Different Kinds Of Barrels

From: "The Last Days of Humanity" by Karl Kraus (1919)

It is difficult to choose a sample in a work so vast and so dense (nearly 800 pages).
Background sample: not far from the end of the war in 1918.

Scene 21

War Department.

A CAPTAIN (reading a text) : Secret military! - Having regard to the million or almost Russian prisoners of war who in the months to come will leave the Austro-Hungarian to return home, the feelings with which these prisoners will remember the time in our country are of paramount importance . Action triggered by us at the appropriate time therefore seems highly desirable to alleviate their feelings and unhappy experiences in captivity and to revive and strengthen those who were pleasant and cheerful. The Russians returning to their country will not remember us with a gloomy indifference or even hostility but hate will knowingly and conviction messengers of civilization Austro-Hungarian in their own homeland. The means of obtaining a favorable effect lie in the implementation of political propaganda, social and economic generous, adapted to the Russian soul and brought by sincere intentions. The intention is that shortly before the expulsion -
THE SECRAITAIRE: How?
CAPTAIN: - the expulsion of Russian prisoners of war, it awakens through propaganda conferences on political, social and economic sympathetic to Austria among the Russian POWs. In addition to all the important consequences for our economy, for example, such a shift in the Russian soul may cause a significant decrease in false propaganda that our enemies dropping on the world. To obtain a lasting effect on prisoners Russian propaganda among Russian prisoners do not naturally limit the holding of conferences. Instead, it will be necessary until the final disposal, to act favorably on Russian prisoners by other means, as it must, every point of view. - Go to line.
Considering the facts, it is obvious that if such propaganda was conducted exclusively by the organs of military administration undoubtedly would lose much of its original value - and yes, it's true after all - and it seems advantageous in perspective of the objective for this mission it is called, as required, to competent persons and interested in both ideologically and practically, in order to climb to a level as far as possible from military forms. - Anyway, it's a little strong coffee! - The essential condition in turn leads to that, for reasons of military discipline, such propaganda can be distilled shortly before the departure of Russian prisoners of war - of course! - With the hope that they return to their homeland with fresh and immediate impressions received through them. - A line. Politically: With a conviction that springs from the deepest sincerity, that Austria-Hungary just as we can without hesitation give the Russians returning home the assurance that our country does not want war, and ardently desired peace - not bad he said that, we are choir boys, the rest of us, anyway -
SECRETARY: What? It is -
CAPTAIN: No, that you do not write it! - So you want peace, we express regret, frankly doubt the hardships related to the plight of prisoners in captivity and that all wrongs - come, come! - By the prisoners are not the result of resentment, contempt, or worse, hatred toward the Russian people, but only come face accumulated due to the prolonged conflict. On-line! Socially: Without touching Do not be a word the current social situation in Russia, we can effectively explain to the Russians returning home the advantages and characteristics of our social structures. We must draw particular attention to the continued growth of well-being and progress in this type of social organization, and the profit derived by the community as well as the individual. - Yes, it's true after all - at the line. We come now to the heart of the problem. Economically: As far as the facts show that it can not overcome the major difficulties arising over the prolonged state of war and unrest that by deploying maximum of all the forces available and working with start-parallel, rapid and generous beyond national borders, exchange of goods, Russians returning home eventually fully understand the absolute need to establish rapid and full trade relations with the monarchy. It will be easy in this context, to show people convincingly that the peasant who hides its reserves, thereby placing the free market, is detrimental to himself, to the extent that doing so precisely, it does between no - or very late - in the possession of consumer goods that covets. Precisely because our population, responsible for the manufacture of the food is not even in mink insufficient food, develop the necessary maximum economic energies in time of peace, with good food, a large export . - Well, they'll still come to understand, that! On-line.
Regarding agricultural areas, particularly prisoners of war of the rural communes, propaganda is not necessary, unless to suggest that the Russian prisoners of war living in the countryside that the conditions of feeding urban populations leave much to be desired and that assistance in the form of imports from outside would be more urgent. - They will eventually set the gap, this. - On line.
It is quite different from Russian prisoners of war in factories, on construction sites of any kind and in the administration. In this case, it would be very helpful if employers support the patriotic duty to reduce, as appropriate, their days working at home. - On line!
All directors of companies subject to military law on the war effort and mining and military commanders are therefore all required to visit or inspect immediately all the locations Employees of Russian prisoners of war and act similarly on prisoners of war, as has been demanded already in camp commanders (under heading of the Ministerial Decree No. 14169/18). On-line.
The camp commander will visit the various housing units and establish personal contacts with Russian prisoners. (In a friendly voice.) Sometimes he will ask questions about their health and sometimes their parents, their food, mail, clothing. In case of complaints, it should lend itself to on-site investigation in detail, in public, before all prisoners of war. He must convince them that it spares no effort to discover the truth and do justice. It will use complaints about food and clothing to show the Russians that it is not our fault but that of our enemies to the west and that would give with joy more especially the Russian prisoners if we had more. Now the Russians, they are no longer our enemy. (More warm)
Moreover we have never seen as enemies, as evidenced by the many wars that saw former Russian and Austro-Hungarian fight valiantly side by side. The camp commander will visit from time to time in the kitchen when meat or fish are about to be distributed. It will take one, two or four at the moment or -
SECRETARY: What?
CAPTAIN: - at the moment they go with their food to be distributed to their beds. (With enthusiasm.) Place the bowl, bring the scale to weigh meat or fish. The more public the better. Then the account book, how meat has been purchased in total that day? Subtract 25% for bone, 20% for cooking, divide the remainder by the number of servings and (threatening) missing even if only 10 grams a serving - well over two hundred portions, for example, two kilos of meat or fish have been stolen. (Sévèrement.) Who did this? Power Commission, cooks, responsible for inspection, report! Severe trial to all prisoners of war of the dwelling. Consequence: layoff of cooks, supply and commission of all employees in the kitchen if the culprit is not found. At the door - ah line!
If the commander of the camp is among the Russians tobacco, cigarettes, bread bought from outside, sausage, and so he asked about the price that a particular prisoner of war had to pay. Soon they discovered that among the prisoners of war there are many traffickers. These followers of the black market are not always the Jews. They have contacts outside the camp to which they provide in time to resell the purchased items to their comrades, prisoners of war, three or four times more expensive. If the camp commander was able to catch such a trafficker - (Rageur.) naked, body search and excavation of the bag. Often, he will find him on 500 crowns or more. Confiscated and distributed among the other prisoners of war any sum exceeding those which it can justify the origin. On-line!
In the present circumstances, the Russian POWs listen to the commander of the camp for hours if he can give them information on trade. This is when our turn, how much longer? If he is able to prove to them by A plus B that is not our fault if the trade drag as prisoners of war will resume taste at work - except that it should not denigrate Russia. It would be a foul. - On line!
(With sentimentality.) The Russian hearts open wide, becoming larger when the colonel himself their say from time to time the latest news from Russia that he has gleaned in the Morgenblätter. (posing). With righteousness and obedience, they will welcome a hello, no breach of discipline is to be feared when he speaks to them. Everywhere, and here a fortiori, it must lead by example and also greet with all the righteousness that allows him his age and infirmities.
(Does the military hello.) A visit to the camp commander at the camp hospital - AN ASPIRING
(incoming) : Captain, with your permission, Colonel asks report on prisoners of war Russian.
CAPTAIN : Decree on propaganda? I devote myself, exactly. THE ASPIRING
: Not on the propaganda, the starved
E CAPTAIN: The dead of starvation? Where are they still starved? It was here, on this issue? THE ASPIRING
: This is the case of the Russian who was sleeping on a bed with two others who died of hunger. He was already in a state of decomposition when the inspector entered the room and the other two were so weak they could not get up nor call.
CAPTAIN: Minute - told the colonel that I will now examine the landings, but for now I'm in charge of propaganda, you know, to mitigate the impressions unfortunate prisoners of war and we can again establish a commercial relationship and then they send us food, the Russians, once they returned home, et cetera.
(Changement.)

