Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion : Protocal #12 of 24
Page 48 Compiled, Edited, Formatted & Distributed by American citizen Patrick Riot , DRAFT Edition_Patrick_
Date:
Protocol 12 of 24
Control of the Press
Masonic interpretation of the word More about the press
“Freedom”. Masonic solidarity in the press of to-
Future of the press in the Masonic kingdom. Day.
Control of the press. The arousing of “public” demands
Correspondence agencies. In the provinces.
What is progress as understood by masonry? Infallibility of the new regime.
The word “freedom,” which can be interpreted in various ways, is defined by us as follows:– Freedom is the right to do that which the law allows. This interpretation of the word will at the proper time be of service to us, because all freedom will thus be in our hands, since the laws will abolish or create only that which is desirable for us to the aforesaid programme (sic). We shall deal with the press in the following way: What is the part played by the press today? It serves to excite and inflame those passions which are needed for our purpose or else it serves selfish ends of parties. It is often vapid, unjust, mendacious, and the majority of the public have not the slightest idea what ends the press really serves. We shall saddle and bridle it with a tight curb: we shall do the same also with all productions of the printing press, for where would be the sense of getting rid of the attacks of the press if we remain targets for pamphlets and books? The produce of publicity, which nowadays is a source of heavy expense owing to the necessity of censoring it, will be turned by us into a very lucrative source of income to our State: we shall lay on it a special stamp tax and require deposits of caution-money before the establishment of any organ of the press or of printing offices; these will then have to guarantee our government against any kind of attack on the part of the press.
For any attempt to attack us, if such still be possible, we shall inflict fines without mercy. Such measures as stamp tax, deposits, of caution money and fines secured by these deposits, will bring in a huge income to the government. It is true that party organs might not spare money for the sake of publicity, but these we shall shut at the second attack upon us. No one shall with impunity lay a finger on the aureole of our government infallibility. The pretext for stopping any publication will be the alleged plea that is agitating the public mind without occasion or justification. I beg you to note that among those making attacks upon us will also be organs established by us, but they will attack exclusively points that we have pre-determined to alter.
Not a single announcement will reach the public without our control. Even now this is already attained by us inasmuch as all news items are received by a few agencies, in whose in whose offices they are focused from all parts of the world. These agencies will then be already entirely ours and will give publicity only to what we dictate to them.
If already now we have contrived to possess ourselves of the minds of the goy communities to such an extent that they all come near looking upon the events of the world through the coloured (sic) spectacles we are setting astride their noses: if already now there is not a single State where exist for us any barriers to admittance into what goy stupidity calls State secrets: what will our position be then, when we shall be acknowledged supreme lords of the world in the person of our king of all the world...
Let us turn again to the future of the printing press. Every one desirous of being a publisher, librarian, or printer, will be obliged to provide himself with the diploma instituted therefore, which, in case of any fault, will be immediately impounded. With such measures the instrument of thought will become an educative means in the hands of our government, which will no longer allow the mass of the nation to be led astray in by-ways and fantasies about the blessings of progress. Is there anyone of us who does not know that these phantom blessings are the direct roads to foolish imaginings which give birth to anarchical relations of men among themselves and towards authority, because progress, or rather the idea of progress, has introduced the conception of every kind of emancipation, but has failed to establish its limits...all the so-called liberals are anarchists, if not in fact, at any rate in thought.
Every one of them is hunting after phantoms of freedom, and falling exclusively into license, that is, into the anarchy of protest for the sake of protest.
We turn to the periodical press. We shall impose on it, as on all printed matter, stamp taxes per sheet and deposits of caution-money, and books of less than 30 sheets will pay double. We shall reckon them as pamphlets in order, on one hand, to reduce the number of magazines, which are the worst form of printed poison, and, on the other, in that this measure may force writers into such lengthy productions that they will be costly. At the same time what we shall publish ourselves to influence development in the direction laid sown for our profit will be cheap and will be read voraciously. The tax will bring vapid literary ambitions within bounds and the liability to penalties will make literary dependent upon us. And if there should be any found who are desirous of writing against us, they will not find any person eager to print their productions.
End of Page 48.
Page 49.
