Hermann Goring, a Nazi leader, following World War II said:
Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policies, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, 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 that they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same way in any country.
What is the main point of this statement?
Do you agree with the statement? Why or why not?
Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policies, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, 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 that they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same way in any country.
What is the main point of this statement?
Do you agree with the statement? Why or why not?
I do not agree because that is not the case with every country. People have a say in many countrys.An example is The united states. The president and congress just don't make the decision the people have a saying. That is one of the good things about are country. So I do not agree.
ReplyDeleteI dont agree with this statement. In some countries they let the people decide what is best for there country. America is one of those countries. The government is not the only people that decide for our country. Our country is a democracy. The Government does not decide what president we have. We have voting. Because our does not know what is best for the people. So we let the people decide. The Government gets some say, but again so do the people. So I am going to have to say I do not agree with this statement
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with this statement! In many countries, like America, people have a lot of say in government. We can vote and our countries leaders don't have complete control over everything. We cannot be ruled like this statement says because we are a free country!
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with this statement! Countries all over the place people do have a say in for their country. Our leaders dont have a say in everyting, we can vote! We are a free country we shouldnt be ruled like this statement says!
ReplyDeletethe main point is that leaders and higher ranked people make decisions. no i do agree with this statement. we all should have a say in if we should go to war or not
ReplyDeletesage
I agree with my fellow classmates,but i must say that in most countries the people don't have a say because there are lots of democratic countries like africa.I know personally that africa isn't a free country because my uncle is nigerian and he's in africa right now and the government is about to pass something and the people can't do anything about it.So i do not agree but on a small account for it.
ReplyDeleteYes I do believe this is true to some degree. Most countries can get away with this, but some cant. If the government scares the people of their country and they say they have a solution they will back up their country no matter what. Even if it means going to war. When you are scared your mind is clouded. This is how the government abuses you, with fear. The main point of this statement is that if we, the government, scare our country we can do whatever we want.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with this statement. The main point of this statement is showing that no matter what type of government you have you can scare people into believing whatever you want them to. He was saying that "common people" are ignorant on the subject and expect you to know whats best for them. Most of the time Americans have no idea what is going on except for what they hear. We as people like to belive everything we see and/or hear. It is a terrible thing but if we educate ourself on what to believe then we could become a better country. Same with any country.
ReplyDeleteThis statement is saying that it is the leaders of the country that decide on war or not. The people of that country don't have much say, and will follow the leader. I think this situation is more prominent in a communist country, than in America. In a communist country, people have no choice of leader much less whether they want war or not. I agree with this statement, however I also disagree. I agree that it is a good thing that people don't have much say on war, because of they did there would many riots and protests and fights. Those events could potentially ruin a country. However I also disagree with this statement because in certain situations people should have a say in what their country is doing, unlike in communists countries.
ReplyDeleteSydney
This statement is saying that most people don't want to fight. Whether they want to or not the government decides. The statement says that the people can easily be convinced that war is the right way. To do this the government tells the people that they are being attacked, and all the people who don't want to fight are lacking patriotism and putting the country in danger. I agree with this idea because if an ordinary stubborn citizen is told that their country is being attacked they will want to fight and punish the country for daring to attack their country. This point might not be true for every country if its citizens are educated enough to decide if war is right or not.
ReplyDeletei think this comment is saying that the leaders have the ultimate vote on whether to fight or not. That is true in most countries. So if the every day citizens understand what is going on may not get that much say, and the uneducated citizens hve no idea what is going on but they listen to the leaders. They do this because they think they have the countries best interest in mind. The leaders might say that they are attacking us and we need to fight. So the citizen may act patriotic and want to fight. so the leaders pretty decide if we fight or not, but it may not always be the right decision.
ReplyDeletei think the main point of this statement is that leader and high ranked officials make decisions. i do agree with this statement because we have to have some1 to decide on what we do?
ReplyDelete-ansey
The main point of this statement is that no country wants a fight but that the people who run the country are the ones who pick whether or not we fight. I do aree with this because sometimes we may need a higher ranking person to make the descisions.
