posed by Mahan, and more particularly Mackinder, and the fifth is a simplification tool.

I. "autarchy" (autarchy), as a word used in geopolitics, signifies an ideal of nationalist withdrawal and autonomy, in the economic sense of these notions; Sombart, Hitler and others often use it. The autarky of geopolitics is based on the postulate that any political unit should be able to produce whatever the Nation needs. 



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Thus, the State must be in an economic balance situation, and not depend on imports of foreign products - hence the obligation of a domestic policy strictly organized by successions of economic plans (three-year, four-year, five-year, etc.), and firm ground control.

It is obvious that there is no area smaller than the whole world which would contain all the products useful to man; hence the difficulty of achieving the state of autarky, and the need to give the greatest importance to a controlled industry and to take great care of agriculture. Otherwise, true autarky can never be achieved without a tacit, organized, interdependent and peaceful generalization of imports and exports of manufactured goods and raw materials in the world. Even the largest country does not have all the types of climates which, together with particular irrigations and soils, determine agricultural capacity and that of the timber industry. The distribution of minerals is so erratic, that even in a state that enjoys all types of climates, nothing can guarantee that everything is available to obtain anything, including the minerals necessary for the harmonious functioning of an endowed Nation. of a modern industry.

If Germany had been able to achieve a satisfactory state of autarky - since, consequently, autarky can only be relative - she could only have done so by importing immense quantities of the raw materials of which it most needed, in order to maintain its extremely diverse and varied industrial productions. And, despite this, it still should have imposed restrictions on its population. Autarky, at this price, is therefore dearly paid. In addition, autarky is a capricious thing, because it can easily disappear when resources are depleted, or a scientific discovery creates a sudden and important demand for others. The Third Reich - just like Japan - could not achieve an autarky independent of any obligation of reserves and storage, contrary to what its propaganda, however well done, sought to make its masses believe during the 1930s. But it did not. could publicly reveal the real means he was about to use to achieve this, since he would have revealed his plans to the whole world at the same time. And when the German elite set out to do

[219] This point was explained in detail in the article dealing with planning, in Chapter II of Part III devoted to the economy. 



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accepting the mass of the efforts necessary to achieve this autarky, the daily sacrifices that were then theirs could only generate a transformation of local resources, and those, limited, which were imported, into articles to serve the preparation of the war. This is the origin of the sentence of the Reich Minister for People's Education and Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, during his speech of June 17, 1936: "We can get by without butter, but, despite everything our love for peace, we cannot do it without weapons 220 ”. Then, more clearly, in a speech given the following summer, the head of the Four Year Plan (Vierjahresplan) and Autarky, Hermann Goring, said: “Rifles will be our strength; with butter, we would only make fat [221]”.

It is useful for the reader of this book to know the succession of events which led to this important, and still recent, political step in Germany today.

On June 1, 1933, the German government passed the Unemployment Reduction Act (Gesetz zur Verminderung der Arbeitslosigkeit). The Reich Labor Service {Reichsarbeitsdienst - RAD) was to bring out of unemployment nearly 1 million unemployed within four years; this marked, in particular, the beginning of the construction of a broad national road called "Reichsautobahn" (or, "the road of Adolf Hitler"), then of a network of roads of this kind 222. This plan led to a considerable increase in Reich spending: from around 5 billion marks in 1932 to 30 billion in 1938. In this last year the number of unemployed has fallen from 6 million to almost no unemployed. knowing that conscription alone absorbed 1 million men. In 1933, an agricultural aid law was also passed; this ensured that the farmers could sell their crops and products at a fair price. Many factories and workshops were opened to manufacture equipment for the armies. The Air Force (Luftwaffe) began to recruit a large number of personnel, the majority of which were engineers and administrative employees.

The new plan of 1934 stopped imports and granted subsidies and loans to industry; this was the beginning of “autarky”, organized by the Minister of the Economy, Hjalmar Schacht. The Reich Ministry for People's Education and



[220] (Wir kônnen ohne Butter auskommen, aber trotz garlic unserer Friedensliebe nicht ohne Waffen. Mit Butter kann man nicht schiefien, aber mit Gewehren.)

[221] (Gewehre werden uns stark machen; Butter wird uns nur Fett machen.)

[222] In 1941, 3,819 kilometers of Reichsautobahn had been built since 1933. 



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Propaganda (Reichsministerium fur Volksaufklàrung und Propaganda - RMVP) recently created, and led by Joseph Goebbels, launched an information campaign to convince the German mass of the benefits of autarky, and the possibility of achieving it "naturally". Industrial production has increased sharply, and more particularly the extraction and refining of petroleum, the extraction of coal, the steelworks and the manufacture of powders and explosives. Trade unions suspected of Marxist sympathies (the NSBO, in particular) were banned, and workers had to join the German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfroni), which had already absorbed the employers' union the year before. The German Labor Front was founded on the ideology of the “people's community” (Volksgemeinscha.fi), and its mission was to spiritually transform industrial societies into communities in which workers, foremen , foremen, engineers, directors and bosses were to collaborate harmoniously, thanks to the educational work of "staff representatives". The right to strike was prohibited, as were wage increases, whether requested or offered. The workers no longer had the right to leave the company which employs them to go and work in another, unless they were ordered to do so. The refusal to work was declared punishable by imprisonment. Workers were offered vacation stays, theater, cinema and concert tickets at reduced prices.

Leni Riefenstahl presented, in March 1935, the film Triumph of the Will (Triumph of the Willens), which shows the great Nuremberg rally of 1934; in Germany, the cinematograph reinforced propaganda with great effectiveness.

In 1936, Hermann Goring was commissioned by Hitler to launch a four-year plan to best associate industry with the armies. In order that all Germans could profit from the Reichsautobahn, a team, led by engineer Ferdinand Porsche, developed the “people's car” (Volkswagen) which, in accordance with Hitler's request, was to be able to transport two adults and three children at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour, and was not to be sold for more than 990 marks - at a time when the German worker was making 32 marks a week, or so. The Reich Chancellor wanted German citizens to have as easy access to car ownership as Americans. All the research done to build the civilian Volkswagen was used to 



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the rapid production of a model for the Army (Wehrmacht), whose engine and almost all parts in general are identical and interchangeable; this is the Kùbelwagen ("basin car"). Many products manufactured in German factories have names beginning with "volks" (people). This is the case with the Volksempfànger radio receiver ("people's receiver"), developed by engineer Otto Griessing at the request of the Reich Minister for People's Education and Propaganda, Goebbels [223], who made sure that there could be one in every household, since August 1933, thanks to a very cheap price of 76 marks - that is to say the equivalent of two weeks of wages. Almost everywhere in Germany, you can see posters advertising the Volksempfànger, the text of which says: "All of Germany listens to the Fuhrer with the Volksempfànger [224]".

Between 1933 and 1938, the state planning recreation organization Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy) organized around 134,000 events across Germany, which attracted 32 million participants, of whom 2 million went on cruises. and on holiday weekends, and 11 million at the theater. It has been possible, since 1936, to acquire a Volkswagen by paying only 5 marks per week.

Didn't Frederick II recommend to his successors: "Give little and often: it is an infallible means of making men happy [225]".

With preparation, a rapid military attack on another country can be launched at any time; this is what the Germans call blitzkrieg ("lightning war"). The power to decide the moment of this attack gives the aggressor country a considerable advantage, particularly when the potential enemy is not in such a rush to go to war, or failed to see the danger - we We will discuss this particular problem in the next article of this chapter. As soon as one country goes to war with another, the pursuit of a policy of mass restriction greatly increases the hope of a quick victory. The state that engages in this type of program must hope to be immune to attack by an enemy while it



[223] Joseph Goebbels has a personal collection of propaganda books which is arguably one of the most comprehensive in the world on this subject. We know that he has read and particularly enjoyed everything that Edward Bernays and Wilfred Trotter wrote.

[224] "Ganz Deutschland hôrt den Fùhrer mit dem Volksempfànger".

[225] Frederick II, Die Poiitischen testamente, “De la politique”, 1752.



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is still reorganizing its internal resources and building up reserves (arms, ammunition, food and raw materials, etc.). Then, when his military might reaches the maximum degree he can hope for, he can threaten to attack for concessions, or attack without officially declaring war. With a little "luck" he can hope to win. The luck we are talking about here may be an unprepared enemy with a poorly organized or slow troop command system, or a mass that has not been prepared for this eventuality, and who, caught off guard and frightened, falls away. easily returns to the enemy, or even an enemy whose elite are very unpopular and whose masses welcome the invader with the hope of a better future [226], etc.

Then, if this State manages to make its perpetual domain of the country which it conquered, it will have annexed at the same time arable land and natural resources which will greatly increase its autonomy; in other words, its autarky.

Without an economic plan for war, or propaganda designed to popularize the political elite and convince of the existence of a bright future after a sacrifice, no government can count on the indispensable support of its people; it is a cardinal rule that all elites and all strategists know. Achieving real autarky within the borders, without annexing one or more other territories, would only be a painful method of reducing the standard of living of the masses. War is a necessity which is part of the continuity, to a greater degree, of the natural selection of species demonstrated by Darwin.

We have specially matched this definition of autarky with the most recent historical example of economic planning and mass rationing in Germany, to demonstrate that these measures, typically, herald a government's decision to commit. in a war to achieve autarky. If Germany had been satisfied with its economic plan and its propaganda, without annexing any territory thereafter, it would have ended up in a situation of national bankruptcy, and its elite would have been quickly overthrown by another, national probably, but more certainly foreign or in the more or less discreet pay of a foreign country. 



[226] We can say that the latter case, if it seems improbable a priori, nevertheless occurred, as it is, on the occasion of the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938. 



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However, if all countries were to follow Germany's lead in the hope of achieving self-sufficiency, none would succeed. For each would have prepared for the eventuality of war, and would thus be in a position to offer strong and rapid resistance to any attempt at annexation. The decision of economic planning and a wider use of propaganda can only lead to two outcomes: the annexation of one or more territories, or the definitive economic withdrawal and the reduction of the average degree of consumption of the mass. until it corresponds to domestic production.

From a higher point of view, if, in the years to come, the world population continues to increase, and the industry is not able to employ all the individuals capable of working, and thus provide a means of subsistence to all families, our civilization will enter a period of diplomatic tensions and chronic wars, and the elites of all countries, including those most advantaged in resources, will find themselves obliged to impose socialist political doctrines on the masses. , National Socialist and Communist, including the United States. Liberal economic democracy is destined to disappear, because, as soon as it seeks autarky, it will soon impose restrictions on the mass which will have to be justified by a collectivist doctrine and by new myths.

II. The “Lebensraum” {space of life or habitat), designates in geopolitics the right of a Nation - we hardly speak any more of kingdom or empire today - to a territory large enough to suitably accommodate and support its population. . In addition to the notion of land area, the lebensraum includes all material and human resources existing everywhere within borders and in all possessions and settlements. The claim of this right is based as much on a fact as on a theory [227].



[227] For example, in addition to land, each country claims marine areas whose beginning is the coast. The Romans claimed as their territories the sea areas located beyond the coasts of their territorial possessions, hence the expression of that time "mare nostrum" (our sea). When, from the 15th century, shipbuilding and navigation methods were modernized, we no longer limited ourselves to navigating carefully along the coasts, which opened a way to new territorial discoveries, and therefore to new conquests. military, political and economic. The Portuguese were the first to claim “oceanic territories”, which they attempted to have internationally recognized by obtaining a bull from Pope Nicolas V for this (Romanus Pontifex, 1455). Hugo Grotius, editor of the famous De juere belli ac pacis (On the Law of War and Peace), published in 1625, also wrote Mare Liberum (On the Freedom of the Seas), in 1609, in which he demonstrates that the oceans do not belong 



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to no country in particular, and to all in general. Immediately, in the same year, 1625, the Portuguese published De Iusto Imperio Lusitanorum Asiatico (From the Just Portuguese Asiatic Empire), at a time when they were disputing the use of sea routes with the Dutch. The English, who had also engaged in a struggle for the domination of the seas with the Dutch, to import raw materials and all kinds of goods to them cheaply, opposed, as did the Portuguese and the Dutch, according to the treaty of Grotius, and they claimed as their marine territory the oceans which bordered the English coasts. The Englishman John Selden wrote his own treatise, Mare clausum (Closed Sea, or Private Sea), in 1635, in which he attempted to argue this “territorial” claim. Finally, the Dutch jurist Cornelius Bynkershoek published in 1702 his treatise De dominio maris (Du Domaine marin) which proposed that each country could legitimately claim possession of a strip of sea along its coasts 3 miles wide. sailors (about 5.5 kilometers), logically defined by the maximum range of a gun. This proposal has been almost universally accepted until today.

[228] In German geopolitics, in particular, the expansion of the great powers is considered only; the little ones are bound to disappear. We admit that 



Deutsches Wehrjetiet

Deutsches Reichsaebist

Gesdtlosserwr- deutsdierWksboden

Bero'cb deutechen Sprsch -
und Kultureinf lusses

Verselisldndlgtsr DâmisA /




MAP I. Map of Haushofer's Germanic Lebensraum, published in Weltpolitik von Heute (1935). Translation of captions: Deutsches wehrgebiet (German Defense Zone). Deutsches Reichsgebiet (German Reich). Geschlossener deutscher volksboden (German national territory). Bereich deutschen Sprach und kultureinflusses (German Linguistic and Cultural Zone). Verseibstàndigter flàmish / niederlàndischer Raum (Autonomous Flemish people / Dutch space). We have added a black line which shows the political borders of Germany in 1935, defined since the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, which highlights, to the east, the large extent of claimed territory.

