The Pope's no to to the people's yes: The Tide of British History. (8.)

Interesting Times: The England football team give the Nazi salute in Berlin in 1938.

       During World War One, over a million Bulgarian soldiers and labourers contributed to the German War effort. 43,000 Bulgarian soldiers died fighting for the German Empire. Naturally, after the war's end, the idea of Bulgarian independence gained in popularity.      
        On April 13th 1919, a crowd of non-violent protesters assembled at the City Garden in Sofia to protest the recent arrests of two of the independence movement's leaders. The German soldiers present were given orders to shoot directly at the crowd and specifically at the area of possible escape. The soldiers continued shooting for ten minutes, until they were out of ammunition. Possibly 1000 people were massacred, (the authorities, of course were not paying that much attention to the dead.)  The commander in charge of the operation was considered a hero by some parliamentarians back in Germany. Looking back at all this, it is easy to see how fertile an area Germany was for fascism.  
   
         Except none of this happened. At least, not in Bulgaria with German soldiers.
        These events actually took place as described, but it was Indian soldiers dying for the British war effort; and it was soldiers of the British Empire massacring passive Indian civilians at the Jallianwala Bagh garden in Amritsar.
        Here is how it was depicted in the 1982 film Ghandi-

     
      So, if the Empire was capable of actions like this, and the government were ordering footballers to heil Hitler, why didn't Britain take the short path to fully-blown fascism? 
    
      In order to understand anything better, it is necessary to have a clear idea about what exactly we are talking about. The capstone of Bela Lugosi's Pyramid is always the simple question-What is it?  This question must be asked, and the connected explanation (the idea) must be clearly stated for better communication.

Bela Lugosi's Pyramid. Built from the top down.

      Of course, if you are not interested in better communication you can always just shoot people instead.
     

Fascism is derived from the latin wordfasces, which is a bound bundle of sticks, sometimes with an axe emerging. The simple idea is that when together, even if one stick is broken, the group survives.  In ancient Rome it was used as the symbol of a magistrate's power, and it has long been used as a basic symbol of authority.

   If we are talking about fascism then, it seems clear that we are talking about the organisation of a group; especially concerning the ideas of power and authority. The questions that arose in the early 20th Century were very simple, and concerned these basic systems of group organisation: How much power? How much authority?  And how do we organise things to achieve this?
   The basic concept of group organisation as suggested by the fasces is, in fact, not something confined to the likes of Hitler, but much more prosaic.  So much so that the fasces symbol continues to gladden the heart of many a conspiracy theorist by appearing in such places as the seal of the U.S. senate, and also in the senate itself-

The seal of the United States Senate. Proudly displaying Fasces . And Jacques Cousteau's hat.*

Hail Caesar. Obama with fasces to the right and the left.

   The simple idea of what constitutes a strong group, and how to organise it, has evolved over the course of human history. From the nomadic tribe to the village to the city-state to the Nation state and on into modern times with such organisations as the E.U., A.S.E.A.N. and the U.N.
   The ideas within the groups have also evolved, with a general shift towards more equality and less injustice.
    After World War One, with a will to avoid further carnage and a desire for better communication, The League of Nations was established. This was the first international organisation that had, as its stated goal, world peace.
    But this was not the only post-war idea in circulation. Buoyed by the tide of communication precipitated by Darwin's theories, some groups were organising themselves according to the idea that they and not others,  were the fittest for survival.**
    Once this kind of idea is established and making people happy, avenues of communication are methodically closed off. In the 1930s, Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan would all withdraw from the League of Nations.

