Does the Government Know about That?

by Joseph Goebbels

The source: Joseph Goebbels, “Weiß die Regierung das eigentlich?,” Der steile Aufstieg (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1944). pp. 376-383.

Of course the government knows that. That is our stereotypical answer to the often stereotypical question of whether the government knows about this or that, the questioner assuming that it has no idea whatsoever and that it must be enlightened by him. The government knows more than what one generally believes. The antediluvian idea that it is surrounded by a Great Wall of China made of evil-minded people intent on keeping the government ignorant of things that it does not know and must be kept ignorant of belongs in the realm of fairy tale and fantasy. That may have been true in an age when autocratic and ill-tempered counts and kings were at the head of the state, surrounded by courtiers who had to protect them from any annoyance or unpleasant news. We cannot say that any trace of that remains by us today; to the contrary, we have the impression that the government has too many worries, not too few. In any event, one cannot say that it protects itself or is protected from what is going on.