The fact is the differential increase in population between Nations; the populations of each Nation do not increase in the same way. The theory says that the state is an organism subject to "biological" laws. A corollary of this theory is that a young and growing state must grow [228]. 



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The notion of lebensraum rests on an opinion justified by a goal of survival and territorial and political expansion, and not on a fact which could be scientifically demonstrated. This point, in particular, marks the important difference between the impartial and objective approach to political geography and the one-sided one, based on non-logical arguments specific to all geopolitics. Political geography serves an objective observation of history and its present results, and, to a certain extent, the prediction of possible developments and transformations in the future. Geopolitics serves the strategist and the politician; it can lead as much to logical observations as to others which are not necessarily logical, because they depend on diplomatic, political, economic or military actions which will be, or which will not be undertaken. As a result, each country can virtually have its own geopolitics, and in this case not every geopolitics of each country will produce the same observations, nor lead to the same assumptions and theories. Geopolitics goes beyond all the universalist reveries of ideologists and philosophers [229].

In order for it to be of any interest and justify important political decisions - in our opinion, which is not necessarily, or not yet, that of the Germans - geopolitics must necessarily be supplemented by specific mathematical logical formulations. An example of these formulations was proposed in 1928 by the mathematician Jànos Lajos Neumann, of the University of Berlin, under the name of “board game theory” (theory der gesellschaftsspiele) 230. By "board game" is meant here that a rivalry between two countries can be metaphorically and theoretically reduced to a game between two, or even more than two parties (as happened during the Great War, and produced again today).

Neumann poses the problem in this article as follows: “The question which justified this work is this: great powers may decline, but declining or slowing growth in Germany is never envisaged. We can point out that this peculiarity of German geopolitics makes it a political ideology which is not necessarily based on logical or rational arguments.



[229] This is probably why Bismarck said to a French colonialist in the 1880s, in essence, "Your map of Africa is fine, but my map of Africa is in Europe." Here is Russia, and here is France, and here in between we are. This is my map of Africa ”.

[230] J. V. Neumann, <Zur theory der gesellschaftsspiele>, Mathematische Annaien, 1928. 



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“N players, S1, S2, S3, play a given board game. What strategy X does one of these players have to employ in order to get the best possible result?

“This problem is well known, and it arises every day in our daily life when we have to make a decision that should get us what we want. In any case, the answer to this question is never clear, because it is conditioned by several variables which are each determined by our own decision - the result is more and more difficult to anticipate as the number of players (and therefore of possible decisions) increases. Because, as soon as n> 1 (ie an action during the game), the result that each player can hope for depends on his own choice of action in response, then on that of the other players. However, we know that the behavior of each player during the game is conditioned by a personal interest which is exactly the same as that of all the other players. Knowing all this, we need to determine what will be the best choice of action for the first player [ie us] [231]. "

This theory has just undergone tremendous development this year with the publication in the United States, by Neumann and economist Oscar Morgenstein, of a voluminous essay entitled Theory of Games and Economie Behavior {Theory of Games and economic behavior). Since then, it seems obvious to us that any political action to be undertaken from the point of view of geopolitics can only be reasonably done after a preliminary analysis according to Neumann's game theory, which implies 'establishment of rectangular grids summarizing the possible choices for each player following a decision taken beforehand by one of them, and so on. However, the great complexity of the formulation of game theory in this last work will certainly oblige geographers, politicians and strategists to attribute to themselves the collaboration of mathematicians when making proper and thorough use of it.



[231] "Die Frage, deren Beantwortung die vorliegende Arbeit anstrebt, ist die folgende: n Spieler, S], S2, ■ S„ spielen ein gegebenes Gesellschaftsspiel. Wie muss einer dieser Spieler, X spielen, um dabei ein môglichst gûnstiges Résultai zu 
erzielen ?

Die Fragestellung ist allgemein bekannt, und es gibt wohl kaum eine Frage des tâglichen Lebens, in die dièse Problem nicht hineinspielte; trotzdem ist der Sinn dieser Frage kein eindeutig klarer. Denn sobald n > 1 ist (d. h. ein eigentliches Spiel vorliegt), hangt das Schicksal eines jeden Spielers ausser von seinen eigenen Handlungen auch noch von denen seiner Mitspieler ab; und deren Benehmen ist von genau denselben egoistischen Motiven beherrscht, die wir beim ersten Spieler bestimmen machten."



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Another difficulty inherent in taking lebensraum into account in political decision-making is that a State cannot be objectively and scientifically considered as a “biological organism”, since it is only a question of a view. of the metaphorical mind which does not add anything useful to scientific reasoning. There is no such thing as "natural law" which allows it to be said that a state must "grow" or "regress". In addition, the soil that Germany has traditionally described as its lebensraum consists of part of Europe extending eastward, in an area where the population is largely Slavic. And the population increase in this Slavic region was greater than in Germany. According to the lebensraum theory, the increase in the vital surface area of ​​this region is therefore much more justified than that of Germany. The lack of logic in the positions taken by geopoliticians can be demonstrated in another way.

Until the succession of events of the current world war provoked - to everyone's surprise - the domination and occupation of France by Germany, Germany had never claimed a lebensraum which extended westward, beyond the Germanic-French linguistic area of ​​Eurasia. And we can add that the French population has declined considerably, compared to that of Germany, for several decades. This again demonstrates that the lebensraum theory, as we know it today, was only imagined to serve German expansionist land claims and traditional politics - east rather than west. And besides, Hitler made Lebensraum the main claim of the doctrine he exposes in Mein Kampf, which makes it a myth. Because we must admit that Hitler is endowed with a charisma and a force of conviction that only Napoleon Bonaparte had before him, and which make him capable, if he wishes, of killing a mouse by passing it off as a dragon for all to see.

Attempts to acquire lebensraum involve: either war; or recourse to the effective threat of war, as the events which have occurred since 1938 have demonstrated. One cannot conclude otherwise than by saying that the lebensraum theory, although it is geographic in nature, is in its way a political and military tool. It only exists to provide (pseudo)scientific arguments for conquering ambitions that are commonly found in almost all governments. 



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III. The “Pan-Ideen” 232 is a generalization applied to several regions of the world of the idea of ​​“Pan-Germanism”, as explained by Charles Andler in his essay, Le Pangermanisme, ses German expansion plans around the world (1915). In other words, a pan-ideen can be the cartographic projection of what strategists and politicians have called, since the end of the last century, a "sphere of influence", that is to say a large territory in which a country exercises influence (political, economic or military) on another, or on several others. If one seeks to project the Monroe doctrine on a map, one will obtain the whole of the American continent, from Cape Horn to the northern limits of Canada, and all the islands of the Caribbean region will also be included. If we do the same with Russia, we will find a region that will go beyond its strict borders, and which will encompass Karelia, Komis, Belarus, Ukraine, Transcaucasia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkestan, Yakutia and still other countries. If we do the same with Japan, we will find Manchuria, French Indochina, and many islands, including Formosa. The most recent news allows the reader to understand the vast territory of Germany today. These four large territories, which each have the size of a continent, being under the greater or lesser influence of one of the countries which compose them, are pan-ideen, which we can each call "Pan - America ”,“ Pan-Russia ”,“ Pan-Asia ”and“ Pan-Germania ”.

However, Haushofer's geopolitics and Mackinder's political geography make virtual projections yet different from these pan-ideen. Mackinder objectively divides the world into zones defined by geography and by an observation of history since antiquity, but he locates a "central pivot" (central pivot) in present-day Russia, quite apart, to the east, the most distant German claims.

Haushofer has a more advanced view of pan-ideen because, of course, he is their inventor; but as soon as one strips one's conception of geopolitics of its patriotic attributes, one finds points of view and theories much more advanced than



[232] The word pan is of Greek origin; it indicates the idea of ​​an encompassing of things (here of territories) which must form a whole. 



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those of Mackinder who, for his part, implicitly took sides against the terms of the Treaty of Versailles - with good reason, it must be said; we know why today. First of all, Haushofer thinks of a "new European order" which, ultimately, will absorb the African continent, in order to fully appropriate its resources, to extend further east and become a "Eurasian order". German. Either way, he hears that the world is called to be divided into four pan-ideen, and maybe even just three.

For a long time, it was customary in Germany to demand that political boundaries be extended to encompass regions where a large percentage of people speak German, without regard to their respective historical pasts. The course of such frontiers can vary greatly; the Dutch and Flemish languages ​​are assimilated to German, and it would still be possible to find justifications of this kind by going back higher towards the north of Europe, and even towards the west as far as England. But the period of Pan-Germanism, which we situate between the years 1890 and 1918, precisely gave rise to greater territorial ambitions. German geopoliticians have established yet other maps on the basis of a “cultural space” and a “commercial space”, with the sole aim of finding a justification for their territorial claims, and the idea of ​​making The German lingua franca of commerce in the Slavic region of Europe was advanced.

The territorial aspirations of geopoliticians go even further, as we briefly mentioned above. As substitutes for the Germanic cultural ideal to justify the conquest of a large territory, they envision a political aggregation of the world in three or four pan-ideen. Each of these vast regions is supercontinental. 



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MAP 2. This planisphere was produced from the texts of geopoliticians, and not from their maps. No precise border separating the pan-ideen is proposed. Political borders are said to exist, except that of the eastern region of Siberia. An alternative subdivision, drawn in dotted lines, separates a future German Eurasia which stretches, from west to east, from France, Spain and England to Siberia, and, from north to south, from the Arctic Circle to to the Antarctic Polar Circle, including Africa and the Arabian Peninsula along the Indian border.

There are variants of the map presented above, where we find: 1) a “Pan-America”, designed by the Americans to protect themselves against the naval powers of England and France towards the end of Napoleon's Empire. Bonaparte, and which was put into practice under the name of the Doctrine of Monroe; 2) a “Pan-Asia”, whose name, this time imagined by the Japanese, is “Sphere of co-prosperity of Greater East Asia” (^ KS & âêlII). On August 1, 1940, the Prime Minister of Japan, Matsuoka Yôsuke, introduced a new policy aimed at establishing a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", controlled by Japan and including Manchukuo [233], Southeast Asia, East Siberia and, if possible, the islands north of Australia, India and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. This new, very ambitious policy was made plausible by the annexations of France and Holland by Germany, which led to the loss of the political and military powers of these two countries in Southeast Asia during the same year. Japan immediately sent troops to occupy Indochina in June 1940, two months before and at the same time as the German occupation of France.



[233] Manchoukuo, or "Great Manchu State", designates Japanese Manchuria, formalized in 1932. 



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And, on September 27 of the same year, it signed the Tripartite Pact proposed by the Germans (also signed by Italy, and by several Slavic countries, it is interesting to note here [234]). Because Japan is one of the first countries to have abandoned political geography in favor of geopolitics; and he did so with enthusiasm, thanks to Haushofer's personal influence. It must be said that geopolitics offers the Japanese the rhetoric that was lacking in the military spirit of its elite, to argue an ambition of territorial conquest that already exists. In the minds of the Japanese political elite, this ambition is justified by a need for resources, but even more by the ideology of the "New Order in East Asia" which has existed since long before the idea of ​​the Sphere of. co-prosperity of Greater East Asia [235]. This new ideology, inspired by German National Socialism, is opposed to liberal capitalism of American origin, and it presents the attack on Pearl Harbor much more as the symbol of the beginning of political reform, than as a demonstration of force to compel the United States to admit Japanese hegemony in Asia. The entry into the war of Japan against the United States was the first step leading to the construction of a regional economic sphere, scientifically advanced and economically autonomous, an exact copy of the German Grossraumwirtschaft [236].

German geopoliticians tacitly agreed, it seems, on a temporary existence of Pan-America and the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", until Western Eurasia became the only one. 'Eurafrique, that it has integrated its different peoples and cultures, and has stabilized. When it has reached this stage, it will have to concentrate its efforts on absorbing these two other pan-ideen.



[234] Hungary signed the Tripartite Pact on November 20, 1940; Romania on November 23, 1940; Slovakia on November 24, 1940; Bulgaria on March 1, 1941, and Yugoslavia on March 25, 1941.

[235] The "New Order in East Asia" (ïffiSi & l?) Had been announced on December 22, 1938 by the Prime Minister of Japan, Fumimaro Konoe, but its application was then limited to North-East Asia. The annexation of France by Germany changed everything.

[236] Grossraumwirtschaft (Great Economic Area) is a popular maxim of the German planned economy, intimately linked to the notion of lebensraum, which designates an economic autarky in which south-eastern Europe is used to supply first-class products. need to meet the needs of a Germany perceived as an industrial center. 



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MAP 3. This map was produced from a geopolitical text describing a final stage following that of the previous map, where there are only three pan-ideen left. No precise border separating the pan-ideen is proposed, except a continental border separating Russia and China. Political boundaries are supposed to exist.



