Making True by Repeating Over and Over Again
April seven, 2017
Repeat a lie oftentimes enough, it becomes the truth.
I think this quote is advisable, given recent events and some I just learned about. This quote came to me as I was doing some research (and, of grade, thinking about politics). Just I will do my all-time to spare yous from political talk in this post — at to the lowest degree in terms of governments.
When did I first hear this post? I can't quite remember which plan, only it was definitely a news magazine in the way of Dateline. (Heck, it might accept been Dateline …)
Anyway, I recall hearing a mother speak about a lie that hurt her family and others. It might take had something to do with a schoolhouse or a courtroom instance. The woman said this line or something similar.
While part of me knew what the lady said held some truth to it, I kinda bristled because the truth is the truth. Right? Only oftentimes, it's non that simple.
Who First Said 'Repeat a Lie Often Enough and It Becomes the Truth'?
This quote is often misattributed to ii sources: Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Goebbels.
From my enquiry, this famous maxim may have originated from the latter half of the 19th century.
Commonly, I don't similar to apply data from forums, but the forum I visited had a few fairly good leads.
I commencement went to the Stack Substitution's [Science] Skeptics forum (I know, I know). There, a user by the name of Oleg V. Volkov asked if the famous saying, "A lie told often enough becomes the truth" originated with Vladimir Lenin. There was i answer to this post and some other user cited 3 books.
The Crown of a Life
Another user called DavePhD answered the question by pointing to The Crown of a Life (1869) past Isa Blagden.
The post-obit text was transcribed from the book (via Google Books):
"There" is ane thing, he said, "and I can take an oath on it if you like, not i farthing of that money will minister to me personally—it goes into the funds of our crusade. There is a newspaper to be established in Germany—writers to be sought for and paid—and an institution to be maintained, and information technology is on that business I am going abroad; despots gag the printing, we more wisely make it out weapon. If a prevarication is merely printed often plenty, it becomes a quasi-truth, and if such a truth is repeated often enough, it becomes an article of belief, a dogma, and men will dice for information technology. We, who are of neither extreme in politics, neither pure red not pure blackness …"
Groovy China Danger
DavePhD also said he could but observe references to Lenin dating back 15 years prior (to 2016, when the question on Skeptics was asked). The misattribution may have originated from a statement like 1 made in Great China Danger (1966):
Really, Peking has operated, as Moscow has since the days of Lenin, on a number of principles which taken together tin can be called the technique of the "smashing lie." Among these are: 1) make information technology big enough and people will believe function of information technology; (ii) repeat information technology frequently enough and you will convince some people; (3) say it in enough different ways, and you will convince others…
The Knuckles of Havana
DavePhD also pointed to a quote from Lenin Rivero from the book The Duke of Havana: Baseball game, Republic of cuba, and the Search for the American Dream (2000). Hither is a selected passage describing the fake story about how Hernandez reached the States [from Cuba]:
"There's a saying in Republic of cuba: A prevarication repeated many times becomes the truth," said Lenin Rivero.
Lenin Rivero was a baseball thespian who defected to the United States in 1998. He was named after Vladimir Lenin. That might be one reason the Bolshevik leader was incorrectly attributed with this quote.
More than Context
The book was almost Cuban baseball role player Orlando "El Duque" Hernández. The passage in context explains the simulated story connected to Hernández's escape from Republic of cuba:
For those seeking an caption for why El Duque'southward escape later became such a mystery, this is where it all began. "There's a saying in Cuba: A lie repeated many times becomes the truth," said Lenin Rivero. "That is so true. That'due south what happened with us. We made up this story, stuck to it, and somewhen it became true for us and the whole world."
"Orlando practically made upwardly the whole version, said Lenin. "He said, 'We're going to say that Juan Carlos was the patron of the boat.' He told me that I was going to say that I organized the trip. He stood in that location and told each of us exactly what we were going to say. He had a lot of information technology laid out in his mind. We all added a few details here and there."