Scene 22

Provincial Government in Brno.

GOVERNOR: I have an idea! (To his secretary.) among the most important lessons we can, we must learn from this deadly world war and the sacrifices it requires from the entire population, is certainly not the least the importance of education in the patriotic spirit that we must instill in our youth at school, knowledge and love of country, in its narrowest limits and the broader need to teach him, and all these seeds to plant in the child's soul will be born with these beautiful and manly qualities that make the young man able to satisfy as a fiery patriot, led by love and devotion to duty and loyalty to the imperial house and the homeland, and to do a conscientious and dedicated his civic duties, and to sacrifice even, where appropriate, his life and health for these ideals.
In Austria, alas, few preparations have been done in this direction, and I think it would be the duty of every person of the Empire to catch up and worry about the future development of feelings patriotic and dynastic generation to come, feelings that, thank God, are everywhere present in germ.
A small monthly magazine written in a popular style, adapted to the spirit of our educated youth, entitled Mladé Rakousko , will air in our schools primary and secondary schools and in our professional and I consider it a sacred duty of all our comrades in spirit and condition, as a noble task of our landowners, to support the dissemination of this month in the schools under its zone of economic influence by subscribing to a number of copies for these schools to make possible the free distribution of this monthly to students in need: we can not rightly expect only an effect on the students themselves themselves but also affect older members of families.
The annual subscription this review amounted to 2.40 kroner and can be purchased at Brno, 18, place of Emperor Francis Joseph.
May this appeal -
(changement.)