     Of course, ideas of purity of race and your gang  being the chosen ones had helped to achieve group cohesion for millennia.
    These kinds of ideas had long been circulating in Britain as justification for Empire. British Israelism, for example, insisted that the British Royal Family were descendants of King David by way of one of the lost tribes of Israel. And the simple idea of Dieu et mon droit, or divine right, had long been used as the explanation of choice by the powerful.
     For Britain to have already achieved the greatest Empire in history, a necessary amount of anti-communication had to have been encouraged. To keep the Empire in place, one must keep people in their place. 
     In The Ragged-trousered Philanthropists, the novel about the lives of house-painters in Edwardian Britain, most of the workers are unable to see the nature of their existence even when it is explained to them. Having never been encouraged to use their natural ability to ask or check, they are completely unable to cope with different information. Unable to conceive of that most natural of concepts: something better.
    Traditionally, any strong group had to inhibit communication; the words of God are only for the priests, education is only for the rich and slaves must not be taught to read. It was natural, therefore, for the Nazis to take up the the British propaganda model to even greater heights in their desire to control information and idea.
 
   In 1936, not long after Edward VIII took the crown, the British government requested that the national press not print any stories about the King's romance with the American Wallis Simpson. Simpson was twice-divorced and currently still married, and this produced a number of concerns for British politicians-
   As king, Edward was the leader of the Church of England, and the Church taught that marriage with a divorcee whose previous spouse(s) were still alive was unacceptable.***     
   What title would Simpson receive? Would the British public accept her as Queen?
  
   Before the public knew anything of this situation that had their leaders in a panic, the government and the editors of the national newspapers had conspired to keep this information from the people.
   A compliant press and a populace kept in the dark in order to protect the state.
  

 The former King Edward VIII and his wife get a warm welcome in Berlin in 1937.
"His abdication was a severe loss for us."- Adolph Hitler, as quoted by Albert Speer.

  
       It has also been claimed, with some justification, that Edward VIII was a Nazi sympathiser who wished to have a strong Germany fighting the Red menace of communism. This was not an unusual idea for the time. Britain was in no way keen to go to war with Germany, and when the England football team was ordered by the Foreign Office to give the Nazi salute in Berlin in 1938, they were encouraged to do so with the idea that it might dampen a spark that could otherwise set Europe aflame.
     Britain didn't want war, but eventually it would fight to stop another gang from taking over its territory, muscling in on its power, and for its own survival. In the spin-cycle of history, colours tend not to run but to actually become more clear and primal. We are presented with simple morality plays***: where the baddies are clearly marked by their black hats.****
     One simple reason that fascism didn't fully develop in Britain is that the idea did not easily follow all the information that the communicative tide of British history had steadily deposited over time. For a country that had already had Scottish, Dutch, German, Norman and Danish Kings as well as a Jewish Prime Minister; and that had built its empire on the science of better communication, the modern fascism found it more difficult to grow in Britain than in other places.

   
     It should not be forgotten however, that in order to build an Empire and hold dominion over others, communication must always be inhibited. Any tree of knowledge must be pruned of certain unacceptable branches, trunk and root bent to the will of the state. The questions in the early 20th Century were: which branches? And, how far can we get things to bend? The groups who called themselves fascists took existing methods of Empire and perfected them. Other groups fought them. People came out of this new conflict with more new ideas from the available new information. But no side came out with much credit. 
   
     As the tide of history washed away the blood, it also tossed up the idea that; if you do insist on pruning your tree of knowledge, insisting that it will flourish without questions, that it will grow in darkness, then you will eventually be left with a sick and withered tree that produces only strange and bitter fruit.  

    


 
   

            
* In one sense, it actually is Jacques Cousteau's hat, because it is a Phrygian cap that Jacques was sporting. Used on the Senate seal, as elsewhere, as a symbol of liberty.#

**The term Survival of the fittest was coined by Herbert Spencer after a reading of Darwin's  On the origin of Species. 

*** A passing Martian might be forgiven for wondering how much things had actually changed since the time of Henry VIII.

**** "Hitler didn't snub me, it was FDR who snubbed me. The President didn't even send me a telegram." - Jesse Owens.

***** The Goodies, of course, look like this-



# Although where I see Jacques Cousteau's hat, others see an illuminati symbol. +

+ The Illuminati. Surely the world's worst secret society. ++

++ Depending on your definition of "Illuminati."

The Pope's no to the people's yes: the tide of British history. (7).

The helmet reads militarism. Theirs, not ours, obviously.