Compiled, Edited, Formatted & Distributed by American citizen Patrick Riot , DRAFT Edition_Patrick_
Before accepting any production for publication in print the publisher or printer will have to apply to the authorities for permission to do so. Thus we shall know beforehand of all tricks preparing against us and shall nullify them by getting ahead with explanations on the subject treated of. Literature and Journalism are two of the most educative forces, therefore our government will become proprietor of the majority of the journals. This will neutralize the injurious influence of privately owned press and will put us in possession of the tremendous influence upon the mind . . . If we give permit for ten journals, we shall ourselves found thirty, and so on the same proportion. This, however, must in nowise be suspected by the public. For which reason all journals published by us will be of the most opposite, in appearance, tendencies and opinions, thereby creating confidence in us and bringing over to us our quite unsuspecting opponents, who will thus fall into our trap and be rendered harmless.
In the front rank will stand organs of an official character. They will always stand guard over our interests, and therefore their influence will [be] comparatively insignificant. In the second rank will be the semi-official organs, whose part it will be to attack the tepid and indifferent. In the third rank we shall set up our own, to all appearance, opposition, as their pen and will show us their cards.
All our newspapers will be of all possible complexions 0– aristocratic, republican, revolutionary, even anarchical – for so long, of course, as the constitution exists. . . like the Indian idol Vishnu they will have a hundred hands. And every one of them will have a finger on any one of the public opinions as required. When a pulse quickens these hands will lead opinion in the direction of our aims, for an excited patient loses all power of judgement and easily yields to suggestion. Those fools who will think they are repeating the opinion of a newspaper of their own camp will be repeating our opinion or any opinion that seems desirable to us. In the vain belief that they are following the organ of their party they will in fact follow the flag which we hang out for them.
Un order to direct our newspaper militia in this sense we must take especial care in organizing this matter. Under the title of Central Department of The Press we shall institute literary gatherings at which our agents will without attracting attention issue the orders and watchwords of the day. By discussing and controverting, but always superficially the essence of the matter, our organs will carry a sham fight fusillade with the official newspapers solely for the purpose of giving occasion for us to express ourselves more fully than could well be done from the outset in official announcements, whenever, of course, that is to our advantage.
These attacks upon us will serve another purpose, namely, that our subjects will be convinced of the existence of full freedom of speech and so give our agents an occasion to affirm that all organs which oppose are empty babblers, since they are incapable of finding any substantial objections to our orders.
Methods of organization like these, imperceptible to the public eye but absolutely sure, are the best calculated to succeed in bringing the attention and the confidence of the public to the side of our government. Thanks to such methods we shall be in a position as from time to time may be required, to excite or to tranquillise (sic) the public mind on political questions, to persuade or to confuse, printing now truth, now lies, facts or their contradictions as they may be well or ill received, always feeling our ground before stepping upon it. . . We shall have a sure triumph over our opponents since they will not have at their disposition organs of the press in which they can give full and final expression to their views owing to the aforesaid methods of dealing with the press. We shall not even need to refute them except very superficially.
Trial shots like these, fired by is in the third rank of our press, in case of need, will be energetically refuted by us in our semi-official organs.
Even nowadays, already, to take only the Drench press, there are forms which reveal Masonic solidarity in acting on the watchword: all organs of the press are bound together by professional secrecy; like the augurs of old, not one of their numbers will give away the secret of his sources of information unless it be resolved to make announcement of them. Not one journalist will venture to betray this secret, for not one of them is ever admitted to practise (sic) literature unless his whole past has some disgraceful sore or other. These sores would immediately be revealed. So long as they remain the secret of a few the prestige of the journalist attracts the majority of the
co{Transfer interrupted}! [Loss of Signal. CLMsr] h enthusiasm.
Our calculations are especially extended to the provinces. It is indispensable for us to inflame there those hopes and impulses with which we could at any moment fall upon the capitol, and we shall represent to the capitols that these expressions are the independent hopes and impulses of the provinces. Naturally, the source of them will be always one and the same – ours. What we need is that, until such time as we are in the plenitude of power, the capitols should find themselves stifled by the provincial opinion of the nation, i.e., of a majority arranged by our agentur. (Sic). What we need is that at the psychological moment the capitols should not be in a position to discuss an accomplished fact for the simple reason, if for no other, that it has been accepted by the public opinion of a majority in the provinces.
End of Page 49.