IV. A "Pan-region" which combines a western Eurasia dominated by Germany, and which is fed by Africa to form the "Eurafrique" (which at the same time allows to dominate the Mediterranean Sea since Gibraltar to the Dardanelles, and therefore to control the shipping routes to Russia and the Middle East). Not only are the less powerful countries absorbed into this Eurafrica, but the current allies signatories of the Tripartite Pact are also placed under German domination and no longer have any political independence. However, it is recognized that the conquests of the British Isles and the vast territory of the Soviet Union will be difficult stages.

A temporary solution to the problem of the difficult annexation of the Soviet Union consists in “encouraging” this country to form a Pan-Russia (see Map 2.) which will be strategically caught “in a vice” between Eurafrica and the Sphere of co-prosperity of Greater East Asia, and which will have a southern territorial limit set by the tip of India. Thus, this Pan-Russia will remain stuck in the north of the world, and will not be able to find any territorial extension beyond the equator, nor even reach it, unlike the other pan-ideen. India, already too populated, will not be able to provide the Soviet Union with all the resources it needs to reach the lebensraum.



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An alternative to this solution would be for Germany to conquer the Soviet Union, with the help of Japan, and to temporarily abandon India and Eastern Russia to this ally, in exchange (c do you see the dotted line of the
Map 2).

Whether the world is ultimately divided into four or three political units is a theoretical question of minor importance. It is the existence of several pan-ideen which preoccupies the German geopoliticians; they admit its existence with regret, but not their respective validity, however. This remark concerns in particular the current British Empire, and, to a lesser extent, the other empires located beyond the oceans. These political aggregates of territories thwart the geographical vision of the world of German geopoliticians, and even more so the project of conquest of the current German elite; they must therefore be canceled before the arrival of a new elite at their head. The conquest of the current colonial structures does not pose any particular problem according to them; they consider them to be "easy prey". It is obvious that none of the pan-ideen represented on Maps 2 and 3 can be created without resorting to war. States in mid-latitudes to be obliterated include the present great powers which will not surrender without a fight, as the current situation demonstrates. Dominance of states in lower latitudes is easier, but still not achievable by political means alone. For these other states are, more often than not, parts of large colonial possessions held by states in mid-latitudes. Any sudden attempt at their occupations would provoke immediate reactions from those who are their current masters, just as if they were being attacked in their own territories, since their importance is vital to them.

The other practical obstacles to the establishment of pan-ideen, and the division of the world into zones represented on the maps presented above, are their geographical configurations, when observed as territorial units. Because they are each separated from the territories of the middle latitudes on which they are dependent, by formidable natural barriers which prevent easy and fluid movements of ground troops.

Contact between the two Americas, north and south, can indeed only be achieved by sea and air. Their first land connection by wide roads is still far from being fully realized, 



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for a barrier of mountains and a thick forest form obstacles in several places. The Amazon rainforest and the dry, high and steep plateau of the Andes further isolate the southern part of South America from its northern part.

Japan can only control its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere through the maintenance of a large, costly and constraining naval power. Without this, it is impossible for it to dominate politically and militarily the many islands in its region, and the eastern part of the Asian continent. Russia and India are separated from each other by almost impassable mountains.

Eurafrica encounters twice as many obstacles as those of the previous examples: the Mediterranean Sea obliges Germany to maintain a large naval force to protect the African continent against possible invaders, and to ensure a satisfactory ferry service with the 'Western Eurasia. This connection was made by land means in the past (Crusader routes [237]), and it could be reproduced in this way today. The useless Sahara, however, remains one of the world's natural barriers that cannot be crossed - along with the Arctic ice cap. To get around the Sahara, the only way remains to acquire a similar mastery of naval navigation that the United States has been able to obtain to put their Monroe Doctrine into practice, and that which the Japanese are building to put into practice. in application of their new policy of the Sphere of co-prosperity of the Greater East Asia.

Any attempt to create a pan-ideen cannot be undertaken without resorting to war, or without provoking one, as two precedents have shown today. The case of a pan-ideen uniting Russia and India is exceptional in that it can exist without a powerful naval force. But the existence of more than one pan-ideen of the latter type is incompatible with the idea of ​​a unified oceanic world; the panides proposed by German geopoliticians could never be more politically stable than the world is, in its current state, with its play of great powers. In spite of the difficulties which arise in front of their hopes of realization, the pan-ideen are not completely utopian. The considerable success of Japan and Germany in their enterprises of territorial conquest can be considered as a first step towards assimilation, even if they prove to be ephemeral.



[237] C. à d., Vienna, Belgrade, Sofia, Constantinople, Caesarea, Antioch, Tripoli, Asacalon, then, entry into Africa through Egypt. 



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V. “Naval power against land power”. The geographer Mackinder offers an approach to the integration of the world that geopoliticians have seized upon. This first of all recognizes a large territory uniting Africa and present-day Eurasia as the most populous and the richest of all possible land combinations, which it calls “World Island”. , and that we must consider here from the angle of geopolitics, even if its inventor says he is not a geopolitician. This island of the world encompasses the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa.




MAP 4. Map of the world by Halford J. Mackinder.



Then, he names “near islands” (“Offshore Islands”) - implied, close to the island of the world - the British Isles and those of Japan. Then he named the continent "Outlying Islands" which unites North America and South America, and Australia.

Finally, he explains to us the existence of a "regional heart" ("Heartland") - which he also calls "aire pivot" ("pivot area") located in the center of the island of the world, which extends from the Russian Volga River in the west to along the Chinese Yang-Tse-Kiang River in the east and from the Arctic Circle in the north to the Himalayan mountain range in the South. Mackinder defined the rough outline of the regional heart at the turn of the century, before the creation of the Soviet Union. 



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From all this, and soon after, he summed up with this short extract everything he explains in his book, Democracy Ideals and Reality, published in 1919:

“In 1917, Russia collapsed. Germany conquered territories to the east, but postponed its domination of the Slavs to focus first on the annihilation of its enemies from the west. Western Europe had to call on the Americans for reinforcement, because it would never have been able, on its own, to counter the tendencies of the east. [...].

“The war, let us never forget, owes its origin to a German effort to dominate the Slavs who were in revolt against Berlin. We all know that the murder of the Austrian (German) Archduke of Slavic Bosnia was the pretext, and that the Austrian (German) ultimatum to Slavic Serbia was a method to precipitate war. But it cannot be repeated enough that these events were the result of a fundamental antagonism between the Germans, who hoped to become masters of Europe, and the Slavs, who refused to submit to them. [...].

“Unless you wish for new problems to arise in this region in the future, you cannot now accept an outcome of this war which ignores this problem between the Germans and the Slavs in Eastern Europe. You have to find a balancing solution between the Germans and the Slavs, and real independence for each of them. You cannot afford to leave this situation on its own in Eastern Europe and Heartland, as if it will offer new ambitions in the future, because you have only narrowly escaped to the recent danger.

“A victorious Roman general, when he entered the city, in the midst of a crowd of heads turned towards him to celebrate his 'triumph', had behind him on his chariot a slave who whispered in his ear that he was just a mortal after all. When our statesmen are in conversation with the vanquished enemy, some angel floating in the air should occasionally whisper this maxim to them:

Who runs Eastern Europe commands the Heartland;
Who directs the Heartland controls the World-Island;
Who rules the World-Island controls the world. " 



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Mackinder's World is naturally the center of gravity of all human life, if only because of its size. One can easily conceive of it, in fact, in the form of the principal island of the oceanic world, and, from there, the other continents seem to gravitate around it.

The heart of the Island of the World is a vast region cut off from the oceans. Through most of this expanse, rivers and streams flow into the Arctic Ocean whose access is blocked by ice, or are lost in inland seas and salt deserts. No navigable maritime connection between these rivers and streams and the oceans can be found. This earthly heart is large enough to be assimilated to a "land power"; potentially the largest in the world.

At the edge of this pivot, to the east, south and west, is a crescent which he calls "inner crescent", or "marginal crescent" of lands that provide direct access to the oceans. All of these lands are to some extent "naval". Deserts, mountains and seas separate them from each other. The two large island groups of the British Isles and the Japanese Archipelago are major naval powers.

Beyond this "inner crescent", the ocean of the world is interrupted by what he calls a "lands of outer crescent", or a "crescent of island lands" ("lands of insular crescent "). These lands, "continental", are the Americas, Australia, but also black Africa because it is naturally separated from the island of the world by the Sahara which, from a certain point of view, is a sea. sand. These lands of the outer crescent have two interests, which are their considerable areas of land available, and their great access to the oceans. Today they are swaying in the orbit of naval power, but they could be overtaken by a state of the earth's heart which would have appropriated the inner crescent, in order to add to its great earthly power a great naval power.

At this point in our explanation, Mackinder's thought is devoid of any influence and addition. And this is where geopoliticians add German political expansion to it, using the following arguments.



[238] HALFORD J. MACKINDER, Democracy Ideals and Reality, c. VI. "The Freedom of Nations", 1919. 



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The earth's heart, located in what is now the Soviet Union, lies along the border of the Greater Pan-Germanic Germany. Germany is a major military and political power, as is the Soviet Union, and these two countries claim possession of the interior lands of Eurasia. In contrast to the Soviet Union, Germany enjoys wide access to the sea, and therefore has the capacity to become a naval power. If it could become the dominant partner in an alliance with the Soviet Union, Germany could take control of the earth's heart first, then that of the inner crescent in a second stage, which includes, he must be remembered, the British and Japanese naval powers. Thirdly, the reader can easily imagine that it could easily conquer the smallest continents of the outer crescent.

Again, the only conceivable method that would allow Germany to achieve its expansion according to this strategy, is war. When the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union was signed on August 23, 1939, German geopoliticians expressed the wish that Germany and the Soviet Union could cooperate peacefully, to arrive at an alliance. favorable to their country. But this hope was definitely frustrated by the outcome of the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, badly decided by Hitler.

VI. Borders. Whatever the territorial motive proposed to defend the idea of ​​a new political order in the world, and whatever the metaphysical or religious concepts, or the myth, advanced to justify conquests - which are, let us remember, formal intentions to be separated from real intentions - these ambitions must be followed by a practical method of action. This method is provided by the geopolitical definition of political boundaries. Those who naively believed that a border is a course definitively fixed by the State will be surprised to learn that, from the point of view of the Germans who follow the explanations and the proposals of the geopoliticians, it can only mark a halt of respite from their Nation on the march towards world domination. For them, the new frontier can be metaphorically compared to the mountaineers' base camp, necessary for the body to rest, which must resume its ascent to a very high summit the next day. At the chosen moment, the course of the next new frontier will provide new pretexts for war, and so on. 



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History has amply demonstrated that, of all the instruments of politics, a border is the one that most easily justifies war. The incident at the border, accidentally or intentionally, was the cause, always presented as legitimate, of countless armed conflicts. Geopolitics makes it possible to go further, because its logic and rhetoric allow it to say that a Nation has a right to “natural borders” which can be placed beyond political borders. And, from there, the claim of these natural borders, associated with a line of propaganda to incite the mass to support the ambitions of the political elite, make it possible to justify an aggression. There is in the term "natural frontier" the implicit idea of ​​a physical barrier which however exists only in the minds of a few leaders and their advisers. Most of the borders today presented as "natural" are by no means barriers, whatever they may otherwise have been in the past. Therefore, it may be as much possible to claim the legitimacy of a natural border fixed by a river, a mountain range or something else, as to present it as a simplistic argument and opposed to the "rights of peoples" of philosophers and scholars. metaphysicians to come together according to their cultural affinities. Any border, including that fixed by a natural barrier difficult to cross, is unstable as soon as it separates two Nations unbalanced by an important difference of potential political, economic or military power; the temptation will always be great for the stronger to annex the weaker.

For example, geopolitics can, as of today, easily provide Spain with the pretext of an invasion in Mexico, in Portugal that of an invasion in Brazil, to France that of an invasion of the western part of the country. Canada or Louisiana, to Korea that of an invasion of Japan, and vice versa. It would therefore not be an exaggeration to say that geopolitics is, really, only a new instrument allowing political elites to easily fabricate myths intended for the masses they govern, and “tailor-made” pretexts for diplomacy. .

The fact that western Eurasia has historically been the site of endless wars of conquest, and that it is divided by so many constantly changing borders, owes nothing to a regrettable succession of chances. Western Eurasia is also the region of the world with both the fewest desert areas and the greatest diversity of natural resources. 



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The diversity of its land has been the cause of a multiplicity of political and cultural entities placed in opposition by natural barriers. These entities having always been separated by very small geographical distances, or even by no geographical distance, this state has provoked terrible wars justified by often insignificant territorial claims, as the examples of Alsace have shown, again recently. and Lorraine, claimed by both the French and the Germans, and whose peoples speak both French and German. The borders of this part of the world are the results of this succession of innumerable events. Geopoliticians associate them closely with History and in turn, with the greatest ease, make new excuses for planning new wars of conquest. We can notice that geopolitics arrived in Germany, then seems to have naturally imposed itself there at the exact moment of the end of the Prussian Empire. This is not a coincidence, since it was really from this time that Germany fully became a nation-state, and the decision to go to war ceased to depend on the will of the nation, a monarch. If geopolitics had been invented in the middle of the 18th century, no prince, king or emperor would have seen its usefulness. From the 1920s until today, the geopolitics of Haushofer and his followers has been the argument on which the new German elite relied to build an economic plan, and build a new unifying myth of the German people. to replace his veneration for the emperor, since there have been none since 1918.

