Goebbels knew propaganda was a weapon. Do We?

A friend, Leon Kempler, sent me an article this week. Leon has served Australia and the Jewish community in a variety of civic and community pursuits, including through the Board of Questacon and the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce. He understands that ideas matter, institutions matter, and the stories a nation tells itself matter.

Leon is a humble man who dislikes any fuss being made about him. He will probably dislike me saying even this much. But his decision to send me the article mattered — and so does my decision to mention him, his achievements, and the service he has given to Australia over many decades.

Non-Jewish Australians, and non-Jewish members of the wider Western world, should understand how much individuals like Leon have contributed, often quietly and without fanfare, at a time when the world’s oldest hatred has emerged once again in our day, and on our watch.

The article was not pleasant reading. Nor was it supposed to be. It was a 1928 speech by Joseph Goebbels titled Knowledge and Propaganda, preserved in a German research archive. Delivered on 9 January 1928 to Nazi Party members in Berlin, it remains chilling because of its clarity. Goebbels did not treat propaganda as a search for truth. He treated it as an instrument of power.

His argument was blunt. Propaganda was not to be judged by whether it was decent, modest, gentle or even truthful. It was to be judged by whether it worked. Propaganda was “good” if it achieved the desired result and “bad” if it failed.