"Falsehood in War-Time" by Arthur Ponsonby (1928)

Here I am going to mention some books (and possibly some essays and documentaries) that have made an impact on my understanding of the world.  I will not be attempting to provide a book review – just some key passages that speak for themselves and incite your interest, with perhaps minimal comments as to why I thought the book was significant.  I am in no hurry and most will be from my archives.

I wish I had kept a diary so that they form some sort of chronological narrative.  Nevertheless, each book or piece of information represents a pixel that often only becomes significant later on.

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This booklet by Arthur Ponsonby exposes the falsehoods used not just during war time but to condition the masses to accept, if not desire war as part of the preparation for war.  Written in 1928, it clearly focuses on World War I, but as you read, it is evidently applicable to all wars since, especially World War II.  The reader will gain certain insights that help them see through the warmongering and falsehoods that are taking place in real time before our very eyes today.

What this book taught me is that yes, despite this being unthinkable, they really do create, perpetuate and win wars using lies and atrocity propaganda.

One source:

https://moodle2.units.it/pluginfile.php/259243/mod_resource/content/2/Ponsonby_Falsehoods%20in%20wartime%20%281929%29.pdf

…

I will let Sir Arthur Ponsonby tell the story by way of some quoted passages.

“Facts must be distorted, relevant circumstances concealed and a picture presented which by its crude colouring ill persuade the ignorant people that their Government is blameless, their cause is righteous, and that the indisputable wickedness of the enemy has been proved beyond question.“

“Departments have to be created to see to the psychological side. People must never be allowed to become despondent; so victories must be exaggerated and defeats, if not concealed, at any rate minimized, and the stimulus of indignation, horror, and hatred must be assiduously and continuously pumped into the public mind by means of propaganda."

“… the injection of the poison of hatred into men's minds by means of falsehood is a greater evil in wartime than the actual loss of life. The defilement of the human soul is worse than the destruction of the human body.”

[…]

War being established as a recognized institution to be resorted to when Governments quarrel, the people are more or less prepared. They quite willingly delude themselves in order to justify their own actions.

They are anxious to find an excuse for displaying their patriotism, or they are disposed to seize the opportunity for the excitement and new life of adventure which war opens out to them. So there is a sort    of national wink, everyone goes forward, and the individual, in his turn, takes up lying as a patriotic duty. 

[…]

The British official propaganda department at Crewe House, under Lord Northcliffe, was highly successful.

[…]

[paraphrasing the summary of methods of lying … ]

There are several different sorts of disguises which falsehood can take. 

·                There is the deliberate official lie, issued either to delude the people at home or to mislead the enemy abroad.

·                There is the deliberate lie concocted by an ingenious mind which may only reach a small circle, but which, if sufficiently graphic and picturesque, may be caught up and spread broadcast ; and there is the hysterical hallucination on the part of weak-minded individuals.

·                There is the lie heard and not denied, although lacking in evidence, and then repeated or allowed to circulate.

·                There is the mistranslation, occasionally originating in a genuine mistake, but more often deliberate

·                There is the general obsession, started by rumour and magnified by repetition and elaborated by hysteria, which at last gains general acceptance.

·                There is the deliberate forgery which has to be very carefully manufactured but serves its purpose at the moment, even though it be eventually exposed.

·                 There is the omission of passages from official documents of which only a few of the many instances are given; and the "correctness" of words and commas in parliamentary answers which conceal evasions of the truth.

·                There is deliberate exaggeration,

·                There is the concealment of truth, which has to be resorted to so as to prevent anything to the credit of the enemy reaching the public

·                There is the faked photograph ("the camera cannot lie "). These were more popular in France than here. In Vienna an enterprising firm supplied atrocity photographs with blanks for the headings so that they might be used for propaganda purposes by either side.

·                The cinema also played a very important part, especially in neutral countries, and helped considerably in turning opinion in America in favour of coming in on the side of the Allies. To this day in this country attempts are made by means of films to keep the wound raw.

