Adapted from a speech, hence the conversational tone.
There are three crucial elements to propaganda.
- When you lie, you must make it a big lie, and you must repeat it often. That way, the people will believe you.
- You must always accuse your enemies of crimes that you’ve committed before they have the opportunity to accuse you. That way the people will believe you.
- Sow instability and fear in the populace. That way you can swoop down and take control, all in the name of security and protection.
Combine these three principles, and the people will let you do whatever you want. You will then have license to engage in all kinds of crimes with minimal repercussions.
These are the tactics the Nazis employed.
Indeed, Adolf Hitler is known for coining the term the Big Lie.
After the imposition of heavy sanctions due to their loss of World War 1, the German economy was in disarray. The Jews were an easy scapegoat. The result was the Holocaust. A clear application of the three principles: big lies, blame, and control.
Yet people being people, the Israelis are no better. Having Palestine handed to them by the British, what better lie to tell the world than that of the evil Palestinian, and then to massacre them, to relegate them to the miserable ghetto of Gaza where poverty and death are rife? These are the same crimes that the Nazis committed against the Jewish people in WW2.
But wait, there’s more!
Serbians in the former Yugoslav republic massacring their Bosnian Muslim neighbours in the1990s; the Japanese murdering over 600,000 Chinese people in in a matter of weeks in Nanking in 1937; nearly a million members of the Tutsi tribe murdered by members of the Hutu tribe in Rwanda in 1994 – neighbour murdering neighbour; the 1989 at Tianenmen Square in Beijing, where scores of young, pro-democracy demonstrators were massacred by the Chinese military; and yet again China in the 1950s, the Great Leap forward, under Mao, when over 50 million died from starvation, because of yet more lies. Lies. Lies.
But, let us not forget the two greatest liars of all.
The British and American empires.
Hong Kong was once part of the British Empire.
My home is Hong Kong. I was born there. My heart is in Hong Kong.
I close my eyes and I can imagine my home, a gorgeous, thirteenth-floor apartment near the top of Mt Butler. I could see the entire city from that apartment.
Even now, decades later, I can envision it: the twinkling night sky, the lights of the city, the gleaming glass buildings, the smog, and the ever-present hum of tens of thousands of cars.
To me, Hong Kong is the most beautiful city in the world.
I left in 1997 when it was handed back to China. I will never live there again. But I love no other country beside Hong Kong.
The British stole Hong Kong from China during the Opium Wars.
Unlike the Nazis, the British didn’t need to lie. They had the might of Empire on their side. Hong Kong was stolen from China because the British wanted to trade opium and make a fortune.
Hong Kong, built up by the British over one and a half centuries, with the Empire parading her around in front of the world, a great money-maker.
Britain, the pimp.
Hong Kong the whore.
Hong Kong, passed around amongst Britain’s friends for money, money, money.
And when Britain was done with her, when Britain had become too old and frail to hold on to her, he tossed her back to China, her cold, strict, resentful father.
What’s happening in Hong Kong now – the protests – is ostensibly about forced expatriation of criminals to be judged and convicted in mainland China.
But it’s far more than that. Far more.
It is about fear. Fear that the floodgates to oppression and tyranny will open. Fear that the fist of the authoritarian Chinese government will ram down upon Hong Kong and crush her freedoms. Because let’s face it. China’s history of human rights has been less than exemplary. Tianenmen Square. The oppression of the Falun Gong. Tibet. Oppression of Christians. Secret police. The list is long.
Above all, it is about identity. Hong Kongers do not see themselves as Chinese. They see themselves as Hong Kongers. As a people, Hong Kong does not want to be part of China.
But the reality is, that Hong Kong is a part of China. Hong Kong can never be free. They can rant and rave as much as they please. China is in complete control.
Recall the three rules of propaganda.
Here it is no different.
Chinese forces have been amassing at the borders for the past couple of weeks. The trouble in Hong Kong is surging, partly by the genuine protesters themselves, partly by Chinese government infiltrators rousing criminal activity.
Example: gangs of criminals in dressed in white filing down the border, wreaking havoc on the people in the Northern Territories of Hong Kong. Hitler had his Brown Shirts. Mussolini had his Black Shirts. Xi Jin Ping has his White Shirts. Ironic that in Chinese culture white represents death
Who knows what other criminal elements have been injected by the Chinese government to create instability in order to give them the excuse they need to go in and clamp down with the military.
And yet another interesting twist. That the Chinese government says that the Americans are behind it all. Is it true or not? Truth is irrelevant. Either way, the Chinese government will have an excuse to go in and do as they must.
All in the name of security.
Strange as it comes a time when Trump is trying to iron out a trade deal with China. Strange too, the manipulation of the stock market. China flexing its muscles.
Will there be a massacre? Who knows.
Again the rules of propaganda.
Lies. Accusations. Instability. Control.
None of these things take place at random. The trouble in Hong Kong is all orchestrated. All the world is a stage, and we are all merely players.
I will leave you with this.
What happens in Hong Kong matters to the rest of the world. It matters in the same way the yellow vest protests in France matter. It matters in the same way that Julian Assange’s arrest matters. It matters in the same way that Gaza, and Syria, and the Ukraine, and every other unjust war and atrocity matters.
One day the monster of authoritarianism will stand at the borders to your country, to your town, at your door, and you won’t even notice until it’s crept right into your bed, pounding at your every orifice.
And even then, it’s likely that you’ll just beg for more.
Hong Kong matters.
Hong Kong matters, because freedom is at stake… everywhere.
