18 | MP introduction

Human beings, whether learned or unlearned, whether rich or
poor, whether sharp-witted or dull-witted, can be likened to
those volcanoes which have a small cap of snow and ice at the
top. Man is filled with emotions, passions and desires and he
has got a very small bit of reason covering the top. Julian
Huxley has summed the result of fifty years of research when he
wrote that according to modern psychology human behaviour
and mental life are "the resultants of a series of urges and
drives, harnessed to a series of goals or aims, which push and
pull the human being in various directions. Reason is not an
impelling force, and all too rarely a guiding hand; in the
majority of cases it is just engaged in finding reasons - more
or less rational excuses, if you like - for the actions to which
we find ourselves impelled."[20]

The emotions and passions that make up the greater part of
our minds are brought into motion whenever the propagandist
wants to achieve anything. The heart has reasons of which reason
has no knowledge. It may be useful to bring them to the knowl-
edge of reason.

Instincts and sentiments are almost blind. With proper guid-
ance they can be made to drive almost any mill. Let us take,
for instance, the sentiment of tenderness for animals. This
sentiment can be 'appealed to' for nearly any cause. The American
police, during the first world war, seized the memoranda of the
conferences of the German propagandists in New York. One me-
morandum read:

"Mr. Hale reports that Mrs. Hale is busy upon propaganda a-
gainst the export of horses (to the Allies). Mr. Claussen under-