This is why geopolitics is called upon to quickly seduce all Nations which present themselves as democracies. Only the elites - not even the geopoliticians themselves - should know that geopolitics is neither a science, nor even an evolution of political geography, but the basis that political propaganda lacks in order to be fully effective, a new form of intention.

And finally, let us remember that geopolitics is not political in its nature, but military and economic, because its arrival also coincided in Germany with the weariness of German “realpolitik” - established by the German government. one of the most remarkable diplomats in history, Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and followed with application by his successors until Bismarck -, 



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and its replacement by “world policy” (weltpolitik), initiated by Frederick William II, but publicly declared and argued by Foreign Secretary Bernhard von Bulow in 1897 [239]. If the form of the intention of geopolitics is indeed political, because its purpose is to build a political doctrine, and even an ideology or a myth, the real intention that it serves is first of all economic in its reason. to be, then strategic in the method it advocates. It would therefore have been more correct that it was baptized “Geowirtschaft” (“geoeconomics”), or “geostrategy” (“geostrategy”).

THE CONDUCT OF THE DIPLOMAT.

We broaden our definition of a diplomat to include any political elite concerned with foreign affairs, and which take decisions affecting foreign policy. Again, we recommend a careful reading of Machiavelli on this subject, but this time we will quote Frederick II, since his advice regarding the selection of diplomats is still relevant. The psychology and technique of foreign affairs will be dealt with immediately afterwards.

“A man broken in politics must behave always differently and always adapted to the circumstances in which he finds himself, and to the people with whom he has to do. It is a great fault in politics to always act with haughtiness, to want to decide everything by force or to always use gentleness and flexibility. One soon guesses a man who conducts uniform behavior, and one does not have to be a diviner. If it happens that your character is known, your enemies say: "we will do such and such a thing, then he will do that", and they are not mistaken; instead of changing and varying his behavior, we confuse them, and they make mistakes in the things they think they foresee. But such wise conduct demands that one always observe oneself, and that, far from abandoning oneself to one's passions, one follows as a slave the party which true interests dictate to embrace. The great art is to hide your designs, and for that you have to veil your character and allow only a glimpse of a measured firmness and tempered by justice. [...].



[239] [...] wir wollen niemand in den Schatten stellen, aber wir verlangen auch unseren Platz an der Sonne. > ([...] we do not want to force anyone to be content with the shade, but we ask for our own place in the sun.). 



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“There is a species of people more honest than vulgar spies, whose usual profession in the world is authorized by the sovereigns. They send them to each other under the title of ambassadors, plenipotentiaries or even under less honorable names. They are used to lull envious people, to corrupt enemies, to discover the designs of neighbors, to make innuendos, treaties, alliances, etc. People are chosen for this job with a flexible and loose mind, discreet, incorruptible and capable of the deepest dissimulation. They must have acquired the knowledge of men; they must know how to decipher, by the gestures and by what there is pantomime in the different passions, the secret thoughts of the people with whom they have to deal, and that, by this long reiterated habit, they acquire the art of guessing the mysteries most carefully hidden from them. We have an ambassadorial seminar; twelve young people of status, under the title of counselors of the legation, were apprenticed in Berlin under the eyes of the cabinet ministers.

“In order for the State to withdraw important Services from the Legation of Ministers, it is good to direct them to courses where the mood of each one suits best. [...].

“These ministers, chosen according to their different qualities and distributed to foreign courts, as I have just said, immediately receive my instructions. If that of Vienna gives notice of some new plot which is being formed, the other ministers are first instructed to try to discover the truth of it, and it happens that an intrigue formed in Petersburg is clarified at The Hague, learns in Denmark what is being prepared in Poland, that the minister we have in England, is instructing us in the intrigues of the court of Vienna, etc. I have found myself so well with this communication of the news that I cannot recommend it enough to posterity.

“The ministers who are in foreign courts can, in truth, give advice on many things; but this is not sufficient, and it is necessary, at whatever cost, to win people in a position to provide new sources. I have three people who have betrayed me the numbers and secrets of their lessons. These kinds of wretches are useful; they are like compasses which guide navigators, while the dark clouds of politics hide the day from them. It is especially necessary to have this kind of people in time of war, to be informed of the campaign projects which the court has approved, and of the orders which are sent to enemy generals. By these kinds of news which Prince Eugene received from Versailles, he saw himself in a position to disconcert the designs of the French. [...]. 



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“The same reason that makes us work to corrupt people in place and that can inform us of the plans of our enemies, the same reason,” I said, “invites our enemies to do the same at home. Cabinet Secretaries, Foreign Office Secretaries, War Office, Finance Office Secretaries, and Legation Secretaries are those whose corruption could do the most damage to state affairs. For this reason, I have unknown overseers who spy on them and observe their proceedings with the greatest attention. We must especially beware of people whose inconvenience and bad economy constantly puts them in need of money, and who, to satisfy their creditors and their taste for spending, become traitors rather out of lightness of mind than by darkness. These kinds of characters are not received among those who are entrusted with important things; they choose from these offices people of the country, rich, of good character and of the discretion of which one is assured; we watch over their expenditure: if it exceeds their income, it is an indication that must be clarified on the spot. We depend on the servants of foreign ministers, to be informed of all those who frequent their houses, of those who frequent the secretaries of embassies (dangerous people), and in a word, of everything that happens at home, and on suspicion we arrest people who are questioned and released, if they are found innocent [240]. "

Politics is, according to the French politician Léon Gambetta, "the art of the possible"; this is even truer in diplomacy. When we take note of the various factors which restrict the maneuver of the statesman, among several possible options, we understand at the same time how many difficulties come to limit the exercise of power. But we must never forget that there are historical situations - which usually arise at the time of national defeat or disaster - in which statesmen have not even had the privilege of the slightest choice. These found themselves forced to accept things that they did not want, or that they did not wish to do, because the consequences of not doing them were totally unacceptable.



[240] FREDERIC LE GRAND, Die Politischen Testamente, 1752, ed. by Prof. and Dr. Gustav Berthold Volz, Berlin, 1920, pp. 51-57. 



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Errors in judgment and poor appreciation of situations are frequent in politics. Either we have watched things from too far away for too long, or the opposite. Few politicians show themselves capable of constantly switching from one to the other of these two ways of looking at situations, when this is how the fewest mistakes are made. If the man who decides on political actions manages to be aware of common misconceptions, then he may be able to avoid making them or choose a technique that allows him to compensate for them. Neumann's game theory, which we talked about in the previous article, will certainly come in handy when it comes to making the most important decisions, when faced with an opponent whose thoughts and intentions he does not know well. Imposing strict safeguards and rules of conduct can reduce the influence of too much confidence in oneself and in one's beliefs and prejudices, to make oneself more receptive to alternative explanations and descriptions, and so reduce the amount of parasitic and unnecessary information before re-examining a situation.

But, when the quality and quantity of mindful judgments when making an important decision can be increased, no quick fix or formula will eliminate judgment errors and confusions, or say which one. of the two tables of a situation shows "the real reality". When we are faced with ambiguity or consider evidence that can be questioned, we need to make inferences that often will turn out to be wrong. The interpretation of what the other country is doing or what its elite may have in mind, and which best matches the immediately available evidence, may be wrong. However, there are ways to improve the quality of a decision, and to harness the intelligence that goes into it more fully - they are often not used.

The policy-maker tends to equate the evidence with his beliefs, which has the detrimental consequence of making him neglect alternative interpretations. The conclusions are then drawn arbitrarily and without finesse. Helping those who have to make decisions to be more thoughtful before saying anything will not solve all problems, but it is still advisable.

Interpreting an opponent's behavior and creating one for yourself, in response, so that he draws the conclusions you want is one such method. 



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We must try as much as possible to look at things from the point of view of the other, in order to better understand the choices that seem to arise in front of him, and to anticipate the most logical decisions that he can make. can be prompted to take. Or rather, on those frequent occasions when one cannot be certain of the perspectives the adversary sees, one must make an effort to examine the world from a wide variety of possible perspectives. Of course, we will often fail to see the world as the adversary sees it, but at least we can thus avoid that common mistake of believing that he sees the world "the only way he can see it." ". And we will also avoid falling into the trap of believing that the adversary interprets our actions exactly as we think them. Many politicians believe that their intentions - especially when they are peaceful - are viewed correctly by others. By failing to accept the fact that they may be perceived as threatening to their security, on the contrary, they hastily conclude that the increase in their military expenditure can indicate nothing other than an aggressiveness which has no effect. not provoked.

We must keep in mind that we are, as are our adversaries, influenced by our expectations and our hopes, and that we tend to regard the information which comes to us from them as signs that it is happening. sation is on the right track, or that they see the world and things as we see them. The converse is obviously true. The danger of the adversary failing to heed this last fact is that it will lead him to prematurely exclude other alternatives, and make him overconfident in his views. Here we should notice that, because people underestimate the influence of established beliefs and predispositions, they are slower to change their minds and adapt to new situations than they think they are - this last point should encourage the reader to reread more attentively the chapter of this book devoted to the Stage of evolution of the company [241]. The common consequence of this fact is that we tend to overestimate, both the degree to which we are sensitive to changes in the behavior of others, and the ease with which these can influence the perception we have. have them. Because our beliefs and our a priori so easily color our hearing,



[241] f "Party, c. Ii. 



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the successes that reward our efforts to convince an adversary to see us as we want them to see us, and to understand our behavior as we want them to understand it, will be directly proportional to the degree to which that image and behavior are compatible with what this adversary already believed before that. This is why we must try, as far as possible, to adapt our behavior to the idea that our interlocutors and our adversaries want to have of it, rather than to show the one that they do not wish to see. And when we seek to alter their judgment of us (i.e., when we want them to think we are not aggressive), we must be aware that this effort will require us to feign behavior ( or, if not, anger) for as long as we need to.

Whoever is called upon to make important political, economic or military decisions, generally derives greater benefit from an explicit exposure of his values ​​and beliefs. People often misunderstand the real causes of their potential disputes. They know how to disagree on several particular points, but they would be hard pressed to explain clearly how these points are involved in more general matters. It is often more beneficial to debate the respective and general merits of two opposing viewpoints or theories, than to focus attention on the interpretations that can be made of each incident, considered individually.

Often times, people have a limited understanding of the logic of their opponents' arguments, just as they are quite ignorant of the structure of their own belief systems (i.e. which values ​​should be given the most attention. importance, how some beliefs are derived from other beliefs, and what evidence might contradict their views). Particularly dangerous is our tendency to take the most important issues at face value. When we carefully analyze failed policies and doctrines, we notice that many critical point errors occur, not because the answers to their authors' questions were the wrong ones, but because they failed. 'haven't asked the right questions. This, quite often, is due to the fact that far too much has been taken at face value, and that "the most basic" beliefs, perceived as "going on their own," 



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have, "therefore" not been re-examined and verified with all the necessary care. For example, England's foreign policy during the late 19th century was based almost entirely on the fear that an enemy power with the power to control the Great Nile could fill it and then ruin Egypt's economy, then expel England from that country, and thus cut off the sea route leading to India [242]. At the same time, England feared that if Russia ever advanced into Central Asia, then her armies would threaten those on the northern border of India. Yet these two fears were never considered with the attention they deserved. For example, a closer examination of the geography of these regions would have saved England a lot of trouble and a lot of time. And England almost lost the Great War, just for believing it all, and subsequently believing that her great fleet would never provide enough destroyers to escort the commercial convoys. The number of destroyers was still considered insufficient, even when no precise estimate of the number of commercial convoys was provided, and many English commercial ships refrained from sailing and remained anchored in their ports, because no could provide them with as large an escort as was thought necessary. But no serious analysis was undertaken to best determine the effectiveness of the smaller, available escorts, or to determine whether more powerful ones were really needed.

Quite recently the British have again overestimated the danger that the Germans might seize the ships of the French fleet and use them for their own benefit, because, while they have focused their attention on how the Germans can seize these ships, they neglected to address the equally important question of their ability to repair them, to keep them in good working order, and to know how to use them well. If the English had shown the same interest in this other question, what they would have learned would no doubt have spared them the costly and dangerous attack on the French fleet so that it could not fall into German hands.



[242] We accept, however, the existence of an opinion that the English at that time attached as great an importance to a question of prestige as to that of security. 



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More often still, the belief that needs to be made explicit concerns the relations between objects, at the very end of the chain of means and stages of an interlocutor or an adversary. Because the most important goals (i.e. safety or great influence sought) are too general to be drawn into guidelines for action, we must set ourselves intermediate goals (i.e. i.e. strong alliances and military priorities) that we believe will help us achieve important and defining goals. Partly because of the difficulties inherent in the problems we face, we often fail to analyze why these intermediate goals, if we succeed in achieving them, would produce the effects we expect.

Our mistake of not paying enough attention to the plausibility of these "crucial beliefs", of which we have presented two good examples, and particularly those which involve a close relation between the end and the means, becomes evident when the environment change enough to logically change beliefs and political decisions, and that change does not occur.