    One type of communication that always does very well in war-time is the basic art of propaganda.  Like all describing and explaining, information is assembled in such a way as to push an idea. If you can get certain ideas into people's heads then they will act in certain ways.
    In the World War One poster for the U.S. army above, the ape is immediately recognisable from his pickelhaube. It's also immediately apparent that he's the kind of rough beast who likes nothing better than smashing things and raping women. Not just a feral ape though, as his society's culture, its most basic ideas, demand wanton destruction and violence. This is  evidenced by his weapon, a weapon that pleads to be described as a Kultur Klub.*
    A subtler technique used within the poster is the fainter image of America upon which the ape is standing. Add to this the smoking ruins in the distance, and it encourages the viewer's dawning realisation that, if we don't stop Germany in Europe, he' ll come here next!
    It is very effective piece of propaganda, encouraging people to think their home-land  and way-of-life is under threat from some terrifying foreign beast. It is a technique still used today-

 
     Understandably, people are not usually very keen on joining the army in order to actually go and fight other people who are trying very hard to kill you.  If the war was being fought on British soil, if Germany had actually invaded Britain, then many more people would be willing to fight. But to encourage someone to travel to France to fight an enemy that had, until very recently, been seen as an ally, would require a whole different kind of information.
    During World War One, the authorities took the very sensible step of establishing  The Ministry of Information  to direct  British propaganda efforts. Using literature, art and film, the British developed new techniques for putting ideas into people's heads.
    About 25 years later, no less an authority than Joseph Goebbels would make the claim that Britain actually won the First World War because of its mastery of propaganda. This importance of propaganda in society gave the Nazis ideas.
    Another idea that connected with the British propaganda effort was the Balfour Declaration of November 1917. This was a letter from the British Foreign Secretary James Balfour to Baron Rothschild that assured the Jewish community of the fact that "His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." British P.M. David Lloyd George saw it as a chance to "help secure post-war British control of Palestine."
    Balfour ** himself suggested that this assurance would allow Britain "to carry on extremely useful propaganda in Russia and America."***
     One man who took away useful ideas from this propaganda drive was Edward Bernays, who stated: "If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it? The recent practice of  propaganda has proved that it is possible, at least up to a certain point and within certain limits."

   Bernays would become known as "the father of public relations", but it is clear that the grand-father of public relations is propaganda. They serve the same purpose, which is to put useful ideas into people's heads.

    But useful for who? As usual, the answer is simply: those in power. The Britain of 1917 was encouraging ordinary people to go to war to protect a system that served those in power. Edward Bernays spent his career serving the purposes of the powerful. Upon cessation of hostlities the propaganda of war's tin helmet was simply swapped for the smiling mask of Public Relations. This was a logical step for, as Bernays maintained :  “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society."

  

    

     
      
      
       Bernays once told a story about how he was "shocked" when informed in 1935 that Goebbels was using his work in order to persecute the Jews. Why he would be "shocked" by this is an interesting question...     
    
       ...but propaganda demands that Bela Lugosi is dead...
                         
                            ....and the sleepers had long started being laid for Birkenau.

 
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               In a better world, this is the only German Propaganda anyone might need-

*Could also be described as a Kultur Knüppel but it doesn't quite have the same ring.

** In a fine example of how communication often works, The Balfour Declaration might be more usefully described as The Milner Declaration, as it was actually drafted by Lord Alfred Milner.

*** Carry on Propaganda (1917):  Dir. Gerald Thomas.  Starring Sid James, Phil Silvers, Hattie Jaques, Barbara Windsor,+  Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey. Written by Talbot Rothwell and a gentleman from the Ministry of Information.

Williams: Monkey Business

Story: In France, General Motors (Silvers) is helping Marechal Bitte (Williams) to hold a Captain's ball. The festivities are thrown into chaos when a huge German ape bursts in and makes off with local girl Lucie Tania  (Windsor). General Smuts (James) and Private Parts (Hawtrey) are then engaged in a mission to contaminate the German water supply with Bromide.


