slowmoving, and they always require a certain time before they
are ready even to notice a thing, and only after the simplest ideas
are repeated thousands of times will the masses finally remember
them.
When there is a change, it must not alter the content of what the
propaganda is driving at, but in the end must always say the same
thing. For instance, a slogan must be presented from different
angles, but the end of all remarks must always and immutably be
the slogan itself. Only in this way can the propaganda have a
unified and complete effect.
This broadness of outline from which we must never depart, in
combination with steady, consistent emphasis, allows our final
success to mature. And then, to our amazement, we shall see
what tremendous results such perseverance leads toto
results
that are almost beyond our understanding.
All advertising, whether in the
field of business or politics,
achieves success through the continuity and sustained uniformity
of its application.
Here, too, the example of enemy war propaganda was typical;
limited to a few points, devised exdusively for the masses,
carried on with indefatigable persistence. Once the basic ideas
and methods of execution were recognized as correct, they were
applied throughout the whole War without the slightest change.
At first the claims of the propaganda were so impudent that
people thought it insane; later, it got on people's nerves; and in
the end, it was believed. After four and a half years, a revolution
broke out in Germany; and its slogans originated in the enemy's
war propaganda.
And in England they understood one more thing: that this
spiritual weapon can succeed
only if it is applied on a
tremendous scale, but that success amply covers all costs.
There, propaganda was regarded as a weapon of the first order,
while in our country it was the last resort of unemployed
politicians and a comfortable haven for slackers.
And, as was to be expected, its results all in all were zero.