PROTOCOL 12
Masonic interpretation of the word "freedom."
Future of the press in the masonic kingdom. Control of the press.
Correspondence agencies. What is progress as understood by masonry? More about
the press. Masonic solidarity in the press of to-day. The arousing of "public"
demands in the provinces. 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 according to the aforesaid programme.
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 permitting 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 up 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 it 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 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 glasses of those spectacles we
are setting astride their noses: if already now there is not a single State
where there 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 therefor, 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 any one 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 the one hand, to reduce the number of magazines, which are the
worst form of printed poison, and, on the other, in order that this measure may
force writers into such lengthy productions that they will be little read
especially as they will be costly. At the same time what we shall publish
ourselves to influence mental development in the direction laid down for our
profit will he cheap and will be read voraciously. The tax will bring vapid
literary ambitions within bounds and the liability to penalties will make
literary men 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. 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 important
educative forces, and therefore our government will become proprietor of the
majority of the journals. This will neutralize the injurious influence of the
privately-owned press and will put us in possession of the tremendous influence
upon the public 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 unsuspicious 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 comparatively insignificant. In the second rank will be the semi-official
organs, whose part it will be to attract the tepid and indifferent. In the third
rank we shall set up our own, to all appearance, opposition, which, in at least
one of its organs, will present what looks like the very antipodes to us. Our
real opponents at heart will accept this simulated opposition as their own and
will show us their cards.
All our newspapers will be of all possible complexions
-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 judgment
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 for 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.
In order to direct our newspaper militia in this sense we must
take especial and minute 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, without
touching the essence of the matter, our organs will carry on 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 also 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 us 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 the public mind on political questions, to persuade
or to confuse, printing now truth, now lies, facts or their contradictions,
according as they may be well or ill received, always very cautiously 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 us 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 French 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
literature unless his whole past has some disgraceful sore or other. . . These
sores would be immediately revealed. So long as they remain the secret of a few
the prestige of the journalist attracts the majority of the country -the mob
follow after him with 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 capital, and we shall represent to the
capitals 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
capitals should find themselves stifled by the provincial opinion of the nation,
i.e., of a majority arranged by our agentur. What we need is that at the
psychological moment the capitals 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.
When we are in the period of the new regime transitional to
that of our assumption of full sovereignity must not admit any revelations by
the press of any form of public dishonesty; it is necessary that the new regime
should be thought to have so perfectly contented everybody that even criminality
has disappeared. . . Cases of the manifestation of criminality should remain
known only to their victims and to chance witnesses -no more.
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