·                There is the "Russian scandal," the best instance of which during the war, curiously enough, was the rumour of the passage of Russian troops through Britain. Some trivial and imperfectly understood statement of fact becomes magnified into enormous proportions by constant repetition from one person to another.

·                Atrocity lies were the most popular of all, especially in this country and America; no war can be without them. Slander of the enemy is esteemed a patriotic duty.

·                The repetition of a single instance of cruelty and its exaggeration can be distorted into a prevailing habit on the part of the enemy. Unconsciously each one passes it on with trimmings and yet tries to persuade himself that he is speaking the truth.

·                There are lies emanating from the inherent unreliability and fallibility of human testimony.

·                There is pure romance. Letters of soldiers who whiled away the days and weeks of intolerable waiting by writing home sometimes contained thrilling descriptions of engagements and adventures which had never occurred.

·                There are evasions, concealments, and half-truths which are more subtly misleading and gradually become a governmental habit.

·                There is official secrecy which must necessarily mislead public opinion.

·                There is sham official indignation depending on genuine popular indignation which is a form of falsehood sometimes resorted to in an unguarded moment and subsequently regretted. The first use of gas by the Germans and the submarine warfare are good instances of this.

·                There are personal accusations and false charges made in a prejudiced war atmosphere to discredit persons who refuse to adopt the orthodox attitude towards war.

·                There are lying recriminations between one country and another.

[…]

In wartime, failure of a lie is negligence, the doubting of a lie a misdemeanour, the declaration of the truth a crime.

[…]

Many of the old war lies survived for several years, and some survive even to this day.

And that’s just from the Introduction

[…]

Here is the rest of the Table of Contents:

1.            THE COMMITMENT TO FRANCE

2.            SERBIA AND THE MURDER OF THE ARCHDUKE

3.            THE INVASION OF BELGIUM AS A CAUSE OF THE GREAT WAR

4.            GERMANY'S SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAR

5.            PASSAGE OF RUSSIAN TROOPS THROUGH GREAT BRITAIN

6.            THE MUTILATED NURSE

7.            THE CRIMINAL KAISER

8.            THE BELGIAN BABY WITHOUT HANDS

9.            THE LOUVAIN ALTAR-PIECE

10.          THE CONTEMPTIBLE LITTLE ARMY

11.          DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLES

12.          THE BABY OF COURBECK LOO

13.          THE CRUCIFIED CANADIAN

14.          THE SHOOTING OF THE FRANZÖSLING

15.          LITTLE ALF'S STAMP COLLECTION

16.          THE TATTOOED MAN

17.          THE CORPSE FACTORY

18.          THE BISHOP OF ZANZIBAR'S LETTER

19.          THE GERMAN U-BOAT OUTRAGE

20.          CONSTANTINOPLE

21.          THE "LUSITANIA"

22.          REPORT OF A BROKEN-UP MEETING

23.          ATROCITY STORIES

24.          FAKED PHOTOGRAPHS

25.          THE DOCTORING OF OFFICIAL PAPERS

26.          HYPOCRITICAL INDIGNATION

27.          OTHER LIES

28.          THE MANUFACTURE OF NEWS

29.          WAR AIMS

30.          FOREIGN LIES

[…]

One amusing anecdote from Chapter 5 on the rumour of Russian troops in Britain (recall that this is during WWI) … 

“They were in trains with the blinds down, on platforms stamping the snow off their boots; they called hoarsely for "vodka" at Carlisle and Berwick-on-Tweed, and they jammed the penny-in-the-slot machine with a rouble at Durham. The number of troops varied according to the imaginative powers of the witness.”

[…]

A thought for a related book mention in future might be John Coleman’s “The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations”.

https://archive.org/details/Tavistock_201601

in which Coleman writes … 

“Funding [for the Tavistock/Wellington House project] was provided by the British royal family, and later by the Rothschilds to whom Lord Northcliffe was related through marriage … “