Coastal Post Online
MARIN COUNTY'S NEWS
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November, 2004
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Goering's Law
By Jim Scanlon
In
"Mystery in the Heartland" in the October 7, 2004 edition of The New
York Review of Books, Jason Epstein, the founder of the NY Review, quotes the
German World War I war hero, and World War II war criminal Hermann Goering as
follows:
"... People don't want to go to war ... But, after all, it's the
leaders of the country who determine the policy and it's always a simple matter
to drag the people along whether it's a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or
a parliament or a communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can
always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to
do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of
patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same in any
country. "
Epstein notes that the process in our country is called "wagging the
dog" and that "Americans ... in the heartland and elsewhere can
usually be relied upon to submit to Goering's Law most of the times like the
present of cultural transformation, anomie and fear."
Epstein is to be thanked and applauded for formulating "Goering's
Law" and thus avoiding an illogical metaphor deriving from the proverbial
"tail wagging the dog", clichˇ that has things backwards as in
"having the cart before the horse".
Furthermore the canine metaphor implies the lesser part influencing the
greater. Since all governments are expected to direct and lead their citizens,
the smaller should actually lead the greater. The tail wagging things confuses
and obscures the basic issue of truth or falsehood.
Goering's Law illustrates clearly the deception, the deliberate sustained
deception involved.
Goering as head of the German Luftwaffe in the beginning of the war was believed
to have said, "If an English bomb should ever fall on Berlin, my name is
not Goering." Later in the war, when entering an air raid shelter filled
with ordinary Germans, Goering, easily recognized by his huge bulk, took off
his hat and said graciously, "Good evening ladies and gentlemen, my name
is Meyer" He later killed himself in prison at Nuremberg.