The examination of the beliefs on which political decisions and doctrines are based is inhibited by the transformation of the means employed and intermediate goals into ends; this is a phenomenon whose components which organize it will be presented later. For now, we must first notice that we tend to overemphasize intermediate goals very quickly, especially when we have devoted a lot of effort and a lot of our time to achieving them. Otherwise, it is as if we cease to appreciate at its true value the degree of rationality of the intermediate goal, that is to say the limited role of its contribution to the end which should continue to mobilize all our attention. So as circumstances change, and new obstacles and opportunities present themselves, our policy does not adjust as it should. Instead of making the effort to see if these changes would not make it easier for us to reach our goal by replacing the intermediate goals that we had set for ourselves with new ones, we insist on following a general idea that will earn us an unnecessary waste of time, and maybe even a failure. This behavior is, on the one hand, explained by the progressive construction of an emotional attachment around goals which demand a lot of time and energy from us, and on the other by purely cognitive factors. 



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Once we have looked at a problem for a long time from a particular angle, and which we think is the best, and then have just as long worked out a plan to solve it, it is extremely difficult for us to take a break along the way to proceed to its new evaluation, then to revise the structure of this solution, and even more to abandon it for a new one. Rather than making us question the validity of an intermediate step, the new information prompts us to consider a new interpretation of the problem from the point of view we had originally chosen. In other words, we will seek new answers to old questions, but we will not reconsider questions. This is why, an individual who has not worked on the problem from the beginning, and who, therefore, has not yet invested much in his person, or another who has detached himself from it for a while long enough, is often able to understand that the old intermediate goal has become useless or unsuited to the new situation.

Of course, if what was decided at the start of planning the chain of intermediate goals was appropriate, and the environment does not change, this problem will not arise. However, this only happens by chance, that is, rarely. This is why it often happens that a policy which is no longer suited to the situation is maintained.

Regarding now this problem of cognitive factors which often prevent us from reviewing our policy even though the situation has changed a lot, it can be solved, or, at least partially solved, by examining again the reasons which decided the choice of the initial policy, and its chain of intermediate goals. In a few cases, the motivations on which this policy was initially based, which has become non-logical, even absurd, have remained so powerful that it seems too painful to even think about it. This new examination must make explicit the structure of the chain of intermediate goals, and force to ask the question of why the chosen policy is supposed to lead to the hoped-for final goal.

To make important beliefs and assumptions explicit, it is necessary not only to strive to uncover the crucial elements on which the initial policy choices were built, but also to find the evidence that would tend to confirm, or , better still, which would tend to invalidate what we had initially decided. When we are fully aware of what we really want - 



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since this is not always the case - or rather, when we can identify with certainty what are the beliefs and facts that led us to this wish, we will find ourselves more apt to correctly assess the meaning of the incidents which disturb. In contrast, when we have failed to carefully consider the implications of a theory, fact, or belief, a wide variety of events can arise without disturbing the belief we place in them. We will not notice new information that contradicts our initial beliefs, and even, we will seek to attribute to them a meaning to correspond to them, or we will tell ourselves that they lack little to confirm what we had. initially believed. When this attitude persists for a long time, it happens that the incorrect interpretation we make of a piece of information outweighs the truth, if the latter is never explicitly formulated by anyone. Metaphorically, this is the case of the innocent who has been thrown into prison instead of another, and who, coming to doubt his own actions, comes to admit that he is indeed the culprit, and thus confirms in the stubbornness of those who accused and condemned him that they were right to do so - to the astonishment of the real culprit who, in his turn, can also come to doubt everything that 'until then he had held it to be a truth.

But when a statesman, or even a scientist, has been able to think of the events that the hypotheses he has envisaged have excluded, he is then more apt to dwell with lucidity on these events, and to properly address them. react when they occur. Very often, and in all things in general, the persistent absence of a thing or a fact in a succession of events is information of greater value than its presence. In this case, what is missing, but which we had not noticed until then simply because it was difficult for us to think about it, finally allows us to identify the reality that appearances "seek" to conceal.

Although deciding in advance what might surprise us cannot tell us whether our perception of a situation is wrong, or even if it is true, it does make us more sensitive to the evidence that tends to show that we are we are deceiving, and more apt to re-examine a situation or to revise the terms of our policy. This explains why those who oppose a policy often ask those who defend it to explain clearly what they hope for when it is adopted or carried out. 



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This sounds like the obvious at first glance, but we can better understand the value of talking about it, as soon as we admit that observers can be confused by the lack of meaning that often characterizes, appearance of course, a consistent effort to achieve an intermediate goal, since it does not have the value of a finality. For example, if, during the spring of 1938, Chamberlain could have understood that the behavior and demands of the Germans corresponded to more ambitious expectations than political revisionism, he certainly would have reacted more vigorously to the terms that emerged in Munich. As this example shows, imagining events that might surprise us makes us more apt to consider with more discernment the small details that may contradict what the unfolding of events seems to tell us, and to get rid of our tendency to want it there. find anything that can confirm that "we were right".

In some cases, striving to identify and carefully consider the evidence that contradicts our hypothesis will help us understand that our general picture of a situation is, in truth, invulnerable to almost all events. For example, political leaders rely, often unconsciously, on "one model of inherent bad faith", and cautiously steer clear of another, on the contrary, on the pretext that "he did not grasp only one of the many opportunities to show that he is friendly ”. Moreover, we will believe that the events only confirm our interpretation of a general picture, or even that their absence was organized in the hope of making us believe that we are wrong, and thus to incite us to modify our policy. .

We may face three problems when making explicit predictions. The first is that the study of science has shown that the role of experiments has been exaggerated when it has been presented as determining. Taken individually, the facts are always subject to multiple interpretations. A scientific theory should not be rejected because it cannot explain a particular fact, and our general picture of a situation should not necessarily be dismissed and replaced by another, because it embarrassed. Moreover, it is because international politics is extraordinarily complicated that even good theories do not allow one to make predictions only when a large number of facts are known; and again, such well-supported predictions should never be taken to be better than greater or lesser probabilities. This is why we must admit that there are strict limits to the interpretation we can make of a well-explained situation, even under the best possible conditions. 



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The second problem is that the conditions which seem to us to be fundamental when we analyze international politics are seldom the best. A high degree of knowledge is required when formulating specific hopes and goals, or expressing specific fears. Yet this condition is seldom met by the bureaucrats who are charged with reviewing international politics, simply because little has been written, as we are doing here, on "foreign affairs theory." The exceptions are just the observations of a few good historians who show an interest and aptitude for psychology, and which most of us have cited in this book. Others never succeed in being sure of the events suggested to them by what they perceive as “puzzles” that should be compared to a paradigm, or as “anomalies” that cast doubt on the theories they have learned.

The third problem is that we sometimes remain insensitive to events that contradict our assumptions. For example, in Finland in 1939, Prime Minister Eljas Erkko refused to believe that the Soviet Union would attack if Finland stood firm during the negotiations for an exchange of territories, because the Soviet Union did not had not made his request public. But even when Molotov finally and openly spoke of a conflict with Finland during a speech, Erkko did not re-examine his policy. It was for this reason alone that the Soviet Union invaded Finland on November 30 of that year. The Prime Minister of Finland, Aimo Cajander, who had also refused to admit that a Soviet invasion of his country was possible, had imposed on the country's armies particularly poor equipment, and even ridiculous in a few respects.

Generally speaking, and more particularly concerning the problem of deciding in advance what might surprise us in matters of international politics, the political leader, or the Minister of Foreign Affairs, will be well advised to surround himself with a few minds chosen from among the brightest in the country, to instruct them to imagine all possible cases, as the most improbable, and to devise solutions and put in place preventive measures for each of them, so that no caught off guard or loss of time cannot be deplored when the time comes.



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Such men will make valuable advisers to foreign affairs, as soon as they have imagined enough combinations to have a good knowledge of the general diplomatic situation of the world and of the geographic, political and economic issues.

To express beliefs that have hitherto remained implicit, and thus give ourselves greater freedom when we have to make choices, we must therefore encourage our advisers to formulate and apply alternative tables of situations. When a single hypothesis is operative and has no alternative having the same quality, it tends to be able to be confirmed with greater ease. We can be more open to examining information that contradicts our beliefs and assumptions, attempting to formulate theories on the basis of facts and elements that belong to views that are ordinarily foreign to us, or that we planes rejected until now out of simple contempt or disgust, because they are those of our enemy. In other words, it is good, from time to time, to adopt in mind the behavior and beliefs of our enemy, in order to better understand his intentions and his hopes, and thus to predict what he will do with it. better precision. By analogy, socialists read only socialist literature, and liberals only read liberal literature; thus, no one understands the spirit, nor the beliefs, nor the goals of his adversary, and even less what he will logically do to defend his position or attack. In addition, taking an enemy's point of view often allows us to see or understand neutral events and things that we are unable to see or understand from our own. Whoever does not succeed in taking this spiritual step will never be able to defend his interests well other than by resorting to endless force; he is the best of infantry and the worst of generals. In June 1941, if German strategists had tried to see things from the Russian point of view, they would have understood the absurdity of launching an attack from Russia at a time of the year when one is heading towards temperatures which slow down more and more the progression of an army and paralyze its men. This is all the more surprising, when we know that the German strategists, Hitler himself included, had the benefit of knowledge which came to them from the experience of Napoleon Bonaparte in Russia. 



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Finally, all the reasoning and all the points of view of an enemy should not be regarded as necessarily bad, just on the pretext that he is the enemy. The one with this frame of mind generally fears being accused of treason, and it is just this that causes him to consciously run the risk of defeat; he is therefore not able to make decisions, or even to advise. It was a similar turn of mind, coupled with too much pride, which encouraged Napoleon Bonaparte to regard only with a distracted eye the recommendations of Antoine de Jomini which later brought the greatest benefits to the community. Russia.

It is often difficult, psychologically and politically, to be able to consider several alternatives, let alone examine them all simultaneously. Likewise, we must ensure that ministers and generals have views and preferences that conflict with each other, so that they cannot agree enough on a decision that does not is not the best, we must also ensure the service of a variety of observers and scientists forming, together, a variety of predispositions and views of the world that will confront the evidence. Rather than seeking and retaining only information that is unambiguous, we must strive to structure facts and information that seem to contradict each other, in order to offer our reasoning as much freedom as possible. Rather than reject the adviser, the historian, the sociologist or the scientist who comes to contradict our deductions and undo our hypotheses, we must listen to him attentively on the contrary, and dwell on all his arguments.

It was out of pride, and through the fault of excessive confidence in his judgment, that Napoleon III took the decision to expedition to the Crimea in 1853, against the advice of the English who then had to come to his aid, then , again, that of attacking Prussia in 1870, against the well-argued warnings of Adolphe Thiers. Brilliant in domestic politics, Louis-Napoleon was always mediocre in foreign policy, to the point that Bismarck readily joked at his expense.

Scientists are usually bad at testing theories they don't believe in, and that's why we shouldn't hope for better from political advisers. The reason which comes to explain this phenomenon is not so much the weight of the conscience of the stake which can decide the career of an adviser, as the difficulty which there is to look at how the world works from a point of view. view other than his own. 



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Understanding the big picture enough to make the best decision always takes a lot more time, energy and involvement than we think. But, of course, we also need to put a limit on ourselves when looking at things from the enemy's point of view, and keep in mind that their minds are as fallible as ours, so as not to leave too impressed with his when he turns out to be brilliant. Often, we make the mistake of giving too much intelligence or refinement to our enemy, and of anticipating a movement much more elaborate than the one he has in mind; in other words, we are building a wonderfully suited strategy against one that will never exist because our enemy's reasoning is much simpler or not as ambitious as we had thought.

Speaking of which, one of the biggest difficulties we can encounter is when we notice that an opponent is about to make a big mistake. In such a case, we refuse to admit it, for the simple reason that we would not do it, and we immediately deduce that it is a deception having to mask a more subtle action. This is more often false than true, because this misunderstanding of the opponent is generally due only to his fault for not having taken a stand from our point of view, the only one from which the error is visible. Also, and by analogy this time, the observer of a game of chess more easily sees the weaknesses of the strategy of a player who is however no less good than him, simply because he is not. personally involved in the game. Our personal involvement in a dilemma can dramatically alter our way of seeing things and our acuity, for good, but also for bad.

But neither should we conclude that the best picture of a situation will not necessarily come to us from an adversary's point of view. What should be remembered from what has been explained at this point, and which is the most important, is that it would be wrong to deprive oneself of all points of view in order to observe a situation.

First, because we are exposed to conflicting interpretations that show us how alternative points of view make us see the world differently, we need to make explicit judgments when selecting our interpretations. - statements, explanations and tables, so as not to rush to those which seem to be the only possible ones.