Scene 23

In a primary school.
few benches are empty. Children still alive undernourished. All have paper clothing.

ZEHETBAUER THE TEACHER: - - Beware of rumors in circulation and fight them as they should. The machiavellian enemies is to sow confusion in your ranks, but they will not succeed. Close your ears their allegations that we could not hold out until the happy ending and like what we would prevail in the famine. Who is responsible, otherwise the enemies? And now they even develop a business of poisoning wells, because - (A boy raises his finger.) What do you want, Gasselseder?
GASSELSEDER: Please, sir, then one has the right to drink anything?
THE TEACHER: Sitting, you're a fool, I have not spoken figuratively but literally! The enemy, unable to defeat us on the battlefield, intends to undermine our forces in the rear. Thus, Beware of rumors. Contribute to the most vigorous in their enforcement. They are part of the arsenal of our enemies - (A boy raises his finger.) What do you want, Anderle?
ANDERLE: Please, sir, our enemies as they have an arsenal?
THE TEACHER: Of course they have one, only it only contains rumors, and they will stop at nothing to undermine the edifice of the monarchy, or even loosen the bonds of love and veneration we attach to the imperial house. Kotzlik, you disturb the class, repeat what I just said.
KOTZLIK: Enemies - The enemy, they have - undermined the arsenal - and - we do not back down no link - that binds us to nothing -
THE TEACHER: Wrong topic! You will stay here after class and copy the sentence ten times which I command you. Sit, good for nothing! And you, be firm. Take this example on the Wooden Soldiers. As the imperial eagle of the Habsburgs, defying the symbol time, will evolve over our heads, it will remain upright, as built for eternity. Go to convince yourself, go there and do not hesitate to drive a nail, to the extent that there is still room for a nail, with permission gentlemen of your parents or guardians. By making you close your ears to the language sneaky because they dare even say that the days of wooden soldiers are numbered and that his place will soon find a sausage seller. Thank God we're not there yet and we willingly endure the hardships that the country imposes on us until victory is not definitively acquired but fluctuates from one camp to another. And yet! If we - (A boy raises his finger.) What do you want, Zitterer?
ZITTERER: Please sir, peace!
THE TEACHER: Sitting scamp! You, you will end when the rope around his neck you will enter into life, I'll predict. Sit, good for nothing! Are not you ashamed? And what happens there, the third largest? Merores, but you chatty!
Mérorès: Dad said he did not understand the enthusiasm for peace, he is not pressed, on the contrary, I think it's rather annoyed, he won a lot of money, and s' there will be peace, it will finish everything.
THE TEACHER: Merores, it is that your father takes good so valiantly and he gives the example, but you speak without anyone asks you and this is a sign that thanks threats of the enemy discipline has already strongly relaxed. I would not assume that you are in the pay of the enemy propaganda that has its antennas everywhere, but I must say, while the final decision is at our fingertips, such behavior seems highly suspect. I can only be hammered again and again: stick to your guns no matter what! What would happen if you had the same wobble? The enemy invade the country and then woe betide you, woe to your sisters and your promised woe to your parents or guardians gentlemen! (A boy raises his finger.) What do you want, Sukfüll?
SUKFÜLL: If Please, sir, aliens! My father, he said he no longer wants to hold on, there is more, it is high time that foreigners are coming!
CLASS: Yes, cultivate tourism!
THE TEACHER: No! It was not in that sense! Tourism is a sweet little plant that requires all our attention. Do you have the nostalgia of macaroni?
CLASS: Yes! We would like to have something to eat!
THE TEACHER: Bah! You're bad people! What a shame! What must you think of our late revered monarch whose portrait once you looked up there? He never could imagine that such a result when depravity was forced to take defensive deliberately provoked this war, and to draw the sword against a superior force in numbers. Woe betide you if the enemy invades the country! He descended into luxury hotels, would not it be funny to you, and our wives, homemakers would be for family expenses. Have you forgotten what I told you? I hope not!
CLASS: While the rugged warrior storm sweeps our land, our illustrious monarch called Weapons of thousands and thousands of our son and our brethren, the first emerging signs of increased tourism. So never lose sight of this ideal. Intone rather that old song you've learned previously in peacetime, Growing tourism! (They sing.)
A, a, a, the tourists are.
bleak times are over, finally
Foreigners flock.
A, a, a, the tourists are.
(Changement.)

Scene 24

A federation of Tourism.

