Kilbride's Eight Quick and Easy Steps

Do you remember the first teacher that you had that ever made you think?

I was lucky to have had a lot of them. One of them was a crusty guy from Queens who taught 10th grade European History-- Mister Killbride. He was one of those rare teachers who encouraged students to apply what they learned in a particular subject to other ones. Killbride had distilled Hitler's tactics down to eight quick and easy steps that would work any time you were trying to take over a country, sell a crappy computer system, or anything else. Killbride showed exactly how cold and well-planned Hitler's tactics were. With the lesson came the capacity to apply these techniques and the warning that we too could fall victim to them.

They are worth repeating here. They are retyped verbatim from my 10th grade social studies notebook.

EIGHT STEPS TO TAKING OVER A COUNTRY

a) repeat what you want heard [same thing, different people]
b) give enemies to hate [common enemy]
c) give leaders to obey
d) don't use complicated ideas KISS: Keep it Simple, Stupid.
e) arouse emotions [more psyched, less think]
f) use violence to show power
g) say what people want to hear [who cares about lying?]
h) never compromise, even if you know you were wrong

You have used them yourself, and you have seen others around you use them.

Thank you, Killbride.