Larry Susanka's Personal Pages

Welcome! Local time in Bellevue Washington is 01:12:04 and the date is 05/18/24. For those who need to target an ICBM, I spend a considerable amount of time near N=47.56° E=-122.13° and much of the rest near N=47.16° E=-120.94°. We are -8:00 in relation to GMT. The various pages that comprise this site have been accessed 2425972 times since the counter was created in March 1998. Currently I have an active interest in physics, rock and ice climbing, mathematics, horses and running mountain trails. I am a supporter of The Planetary Society, various skeptical organizations such as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and am a fan of science fiction, in its myriad forms. I also pretend to study Spanish and guitar. We'll see.

 

We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction. "Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship." "There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars." "Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

This quote is attributed to Hermann Goering on 18 April, 1946 as reported by his interviewer, Gustave Gilbert, and published in Gilbert's book Nuremberg Diary.

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I can be contacted by e-mail at WebContact@Susanka.org.

My PGP public key can be found on the public keyservers and also here.

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This page was last modified on 05/16/24 at 12:19.