What makes the "Big Lie" endure

Submitted by Dr RJP (United States), May 2, 2007 at 14:07

Four people with different ideologies look at a family living in poverty and on welfare.

Person #1 says, "Look! Poverty is the problem. Poverty keeps them from being productive citizens"

Person #2 says, "Look! Poor people are the problem. Why can't they work like the rest of us!"

Person #3 says, "Look! Rich people are the problem. They don't care about the poor."

Person #4 says, "Look! Jews are the problem. They're rich. They have all the good jobs. You never see a "poor" Jew, and they enjoy keeping others (insert 'Palestinians' here) living in poverty."

To which, Persons #1, #2, and #3 look at Person #4 and nod their heads in agreement.

The perfect scapegoat is the Jew, and has always been the Jew since Isaac and Ishmail went their separate ways. What perpetuates the Big Lie is ignorance. Ignorance of truth. Ignorance of bigotry. Ignorance of history. Ignorance about the Jewish people, past and present.

The moral is as follows:

"Those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it!"

"Those who do not learn history are doomed to be ignorant!"

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".