Aus der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung von heute:

"Die Amerikaner am Nebentisch hatten den Fehler gemacht, etwas zu laut und hämisch über 'Old Europe' zu sprechen, so laut, daß der Kellner im 'Vavin' es hören konnte. Dann kam das Essen. Unser Essen. Wir bekamen einen Salade au chèvre chaud; die Amerikaner bekamen nichts. Nach dem Salat wurde Carré d'Agneau, Soupe de Poisson und Steak Tartare serviert. Die Amerikaner saßen vor leeren Tellern und riefen Wütendes in Richtung Küche. Nach einiger Zeit sagte ein mitfühlender Gast, er glaube, die Amerikaner seien inzwischen etwas böse. 'Nun', sagte der Kellner, 'wir sind auch etwas böse auf sie. Die Küche ist nicht der Irak. Wir lassen uns kein Ultimatum stellen.'"

Translation in English:

"The Americans at the adjacent table had made the mistake to speak a little too loudly and maliciously about 'old Europe'. So loud that the waiter in the 'Vavin' could hear it. Then the meal came. Our meal. We got a Salade au chèvre chaud; the Americans did not get anything. The Salade Carré d'Agneau, Soupe de Poisson and Steak Tartare were served next. The Americans sat in front of their empty plates and cried out furious things towards the kitchen. After some time a sympathetic guest said he believed that the Americans had become somewhat angry in the meantime. 'Well ', the waiter said, 'we too are somewhat angry at them. The kitchen is not the Iraq. We don't let us issue an ultimatum.'"

"In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. ... Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness."

• Hannah Arendt, The Origins Of Totalitarianism

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