“The consequences are grotesque and bitter. Economic warfare and worse measures are threatening the livelihood of millions. PR and media serve to cover up the machiavellism of politics, the permanent breaches of law, the political ignorance of human dignity and human rights. Furthermore, people should also become accustomed to this step by step. And the strategy goes one step further: The PR people are aware that this indifference is obvious for every thinking person. So, another goal is to subject thinking and compassionate people to feelings of helplessness. Come on, thinking man, your thoughts and feelings do not interest us, you are meaningless, our means of maintaining power are stronger, we laugh in your face, mockery is our business, we have the upper hand – the ‘masses’ will follow us! …For how long will this continue?”
As of 22 August 2018, five months after the alleged crime, the US government set strict economic sanctions against Russia into force. These new sanctions are being justified with the claim that Russia used the neurotoxin (the “chemical weapon”) Novichok, in order to kill the former Russian double agent Skripal (who also acted for the Russian military secret service GRU), thus crossing the “red line” drawn by the US legislative against the usage of chemical weapons.
The new sanction decisions were taken in parallel with reports of alleged investigations by the British Scotland Yard, according to which two suspects had been identified in the Skripal case. Both are secret agents of the Russian military secret service GRU and were now in Russia. Great Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May was faced with the question of whether she wanted to submit an extradition request to Russia. Failure to comply with this request by Russia would lead to a further deterioration and escalation of British-Russian relations.
According to the alleged investigation results of Scotland Yard we read: “According to unconfirmed reports, the alleged criminals were identified following months of investigations. Hundreds of detectives had compared the footage from numerous video cameras with data from passengers who had travelled in and out of Great Britain before and after 4 March, the date of the assaults.” (“Neue Zürcher Zeitung”, 7 August 2018)
Which conclusions are now possible? A number of people will say: Now it turns out that the Russians are behind the assassination attempt. So it makes sense that the US government takes appropriate actions and that this curious Putin supporter Donald Trump is forced to do what is needed: to impose even stricter sanctions against Russia.
Another group will ask: What is the US government’s justification to decide on new sanctions while nothing is proven in the Skripal case and all allegations made so far (that Novichok was only available in Russia etc.) was disproven? When even the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” speaks of “unconfirmed reports” and “suspected perpetrators” and then also uses such blurred formulations as “the material of countless video cameras”, “hundreds of detectives” and “passenger data of travellers”, then one can come up with all kinds of stories, but nothing is recognisable as proof at all. The official Russian reactions, which speak of an “economic war” between the US administration and Russia and call the action of the US government contrary to international law, are not so absurd.
Early November 1918, nearly 100 years ago, World War I ended. The states of Europe were spent, the people of the millions of victims of the war suffered... and the people rightly asked: How was it possible to get us involved in such a mass murder?
The American President Woodrow Wilson used this mood of the people and formulated his 14 Points, which have gone down in the history books. The first point states that the upcoming peace treaties must be concluded openly and publicly: “Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.” This corresponded to the wishes and will of millions. The causes of the World War are still being researched, the controversies continue to this day, archives are still closed, and the secret agreements of the governments and background circles involved in the war were numerous.
Unfortunately: US President Wilson did not follow up his words with action. On the contrary, from today’s perspective one has to assume that Wilson’s words were ultimately no more than war propaganda, cleverly used to draw the people of Europe (and the USA) to his side. Wilson had hired a propaganda expert: Edward Bernays. “Edward Louis Bernays (*22 November 1891 in Vienna, †9 March 1995 in New York) is considered, aside with Ivy Lee and others as father of Public Relations and an important spin doctor. He himself coined the term PR consultant (Public Relations Counselor) for his profession.” Wikipedia German states. Read below: “Bernays supported the American government under Wilson in the Committee on Public Information during World War I in its efforts to obtain public approval for a US war entry. His campaign in 1917, the year of the war, was entitled “Make the world safe for democracy.” – What a mockery!
Wilson and Bernays knew that 19th century methods had served their time. It was no longer possible to tell the people that politics is still none of their business; it was up to the governments alone to decide on this. Politics needed new forms of “legitimation”, and since the end of absolutism a reference to the “divine grace” of the ruler was no longer opportune. Also Hegel’s argument that the (Prussian) state represented the supreme “incarnation” of the world spirit was no longer convincing. The sentence attributed to Walter Ulbricht (GDR) many years later became the new principle: “Everything must look democratic, but we must have everything in our hands”. The means of choice were PR and media, which took up PR and disseminated it without criticism. This has not changed to this day.
The consequences are grotesque and bitter. Economic warfare and worse measures are threatening the livelihood of millions. PR and media serve to cover up the machiavellism of politics, the permanent breaches of law, the political ignorance of human dignity and human rights. Furthermore, people should also become accustomed to this step by step. And the strategy goes one step further: The PR people are aware that this indifference is obvious for every thinking person. So, another goal is to subject thinking and compassionate people to feelings of helplessness. Come on, thinking man, your thoughts and feelings do not interest us, you are meaningless, our means of maintaining power are stronger, we laugh in your face, mockery is our business, we have the upper hand – the “masses” will follow us!
For how long will this continue? •
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