The John Birch Society is to be a monolithic body. A republican form of government or of organization has many attractions and advantages, under certain favorable conditions. But under less happy circumstances it lends itself too readily to infiltration, distortion and disruption. And democracy, of course, in government or organization, as the Greeks and Romans both found out, and as I believe every man in this room clearly recognizes -- democracy is merely a deceptive phrase, a weapon of demagoguery, and a perennial fraud.
For withstanding the stresses and strains of internal differences and external animosities, throughout changing political climates over long periods of time; for the building of morale and loyalty and a feeling of unified purpose and closely knit strength; for effective functioning in periods of crisis and a permanence of high dedication throughout more peaceful decades; for these and many other reasons The John Birch Society will operate under completely authoritative control at all levels. The fear of tyrannical oppression of individuals, and other arguments against the authoritative structure in the form of governments, have little bearing on the case of a voluntary association, where the authoritative power can be exercised and enforced only by persuasion.
And what little validity they do have is outweighed by the advantages of firm and positive direction of the Society's energies. Especially for the near future, and for the fight against Communism which is the first great task of the Society, it is imperative that all the strength we can muster be subject to smoothly functioning direction from the top. As I have said before, no collection of debating societies is ever going to stop the Communist conspiracy from taking us over, and I have no intention of adding another frustrated group to their number. We mean business every step of the way.
There are many reasons why, in the fight immediately ahead, we cannot stop for parliamentary procedures or a lot of arguments among ourselves. One is the increasing confusion, cleverly planned by the Communists, as to what persons, books, activities and organizations really are anti-Communist. In other words we are now being more and more divided and deceived, by accepting within our walls more and more Trojan horses, large and small, made out of all kinds of timbers, and with all kinds of enemy agents inside. Some of them have no more harmful purpose than merely to drain off, into innocuous wastefulness, money and effort which might otherwise find its way into really patriotic and anti-Communist activities. Others are primarily designed to offer protective coloration to Communists who can thus get themselves publicized as active in anti-Communist organizations. Others, like the very pretentious AMERICAN FRIENDS OF VIETNAM, in my opinion form major parts of a whole plan and drive for gradually turning some country over to the Communists, while pretending to be leading the opposition. But most of them are intended, as much as anything else, to add to and create the increasing confusion which makes even the most patriotic American feel utterly frustrated in trying to figure out who is friend and who is enemy -- and hence more willing to give up the whole struggle.
Now there are ways of sizing up both individuals and organizations in this battle, whiccome only with experience, a knowledge of the interlocking pieces and personalities, and a feel for the way the Communists work. And while of course I can make mistakes too, I know from the way my opinion of various characters, formed entirely independently, has then proved to coincide with the opinion of J. B. Matthews, time after time when I have had a chance to check with him, that I have a fairly sensitive and accurate nose in this area. And of course I also have the benefit of J. B. 's files, almost incredible memory, and judgment built out of long experience, to lean on whenever I wish. So we do not intend to be frustrated by indecisions of this nature nor to let our members be. But the confusion and the problem will get steadily worse; and the need for somebody who can simply say 'help this guy, or let him help you, but stay away from that one" is also going to increase.
Actually, we are going to cut through the red tape and parliamentary briar patches and roadblocks of confused purpose with direct authority at every turn. The men who join The John Birch Society during the next few months or few years are going to be doing so primarily because they believe in me and what I am doing and are willing to accept my leadership anyway. And we are going to use that loyalty, like every other resource, to the fullest possible advantage that we can. Whenever and wherever, either through infiltration by the enemy or honest differences of opinion, that loyalty ceases to be sufficient to keep some fragment in line, we are not going to be in the position of having the Society's work weakened by raging debates. We are not going to have factions developing on the two-sides-to-every-question theme.26
Those members who cease to feel the necessary degree of loyalty can either resign or will be put out before they build up any splintering following of their own inside the Society. As I have said, we mean business every step of the way. We can allow for differences of opinion. We shall need and welcome advice. And we expect to use the normal measure of diplomacy always called for in dealing with human beings. But whenever differences of opinion become translated into a lack of loyal support, we shall have short cuts for eliminating both without going through any congress of so-called democratic processes. Otherwise, Communist infiltrators could bog us down in interminable disagreements, schisms, and feuds before we ever became seriously effective.
From The John Birch Society Bulletin for August 1970:
Especially for the benefit of new members and new readers, let us cover this subject once again, as briefly as we can, for perhaps the twentieth time. In planning the structural form of The John Birch Society we studied the examples provided by some of the nongovernmental organizations which have been most lastingly successful in human history. These included the Catholic Church, the Masons, the Mormon Church, the Communist Party (although it is largely supported now, throughout the world, by governmental force), and two or three more.
For this study we were not interested in the aims, but only in the functional mechanics, of these bodies. We tried to benefit from the experience which was thus available, so far as the features that promoted the strength and permanence of such organizations were not inconsistent with our own principles, ideals, and purposes. And the most important thing we learned was the applicability to other human institutions of a general rule which history had already taught us about governments. That rule can be stated very bluntly and very comprehensively as follows: There has never been a successful democracy, of any size for any length of time, in any division of human activity.
Our American republic was extremely successful for about a century and a half. This was partly because those characteristics which doom any democracy to early self-destruction were carefully limited and controlled by our Constitution. But the Communists, who always know and utilize experience from the past which Conservatives ignore, set out two generations ago to convert this republic into a democracy. Among the forced-draft measures that the Communists used for this purpose were incessant attacks on, and a constant undermining of, our Constitution.
By about two decades ago, those subversive tactics had already brought our conspiratorial enemies half way down the road to their ultimate goal. Now any man, who has the courage to face the facts honestly, can easily understand what has been happening since then. And can certainly project what is going to happen soon unless the whole process is reversed. For among governments, of city-states or of sizable nations, a democracy leads always and rapidly through mobocratic chaos and disorder to a brutal demagogic tyranny. And we are now far along in that tragic development for ourselves.
But the whole present point is that exactly the same considerations apply to all of the non-governmental associations and combinations which man has devised to serve his many purposes. To run a commercial business as a democracy is the surest road to failure. A religious movement if and when it becomes directed by the procedures of a democracy, soon degenerates into a hotbed of warring schisms. An army in which "democratic principles" are even allowed — such as the Communist-controlled servicemen's union is now trying to promote for our armed forces - soon becomes entirely useless for its
legitimate purposes. Also, it can then be readily converted into a weapon of power-seeking demagogues for getting themselves "elected'' to head tyrannical dictatorships. And a voluntary association in support of some ideological principle, if run as a democracy, never becomes anything more than a futile —and, at the very best, an innocuous—debating society.
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