Big Lie Technique

Originating in Germany during the rise of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party, the Big Lie is the practice of telling a lie so profound that the general public will not believe that someone would fabricate such a falsehood and, as a result, will accept the lie as truth. The origins of the phrase can best be traced back to Adolf Hitler's 1925 autobiography Mein Kampf. Retrospective studies of governmental propaganda have shown that big lies often have more influence over individual opinion than smaller ones. Thus, some governments still utilize the Big Lie technique today.

The Big Lie can be seen as an extension of Plato's “noble lie” described in The Republic in the 4th century b.c.e. Plato proposes that the noble lie is one that serves the purposes of advancing [Page 78]a society and its goals, regardless of whether it is true. The definition of Big Lie, as it is known today, is sometimes falsely credited to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of propaganda, who said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” The origins of this quotation are unknown, and Goebbels never admitted to using the Big Lie technique, for admitting the lie would counteract its effects. Rather, in his 1941 article “From Churchill's Lie Factory,” he accused Winston Churchill of using the Big Lie tactic, stating that Churchill repeated his lies until he believed them.

The first mention of Big Lie propaganda actually appears 16 years earlier in Mein Kampf. Like Goebbels, Hitler never admitted to using the Big Lie technique, but accused the Jewish population of using it. However, Hitler detailed how such propaganda should be used. He stated that propaganda should be directed toward the uneducated masses in such a way as to convince them that all of the information presented to them is fact. Hitler argued that the delivery of propaganda must be psychologically correct.

At no point did Hitler recommend fabricating the propaganda. Instead, he blamed the German collapse on the Jews' use of fabricated Big Lie propaganda. Hitler elaborated that individuals are used to telling small lies, and thus are not surprised by the use of small lies in others. However, individuals, being more corrupt than purposely evil, would be properly ashamed by telling a big lie. Because they would not engage in such purposeful falsehood, they in turn are unlikely to believe that others would be capable of such “monstrous effrontery and infamous misrepresentation.”

Beyond mere persuasion, Hitler accused his opponents (namely Jews, but also Americans and the British) of expertly using propaganda as psychological coercion. Hitler explained that propaganda should focus on emotions, rather than logic. In 1933, Hitler established the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda to spread Nazi propaganda throughout Germany. It is easy to see the technique of the Big Lie put to full use in the Nazis' creation of propaganda.

Many argue that all communication is some form of persuasion, and that the difference between the terms education and propaganda are simply a choice of words. Propaganda, originally a neutral term, is now so closely associated with warfare and Nazi propaganda that it is largely considered negative. Most sources today define the differences between propaganda and education based on purpose and source. Education is persuasion based on truth and engaged in for the betterment of the target of the education. Propaganda is persuasion based on misrepresentations and half-truths and engaged in for the betterment of the source of the propaganda. Propaganda is the act of spreading information to some large audience in an effort to persuade or unite the public under some common goal. Propaganda often omits certain facts or misrepresents the truth in some manner. While discussion of propaganda and psychological warfare was abundant in the 1940s and 1950s, interest in the subject has declined over the years.

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