Suggestive Effects in the Last Election Campaign

The decision to take some action can be triggered in someone in two different ways: on the one hand after mature reflection, after careful consideration of the pros and cons, and on the other hand through some kind of external influence, such as a stirring speech, a demonstration, the constant influence of the press, advertising, and so on. The difference between the two types is that in the former the critical faculties of the individual play the decisive role, whereas in the latter they are more or less eliminated. The person who comes to the decision to act through conscious thought or who considers an act to be necessary will fight for the cause with conviction and will not be easily dissuaded from it. The person who is carried along to an action by external influences, i.e. by suggestive influences, who is not with the mind but with the feeling in the matter, will probably be capable of the highest enthusiasm and the highest sacrifice for the cause, but his enthusiasm will only be an intoxication, which, if too great difficulties stand in the way or if other influences of the opposite kind act on him, i.e. if counter-suggestions are triggered, will soon fade away and leave behind nothing more than a cat's meow. There are not many people who are of this type. And they are very unpleasant. The cold intellectual will ruthlessly walk over dead bodies, chasing only his own selfish motives; he represents the type of capitalist. And the person who is subject to all suggestive influences will be tossed to and fro like a reed, will not be able to make an independent decision, will never have a firm political conviction, but will agree with everyone. He will find what is written in the “KAZ” just as correct as the articles in the “Rote Fahne”, in the “Morgenpost” and in the “Lokalanzeiger”. Most people are a mixture of both types. The revolutionary is a person who combines logical thinking and a clear mind with noble enthusiasm. The majority of people, however, are purely emotional natures. That is why the number of conscious revolutionaries will always be relatively small. The majority of people, and especially the majority of proles, still allow themselves to be pushed to and fro. Their political thinking is unclear.

The elections that have now taken place are an instructive example of the effect of suggestions. Suggestions are only effective for a short time, as they are soon displaced by counter-suggestions and can soon be followed by disillusionment. It is therefore no wonder that suggestions are particularly effective at times when a single action needs to be whipped up for a short period of time, such as during an election campaign. Never before has an election campaign in Germany been so suggestive as this time. It was conducted along American lines. Three weeks before the election, nothing was noticeable, everything was quiet. But in the last eight days before the election, all parliamentary parties were working flat out. There was no fundamental propaganda anywhere. The German Nationals blamed the Social Democrats for all the world's ills. The Social Democrats were to blame for the loss of the war, the inflation, the inflation, the misery, the low wages, the unemployment, everything. “Where were there so many political prisoners under the Empire, when were the prisons as full as they are now?” their speakers exclaimed. You could often only tell whether you were listening to a German Völkische, a German nationalist or a KPD speaker from the closing words when it came to propaganda for the party organizing the meeting. The party's own program was of secondary importance. Only the bad points of the other party were pointed out and it was asserted that things would be better if one's own party was elected. The Center's propaganda consisted of having cars driving around, five in a row, each painted with three vertical lines: one black, one gold and another black. All it said was: Vote for the Center, the party of the golden mean! What a program, well that was a minor matter. The Social Democrats' propaganda again consisted of listing all the evils of the war and blaming them on the German nationalists. They accused the KPD of their children's trumpet concert in the Reichstag. Nowhere fundamental either. After some initial hesitation, the KPD finally joined the general stream. The public meetings were replaced by political satirical evenings; if the German Nationals organized film screenings with free admission, the KPD held free theater performances. And on the day before the election and on election day itself, its trucks drove through Berlin waving red flags and manned by the Red Young Storm. That looked really revolutionary and was reminiscent of the November days of 1918, enveloping the KPD in a revolutionary aura. Or there was a KPD truck driving around with a mock prison cell in which two rednecks were sitting, sticking their clenched fists through the window. Underneath it was written: “Out with the political prisoners! Vote KPD!” All the parties used all the advertising techniques at their disposal to achieve the most intensive suggestive influences. As a result of this intensive suggestive work, voter turnout was also very high. Since the German Nationals were fearful of any fundamental confrontation with their opponents, but only appealed to the stupidity of the masses, their expected collapse did not occur and, on the contrary, they emerged from the elections stronger. Where the KPD worked so generously in terms of advertising, so purely suggestively as in Berlin, it lost almost no votes, but where it confined itself to meetings etc., it lost enormously.

The fact that all parliamentary parties advertised generously triggered the general will to vote, the enthusiasm to vote, the forest psychosis. The question of who was elected depended on the social situation of the voter and the strength of the suggestions that had a particular effect on him. After the elections, the intoxication has faded and the cat's meow has returned.

As long as the proletariat succumbs unconditionally to such suggestive effects, as long as it has not learned to think independently and critically, it will continue to go to the ballot box. Critical, independent thinking, however, results in independent, purposeful, conscious action. That is why all the parliamentary organizations that fear this independent, conscious action of the awakened proletariat are interested in the non-development of critical, independent thinking. That is why they try to hold back the development of this critical, independent thinking by organizing the proletariat in tightly centralized military organizations, by cultivating faith in the authority of leaders, by demanding blind obedience to the orders of the central authorities.

But we have made the development of the proletariat's self-awareness the sole point of our program. We want to teach the proletariat independent, critical thinking so that it can act independently and consciously. It must free itself from all inhibiting suggestive influences, refuse to obey the leader's authority and form itself as a class in the workplace. We only want to exert one suggestion: Through our example, through revolutionary action, we want to sweep along those who are still hesitating in the struggle.