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Second, it is the debate that will help us arrive at the implied deductions. An individual seldom has the ability to clearly articulate the structure of his beliefs - he is rarely encouraged to do so anyway - and this is only during a discussion with another whose beliefs are. opposed to his own that he will succeed. It is at this price, if we can put it this way, that he will be able to best determine the vulnerability of his arguments, and anticipate the errors that he could make. Of course, it is unlikely that either of these two individuals could convert the other to their point of view, because over time the cultivation of a belief causes it to harden to the point of no longer being. malleable enough to adapt to changes in a situation, and more generally to those of history - there are exceptions, but they are the work of individuals with intellectual capacities as remarkable as they are rare. But those who show themselves to be able to listen to arguments opposed to their own are in a good position to better understand the perspectives they reject, what evidence they need to consider more carefully, and what beliefs should be considered. be matured.

To some extent, this way of proceeding will be well nurtured by the diverging interests, goals, learned methods and information that naturally exist in any government organization. But often this common diversity is still insufficient. Because, within the same organization, there is a sustained and selective phenomenon of consensus that we have presented at length in a previous article 243. And it follows that, any judgment opposed to this consensus being "automatically" considered "absurd", no attention will be paid to it. If no effort is made to encourage, and reward, the formulation of views opposed to consensus - which here should be understood as "the beliefs" - no one will be found to test the validity of the assumptions and assumptions. arguments that support them, which will result in a reduced choice of options, and an increased risk of a wrong decision being made.

Second, strategists and heads of state rarely solicit opposing views - especially when dealing with issues that have a long history -, when the position of each is known,



[243] See the article "Psychological evaluation", I crc part "Internal policy", c. ii. "Stage of evolution of society". 



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and when it is believed that all the considerations have already been stated and understood. Without this latter effort, even information that is logically independent of the subject will not be investigated if it comes from an opponent. Again, the phenomenon of the pressure of the will of the herd is particularly strong in presidential and ministerial offices, and in staffs. All those who assist the leader in his decisions strive naturally, and quickly, to go in the direction of his preferences and the perspectives he has already formulated. Finally, as the need for secrecy and urgency increases, the number of advisers consulted decreases, which further increases the risk of “error by tacit consensus”.

The result of all these drawbacks is that: although it would be highly desirable to break free from these predictable consensuses and self-interested behaviors, the small decision-making groups at the top of the political elite are nevertheless moving away from expertise, and of these conflicts which would allow them to decide on actions better suited to the general tables of situations. In these cases, the need for a diversity rule is overwhelming - even though we have found that no elite has ever shown itself capable of carrying it out, and none will ever show itself. able. This conclusion at this point is never more than a repetition by example of what has been explained about the harmful concentration of Class I or II individuals. ("Foxes" or "lions") within the elite [244].

Two problems complicate the implementation of such a system.

1 ° It is difficult to determine which perceptual predisposition should be represented. The variety of specific intentions that several adversaries, or virtual adversaries, can have can be great. This again suggests the interest that could be found, for this subject in particular, in Neumann's game theory [245]. Knowing that no government can prepare for all eventualities, there cannot be so many expressions of viewpoint that could help it anticipate them.

2 ° Individuals and their organizations naturally develop defense mechanisms against perspectives that



[244] See chapters IL, III. and IV. of Part 1.

[245] See the previous article, “Political and geopolitical geography”. 



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differ from theirs - hence our pessimism in this regard. The fact that individuals who oppose orthodoxy are commonly referred to as 'traitors' indicates a sincere resistance to any opposition to consensus, which makes the task of forming committees of the consensus all the more difficult. effective experts and advisers in foreign policy. Orthodoxy is essential to maintaining the social structure of oligarchic collectivism - we have said it over and over again - but it is powerfully harmful to the mechanism of decision-making in foreign policy. This is why there is a vital need for balancing orthodoxy when approaching the top of the elite, and another, exceptional this one, when selecting advisers and experts in the field. certain areas - the risks that this weighting may pose must still be eliminated by other special provisions. This point, minor a priori, is nevertheless very important, since these advisers and experts will necessarily be informed of the political secrets which most interest the adversaries. But the perspective of a minority can easily be ignored, if the individuals expressing it do so only to better serve the interests of the state. And there is a need for the political elite responsible for making decisions about foreign policy to be exposed to points of view contrary to their own, so that they can fully assess the significance of their decisions. - for itself as for those to whom it will have to justify them-, and in order to be sure to have explored absolutely all the possible options before choosing one. If this elite succeeds, it will be rewarded with a confidence in its decisions greater than that which it could have had when it believed, however, to have demonstrated all the openness required.

Most foreign policies are based, if we can put it that way, on a high degree of continuity, inertia, and multiple decisions which are all stages whose validity are rarely questioned by those who have them. imagined and planned. Either way, we often claim that the uncertain nature of international politics calls for a flexibility of mind which should postpone as far and for as long as possible the pursuit of politics by other means. In reality, those who decide in foreign affairs rarely impose on themselves this flexibility of mind. Instead of exploring new action plans that should allow them to better overcome uncertainties, these decision-makers find it safer to rely on traditional models of policy.
ticks, attitudes and actions. 



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This conservative behavior is typical of highly bureaucratized organizations, and not just the few who decide on foreign policy planning. The result, in this case, is that it is relatively easy to predict most of the actions of each of the states that do so. In addition, adherence to outdated policy models in situations of major importance often stands in the way of improved relations between states, and a better examination of problems peripheral to them.

Returning for a moment to the fears concerning the security of the State and its greatest secrets which can be logically associated with the system which we have just presented: the ruling political elites must closely monitor the possible emergence of a consensus among its advisers and experts, and, of course, especially the formation of a consensus around a point of view opposed to orthodoxy. Because, in such a last case, the pursuit of foreign policy will deviate little by little from the trajectory which must lead towards the final goal initially fixed. When this happens, the arguments and suggestions of advisers and experts are influenced by the belief that the policies and goals that were originally set "no longer correspond to the latest developments in the world".

A head of state should not misunderstand the role of the adviser. The advisor is called upon to warn the Head of State, or those at the top of the elite, against possible errors or imperfections in a policy, and not to relieve them of their command. We no longer count, in history, the cases of advisers who have come to take the place of a too weak leader, and to lead an entire country without officially assuming the responsibilities, nor to assume the errors. It is dangerous to expect an opinion on the relevance of a policy by one who has an interest in it, but this problem is not necessarily linked to a personal interest. Individuals and their organizations should not leave it to others to construct their theories, to paint the big picture. The commitments the government makes must remain those of the government, as a collective entity, and almost all political goals, if not all, must be complemented with a form of intention which can only be formulated by the Head of State or by his ministers.



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That is to say, the advisor whose recommendation was unanimously deemed relevant should not also be the one who decided on his form of intention [246].

In addition, if an adviser is the author of a political goal alone, then it will be highly likely that no one other than him will assess the relevance of his intermediate goals, and thus any information relating to d Other possible paths that would achieve this goal will be ignored.

Since the doctrines, beliefs and myths that popularly support a country's political lines are often so strong as to mislead even the elites who adopted or imagined them, it is also important to make a good balance between the parties. logical reasons which justify proposing a goal, and those which do not. Of course, priority should be given to goal propositions supported by logical arguments; but it sometimes happens that goals serve no more than the consolidation of a doctrine, belief or myth - this happens, in particular, when the power and decisions of the elite are contested by a growing percentage of the mass within the borders. This problem justifies, in part, the clear social gap that must be made between the elite and the two other classes; the elite must not be intellectually contaminated by the beliefs it builds for the middle and lower classes, otherwise they will get lost in the judgments they can make. Because an elite which has indoctrinated itself as much as it has indoctrinated the mass it governs will undoubtedly have lost the capacities for critical judgment which allow it to run the affairs of the State well, and thus to ensure the sustainability of his reign.

Then we have to know how and why the general picture we can have of a situation can lead us to almost always make the same mistakes. If we come to be fully aware that our belief system is at least partially based on arguments that are irrational (i.e. that no compelling evidence or science can formally demonstrate), it is highly likely that we will examine the evidence supporting our beliefs in the hope of finding choices or delicate decisions that would benefit from being made explicit. The awareness that we may have the danger of representing to ourselves too quickly the general picture of a situation can also lead us to suspend our decision-making for a (too) long period of time; or worse, to consult advisers who have been confronted with our problem for even less time than we have.



[246] See “To differentiate between saying and doing”, I part., C. I. 



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Being aware that evidence maintains consistency with one of our pre-existing beliefs is likely to cause us to reject other points of view, even when they might have led us to proceed with more caution, and to abstain. to develop unwelcome confidence from the false belief that events show the correct overall picture. Understanding that people take past events to make analogies, whereas a closer examination of these would allow them to understand that they are not the right ones, should prompt us to do more research in History when we try to find examples of behavior adapted to our present problems. And a good appreciation of the superficial nature which characterizes most of the facts reported by historians should encourage us to concentrate our efforts of reflection on their real causes, and thus better help us to identify which facts of history have a real similarity with those that concern us. In this regard, we recommend to pay the greatest attention to what has been explained in the article of this book devoted to the control of culture and education [247].

We should not only strive to make these adjustments to improve our perception of events and general pictures of situations. We must also note the alterations that still affect them. For example, we tend to believe that an opponent has a “necessarily” highly centralized decision-making process, that he “obviously” plans all his political goals with the greatest caution, and that his decisions are “necessarily” answers. to those we took. Knowing that these beliefs are frequently incorrect, or completely wrong, should make us hesitate before taking them for fact, in any case. This is of great importance, because, otherwise, these preconceptions often lead us to overestimate the degree of hostility of an opponent. Often, the hostile statement of a minister or general is only an individual initiative provoked by too much involvement and by a mood swift - which will be, or will not be, corrected and sanctioned subsequently. -, or a small maneuver which consists of nothing other than the expression of a disapproval of which it is not desired that it be official, in order not to completely and irreparably deteriorate diplomatic exchanges .



[247] “The Control of Culture and Education”, Part II, “Information”, c. iii, “Culture”. 



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Before we can say that we must re-examine evidence because this kind of misleading impression is common, we must be aware of the disasters that can be caused by a misleading impression, or, on the contrary, the opposite error of having overlooked the value of this evidence. If it can be disastrous to have believed that an opponent was an ally, and less to have taken an ally for an enemy, it is still better to run the risk of the second hypothesis than the great danger of the first. , when indisputable proof cannot be obtained, and the time for reflection and analysis has elapsed. History is full of calls for vigilance, and it shows that the cost of overestimating an adversary's hostility has often been underestimated. Very often heads of state, strategists and generals believe that if a country does not show clear signs of aggression, then its political elite will be able to understand, implicitly, that strengthening their defense is not intended. as the maintenance of peace and security. When they do, they overestimate the ease with which these peaceful security provisions can be falsely interpreted as preparation for economic expansion through war. 

Before we can say that we must re-examine evidence because this kind of misleading impression is common, we must be aware of the disasters that can be caused by a misleading impression, or, on the contrary, the opposite error of having overlooked the value of this evidence. If it can be disastrous to have believed that an opponent was an ally, and less to have taken an ally for an enemy, it is still better to run the risk of the second hypothesis than the great danger of the first. , when indisputable proof cannot be obtained, and the time for reflection and analysis has elapsed. History is full of calls for vigilance, and it shows that the cost of overestimating an adversary's hostility has often been underestimated. Very often heads of state, strategists and generals believe that if a country does not show clear signs of aggression, then its political elite will be able to understand, implicitly, that strengthening their defense is not intended. as the maintenance of peace and security. When they do, they overestimate the ease with which these peaceful security provisions can be falsely interpreted as preparation for economic expansion through war.

When we try to guess what a country in general, or an adversary in particular, will do, we must focus our minds on economic and rational issues, and put aside ideological rhetoric - even if it sometimes happens that leaders of the States only engage in a particular foreign policy in the hope of regaining the support of the people of their countries. Part of the general problem of international politics is the difficulty of anticipating a sudden and unexpected diplomatic or military decision. This problem has indeed received the interest, either implicitly or directly, of theorists of realpolitik and of "interests", initially developed by Thucydides. That is to say that: international politics is marked by an incessant rivalry around interests which were widely presented in the previous article of this chapter; sovereign states are involved in a conflict of power and politics; this international mechanism is freed from any moral consideration, and the State is seen there as a rational and unitary entity which is in perpetual conflict with all the other States of the system, because of the absence of a world government.



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On the basis of all these characteristics which themselves find their common basis in a pessimistic view of human nature, the only way to achieve security is to create a balance between the greatest powers, it being understood that they The weaker states are divided among themselves through the exercise of authority over them. Machiavelli shares this realistic vision of politics by evoking the ideas of "necessities" and "reasons of state". According to these theories, the policies of the most important states can therefore be easily predicted and identified, because they are based on a logic of their own, and which depends much more on their political geography than on their elites - this logic is pushed to its most extreme degree when it relies on geopolitics, as we have seen. Being well aware of all this, and of other particular characteristics specific to each country (history, economic, industrial and military power, stage of development of society, known needs, typical behaviors, etc.), we find ourselves then able to make better predictions of the future actions of each state.

Finally, we should not be surprised to note that all the sudden and unexpected political decisions have been made by politicians acting at the top of states, and not that of professional diplomats and other specialists in international politics. Professional diplomats rarely bring new ideas to foreign affairs, despite their great practical and theoretical-historical knowledge of the subject. This is explained by the fact that diplomats, as members of state bureaucracies, have been naturally trained to maintain and consolidate relations with other countries, rather than encouraged to explore other possibilities of 'actions. 



