The third category will be our ostensible opposition, which at least in one of its publications will represent the opposition to us. Our real enemies will mistake this seeming opposition as belonging to their own group and will thus show us their cards.
All our newspapers will represent different tendencies, namely, aristocratic, republican, revolutionary, even anarchistic, so long of course as the constitution lasts. Like the Indian God Vishnu, these periodicals will have one hundred arms, each of which will reach the pulse of every group of public opinion. When the pulse beats faster, these arms will guide opinion toward our aims, since the excited person loses the power of reasoning and is easily led. Those fools who believe that they repeat the opinions expressed by the newspapers of their party will be repeating our opinions or those which we desire them to have. Imagining that they are following the press of their party, they will follow the flag which we will fly for them.
In order that our newspaper militia may carry out our program, we must organize the press with great care. Under the title of the Central Department of the press, we will organize literary meetings at which our agents unnoticed will give the passwords and countersigns. Discussing and contradicting our policies, although always superficially, without touching their essence, our press will conduct an empty fire against official newspapers so as to give us only an opportunity to express ourselves in greater detail than we were able to in our preliminary declarations. This, of course, will be done when it is useful to us.
These attacks against us will also seem to convince the people that complete liberty of the press still exists, and it will give our agents the opportunity to declare that the papers opposing us are mere wind-bags, since they are unable to find any real ground to refute our orders.
Such measures, which will escape the notice of public attention, will be the most successful means of guiding the public mind and of inspiring