299 | MP notes pp. 19-26

[22] 'Repression' must not be confused with 'suppression'.
I suppress my desire to kill my aunt when I know
perfectly well that I want to kill her, but refrain
from doing so. I repress this desire when I even
convince myself that I never had any intention to
kill my aunt. When I repress a desire I 'disown' it.
[23] The human mind, 1930, p.270.
[24] The propaganda menace, 1933, p.44. - In 1918, a German
officer expressed the same idea in his own crude
Teutonic way: "Gute Früchte zeitigen kann nur eine
Propaganda, die so geschickt angelegt ist, daß der
Mensch den wirklichen Zweck nicht merkt'. Thimme,
Weltkrieg ohne Waffen, 1932, p.267.
[25] An 'ideal' is not always as ideal as it looks. In
many cases, as we will see, 'ideals' are just a cover
for one's spite against oneself, or against somebody
else.
[26] It is difficult to find an appropriate word for the
kind of social group which constitutes the 'human
material' of the modern propagandist. 'Conglomeration'
is too clumsy, 'mass' too ambiguous, 'mob' too
contemptuous. Perhaps 'indiscriminate crowd' is
the best term.
[27] We may distinguish four social 'instincts': The
desire for company; the desire to do as others do;
the desire to do something with others; the
desire to help others.
[28] "It is found empirically that group activities and
characteristic group feeling (as distinct from mob
feeling EC) become increasingly difficult when more
than about 20 or less than about 5 individuals are
involved. It is significant that Jesus had only 12
apostles; that the Benedictines were divided into
groups of 10 under a dean; that ten is the number
of individuals constituting a Communist cell.
Committees of more than a dozen members are found to
be unmanagably large. 8 is the perfect number of a
dinner party. The most successful Quaker meetings
are generally meetings at which few people are
present. Educationists agree that the most satis-
factory size for a class is between 8 and 15. In
armies, the smallest unit is about 10. All evidence
points clearly to the fact that there is an optimum
size for groups and that this optimum is round about
10 for groups meeting for social, religious or intell-
ectual purposes, and from 10 to 30 for groups
engaged in manual work." A. Huxley, Ends and means, p.73.
[29] The psychology of 'oppressors' falls outside the
scope of this book.
[30] Real 'education' requires a social cell. 'Mass
education' is a contradiction in terms. Where the
word is used, it camouflages the drilling of
machine minders.