THE EDITOR: - - to ask you a few statements on the organization of tourism after the war: whether measures have already been envisaged in this area.
THE LEADER: Of course. As you know, the days following the Congress of the Medical Corporations student, an exchange took place between representatives of groups specializing in corporate tourism student from Germany, Hungary and Austria.
THE EDITOR: It should probably expect that the problem of tourism after the war is considered totally angles new.
THE LEAD: Undoubtedly.
THE EDITOR: Would you please give me a hint on the first direction to be taken after the war the situation of our brothers in arms against tourism? There is no question that the enemy probably will not suffer losses in this field too?
THE CHARGE: In all likelihood, the Germans obviously did not make the scene of Belgian and French tourism.
THE EDITOR: You mean the Germans could not or would not want to go to these places?
THE GUARDIAN: I mean, the Germans will not want to go to these places. THE
EDITOR: So the Germans will doubtless seek replacements? I mean, places replacement in their own country?
THE LEAD: The German side offers plenty of places to replace the beaches of the North Sea.
THE EDITOR: But when the Germans they seek places to replace the Riviera? Reportedly, at home?
THE LEAD: The Austrian Adriatic coast is probably perfectly capable of replacing the Riviera with its climate benefits as a vacation in the spring and summer, it should therefore expect a large influx of tourists.
WRITER : By mentioning the Austrian Adriatic coast in opposition perhaps to the Italian coast, you want to say that in any case will always be the Adriatic -
THE CHARGE: - ours. Certainly, if the Germans would be forced to seek a replacement for the Adriatic as well.
THE EDITOR: If I understand correctly, you are of the opinion that it is mainly the German public that our tourism should take into account?
THE LEADER: Yes.
THE EDITOR: Let's cut to the chase. What will be the attractions we can offer to foreigners after the war, or rather what can we offer them possibly replacing monuments destroyed by war? For the Adriatic you rightly established a favorable prognosis. But what do we have to offer in addition?
THE CHARGE: In addition, the Alpine countries, with their superb memories of war will be a magnet for the tourist public of the Central Powers.
THE EDITOR: What kind of memories of war are seen in this area?
THE LEADER: We cherish the hope that the graves of our heroes in military cemeteries will the coming of many travelers. The aim is to again in our house value. And precisely on this point we appeal to the cooperation of the press because we have a responsibility to build attractions that holds each period, and that the graves of those who died in battle seem made expressly to authorize hope for a recovery in tourism.
(Changement.)

Doescan Chicken Broth

Gerald Stieg in "The Wars of Karl Kraus" (Agon)

KARL KRAUS CONSTRUCTION

OF VIRTUAL REALITY

"The main steps
a critical paradigm "

Kraus launched into criticism of the press since the creation of the Fack in April 1899. A number of books including the book Jacques Bouveresse, were particularly interested in the first period of the campaign. Released in September 2005, my own book focuses on the second half of the career of Kraus and underlines the continuing relevance in our time of his critique of militarism and media. I would like to show here how he introduced a fundamentally new concept in the debate on the media, the of "simulated reality" or (as we say today) of "virtual reality".