+Also in 1917, the British Royal Family changed its name for propaganda purposes from the screamingly German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the safer option of Windsor.  I have no idea why  Barbara chose the same option.#

#And no, her original name was not Barbara Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

The Pope's no to the People's yes: The tide of British history. (6).

 Better ways to kill people.
 
The Tree of Knowledge harvested. For Machine Gun nests and The Mustard Gas.


    New times call for new ideas. As the only place we ever live in is always a new time, you might think that our best and brightest would be busily intent on producing new ideas to react to the new information of the times. 
     Unfortunately, it is clear that the "educated elite" are most often trained to continue the current systems at all costs. People rise to positions of power because they are prepared to passively agree to whatever it takes to reach that position. Thus, inevitably, in a world where better communication  is paramount, we most often end up with leaders who are our worst and dullest.
     In 1914, Britain sent an army to war. The popular view of Lions led by Donkeys,* might be rightly questioned by historians, but anyone with any experience of any traditional British institution will recognise the ringing truth of it. The first World War kicked off with tactics of trench warfare that saw the conflict grind to a halt. New ideas were soon in demand. People wanted better killing machines, and very soon they got them.

A British Mark V Tank. Correctly described as male.

 The first new machines rumbled onto the battle-field in 1916.  Someone somewhere had noted their resemblance to a large water tank, and the military, with its natural desire for unclear  description, kept the name. The more evocative landships was deemed no longer fit for purpose. . All sides quickly moved to adopt this new idea, with the French company Renault producing the first modern tank, the Renault FT.  The Russians on the other hand....

Russian Tsar tank: big revolution required.

    

       World War One produced many technological advancements, from tanks to air traffic  control to sanitary towels. Clearly, the rich information  of wartime gives plenty of ideas. Perhaps education shouldn't be so grimly determined to train people for a life of passive consumerism and boredom, but be a lot more concerned with putting people into novel and challenging situations? Also, perhaps we should acknowledge that experiment is vital for progress? That, whether or not necessity is always the mother of invention, the child's ancestors consistently tend to bear the name Failure?

Basic communication. Grunts and Violence.

More complex communication.
Arguments and agreement

                                                 


  








      With the end of the war in 1918, the communication style went from basic Australopithecus,** towards more Homo Sapiens Sapiens. That is to say, negotiations were entered into about war reparations and the re-drawing of certain European boundries. France wished to ensure that she would no longer have to worry about a German threat and the French demands reflected this. Germany was shorn of land the size of Sri Lanka, and lost 7 million people.
   The Treaty of Versailles has often been seen as laying the foundations of Hitler's Reich; in that a German economy weakened by the demands of reparations coupled with a German sense of taking back what was rightfully theirs only served to encourage fascism. But 20th century fascism was an idea whose time had come; whether it was draped in red  or cut by Hugo Boss, this idea was a fashionable hit all across Europe as the twenties became the thirties.
 
   Perhaps we all just needed to try it. To do the experiment, and learn what happens when you attempt to reverse the great communicative tide of history. To learn all the lessons provided by those fascist cnuts.











* Field Marshal Haig, who has been both praised and criticised for his leadership, was seemingly convinced that he was doing God's work. From this alone, It may be assumed that, for Haig, Bela Lugosi was very much dead.


 ** I may be being unfair to Australopithecus here. Ozzie probably relaxed as soon as there was enough food and shelter. Ozzie's finest academies were not being directed towards the development of poison gas, used on the poorest to protect a system designed to mainly benefit those who already lived in the finest homes.

The Pope's no to the People's Yes: The tide of British History. (5)

    Guglielmo Marconi with the wireless equipment used to receive the first trans-Atlantic signal.
    Achieved in Mother Hubbard's gaff, apparently.



