EDUCATION
and fascinating rhetoric. Even in the democratic countries,
intelligence is generally used only to create (in Thoreau's
words) improved means to unimproved ends—to ends that
are dictated by socially sanctioned prejudice and the lowest
passions. Such, I repeat, is generally the case; but
fortunately not always. Where intelligence is permitted
to exercise itself freely, there will always be a few people
prepared. to use their wits for the purpose of judging
traditional ends as well as for devising effective means to
those ends. It is thanks to such individuals that the
very idea of desirable change is able to come into
existence.
For the dictator such questioning free intelligences are
exceedingly dangerous; for it is essential, if he is to pre-
serve his position, that the socially sanctioned prejudices
should not be questioned and that men should use their
wits solely for the purpose of finding more effective means
to achieve those ends which are compatible with dictator*
ship. Hence the persecution of daring individuals, the
muzzling of the press, and the systematic attempt by means
of propaganda to create a public opinion favourable to
tyranny. In the dictatorial countries the individual is
subjected to propaganda, as to military training, almost
from infancy. All his education is propagandist and, when
he leaves school, he is exposed to the influence of a con-
trolled press, a controlled cinema, a controlled literature,
a controlled radio." Within a few years controlled television
and possibly a controlled teletype service functioning in
every home will have to be added to this list of weapons
in the dictator's armoury. Nor is this all; it is likely
enough that pharmacology will be called in as an ally of
applied psychology. There are drugs, such as a mixture
of scopolamine and chloral, that enormously increase
the individual's suggestibility. It is more than likely
that dictators will soon be making use of such sub-
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