ReplyDelete-Rayna Mock
The main point of this statement is to show that the government can make the people do what they want. The government has almost all the control and can force people to side with the government and do what they say to do. I agree with this statement because most people are going to listen to what the people with power say or do. Some people even base their decisions and choices on the government and what the powerful people are doing. An example is war, like stated in the quote, most people don't want to go to war, but if the government declares war most people will forget that they don't want war and will go fight for the country, instead of sticking with their beliefs. Although this statement is true it isn't right for this to be happening. Every person has their own opinions and no one should be able to change them.
ReplyDelete-Quinn Larimer
Prd 1 1/28/10
I think what this means is that back at the time of WW2 the media was controlled by the government and whatever the media said everyone believed. I think it is different now because we have internet and news channels which have free speech. In other countries however the government completely controls the media, so the common people there don't know any better and believe whatever the media tells them.
ReplyDeletei dont agree with this statement. in america, usually the people have a choie of whether they themselves want to go to war. however, the power, in this case the military, can basically do what ever they want, as long as it is approved by the president
ReplyDeletepeter keith
I don't agree with the quote. one, the people who have the decision most of the time don't fight the war so they're decision is not litterly life or death like for some. i also disagreed with the part that said every person gets a say, yes in the US but in dictatorships and places like that the people arn't allowed to disagree or if they do no one cares.
ReplyDelete,Ryan Wesley
Basically this statement means that the government can force people to do what they want. Unfortunately i think this statement is true. For example if someone had a distinct opinon on war, but the government declared war the person might change their beliefs to go along with what the government says.
ReplyDeletekate
The main point of the statement is that the leaders are telling the people whether or not to go to war. I do not agree with this statement, because the leaders should not trick the people into going to war. They should ask the people whether or not they want to go to war, and the leader should base their decision on the people's say.
ReplyDeleteThe main point of this statement is that the government and high leaders dictate the decision of whether or not a country goes to war. Some of my classmates agree with this statement and some do not. I am one of the people that do agree with the statement. If the people have an opinion of going to war, the government, in my opinion,should take into consideration what the people think. Instead, the government ignores the peoples opinion and the government makes the decision on to go to war or not. I do not think this is a good thing because as citizens of a country, the people should have a say in events that may occur because of the decision. If only the government makes the decision, they could chose what is best for them and not for the people in the country.
ReplyDeleteMatt Olson
Per. 2
The main point of this speech is that leaders try to scare the people and worry them that they are going to be attacked if they don’t declare war. I do and don’t agree with this statement. I do agree because the way that leaders try to get people to declare war is by making them nervous. I disagree because leaders also could convince people to declare war because the results of the war will turn out good.
ReplyDeleteThe main point of this statement is that in any Government its leaders can still do what they want whether the people have a say or not. I disagree with this statement for example in the U.S there are somethings that the government cant do. The people can chose who the president is and the people in congress.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with the statement. It is saying that the leaders in government have complete control over the idea of war. The people should have the right to vote for what will go on in their country.
ReplyDeleteThe main point of this statement is that the govt. is in control and can say whether they are going to war or not.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this statement because if the Govt. says we are being attacked everyone goes balistic because of the faer of being attacked on them. People are much easier to control by the Govt. Liam Virrill
The main point of this statement is that leaders can get people to support them in a war by telling them they are being attacked. I agree with this statement because people as a nation will fight to protect themselves. This is why we need the media to tell whether or not the leaders are lying. We need people to question what the leaders say and search for the truth.
ReplyDeleteThis statement means that what you need to do to change the course or policies of your contry is either select a new leader that will do what the people are demanding or change the mind of the current leader of a country, but you need to notify the people and tell them that this is happening for change to occur, change the minds of people who don't think of it as a problem, as well. Yes, agree with this statement, because we need reform every once and a while, who will be bold enough to stand up for the people?
ReplyDeletethis statment is saying that if you are a leader it is easy to manipulate the people that elected them. this statment has alot of truth to it even in our own country of america people are being tricked. almost every president we have ever had has told things that they do not own up to.
ReplyDeleteThe main point of this statement is that people who are uniformed are gullable. A kid or just any adult might belive anything our leaders tell us. (Not el Rushbo, however.) I agree that it is true that many people are decieved by our govt., and that people are also very gullable. Of course it's not as bad in America because our quote, "Govt. Transparency", or fox news, helps us decide whats true and whats not, as in other countrys it may be outlawed or they might not have t.v.
ReplyDelete-John Kendrick