Mein Kampf
Like woman, whose spiritual perceptions are determined less by abstract reason than by an indefinable longing for complimentary strength, and who therefore would rather submit to the strong than dominate the weakling, the masses love the ruler more than the petitioner, and inwardly find more satisfaction in a doctrine which tolerates no other beside it than in the allowance of liberalistic freedom. And the masses are seldom able to make much use of such freedom, indeed are likely to feel neglected. They are as little conscious of the impudence with which they are intellectually terrorized as of the outrageous maltreatment of their human liberty; after all, they have no inkling of the whole doctrine’s inward error. They see only the ruthless strength and brutality of its expression, which eventually they always yield to.
If to Social Democracy we oppose a theory more truthful, but equally brutally carried through, the new theory will win, even if after a desperate battle.
In less than two years I had a clear understanding of both the doctrine and the technical methods of the Social Democrats.
I realized the infamous intellectual terrorism that this movement employs, chiefly on the bourgeoisie (which is neither morally nor spiritually a match for such attacks), by laying down a regular barrage of lies and slander against the individual adversary it considers most dangerous, and keeping it up until the nerves of those attacked give way, and they sacrifice the hated figure to have peace and quiet again. But the fools still do not get peace and quiet. The game begins anew, and is repeated until fear of the wild cur becomes a hypnotic paralysis.
Since the Social Democrats well know the value of power from their own experience, their storming is directed mainly at those persons in whose character they scent something of this quality, so rare in any case. Conversely, they praise every weakling on the other side, now cautiously, now loudly, according to the intellectual qualities they see or suspect.
They fear an impotent, weak-willed genius less than a forceful nature, though its intellect be modest. Their highest recommendation goes to weaklings of mind and vigor together.
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