1. LIES, MYTHS & RUMORS

"The bombing of Nuremberg" - "The French gold"
Germany "guilty of war

In fall 1914, before the abuse patriotic propaganda, Kraus explained his position in a famous proclamation titled In diesergrossen Zeit [in this great period]. " His criticism was all propaganda machine and there stated that "the telegram is a weapon of war just as the grenade. " This reference to telegrams can be related to the operation in August 1914 by the British navy, who cut the underwater telegraph cables linking Germany to America. Berlin quickly lost the initiative in what was then called "war of the cable, while the Reuters news agency was regarded as" the most formidable weapon of the British government. "
propaganda machine in full then beat in all the belligerent countries and Kraus was rightly skeptical of the strong anti-German propaganda, and particularly in dealing with stories about the "German atrocities." To him, the press was "international disgrace". But his main concern was to reveal the lies that were from the German and Austrian. The most important among them, denounced by Kraus as "the vital lie," was the news that French planes had bombed a railway line and around Nuremberg, August 3, 1914. This information was taken the day after the Reichstag by Chancellor Theobald von BethmannHollweg to justify the declaration of war against France. It was to prove that Germany was conducting a "defensive war "And provide a basis for extensive propaganda campaign intended to put the German military aggression as an act of self defense.
Meanwhile, rumors proliferated equally misleading about "French gold." On 3 August, the German Government stated that twenty-five automobiles carrying eighty million gold francs had entered German territory from the Netherlands towards Russia. This announcement led to a panic throughout Germany and caused an almost complete immobilization of traffic. The government itself seems to have believed many of these rumors and, August 9, 1914, the official press organ, the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, made his one on the capture of three vehicles laden with gold. Information of this kind were immediately taken by the rest of the German press, that is to say by some 3,600 newspapers in this country, the most cultivated in the world. These rumors, fabricated by the authorities and fed by the media, were so convincing that twenty-eight people were killed in Germany during the panic of "French gold" because of overzealous border guards attempting to intercept the vehicle. The perfect absurdity of this episode inspired Kraus two scenes of the first act of Latter-day humanity.
"The bombing of Nuremberg" and "French gold" are thus two information circulated in August and September 1914 and proved absolutely false. Yet they were so plausible and so gullible people that almost everyone believed. This is the origin of what Kraus was baptized the "simulated reality". But how can we explain the invention of this false reality? For Kraus, the culprits were the newspapers, in cahoots with politicians and the military. Initially, he blamed only the irresponsible journalists stating that it was they who exploited the diplomats. But in autumn 1915, he published a more elaborate series of aphorisms on the links between politics, journalism and war. He then came to a more balanced decision, which he presented as a question-answer: "How the world is it governed and led to war? - Diplomats tell lies to journalists, then believe them when they are printed. "
The word" sledging "- tampered with or lie - appears hundreds of times in Fackel , entirely constructed from the analysis krausienne a system of lies which engender themselves. The lies published in the press about the alleged atrocities committed on all sides encourage people to take revenge by committing real atrocities. This process will still continue throughout the four years of war, during which the Fackel accumulate dozens of additional examples.
course, a false reality of the same type is created at the same time in France and Great Britain, mainly through reporting on the outrageous "German atrocities." Among these myths, the most disastrous was that the alleged "German war guilt." The assertion that Germany was solely responsible for the outbreak of war had devastating consequences, as demonstrated by the British Liberal politician Arthur Ponsonby in his book Falsehood in Wartime (The Lie in time of war). British and French leaders, Lloyd George and Poincare, knew full well impute to Germany the sole responsibility of the war was a truth-cons. But anti-German atmosphere created by their own propaganda forced the inclusion of the clause on the famous "war guilt" in the Treaty of Versailles. Kraus saw as early as 1919, this treaty was result of making a second world war almost inevitable.

2. THE GERMAN POST WAR MENTALITY

"The stab in the back" - "Innocence persecuting"
"The swastika stands"

Kraus borrowed the term " mentality "in modern French sociology to describe the political climate of Germany in the early 1920s. To set this mentality, it incorporates the familiar concept of "innocent victim" and overthrew him in "persecuting innocent - "Verfolgende Unschuld. A perfect illustration of this concept is the famous myth of the "stab in the back, which allowed the militaristic Hindenburg as to say that the German army, remained" undefeated on the battlefield, had been betrayed by defeatists - socialists, pacifists and Jews. If satisfied to belong to the camp of the innocent, the criminal can project his aggression on his victim. With such a mentality is the real victim who becomes the aggressor and, since it is the real aggressor, we can blame it all innocence.
This mentality became so widespread in Germany after the collapse of November 1918, when right-wing activists assaulted and even killed a socialist or a Jew, they had a good chance of being acquitted by the judges German patriots. The courts no longer had their first duty: reviewing the evidence to establish the truth. Thus they allied reactionary judges to irresponsible journalists and politicians revenge. This highlights the commentary in the prophetic Kraus Fackel January 1921: "In Germany, where the swastika rises above the ruins of the conflagration of the world, the legitimate right looks in acquittal, that warms the heart, students from all faculties of the murder. "The swastika fascinated Kraus: he saw himself as a Christian cross that would have bent to give the hooks and make a weapon. It embodied the idea in the sense of "persecuting innocent." The symbol of Christian suffering innocent became the emblem of aggression and evil.

3. FORGERY OF MEMORY

"Amnesia and the Austrian fortress of Przemysl"

