Comment on "Falsehood in War-Time": excerpts from the introduction
afellowkid@lemmygrad.ml 2 years ago
For simplicity, I have combed through the introduction and made a list of the types of lies that Ponsonby describes. These are my re-phrasings and summaries of his words:
Types of lies circulated in WWI, according to Ponsonby:
- The deliberate official lie
- The "deliberate lie concocted by an ingenious mind" which may only reach a small circle, but if it's sufficiently graphic, it may be caught up and broadcast.
- The "hysterical hallucination on the part of weak-minded individuals"
- The lie heard and not denied, that is spread by hearsay, without evidence.
- The mistranslation
- accidental mistranslation
- deliberate mistranslation (more common)
- The "general obsession" started by a rumor and magnified by repetition and developed into something more by imagination, which comes to gain general acceptance.
- The deliberate forgery
- The lie by omission of passages from official documents
- The deliberate exaggeration
- The concealment of truth to avoid painting the enemy in a good light
- The faked photograph
- The repeated news reel "to keep the wound raw"
- The "Russian scandal": "a trivial and imperfectly understood statement of fact becomes magnified into enormous proportions by constant repetition from one person to another.""
- The atrocity lie (such as stories of maltreatment of prisoners).
- Generalization/extrapolation of a single instance of the enemy's cruelty into a "prevailing habit."
- The acceptance of human testimony as conclusive without evidence.
- "Pure romance." Lies and exaggerations told by allied soldiers to their civilian social circle.
- Subtly misleading evasions, concealments, and half-truths from the government.
- Official secrecy which must necessarily mislead the public. For example, secret treaties which conceal the intent of the government in disturbing another nation and infringing on their territory.
- Sham official indignation depending on popular indignation, "a form of falsehood sometimes resorted to in an unguarded moment and subsequently regretted."
- Illustrated propaganda that misrepresents the enemy.
- Personal accusations and false charges against persons who refuse to adopt the orthodox attitude towards war.
- Lying recriminations between nations. In other words, a back-and-forth false accusations between countries.
- Other varieties of lie not categorized here.