In the prevarication's original form, the fictitious vessel was a twenty-pes sailboat that Juan Carlos had built in Caibarién. The story went that the boat began to take on h2o after leaving Cuba. Nine hours later it staggered into Anguilla Cay, so sank. That would explicate the absenteeism of the gunkhole if anyone bothered to ask. The group sat on the beach, embroidering the great prevarication. "Everybody agreed on it," said Juan Carlos. "Information technology was El Duque's story just we all added our own little embellishments as nosotros went along." Information technology seemed like a harmless enough stretch, a necessary fib to protect the people who had helped get them out of Republic of cuba. Within a twelvemonth, though, a story that had begun as a thread would emerge from the media rinse cycle in the form of an Armani suit.
How Did Goebbels Go Credited with This Famous Maxim?
The following quote, "If you echo a prevarication ofttimes enough, people will believe it, and yous will even come to believe it yourself," is too misattributed to Joseph Goebbels. Only he said something with the similar idea.
Paul Joseph Goebbels was Hilter's propaganda government minister in Nazi Deutschland. Goebbels was virulently anti-Semitic and he was known for his oratory skills. I of his famous quotes includes one found in a January 12, 1941 commodity in Die Zeit ohne Beispiel ("Joseph Goebbels"). The following passage comes from the article entitled "Aus Churchills Lügenfabrik" (From Churchill'southward Lie Mill):
That is of course rather painful for those involved. One should not equally a rule reveal 1's secrets, since one does not know if and when one may demand them again. The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, information technology should be a big lie, and one should stick to information technology. They proceed up their lies, even at the chance of looking ridiculous.
Goebbels had taking the "Big Prevarication" angle from his leader, Hitler, who first coined the term in Mein Kampf. In the volume, Hitler laid out the reasons why he was targeting the Jews in Germany for extermination. While he said the "Big Lie" was a propaganda technique used by Jews, information technology was actually outlining the Nazis' own propaganda technique.
Hitler accused the Jews of using the "Big Lie" to blame Germany'southward Earth War I loss on High german full general Erich Ludendorff.
According to Jeffrey Herf, the Nazis also accused the Jews of starting World War I and controlling Great United kingdom, Russia, and the United States. The Big Lie was thus used to promote a narrative which stated that Jews tried to exterminate Germans ("Big Lie").
How Is the Saying Proven Right?
Psychologist Tom Stafford wrote a piece for the BBC in which he talked about the "illusion of truth," one method by which propagandists tin can go people to believe in lies. Stafford explains a "typical experiment" that tests this theory. Information technology involves telling participants true and untrue things in i session and repeating it an hour or weeks later. Participants are more likely to believe what they've been told the 2nd fourth dimension.
Why is that? Repetition is but a shortcut people apply in order to rapidly process information and evaluate it. However, if someone has absolute knowledge that something is a fact of fiction, repetition will non necessarily piece of work to make that person believe the falsehood.
There are other parts to information technology, too. In what we might phone call "gaslighting," the person reinforcing the lies has to practise it forcefully.
This Sounds Familiar …
The following passage appears in a report entitled A psychological analysis of Adolph Hitler: His Life and Fable, prepared for the Us Office of Strategic Services:
His primary rules were: never permit the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that at that place may exist some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on 1 enemy at a fourth dimension and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a piddling one; and if you repeat it ofttimes enough people will sooner or later believe it.
The report was written by Walter C. Langer. Collaborators were Henry Murray, Ernst Kris and Bertram Lewin.
The following quote comes from Assay of the Personality of Adolph Hitler: With Predictions of His Time to come Behaviour and Suggestions for Dealing with Him Now and After Deutschland'southward Give up by Henry A. Murray (Oct 1943):
Never to admit a fault or wrong; never to accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time; blame that enemy for everything that goes incorrect; accept advantage of every opportunity to heighten a political whirlwind.
Do yous know of someone who does this today?
Where Else Might This Saying Apply?
