GENERAL FRANCO by G. R, FARQUHAB. OUR age is dominated by collective thinking or,to cal it by another name, masssuggestion. Jt isbeyond the scope of this book to examine whetherthis phenomenon, spread over all the countries ofEurope, regardless of their form of government,can be traced to the dictatorial system reigningin three great countries, or whether it is thevanishing of individual thought that has createdthe incentive for the foundation of totalitarianism. It is a fact, however, that nowadays agreat majority of people show a special inclination to accept meaningless slogans without criticismand to mould their attitude according to a catchword instead of making it the result of their own mentalprocesses. To this wemay add the strange factthat the masses often accept slogans from a sourcewhich they otherwise regard with suspicion or evenwith complete abnegation they accept theseslogans because tinder the influence of a continuous,even if hardly noticeable propaganda, they haveforgotten to test the truth of such catchwords andof the end they Serve. There is a tendency towardsgeneralisations, towards sweeping sentences thingsare seen, to use a simple simile, only in black andwhite, sacrificing consciously or unconsciously allthe finer shades of opinion.Such collective thoughtlessness can be observedon investigating the events in Spain. Civil warhas been raging for more than two years, south ofthe Pyrenees and world opinion still accepts catchwords invented by one side or the other at the beginning of the straggle. For some Madrid andBarcelona represent the symbols of the reddestBolshevism and in the light of National Socialistslogans, only the cruel acts of terrorism committedby the Spanish left wing are remembered. Important factors such as traditional Spanish regionalisms vehement animosity on the part of the Basquesand Catalans for the Castilians, a natural tendencyof the Spanish people towards anarchism and their deeprooted hatred of centralism and dictatorship are usually overlooked Others see in socalled Nationalist Spain the playground of Fascism inits most brutal form a domain of the mostreaddonairy dictatorship which strives to suppressthe legitimate desire for liberty In the Spanishpeople by force and terrorism.They look upon the leader of the Nationalist army,General Franco, as upon a ruthless bandit who hasno hesitation in employing the most brutal methodsto serve his greed for personal power and to subject the whole Spanish people to Ms rale theyMm a traitor who has no qualms aboutselling his country to foreign Powers if thereby hecan reach the goal of Ms ambition.