criticism lies by Kraus company acquires new strength by its inclusion in the table post-war mentality. But his analysis becomes more complex when it focuses on a third element in the creation of virtual reality, "falsification of memory." In The Last Days of Humanity , published in book form in 1922, the politics of memory is a central theme. One of the most striking scenes of this paper shows that the falsification of memory is not only a psychological phenomenon, it is also political, since it is continually rebuilt by the propaganda machine - a rebuild so plausible that we are tempted to make us accomplices. In the scene 16 of Act II, a general staff dictates a wire report on the Austrian fortress of Przemysl, which has just been taken by the Russians, whereas it was previously regarded as the pride of 'Austro-Hungarian army, General minimizes its loss and treat it as insignificant. Journalist who, at the other end, wonders about the presentation, the general replied "You can forget all my friend! "In the next act, a parallel scene (scene 22) is after the resumption of Przemysl. This time, the wire report returns the argument and reaffirms the strategic importance of the fortress: "The most modern artillery - How? We can not forget? Nothing but hardware? But not anymore! You can do anything to forget, my dear friend! This scene adds to the complexity of the analysis of Kraus showing that journalists do not work away from political institutions. Kraus shows and the editorial of the official press, the government spokesman and communications advisers (spin doctors) are essential elements of the network of misinformation.
"You can do anything to forget, my dear friend! "Is one of the leitmotifs of Fackel between the wars. He led in effect at that time another war - the famous "war of memory" - how we should remember the events of the years 1914-1918. Kraus regularly denounced the Austrian amnesia. This is the theme of his satirical poem in November 1918, "Mir san ja eh die reinen Lamperln [We are like innocent lambs sweet]." In 1918 (and again in 1945), the Austrians claimed that the war was the fault of the wicked Germans. But, as pointed Kraus, the Austrians could not protest their innocence if they were "a glory of their short memory." While the veterans marched through the streets "never forget" became the motto of all European nations after 1918. But everything depended on the respective value systems - the dominant mentality. In England, for example, mobilization of the British Legion to keep alive the memory of "our glorious disappeared" was offset by the development of a certain peace movement. But in Austria and Germany, the commemoration of the war was orchestrated by paramilitary groups and the like Heimwehr Stahlhelm. The memory became politically active; glorious myths and stories disillusioned vied control of the popular consciousness. They put up a gigantic apparatus of war memorials and commemorations to Nimba death for his country with an aura of dignity. Kraus's satire was intended to discredit the cult of heroism - a warped memory of the past that he feared it might cost more later millions of lives.

4. PHOTOS & SLOGANS

"stick together"-L "Anschluss" - The "Volk"

If political propaganda and military revenge for Kraus were obvious targets, it reserved its satire the more subtle instruments of persuasion that are hidden "sentences [Phrasen]" - that is to say the slogans and clichés. The word "Phrasen" appears thousands of times in Fackel, and almost invariably in a critical context. In an article in February 1929 when he returns to World War I, Kraus said that his main idea was to identify it at an "outburst of prefabricated clichés." By this brainwashing, the press has become a "deadly organization of intellectual and moral irresponsibility, creating the events itself." It is the corruption of journalistic language, particularly through the use of cliches, he says, which caused the worst damage.
Snapshots are they really so destructive? We can approach this question from two angles. In a sociolinguistic perspective, stereotypes can have a constructive function. They produce cohesion in an unstable world. In periods of rapid modernization, clichés, reminds us does it, "becoming more important as guidance cues" that are "reified blocks to past experiences" that help bridge the "gap Institutional. They organize experience lived in pre-digested segments, encouraging patterns of behavior conformist and predictable. Society could hardly function without such a safety net language, which are formed by meshes of proverbs as "Do not throw the baby out with the bathwater." Such expressions involve practical wisdom for the common link between domestic sphere and public sphere - even politicians may require a "good sweep. Since
Kraus considers language as the crucible where ideas emerge, we would have expected it shows less hostile expressions proverbial. But he makes a distinction between creative and delicate verbal platitudes designed to seduce. Wars break out because of irresponsible politicians "can claim to represent the will of a nation they have previously intoxicated with cliches." It would be impossible if he was not in the nature of stereotypes to foster patterns of collective thought far removed from the realities of political action. The most convincing Kraus gives us is the familiar expression "Schulter Schulter year [stick together]." It is cited more than one hundred times in the Fackel . The politician who declares that Austria and Germany - or, of course, England and the United States - should "stick together" lacks almost all of its duties. It is not just a cliché, it is a political slogan uttered in a tone of bravado schoolchildren to divert attention from the realities of modern warfare.
In the early work of Kraus's critique of cliches about aesthetic issues more than political propaganda. But during the 1920s, the emphasis has changed: it was no longer criticize only the empty clichés but also the slogans for to numb the mind. Slogans such appeared, especially during the campaign for the Anschluss - the annexation of Austria to Germany. Kraus objected to this campaign, especially when the Anschluss was claimed by people claiming socialists but were actually fiercely nationalistic. The most important of these slogans, "the German people" was one that would eventually dominate the entire political discourse of national socialism. The term "Volk [people]," with its connotations of populist, nationalist and racist, shows how a single word can give shape to a destructive vision of the world. In the 1920s, was already a key term in the identity debate in the Austrian campaign in favor of the Anschluss.
In this context, Kraus wrote a prophetic article in Fackel May 1926. This text announces the phenomenon of virtual reality, that is to say, media-generated images to create a plausible world of illusions. In response to headlines in the press about the possibility of the Anschluss, Kraus says that the hypnotic power of the newspaper has created a "simulated reality [Wirklichkeit vorgetauschte]. Citing each other's respective uses concepts Volkstum, from "Das deutsche Volk "and" das Volk Deutschosterreichs "newspapers of Berlin and Vienna produce a circular discourse is not based on any real diplomatic or political event. For example, the Austrian Chancellor is visiting Berlin, but he has not met his German counterpart, or even issued a press release, to fill this vacuum, the press recycled slogans from "the last conversation between the pub two kingdoms. " Kraus comment about it is incisive: "The reality crept and built by journalism, which strangles the imagination and murdering men, lives and spreads based on the single rule to publish in bold and a perfectly empty of opinions, [...] detritus of a simulated reality. [...] Not the Germano-Austrian Volte not tolerate a policy that might make you think the least she could be directed against the German Volte. [... ] The headlines and soundbites create a world where nothing is real except the lies. "In
thus highlighting the word" Volk "- a misleading concept that presupposes both political solidarity and homogeneity biological - the media creates a framework essentially fictitious. The problem is that this gigantic apparatus has the ability to transform "non-events" into "action and death"

