Today I will introduce to you a very short book, but a very good one... It's called: How Do You Kill 11 Million People? Why the truth matters more than you think. By Andy Andrews.
Here's a little spoiler (oh calm down) for the book on the answer to the question:
You lie to them.
How do you kill 11 MILLION people? You lie to them.
Before I get to where I'm going with this, I will copy pages from the book to help convey the message I'm trying to get across.
Pages 31-33:
"The National Socialist German Workers' Party, led by Adolf Hitler, rose to power during a time of economic uncertainty, in a nation of people longing for better times. Germany was a modern, industrialized nation whose well-informed citizens enjoyed ready access to information by way of print and radio broadcast media.
Hitler was a man of the common people- not long before, he had been a lance corporal in the army- and his speeches were exciting and passionate. He promised more and better and new and different. He vowed rapid change and swift action.
According to record, what Hitler actually said in his speeches depended very much upon the audience. In agricultural areas, he pledged tax cuts for farmers and new laws to protect food prices. In working-class neighborhoods, he talked about the redistribution of wealth and attacked the high profits generated by business owners. When he appeared before financiers or captains of industry, Hitler focused his plans to destroy communism and reduce the power of the trade unions.
"How fortunate for leaders," Hitler said to his inner circle, "that men do not think. Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually, they will believe it."
In Mein Kampf, Hitler's autobiography, he wrote, "The great masses of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one." The book was wildly read by the German people at the time.
The people believed him anyway. Or at the very most, they ignored him. It is a fact that fewer than 10 percent of Germany's population of 79.7 million people actively worked or campaigned to bring about Hitler's change. Even at the height of its power in 1945, the Nazi political party boasted only 8.5 million members.
So the remaining 90 percent of Germans-teachers and doctors and ministers and farmers- did... what? Stood by? Watched?
Essentially, yes.
Mothers and fathers held their voices, covered their eyes, and closed their ears. The vast majority of an educated population accepted their salaries and avoided the uncomfortable truth that lingered over them like a serpent waiting to strike. And when the Nazis came for their children, it was too late.”
(Now this is only a tiny sliver of the pie that is this book. Come hungry people, because you WILL be fed. This book is PACKED with information that I wish I could share more of! So just read the book!!)
Just recently I turned 20, and when you turn 20, I guess it's a thing that you somehow become a bit more interested in politics, or more so... the state of your union. I was able to vote during the last election but decided against it because I honestly just didn't care! Why would I? I was living under my parent's roof and the realities of life were not relevant to my reality. I can't quite explain why it changed other than I know it affects me now, and the outcome of our choices affects my children's children, and their children, and will be written in history forever. Now I don't mean to stir up panic or even a little bit of anxiety but more so an awareness that the result of our actions is very permanent and very potent. I don't want to be written in history books as a citizen who stood by and blindly trusted vague social media posts or biased articles online to make my decisions for me. I also don't want to be oblivious to the fact that there are higher powers (and I'm not talking about God here) who alter my google searches to swing left or right (Republican or Democrat bias) when I try to keep up with current politics. I don't want to just believe in pretty words that flatter me! If history is about learning from our mistakes as a race, the HUMAN RACE, then we need to pay attention! We need to do the research ourselves. We need to ask better questions, we need to ask WHY. We need to have standards for the leaders we're electing to lead us, are they liars? Are they deceitful? What's the hidden agenda?
Page 42:
"You see, the danger to America is not a single politician with ill intent. Or even a group of them. The most dangerous thing any nation faces is a citizenry capable of trusting a liar to lead them. In the long run, it is much easier to undo the policies of crooked leadership than to restore common sense and wisdom to a deceived population willing to elect such a leader in the first place. Any country can survive having chosen a fool as its leader. But history has shown time and again that a nation of fools is surely doomed."
I refuse to be a nation of fools who stands by and allows criminals with mouths filled with lies and hearts filled with deceit to lead me and my children into a dark future. I will be involved, informed, and I will find out for myself the truth. I will ask more questions, without bias. And I will look at the hearts (the best I can) and intentions of possible leaders, and the fruits they bear. This is the freedom the fathers of this country fought for... To choose to be led by righteous leaders. And I stand by that.