Friday No-Fun Link, War Propaganda Division
Via the always bracing, entertainingly long-winded, radically retrograde blogger who calls himself "Mencius Moldbug" comes this World War II era U.S. War Department manual called "Guide to the Use of Information Materials." Some gentle reminder of what even "good wars" are all about, from quotes Moldbug dug from it:
All warfare is retaliation, all acts of war are reprisals, and everything appertaining to the enemy is a military objective. Consequently, such expressions as "reprisal raids" or "retaliatory measures" may be all right for civilians but they are not for soldiers. The "eye-for-an-eye" principle is old testament doctrine. In war's new testament, if your enemy shoots your toe, you shoot his head.
……..
Since killing is the primary means by which the enemy is compelled to submit to one's own discipline, one of the ends of the training must be to so indoctrinate the soldier that he is not only willing but anxious to work bodily destruction upon the foes of his country. That state of mind is not possible unless the soldier is motivated by hatred in the hour when he is at grips with his enemy.
………
Let there be no more talk of war as if it were a sporting proposition fought under the Marquis [sic] of Queensberry rules. When a German or Japanese acts sporting, it is time to smell a rat.
And here's the entire manual, shot page by page and stuck on Flickr.
