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Protocols of the Learned
Elders of Zion
Translated by Victor E. Marsden
PROTOCOL 5: DESPOTISM
AND MODERN PROGRESS
1. What form of administrative rule can be given to
communities in which corruption has penetrated everywhere, communities where
riches are attained only by the clever surprise tactics of semi-swindling
tricks; where looseness reigns: where morality is maintained by penal measures
and harsh laws but not by voluntarily accepted principles: where the feelings
towards faith and country are obligated by cosmopolitan convictions? What form
of rule is to be given to these communities if not that despotism which I shall
describe to you later? We shall create an intensified centralization of
government in order to grip in our hands all the forces of the community. We
shall regulate mechanically all the actions of the political life of our
subjects by new laws. These laws will withdraw one by one all the indulgences
and liberties which have been permitted by the GOYIM, and our kingdom will be
distinguished by a despotism of such magnificent proportions as to be at any
moment and in every place in a position to wipe out any GOYIM who oppose us by
deed or word.
2. We shall be told that such a despotism as I speak of is not
consistent with the progress of these days, but I will prove to you that is is.
3. In the times when the peoples looked upon kings on their
thrones as on a pure manifestation of the will of God, they submitted without a
murmur to the despotic power of kings: but from the day when we insinuated into
their minds the conception of their own rights they began to regard the
occupants of thrones as mere ordinary mortals. The holy unction of the Lord's
Anointed has fallen from the heads of kings in the eyes of the people, and when
we also robbed them of their faith in God the might of power was flung upon the
streets into the place of public proprietorship and was seized by us.
MASSES LED BY LIES
4. Moreover, the art of directing masses and individuals by
means of cleverly manipulated theory and verbitage, by regulations of life in
common and all sorts of other quirks, in all which the GOYIM understand nothing,
belongs likewise to the specialists of our administrative brain. Reared on
analysis, observation, on delicacies of fine calculation, in this species of
skill we have no rivals, any more than we have either in the drawing up of plans
of political actions and solidarity. In this respect the Jesuits alone might
have compared with us, but we have contrived to discredit them in the eyes of
the unthinking mob as an overt organization, while we ourselves all the while
have kept our secret organization in the shade. However, it is probably all the
same to the world who is its sovereign lord, whether the head of Catholicism or
our despot of the blood of Zion! But to us, the Chosen People, it is very far
from being a matter of indifference.
5. FOR A TIME PERHAPS WE MIGHT BE SUCCESSFULLY DEALT WITH BY A
COALITION OF THE "GOYIM" OF ALL THE WORLD: but from this danger we are
secured by the discord existing among them whose roots are so deeply seated that
they can never now be plucked up. We have set one against another the personal
and national reckonings of the GOYIM, religious and race hatreds, which we have
fostered into a huge growth in the course of the past twenty centuries. This is
the reason why there is not one State which would anywhere receive support if it
were to raise its arm, for every one of them must bear in mind that any
agreement against us would be unprofitable to itself. We are too strong -- there
is no evading our power. THE NATIONS CANNOT COME TO EVEN AN INCONSIDERABLE
PRIVATE AGREEMENT WITHOUT OUR SECRETLY HAVING A HAND IN IT.
6. PER ME REGES REGNANT. "It is through me that Kings
reign." And it was said by the prophets that we were chosen by God
Himself to rule over the whole earth. God has endowed us with genius that we may
be equal to our task. Were genius in the opposite camp it would still struggle
against us, but even so, a newcomer is no match for the old-established settler:
the struggle would be merciless between us, such a fight as the world has never
seen. Aye, and the genius on their side would have arrived too late. All the
wheels of the machinery of all States go by the force of the engine, which is in
our hands, and that engine of the machinery of States is -- Gold. The science of
political economy invented by our learned elders has for long past been giving
royal prestige to capital.
MONOPOLY CAPITAL
7. Capital, if it is to co-operate untrammeled, must be free
to establish a monopoly of industry and trade: this is already being put in
execution by an unseen hand in all quarters of the world. This freedom will give
political force to those engaged in industry, and that will help to oppress the
people. Nowadays it is more important to disarm the peoples than to lead them
into war: more important to use for our advantage the passions which have burst
into flames than to quench their fire: more important to eradicate them. THE
PRINCIPLE OBJECT OF OUR DIRECTORATE CONSISTS IN THIS: TO DEBILITATE THE PUBLIC
MIND BY CRITICISM; TO LEAD IT AWAY FROM SERIOUS REFLECTIONS CALCULATED TO AROUSE
RESISTANCE; TO DISTRACT THE FORCES OF THE MIND TOWARDS A SHAM FIGHT OF EMPTY
ELOQUENCE.
8. In all ages the people of the world, equally with
individuals, have accepted words for deeds, for THEY ARE CONTENT WITH A SHOW and
rarely pause to note, in the public arena, whether promises are followed by
performance. Therefore we shall establish show institutions which will give
eloquent proof of their benefit to progress.
9. We shall assume to ourselves the liberal physiognomy of all
parties, of all directions, and we shall give that physiognomy a VOICE IN
ORATORS WHO WILL SPEAK SO MUCH THAT THEY WILL EXHAUST THE PATIENCE OF THEIR
HEARERS AND PRODUCE AN ABHORRENCE OF ORATORY.
10. IN ORDER TO PUT PUBLIC OPINION INTO OUR HANDS WE MUST
BRING IT INTO A STATE OF BEWILDERMENT BY GIVING EXPRESSION FROM ALL SIDES TO SO
MANY CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS AND FOR SUCH LENGTH OF TIME AS WILL SUFFICE TO MAKE
THE "GOYIM" LOSE THEIR HEADS IN THE LABYRINTH AND COME TO SEE
THAT THE BEST THING IS TO HAVE NO OPINION OF ANY KIND IN MATTERS POLITICAL,
which it is not given to the public to understand, because they are understood
only by him who guides the public. This is the first secret.
11. The second secret requisite for the success of our
government is comprised in the following: To multiply to such an extent national
failings, habits, passions, conditions of civil life, that it will be impossible
for anyone to know where he is in the resulting chaos, so that the people in
consequence will fail to understand one another. This measure will also serve us
in another way, namely, to sow discord in all parties, to dislocate all
collective forces which are still unwilling to submit to us, and to discourage
any kind of personal initiative which might in any degree hinder our affair.
THERE IS NOTHING MORE DANGEROUS THAN PERSONAL INITIATIVE: if it has genius
behind it, such initiative can do more than can be done by millions of people
among whom we have sown discord. We must so direct the education of the GOYIM
communities that whenever they come upon a matter requiring initiative they may
drop their hands in despairing impotence. The strain which results from freedom
of actions saps the forces when it meets with the freedom of another. From this
collision arise grave moral shocks, disenchantments, failures. BY ALL THESE
MEANS WE SHALL SO WEAR DOWN THE "GOYIM" THAT THEY WILL BE COMPELLED TO
OFFER US INTERNATIONAL POWER OF A NATURE THAT BY ITS POSITION WILL ENABLE US
WITHOUT ANY VIOLENCE GRADUALLY TO ABSORB ALL THE STATE FORCES OF THE WORLD AND
TO FORM A SUPER-GOVERNMENT. In place of the rulers of to-day we shall set up a
bogey which will be called the Super-Government Administration. Its hands will
reach out in all directions like nippers and its organization will be of such
colossal dimensions that it cannot fail to subdue all the nations of the world.
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