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II. SPYING AND COUNTERSPYING.

SPYING.

The origin of espionage is military; it was used to know the movements of enemy troops, and also its strengths and weaknesses. Napoleon Bonaparte took the city of Ulm without a fight thanks to the spy Schulmeister. But today, this can not be satisfied with a service of espionage of war that the small States. During the time of Louis XIV and until that of Napoleon Bonaparte, France already had such an organization which also dealt with political questions, and spies crept into the offices of diplomats. Espionage was a part of foreign policy. And it was France which was the first to create a permanent military and political intelligence service. The history of French intelligence services during the 19th century has been partially explained in the article devoted to the police [248], and the following article can be considered as its continuation.

We can add here that Napoleon III created in 1855 a special police force which became, in 1870, the military espionage machine of this country. After the war of 1870, this service again became completely military, under the tutelage of a larger organization called “2 nd Bureau”. From there, and until 1940, France had one of the best intelligence services in the world - after that of the Soviet Union - and its policy, republican in its form, but imperialist in reality, no had no better support.

It was only at the time of the Russo-Japanese war that Russia created a military intelligence service, with the help of France, which had allied itself with it. The French espionage experience benefited Russia so well that it succeeded in making the 2 nd Bureau its vassal when it came to spying on Germany. France was not wary of this enough, because it must be said that its political intelligence service was then placed under the command of a few diplomats more familiar with salons than with the realities of the political and military issues of the emerging twentieth century. The "Okhrana" which was thus formed subsequently maintained in Europe a sort of political police force which could have served the military at a pinch.


[248] “The Police”, I crc Part, c. IX. "Internal security". 



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The intelligence services took longer to establish themselves in Germany. Frederick II had many spies abroad, but he did not trust their reports, or even those of his diplomats. Bismarck did the same, or almost. But it must be said that the Germany of Bismarck's time did not know the multiple goals of war any more then than the attacks on all kinds of fronts. She was a friend of England and Russia; therefore, it did not see fit to maintain an intelligence service to spy on these two major political powers. The intelligence services of the Germans did not welcome those of the English as the Russians had done with the French, then vice versa, but they instructed those of the Japanese. And, for a time, the Japanese saw no need to be served by spies other than those from Germany.

England being a great power, she could not do without a great intelligence service, moreover to help gain her world supremacy; but it was still insufficient, and emerging in its modern form, at the time of the Boer War.

It was only during the Great War that most of the great world powers acquired modern military and political intelligence services. And today, they have considerably extended their activities, perfected their techniques, and have at their disposal the knowledge and services of historians, sociologists, psychologists and scientists specializing in many fields. And to the activity of pure espionage, we must now add those, current ones, of sabotage, agitation and propaganda, and very elaborate deceptions.

There are only two types of reliable and trustworthy servants in the field of espionage: 1 ° leaders; 2 ° agents who serve not pure patriotism or political-ideological conviction. If we exclude this other particular activity of counter-espionage - which we will discuss in the next article - the heads of the intelligence service must rather be soldiers, because they know better how to command the type of men which is suitable for agent activity.

Indeed, the patriotic agents that we have just mentioned are rare; in insufficient quantities, in any case, to fully satisfy the espionage needs of a civilized country of average size. 



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In addition, the intelligence services have always needed people with dispositions of mind which are not necessarily rare, but which are particular and hardly compatible with the honesty of the patriotic citizen. Morality does not find its place in the day-to-day work of an intelligence service, and even, it would render it unnecessary. The effective agent must be a skillful thief and liar, which calls for experience and skill that is fairly common among criminals. The reader who has so far had this romantic idea of ​​the secret agent that propaganda has often wanted, will certainly be surprised to learn that the intelligence services will recruit most of their staff in the poorest neighborhoods, in disciplinary battalions, and even in prisons. This is why the police ordinarily help the intelligence services to find clever thieves, crooks with a presentation and intelligence big enough to abuse anyone, seasoned forgers, beautiful courtesans of neither age nor culture. health does not embarrass, and sometimes assassins who know how to be discreet and efficient. A future chapter will tell a little more about some of the missions that these people must be able to accomplish.

Knowing all this, there is no need to be moved when it comes to learning that the service and loyalty of almost all agents cannot be guaranteed other than by brazen discipline, and by various forms of threats. and blackmail. This has the advantage that a large percentage of agents costs relatively little to maintain to well remunerate the sincere loyalty of their leaders. For the intelligence service owes all its success, in the first place, to the conscience and skill of the officers who direct its employees and agents. To lead this tribe without homogeneity of agents, made up of individuals from everywhere, you need leaders with character, who know how to judge men while winning their sympathy and their confidence. In the German intelligence service during the Great War, it happened that it was a cavalry officer of old stock and a highly educated woman who had to lead agents of difficult and sometimes dangerous character. The intelligence services therefore need leaders who know how to behave like masters and dominate their agents from above, if they do not want to be so by their auxiliaries and their miserable passions. Espionage involves great dangers to which all those who touch it are exposed, near and far. The action is uncontrollable, the quality of the information provided is hardly less, and the temptation is permanent. 



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All this explains why the discipline which is imposed on agents and small employees of the intelligence services is even greater than in the military units deemed to be the most severe with their men.

The intelligence services regularly disillusion the political elite because they are many bad agents and very few good ones. In addition, the existence of these agents, who do not shrink from danger because of their rebellious spirits, is precarious. It is not a large number of agents which makes the quality of a secret service, but the quality and the energy of leaders who do not hesitate to make a clean sweep from time to time, and to destroy the results which are only apparent.

This is how the German and British intelligence services have always acted until today. Those of Russia and France employ a different policy, because the latter consider that their goal is not to determine the facts, but, much more, to have as much general information and indications necessary for their policy. as possible.

In times of war, many individuals unfit to go to the front appear in the intelligence services to "pay", they put it this way, "their debt to their homeland". Some are educated and wealthy, which makes them more valuable recruits. Almost all of them exaggerate the measure of their strength. Many pay with their lives for an activity that is too short, because in times of war, they are shot when they are caught. Women often make more determined agents than men, and they also know better how to cheat; therefore, their recruitment should be encouraged in particular. Luckily for them, they are hardly ever shot, but that has changed in recent years, and that's not to mention the severe abuse that has now become commonplace. Many approach intelligence services for self-serving purposes, such as gaining business from easier border crossings, through forged documents. Generally speaking, international agents lack awareness; they easily abuse the hospitality of neutral countries, and they always think about the gains they could make. How can we be surprised, in these cases, that they are rarely worthy of trust, and that they betray easily?

What intelligence services fear most is betrayal. Because of the serious damage it causes, not only to all the personnel and efforts of the intelligence services, but also to the entire political apparatus and to the economy in general, the betrayal of an agent, a secretary or even a chief, should be punished with death. 



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Several questions concerning the intelligence services have not yet found satisfactory and definitive answers, in general and in a few countries in particular; here they are.

Should domestic political propaganda and the influence of public opinion be entrusted to the intelligence services, on the grounds that they deal with all the secret tasks of the state? Or should these missions not rather be carried out by the political police and counter-intelligence services, or even by a ministry of information which would be specially responsible for them, as in Germany, in the Soviet Union, in England and more recently in France? The last of these three possible answers is apparently the correct one, although it is not unanimous in all countries. Should the president of an intelligence service also be a soldier, or would it not be wiser for him to be a member of the political elite, given the growing importance of political, economic and scientific espionage? Wouldn't the intelligence service and the counter-espionage service gain by being united, because of their natural affinities? But, if so, then the other question would arise of knowing under what authority these united administrations would be placed, civilian or military?

Regarding now the importance that an intelligence service must have in peacetime, it will depend on several factors. If the country is particularly exposed to an external threat, this importance should logically be great, and even more so that of the counter-intelligence service. Conversely, if economic planning for war is undertaken, great emphasis should be placed on espionage - as well, of course, on propaganda and the influence of public opinion. . Finally, the intensity of espionage activity in foreign countries may be a purely political and economic choice. For recently, the relevant question has been asked to know, to choose, whether it is not more relevant to heavily fund science, or to pay less for an important scientific espionage activity, in order to select only discoveries of particular interest to industry and the country's economy? Scientific research is generally expensive, while the discoveries it brings do not always meet the economy or the expectations of the political elite. Conversely, it often happens that the hoped-for discovery or invention is made abroad, and in addition to the time, 



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efforts and money which were invested in vain in the hope of obtaining it, it is still necessary that the industrialists buy a patent or pay a license of use. This question was immediately answered in the form of a theory, which says that for the same given budget, scientific espionage is much more profitable than scientific research.

COUNTER-ESPIONAGE.

This article on counter-espionage can be considered as a follow-up to that dealing with the police [249], because the French counter-espionage service is, without question, the most efficient in the world, still under German occupation.

Napoleon Bonaparte would have said, in essence, that it was rare, if not impossible, to find a Frenchman willing to put all his heart into the occupation of espionage, military or civilian, it does not matter, and that it was for this This is because France had made it a custom, as far as possible, to employ there for any task cosmopolitan individuals or without nationality. However, this view would not seem to correspond to the idea that many have of the French spy. Feasted as we may have been with the fantasies and fiction of contemporary French writers, and their role models as master detectives, we almost invariably find ourselves crediting the French system of counter-espionage as being, in view of its excellence. , an example that all other types of organizations should follow. This is confirmed by the fact that only about 20% of crimes go unpunished in this country; this is the lowest figure found in the world.

This performance is already partly explained by close collaboration between the police and the counter-espionage service in France; but it is so today in almost all modern and civilized countries. For it is easy for anyone to admit that a service which is responsible for producing a corps of effective detectives must also be capable of producing a corps of competent spies, and better still of spy hunters.

There was a full espionage service in France at the time of Richelieu already, and clerical influence was then supported by a vast spy network ubiquitous in the country. This system continued, roughly in this form, until the period of Napoleon Bonaparte's military empire;



[249] See "The police", I crc Partie, c. IX, “Internal security”. 



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a contrast of conditions which suggests the idea that governments based on autocratic principles, and on the absence of a real separation of powers, invariably require the help of influences of an oligarchic nature to maintain their existence. But, by 1940, the French police and espionage machinery had become somewhat complicated, in part due to political factions which had been opposing each other for several years within the political elite - as we have interviewed them at the article devoted to the police [250] and the article dealing with the control of culture and education [251]. As a remarkable mark of these rivalries, from which almost the entire population was kept out between the 1880s and 1940s, there are repeated attempts to place the counter-intelligence and political police services, mainly conservative Republicans, under the patronage. soldiers whose officers had largely rallied to a rising socialist tendency which, discreetly aided by Russia, which found an obvious interest in it, was on the verge of being definitively victorious.

Paris was, until 1940, the center of French political, economic and military organization. And it is there this center worked laboriously and silently, without maintaining assiduous relations with the president nor with his cabinet however, quite the contrary what it was with the prefectures and the commissioners of the regions in particular, and with all the regional representations and other large administrations. By the admission of a division head of the intelligence services of this period, the Paris police prefect surprisingly knew little of what was happening in his administration. One rule said that only the divisional heads of the system had the power to inform the head of the service of an important matter involving members of the elite or foreign personalities, or even likely to create complications of international concern. And the head of the intelligence service was only supposed to address himself above him to the Foreign Secretary; he alone, outside the intelligence services, being authorized to know the results of the work of the spies [252]. The other ministers,



[250] Ibid.

[251] “The Control of Culture and Education”, Part II, “Information”, c. III., "Culture".

[252] Just as the surveillance of postal mail, carried out in France by the "Black Cabinet" since 1633, shortly after the creation of a royal post, has always depended on the foreign affairs body. 



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just like the prefect of police himself, were appointed to their respective posts under the sole influence of the political party to which they belonged. This is why they had little more knowledge of the discreet and hidden activities of the political movements of the country, than their subordinates might have. The divisional chiefs were the real controllers of the police machine; they were practically irremovable - unless they committed a serious fault - because they maintained close relations with the members of the elite who really decided the affairs of the state without necessarily being the official persons in charge, nor more popularly. known in the country. For example, these things were so secret that Colonel Henry, who had for a time had knowledge of the real implications of the Dreyfus Affair, and who had acted as an intermediary between a divisional leader and an important member of the real political elite of the period (from 1893 to 1898), committed suicide or was assassinated, we do not know.

The French spy and political police machine was largely based, from the time of the Minister of Police, Joseph Fouché until 1940, on a system of "files". That is, anyone who has had, or even is likely to have, a career of a public nature, is more or less under police surveillance, and all that they can do and say, and even any rumor concerning her which will be brought to the attention of the police, is carefully recorded in a file in her name, in anticipation of any eventuality, which is archived in the offices of the chief of police. The most novice who, for some reason beyond his control or not, finds himself placed in the spotlight of any publicity, even when he is an artist, a journalist or a writer, an insignificant actor in the demi-monde 252, a financier, a local politician, a fanciful who only seeks to attract a little attention to himself, a jockey, an actor, a priest, a somewhat extravagant mistress, an editor, all definitions which will be used as is, will be better known to the police only to their own parents. And when such an individual does manage to elevate himself socially enough to be noticed and solicited by a member of the political elite at the highest level, he invariably strives to be intimate enough with the leader of the police, with the aim of recovering and destroying anything that may have been recorded in the incriminating “file” concerning his past.