Transubstantiation metaphors:

"blood", "salt" and "extermination"

sometimes viewed as the metaphor does qu'endimancher language by replacing an ordinary word with a more poetic. For its part, Kraus argues instead that metaphors saturate our everyday discourse and shape our modes of perception. In reading the phrase "for his part," I have just used, no reader has imagined sharing a cake or a money. The origin of the expression is lost, but such invisible metaphors pervade our language and therefore our way of life, as shown by Lakoff and Johnson in their systematic study metaphors in everyday life . This book argues that the core experiences such as love or the dispute, have no intrinsic structure and they do not gain that through the joint metaphorical. Kraus, meanwhile, insists above all on the metaphors for which one can die - the slogan "stick together" for example.
The question of metaphor is central to the philosophy of language Kraus, and he attributes special importance to bodily metaphors, this insistence has a close connection with the construction of virtual reality. When we use a metaphor, for example, "to have hot blood," are we referring literally to something physical, the liquid that flows in our veins, or do we metaphorically refer to something intangible, a psychological disposition? This question lies at the heart of the most powerful criticism that has led Kraus cons propaganda: Third Walpurgis Night, the classic analysis of Nazi propaganda, written during the summer of 1933 and published editions Agone today in a French translation which will reference. The answer is that Kraus German propaganda constantly mixes the literal meaning to metaphorical meaning. Worse: while metaphors characterize civilized behavior, this propaganda brings them back into the world of brutal physical abuse.
The clearest example is that of the ideology of "blood." The blood has multiple meanings, ranging from kinship and biological inheritance in physical excitement and courage in battle. This vital fluid it carries the red blood cells white and becomes a die endlessly invoked by ideological and racist warmongers. During World War I, Kraus reflections led him to recognize the driving force at work in German propaganda as a "bloodlust of language." In The Last Days of Humanity, he reminds us that it's real blood is shed in this war, not propagandists but that "the blood of others" - that of conscripts thrown into the battle. In the aftermath of the war, the German writings were dominated by vengeful cult of 'blood', which blended the concepts of military courage and racial purity.
In Third Walpurgis Night, the "myth of blood" is mentioned dozens of times since the accession of Heidegger's concept of "forces within the earth and blood" to the very special "value of blood "for the SS. Nazi propaganda operates both the belief that the blood determines the genetic heritage, and fear that the "Aryan blood" could be corrupted by sexual intercourse with non-Aryans. Kraus concludes that, in the press and radio in Germany, the word "blood" appears more frequently in one day for an entire year in any other country. He also cites the refrain of the most famous Nazi marching songs,
"When Jewish blood spurts under the knife / can not find it better." These words are from the last verse of Sturmsoldaten a song to be sung not only by the SA but also by youth groups. Kraus adds that such songs have on those who sing the effect of a "good dose of Coue Method." Emile Coue is this French psychologist who was behind the popularity of "self talk" - the colt collective euphoric maxims meant to eradicate the symptoms of depression, this ritual would release the repressed energy because the unconscious is "credulous and accept with docility ingenue what he said." The idea that when Jewish blood is poured "We do think it better" is a grotesque echo of the method Coue, peppered with racial hatred.
For Kraus, the situation is less serious if the "blood" was here only a metaphor. But the "miracle of transubstantiation" was made: "And what is more surprising revelation for those who experienced the close of language? What show would be more sensational than the envelope of the words filling up again blood was once its contents? Pleasing spectacle when the blood is a metaphor [...] Show Gorgon where the rebirth of a physical blood begins to flow out of the crust of the language "
The concept of" crust "of the language implies that words have a healing power, provided they are used appropriately: they then form a protective tissue around the body highly vulnerable. Used wisely, the metaphors are part of a culture of dispute in which physical conflict was moved on a symbolic level. But now, the opposite has happened: "We are witnessing the emergence of sentence becomes deed. "Despite the denials, as bloody metaphors create a climate that encourages real deal damage, it's blood that floods the true German prisons.
The most telling example that gives Kraus body is a metaphor of the term "Pour salt on an open wound." In ancient societies, before the emergence of modern medicine, salt was used as an antiseptic. When sailors were whipped as punishment discipline, their wounds were rubbed with salt, making them more painful course but also helped them heal. When this practice was disappeared, the term has persisted as a metaphor, heighten the sense of someone from a sense of shame or humiliation. In Third Walpurgis Night Kraus uses this example to show that the balance between body and spirit, characteristic of a civilized language, has been broken: the rogue Nazis plunged the bloody hands of the one of their victims in a bag of salt to exacerbate his pain.
His interest in metaphors like "The blood spurts under the knife" or "Pour salt on an open wound" Kraus led to ask the most fundamental of all the Nazi metaphor, that of " extermination. " Which reach really Hitler and his henchmen when they talk to "exterminate [AusRotten]" their enemies? At the time, most observers thought that when the Nazis spoke of "destroying" the communists and "exterminate" the Jews, they used these expressions metaphorically, to mean "the hunt positions of power" . When the British press interpreted such statements, she clung "figuratively." But Kraus shows very clearly that the essence of the Nazi movement is the "annihilation [Vernichtung]" physics. He cites a passage in which lawyers Nazi invoke the old Germanic laws expected to approve "the total elimination of the enemy within." It explains that, traditionally, any member of the Volk could "kill without hiding" the enemies thereof. By highlighting these expressions, Kraus suggests that the warning must be taken seriously. In short, it was well understood that Nazism was governed by a "genocidal mentality".