  In the first year of the 20th century, communication technology took a giant leap right across the Atlantic as a radio signal was sent and recieved from the Old World to the New. Guglielmo Marconi had moved to London in order to find more interest in his ideas, and with Britain's tree of knowledge still rising at this time, Britannia would encourage Marconi with an eye to ruling the radio waves. More and more information could now be delivered at speeds that would make Mercury envious.
  Also, in 1901, as continents were being swept by the first waves of the new century's tsunami of communication,  H.G. Wells produced a fantasy about The First Men in The Moon * as fiction's scrying device gave people glimpses of things to come. Few at the time would have predicted the Apollo 11 mission only 68 years later; three men rising to the heavens in one of the greatest flourishes of a modern science only a few hundred years old. 
  1901 also witnessed the end of the Victorian age as the longest-serving British monarch passed away and was buried in Windsor near London. She had reigned over an empire that owed its strength both to the application of better communication in science and technology, as well as the inhibition of communication in the general culture. Predictably, no-one suggested that the Empress of India should be buried in India.
  In January of this year, Australia was born, but it would remain within the British pocket for a while yet. The fact that the country's official name became the Commonwealth of Australia may be seen as the usual PR for the powerful, considering the country's history.

  What would come to be referred to as The American Century would see the steady crumbling of Britain's empire, as the New England waiting in the wings, would eventually settle comfortably into its throne. The last of years of the British Empire would see Titans rise and fall, and the  continuing ritual worship of Mars.
 
  In April of 1911, a gigantic ship the biggest ever built, a massive bough of the British tree of knowledge,  carried the wealthy and the poor from the old world to the promise of a better life in the new. It has often been claimed to have been carrying a fair cargo of hubris as well,  ensuring that Nemesis would position her frozen Scylla in wait, possibly having asked her father for the favour.
  Considering that last sentence, and  the enormous amount of information and ideas floating up from the wreck of the Titanic, it is this headline really captures the event and our history's reaction to it-

  As the Titanic floundered, it was two men from The Marconi Company who sent distress signals by wireless. Their role was of such importance that Britain's postmaster general would later state: "Those who have been saved, have been saved by one man....Mr Marconi and his marvelous invention." Better communication saves lives.
  Two years after Titanic's massive corpse fell to rest near the Grand Banks, the fields of France would see the kind of temporary cemeteries that only Mars can provide, as the inhibition of communication in all cultures ensured that all countries could go to war with God on their side.
   The last surviving British soldier to fight in World War One, Harry Patch, described his thoughts like this :-
  "When the war ended, I don't know if I was more relieved that we'd won or that I didn't have to go back. Passchendaele was a disastrous battle – thousands and thousands of young lives were lost. It makes me angry. Earlier this year, I went back to Ypres to shake the hand of Charles Kuentz, Germany's only surviving veteran from the war. It was emotional. He is 107. We've had 87 years to think what war is. To me, it's a licence to go out and murder. Why should the British government call me up and take me out to a battlefield to shoot a man I never knew, whose language I couldn't speak? All those lives lost for a war finished over a table. Now what is the sense in that?"

   I can't see the U.K. government attempting any explanation of Harry's questions during its forthcoming commemoration of the First World War. Could it be because a continuing inhibition of communication enables wars to continue?
 
   3 years into the First World War, one of the more far-reaching fruits of the British tree of knowledge would burst and spread its seeds in Russia, as the Russian Revolution took hold. Using the treasures of the Empire available to him in the British Museum, Karl Marx had spent years researching Das Kapital. As always: Information ------> Idea.
   It is interesting to note that the Czarist Russian authorities allowed Das Kapital into the country not only on the grounds that it was a serious work but also because "few people in Russia will read it, and even fewer people will understand it."
    Contempt for ordinary people has always played a huge part in the human story,  but the steady tide of history, its rise of communication has ensured a slow leveling of the playing area. But former unassailable cliffs are still steep slopes and the tide needs to continue its work.

 Across the river Mersey from Birkenhead, where the author of Dulce et Decorum Est spent many years, is Walton Park Cemetery, the last resting place of Robert Tressell.
 1914 saw the publication of Tressel's most famous work. A book that George Orwell reckoned "everyone should read." Many years later, a young Alan Sillitoe would be passed a copy with the endorsement: "The book that won the '45 election for Labour."
   Britain's social landscape was changing, flooded by new information and new ideas.


* When did we start saying: Man on the moon?