Goebbelism in Mauritius

Mauritius Times – 70 Years

Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, was considered the most dangerous and most intelligent among the top Nazis. Without Goebbels’s vast and intricate propaganda machine, Hitler would probably not have reached such dizzy heights, and the crushing victories the German armies acquired during the early days of the last war were due to Goebbels’s psychological treatment to which the German people had been subjected for years. He conditioned the minds of his people to sacrifice their lives for their fatherland.

Goebbels stripped his method of propaganda of intellectualism. He devised it in such a way that it could be understood by the common man. He wanted his message to be grasped by the simple, unpretentious worker. He stressed one important point: constant repetition. In his memorable diary, which was found after he committed suicide, he wrote: “… the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitive. In the long run, basic results in influencing public opinion will be achieved only by the man who is able to reduce problems to the simplest terms and who has the courage to keep forever repeating them in the simplified form, despite the objections of the intellectuals.”

About the same time, Mussolini issued his famous ‘Decalogue’ (ten commandments) which was meant for the army, but which was also given wide circulation among the public. Here it is:

1. Remember that those who fell for revolution and the empire march at the head of your columns.
2. Thy comrade is thy brother. He lives with thee, thinks with thee, and is at thy side in battle.
3. Service to Italy can be rendered at all times in all places and by every means. It can be paid with toil and also with blood.
4. The enemy of Fascism is thine enemy. Give him no quarter.
5. Discipline is the sunshine of armies. It repairs and illuminates the victory.
6. He who advances to the attack with decision has victory already in his grasp.
7. Conscious and complete obedience is the virtue of the Legionary.
8. There do not exist things important and unimportant. There is only duty.
9. The Fascist revolution has depended in the past and still depends on the bayonets of its Legionaries.
10. MUSSOLINI IS ALWAYS RIGHT

What the reactionaries are doing these days can be to a certain degree parallel to the Nazi and Fascist methods of propaganda. One has to pick up any copy of some of the local papers or attend one of the several weekly meetings where tons of bile are being vomited on those who are running the Government, in order to take stock of the disaster towards which we are fast heading.

Everything the Government does is not good. We don’t pretend that all the Government has done or is doing is perfect. In all honesty, we must accept its failings, but what about the good work the Government has done during the short periods it has been in office? What about the vast program of reconstruction on which it is going to embark? No mention is ever made of these things. If it is ever made by the opposition, it is to try to take the credit for itself by pretending that had it not applied pressure, the Government would not have done it. In the case of several other good things done by the Government, the opposition is out only to find fault.

After Alix, when poles and iron sheets were distributed and when the people were all praise for the Government, the enemies of the people went round the villages and started telling the people: “Why haven’t you asked these Ministers how to build a house with only 18 iron sheets? What about the linings? And where will you get money to pay for carpenters? These Ministers are drawing Rs 40,000, they live in palaces while you people who have placed them on pedestals have to live a dog’s life.”

Overnight, the very people who were all thanks for the Government started cursing the Ministers. This is only one example among dozens. There are a lot of things with which the Government has nothing to do, viz: the Cyclone and Drought Insurance Board decision to survey the land of planters, which is perfectly legal. The facts are distorted and imaginary blame heaped on the heads of the Ministers. Be it noted that when the Cyclone and Drought Insurance Board wanted to pass a bill in which the assessment of the loss of canes of small planters would have been computed on a collective basis while that of big planters on an individual basis, these “watchdogs” of the people did nothing to counteract that decision.

But what is on the minds of our local Goebbels? To the simple-minded man, of course, they pose as their saviours. The subtlety with which they present their case is easily digested by the common man. As in any part of the world, the common man cannot think properly. He is easily swayed by demagogues. The tragedy becomes worse when there is no hitting back. Oft-repeated statements, even if they are lies, will, in the long run, be accepted as true.

We are heading towards an abyss. When will the Government and those who are at its head — the LP and Comité d’Action Musulman — wake up to the realization of the danger which we are facing? Shall we wait until there is a riot? It will be too late then.

The enemies of the people are out for mischief so as to retard the progress of the country, both constitutionally and economically. They know that when this country will have obtained independence, things would change for the better. There won’t be any troubled waters for them to fish in.

7th Year – No 309
Friday 29th July 1960

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 20 June 2025