CONCLUSION

"FREEDOM OF THE PRESS" & "war propaganda"

Kraus acknowledged in 1933 (as he had already made in 1914) a propaganda machine was set up to justify military aggression. My assumption is that his criticism can be considered a "paradigm" seventy years later, his key categories are still valid and may apply to the war that began in March 2003 with the invasion of Iraq. Some optimists argue that perhaps the current situation is completely different: we now have a more critical press and more independent, not including other media like television and the Internet in particular, guarantee freedom of expression. The response Kraus is that "press freedom" is largely a myth. An independent newspaper or a television channel independently, this does not exist. All are subject to pressure from owners, advertisers, class interests and nationalist ideologies. Moreover, in times of crisis, effective control of the media passes to the political and military leaders who are determined to spread their war propaganda.
Kraus's critique of the links between militarism and the media is one of the most prophetic of his work. We could conclude with a simple example and certainly paradigmatic : Case Friedjung. In 1908, the neoconservative historian Heinrich Friedjung published an article in the main daily newspaper, the Net Freie Presse, where he was state documents supposedly proving that Austria was threatened with treason and conspiracy in the Balkans. It was to justify a preemptive attack against Serbia. But the threat of war faded, and Austria succeeded in annexing Bosnia-Herzegovina without resorting to war planned. A year later, Friedjung was sued for defamation by Croatian politicians that he had falsely accused of treason. His "documents" turned out to be false, fabricated by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Austria, and Friedjung suffers public humiliation. The case inspired
Kraus its largest political analysis in the period preceding the First World War: "The trial Friedjung" (December 1909). In this text we find the following passage: "Austria is the victim of the media that is more consensual. She does not believe what is printed, it also believes the opposite when it is printed. [...] The newspapers scream: "Austria is in danger! "And people say:" No way! Then the same newspapers scream: "Austria has never been in danger! "And the people repeat:" No way! "Unfortunately, as noted by Kraus in this article, the political lesson of the case Friedjung was not accepted, and going into the war have ultimately prevailed. Let us talk now
parallel newest: the false documents to Colin Powell and U.S. and British governments. The evidence used to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003 proved as false as those invoked in the case Friedjung. But no American or English court has managed to condemn the political leaders responsible for this false scenario, although it has cost countless lives. Photos from enemy bases presented by Secretary of State Colin Powell to the UN to justify the attack against Iraq fell more strings of the communication of reliable information. We know today that there were no "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq and that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with Al Qaeda or the attacks against the Twin Towers. But for months, these fables were elementary belaboured by the media with such patriotic insistence that the majority of British MPs and the U.S. Congress have come to believe them. The fiasco Friedjung repeated, but this time it was America who was allegedly in danger of England and the dominant military power must "stand together".
The attack Austria-Hungary against Serbia in August 1914 included at least a pinch of logic, since the plot to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand was actually hatched in Belgrade. But how an act of terrorism committed by Saudis trained in Afghanistan may justify the invasion of Iraq? We're here in front of a simulated reality on a large scale. Thus ends my contribution she as it began, recalling the prophetic statement of Karl Kraus in the fall of 1915 - that statement has lost nothing of its value-vingtdix four years later: "How this world is it governed and led to war? - Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe them when they are printed. "

EDWARD TIMMS

Translated from English by Frederic Cotton