Sometimes, I hear Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief, quoted about the big lie:
When we are frightened by a tyrant or a group of them or simply hooligans and thugs, we can see that speech has power. Our speech, their speech, victims' speech, perpetrators' speech - they all have power. Thus, lies have power, including some persuasive power. I suppose that anyone who has a parent or ever had a parent, a child or ever had a child, a partner or ever had a partner, has a feeling for the power of others' speech, beliefs and habitual actions.
But I want to point out to all involved that the statement refers to "A" lie. In today's high communication arenas, we have messages zipping back and forth in great numbers. The statement above refers to an older situation, one in which, believe it or not, public media other than writing, was a new thing. Heck, it is still a new thing. What with a good portion of the world being without electricity, television, internet, Facebook, email, Instagram, Pinterest, many parts of the world right now are relatively free of life with lots of messages. However, some of us really live in a communication jungle, overgrown with vines of lines, waves of wags, corps of communicators, piles of propaganda. We have ads, notifications, texts, reminders.
Yes, when Mommy told me something over and over again, and I didn't see any conflict between her statement and my daily experience, I believed what she said. As a teen, I did come to question a few things, but I was mostly busy questioning my own thoughts, my feelings, my readings, my teachers. I had little reason to doubt what she said. Adults sometimes worry about what the schools are teaching their kids but usually without reflecting on how much of what they "know" is what their own parents were
preaching.
A shortcoming in the US today, at least the part I experience, is repetition. In other words, many things are not reliable. What I see and hear today is not what I saw and heard yesterday. New, ??better?, ??improved? is what many things and people claim to be.
You might be able to convince me of a big lie but you are going to have to stick to it. I only have a limited capacity. If you have a big truth, you better repeat it and only it. You better not throw in a few auxiliary ideas. Sorry, but you have to concentrate and stick to a few lines. It is going to be difficult since what is reliably the same is easy to question and doubt, but that is the best you can do.