[253] In French in the text (N. D. T.). 



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As when a French president invited a rising politician who showed the best orthodoxy; the first request formulated by the latter, if the president invited him to do so, was to obtain “the return of his file”. It is the system of maintaining orthodoxy within the elite that we recommended in the article on the selection and manufacture of elites [254], except that the French model provides that the individual who reaches the elite The elite can obtain the disappearance of anything that could usefully serve to virtually prevent its subsequent evil intentions. However, this partial or total restitution of the file, not only is not automatic, but, moreover, it is rare to the point of being exceptional because it is still subject to other criteria, obscure those. . The "great French man" is given his file, but, when, later, he had to give way to another, a copy of it, carefully kept we do not know where or by whom, is handed over to the archives. of the police. Moreover, this file considerably thickened at that time, and, still, it contains many more compromising facts than before.

Since the time of Fouché, the great inventor of this “secret file” system in particular, and of modern police in general, the cost of compiling and maintaining files has fallen to the municipalities. In Paris, all the actions and actions of a foreign visitor, "regular" or "permanent", regardless of his nationality, are observed and noted, but as soon as his person had a political or social importance considered to be "high" in his country, they were also recorded in a secret file in his name. In addition, photography, cinematography and sound recording [255] having experienced great progress, this has made it possible, in recent years, to enrich the files of photographs, and sometimes even of films when questions of morals are raised, and are virtually conducive to useful pressure. To all this is added the espionage of telephone communications which, still in France, only reached the level of a real service thanks to an initiative of the German occupation police (Geheime Staatspolizei) , who installed it in Paris, in underground passages.


[254] "The Selection and Manufacture of the Elite", I crc Part, "Internal Policy", c. IV. "The Elite".

[255] The German company AEG has very recently developed a technique of "tape" sound recording, so remarkable that it is practically impossible to distinguish a recorded voice from one which has been physically spoken, and there are many very small microphones that can easily be concealed in a hotel room or office.



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The clandestine surveillance and opening of postal mail have existed in France since the beginning of the 17th century, when Richelieu had affirmed the need for it and had created for this surveillance mission a particular office, which took, and kept during the following centuries. - before the name of "Black Cabinet". Mail monitoring remained very active there until 1940, when the German occupation administration made the discreet opening of mail almost systematic.

All this surveillance having gained in importance and having employed more and more officials and agents, the French elite saw the obvious need to conceal the large movements of public funds that they demanded, by the creation of a "secret fund. », From the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. In addition, the difficulties of this technical surveillance outside the capital had imposed the placement of "mobile agents" and "snitches" in regional telephone exchanges and in post offices.

However, from the 18th century until 1940, espionage of the mail, then that of the telephone, had to suffer from a diversion of their function of surveillance of the mass in favor of the security of the 'State, to serve all kinds of personal interests and conspiracies by means of blackmail. Generally speaking, the weakness - but this is about the only one - of the French political police and counter-espionage system is that its great efficiency has commonly served personal interests of gaining political office, elimination of competitors and individual enrichment. However, the elite of this country never sincerely sought to remedy this serious problem, whereas it undoubtedly threatens the stability of the social structure.

Returning to the time of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, the Prefect of Police Joseph-Marie Pietri perfected and generalized the idea of ​​Fouché's “agents provocateurs” 256, which were popularly called “white coats”. For example, he sent these agents, disguised as workers, to harangue crowds in working-class districts of Paris, to incite them to revolt and to break windows. When it succeeded, the police found it a pretext to arrest and imprison the sincere ringleaders and agitators who,



[256] Fouché called his agent provocateurs service "attack police", to clearly differentiate it, in its objectives, from the traditional repressive police, which was to serve the mission of "general intelligence". 



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if left too long at liberty, they would certainly have threatened the social structure of the lower class of that time. [257]

However, after the Third Republic was established in France (1870) and the police machine was reorganized, a special political police brigade employing secret agents was recreated in 1894; it actually brought together three distinct political police brigades, and was placed under the authority of a "General Directorate of Research". In 1913, this last administration was further reorganized and renamed "Service of General Intelligence and Games", and it remained as it is until 1940, then even after and until today where, from now on, it serves the political police. and German counter-espionage, and employs a “Special Brigade” to drive out the resistance to the German occupation and destroy their clandestine networks. Since the beginning of the 20th century, this General Intelligence Service has been very active during periods of social crisis, and has been able to help the leaders of political parties to win elections, while equally effectively discrediting their opponents. Among the French political elite, it has been admitted that this political police has helped maintain the social structure better than any other force. It recruited, in particular, numerous agents and snitches among the journalists, the writers and the editors of Paris and the other principal cities of France, in order to control the public opinion, and to prevent any disclosure of state secrets and various information likely to create social unrest. This enabled him to silence, with the same effectiveness and before they can even be heard in many cases, the agitators and the political, sectarian and religious activists of all stripes. It created small groups of specialists tasked with tracking down particular political organizations located not only in France, but also in Spain, England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, and even throughout. across the Atlantic Ocean, in the United States, and often in friendly associations with the political police of these countries.



[257] Pietri's agent provocateurs organization was partially dissolved in 1870, and its best known agents were killed during the period of unrest known to historians as the "Commune".

[258] This international police collaboration is fostered by the international police organization Interpol, created in 1923 in Lyon, France, including Ernst Kaltenbrunner, head of the German political police service (Sicherheitsdienst - SD), and head of the intelligence services of the same country (Reichssicherheitshauptamt - RSHA), is the current president.



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As we have seen, the real head of the political police and counter-intelligence services is not the prefect of police, this because he owes his post to his political opinions, let us remember, and because he is a member of one of the political parties tolerated and created by the political elite. A custom which has existed for several generations, and which has never been formalized, is that he is officially head of what is known as the “Third Police Division”. Placed under this administrative control, we find the head of the 1 st Bureau, where individual secret files are archived, then the head of the 2 nd Bureau, in charge of army intelligence, whose strength and attachment are military [259] . From 1871 until 1940, the “Black Cabinet” responsible for the espionage of postal mail depended on the 2 nd Bureau.

The 1st Division directs the spies charged with watching over those deemed important. For example, she had seconded seventeen agents for the sole surveillance of Esterhazy at the time of the Dreyfus Affair, who followed him everywhere and at all times. Such men also monitor women who are visited by prominent politicians, and are instructed to make them "agents" when they are suspected of having taken confidences. They still keep an eye on the foreign notables. In the body of these secret agents, we find some who put themselves at the service of big bankers, industrialists and big merchants, bosses of big newspapers, and, in general, of all these men of the elite. who are rich or influential and who, for reasons which are personal to them, wish to know all the movements of some of their employees, their friends or their mistresses. The secret agents of the 1st Division track down foreigners and citizens of the country whose presence is deemed undesirable, in order to make their existence particularly difficult in all things. Finally, they must monitor the actions of all the rich people from whom they have learned the traits of insanity and eccentricity, “in the interest of public health and safety”, it is specified.

The 2 nd Division is, for the most part, an office whose officers
are sent to the various ports in France to locate and



[259] These Offices were created during the constitution of the Third Republic, in 1871, and existed until 1940. There is a 3rd Office, responsible for translations of intercepted foreign documents and the identification of writings ( whose existence was mentioned in the context of the scandals of Panama, Dreyfus, then Humbert), and a 4th Bureau, in charge of traffic plans, barracks and cartography. 



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monitor all individuals deemed suspicious entering or leaving the country. These, on occasion, may even be sent to foreign ports to pursue investigations as much ordinary criminal as concerning espionage. A minority proportion of these men form a special detachment tasked with investigating specific criminals and monitoring political figures of regional stature. It is this Division which created, in 1883, a "laboratory", which the late Monsieur Bertillon, the famous anthropometrist, later made famous as head of the Identity Office. In 1903, the Identity Office was considerably enlarged and modernized, and it changed status; that year, it brought together several million individual "files", managed by twelve employees.

As in Germany, all these spies known as "snitches", numbering several thousand, often hold official posts as municipal housing inspectors, directors of cabarets and other nightclubs and nightclubs. fun, from employees of the Free Placement Office (since the end of the Great War). The idea of ​​"militias" that we saw in a previous chapter 260 comes from an inferior body of snitches invented by the French, whom they expressively call "stirrer of saucepans" because their job is to "shake the social gravy boat. in any department or city, to bring the little details to the surface ”. As their name and their general mission suggest, the pot-stirrers are the vilest specimens offered by the scum of society - men and women - which itself rejects them. The Police Divisions pay them by helping them find jobs as cafe waiters, enforcers of some cheap au pair work, supervisors and night watchman, for a franc or two. All obeyed for fear of being arrested and imprisoned for some thefts of which the police carefully keep evidence or signed confessions. Many have known the prison, where they have been tried as "sheep," another popular word for an inmate who seeks to extract from a cellmate the final details of a case that the police failed to obtain. This race of sub-spies is placed under the diligence of the 3rd Division, for its benefit, since it is also responsible for keeping an eye on the state of mind of the workforce of the country employed by industrialists, large vineyards and distilleries and mining operations, and to settle union disaffection at the source.



[260] Les Milices, I crc Part, “Internal Policy”, c. IX, “Internal security”.



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A few days before the Great War, in 1914, the spy corps in France was about 1000 men and women agents, recruited from all kinds of circles and exercising all kinds of professions, because the police made it rule that their only incomes are those of the jobs which they ordinarily hold. This latter provision is one of the best safeguards against suspicion that those they are monitoring might display in their regard. Some sometimes receive some financial or other assistance; it is according to their mission costs, their merits, and also their backgrounds and education. Not all should know, and never will know, what are the ultimate goals and importance of the missions in which they are required to participate; they are, in fact, kept apart from the designs of some gigantic plan, because it must be one of the best-kept state secrets. This is why French secret agents, and even their leaders in a high percentage of cases, accept, as soon as they enter the political police, counter-espionage and espionage administrations, to limit themselves to responsibilities which elsewhere would hardly exceed those delegated to the less reliable workers.

The number of agents increased considerably during the Great War, but it was not reduced for all that when it was over, as they had become essential to the proper functioning of the company. Once or twice a week they are required to report to their leaders everything they see and hear, including any opinions they can gather about what the masses, in general, think about the elite and their people. way of running the affairs of the country.

In France at the beginning of this century, it was already well established that every major newspaper has a spy who receives information from its owner, and who, in exchange, sometimes receives other information that its journalists would be hard pressed to obtain. honest means, which the elite or their police have some interest in making widely known. The two parties thus find each their accounts. This spy is also there to monitor the editors, their secretaries and their journalists, and thus to ensure that nothing which could be harmful to the fundamental interests of the Nation cannot be accidentally or intentionally published. In the big banks too, spies exercising various official occupations paid by them spy on what other employees do there, and more particularly the details of business, investments, intentions and plans. 



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And these spies are themselves spied on by others, in order to prevent any risk that they may derive an individual profit from the information they glean in this way, on the Stock Exchange. Politicians, senators and deputies are similarly watched by intelligent and well-educated spies, paid for by the secret funds that the state makes available to the administrations of the political police and counter-intelligence. [261] . A few years ago, General Boulanger, who was Minister of War, found himself forced to flee Paris because, as he explained to Belgian journalists in Brussels, his enemies had decided to have him arrested. then imprison. Some time later, it was shown that his valet, a certain Georget, was one of those spies paid to the police service, while Boulanger, confident in his loyalty, had taken him with him to Belgium. And that was not all, for Madame Boulanger's maid, who was also the mistress of her husband General, was still from Georget, and received money from the Secret Funds for her confidences. All the movements and thoughts of the Boulanger couple had therefore been perfectly known, for a long time, to the agents of the secret services, and they could easily have had them stopped at any of the twenty stations of the railways which separated Paris from Brussels. But the police were fully aware, as Boulanger was, that if his cause could be discredited, neither the politicians nor the people of France would pay him the slightest attention. During the year following that of this affair, in 1887, the scandal of the “decorations affair”, which forced the President of the Republic Jules Grévy to resign, could still occur thanks to the powerful organization of the police. , and to three of its female agents who exercised the profession of madam and prostitute. It was the same with a second decoration affair, in 1926.

All of the police services that have been mentioned here have often changed their names or been modified. The reader should know that the omissions or inaccuracies that he will certainly find there spare him, moreover, the reading of a tedious chronological list of orders and various decrees, but that the missions described, they, not only do not have not changed until 1940, but still gained in importance, in further training and in the number of men.



[261] Already in the eighteenth century, Frederick II recommended: "A fine quality in a prince is to seek unknown merit, to reward a fine deed done without witnesses, and this is what he must be attentive to and hold so dear. 'spies to be informed of the good qualities of the citizens that the tyrants maintain in order to discover the conspiracies that are plotted against them. "- Frederick II, Die Politischen testamente," De la politique ", 1752.



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By using the French political police methods, and those recommended in the other articles of chapter IX of this book, to then both associate them well while ensuring that their leaders are far enough away from each other so that they can never get along too well, the elite will ensure that they retain their power for many years to come, and pass it on with confidence to those they have chosen to succeed them peacefully.