I recently was told about the fifty-year campaign against baseball Hall-of-Famer Ty Cobb. According to those who knew him, Cobb was a hothead, but he wasn't alone and by many accounts, he wasn't a racist. In fact, Cobb was one of the biggest proponents of integration in Major League Baseball game and education for blackness Americans. Yet, he was portrayed every bit a flaming racist and cheater past the ghostwriter of his autobiography.
Al Stump filled Cobb's autobiography with so many falsehoods, Cobb was getting gear up to sue to stop its release before his own expiry.
Some of the Lies
Amidst the lies in the book was a story nearly how Cobb stabbed a black human being in a bar. That never happened, but there were a couple of incidents where at a hotel where Cobb assaulted a security guard and a bellhop.
This is no excuse, but in that era, fights were common in public, including at baseball games. From the NY Post:
On another occasion, Cobb climbed into the stands to argue with a black fan (what was said is not recorded) and he in one case, notoriously, beat up a (white) heckler (who was missing vii fingers due to lax safety standards at his employer, the New York Times).
That wasn't equally unusual as information technology sounds, either: Pitcher Rube Waddell also went into the stands to beat up a fan; Babe Ruth in 1922 chased a fan through the seats and, when he couldn't notice him, challenged anybody nearby to a fight; and even the sainted Christy Mathewson, in 1905, popped a lemonade boy in the mouth, splitting his lip. Later, Cobb got in a fight with a grocer over an alleged insult to his wife, but the grocer was white, besides — and in his biography, Alexander over again got it wrong, mistakenly reporting the human being was black.
Dude …
Cobb was also said to have sharpened his cleats so he could harm defensive players when he wanted to steal bases. But he lobbied to accept cleats dulled just enough to allow players to have traction on the baseball diamond.
Al Stump Was Then Bad …
He got fired from numerous publications, including TV Guide and the Saturday Evening Mail service.
"One by ane he alienated the kinds of magazines that had fact-checking departments," said a author of that era who knew him. "That'due south because he produced fiction."
Unfortunately, Stump's lies persisted for decades, even making it to the biopic film (1994'southward "Cobb") starring Tommy Lee Jones. I scene involving an attempted rape was entirely fabricated by Stump and "Cobb" director Ron Shelton.
Ron Shelton besides repeated a lie about Cobb having killed at least three people when asked where he got that data, Shelton said, "Information technology's well known."
Wow. It goes to bear witness, when yous repeat a lie enough times, it does become the "truth."
Works Cited
Blagden, Isa. The Crown of a Life, past the author of 'Agnes Tremorne.' Hurst and Blackett. London; 1869. Print. Page 154-155.
Fainaru, Steve and Sanchez, Ray. The Duke of Havana: Baseball, Republic of cuba, and the Search for the American Dream. Random House Publishing Group. New York; 2000. Print.
Smith, Kyle. "How Ty Cobb was framed every bit a racist." New York Mail service. 31 May 2015. Web. <http://nypost.com/2015/05/31/how-ty-cobb-was-framed-every bit-a-racist/>.
Stafford, Tom. "How liars create the 'illusion of truth.'" BBC. 26 Oct 2016. Web. <http://www.bbc.com/hereafter/story/20161026-how-liars-create-the-illusion-of-truth>.
Diverse. "Did Lenin say 'a lie told often enough becomes the truth'?" Skeptics. Stack Exchange. 16 May 2016. Answered 17 May 2016. Web. Retrieved vii April 2017. <http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/32926/did-lenin-say-a-lie-told-often-enough-becomes-the-truth>.
Diverse. "Joseph Goebbels." Wikiquote. Final Modified iv Apr 2017. Web. Retrieved vii April 2017. <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels>.
Diverse. "Big lie." Wikipedia. Last Modified 31 Mar 2017. Spider web. Retrieved seven Apr 2017. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie>.
Source: https://shmaltzandmenudo.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/famous-sayings-56-repeat-a-lie-often-enough/
Post a Comment for "Making True by Repeating Over and Over Again"