Sean Gonsalves on Propaganda

Sean Gonsalves is a treasure, one of those op-ed writers one discovers reading things like the Common Dreams web site. The link to his April 10, 2007 column The Hand That Rocks The Cradle can be found here. Gonsalves echoes a number of ideas raised by Stuart Chase in The Tyranny of Words.

In this “Information Age” you can have your adult mind rocked to sleep with propaganda – the conscious manipulation of information, by word or deed, designed to direct popular support for, or against, various forms of power and privilege. It’s the hand that rocks the cradle of mass society.

(MG) My quibble here is that propaganda is NOT new to the "information age".

Here are the relevant Miriam Webster Online Dictionary Definitions

Propoganda

Function: noun

2 : the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person

3 : ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause; also : a public action having such an effect

The debate over the precise nature of propaganda is a long and unresolved one. But right away we can dispense with the common misunderstanding that propaganda is the same thing as making a blatant argument through, say, an opinion column, or that propaganda is used only by tyrannical dictatorships to manipulate public opinion.

Three things are not in dispute: 1.) Propaganda must be based on facts for it to be effective; 2.) It’s not about changing individual opinions but awakening already-existing emotions that incite, or in some cases prevent, mass action; and 3.), all modern societies, especially democracies, use propaganda.

Unfortunately, “education,” as presently designed, is what lays the foundation for people to be propagandized. In fact, the more “education” someone has, the more susceptible they are to propaganda because most schooling is geared toward teaching what to think; not how to think.

That’s why you have to use your critical thinking skills with even the best news sources, ... It’s not that news organizations are filled with dishonest dissemblers. Most reporters and editors, like most cops and soldiers, are decent, honest folk just like you.

The problem isn’t on the individual level. It’s on the institutional level where the parameters of public thought are drawn. The space and time constraints that major news organizations are forced to work under means the value you get from “the news” is in direct proportion to the depth and breadth of historical understanding you bring to it.

So if you’ve led a sheltered life and all you’ve been fed is school-book tales about U.S. policymakers going to war only as a “last resort” and for the noblest of reasons, then you’ll eat up that story about Sen. John McCain’s visit to Iraq and consider it evidence that the “liberal” media just refuses to report the “good news” and “progress” in Iraq.

But, if you have even a rudimentary understanding of the history of guerrilla war – a.) short of genocide, there is no military answer to guerrilla insurgencies, and b.) guerrillas fade into their civilian support network when the enemy surges – you’ll see right through the staged nonsense.

...

On the flip side, there was the news about Iran capturing British soldiers. The Iranian propaganda machine kicked in: they aired video of the soldiers reading obviously forced apologies.

But the real propaganda value was in showing the world the contrast in the way Iran treats its enemies and the “take-the-gloves-off” Guantanamo way, vociferously defended by “the leaders of the free world.” Iran released the British soldiers just in time for Easter, as if to say: See, we don’t keep our enemies locked up in cages for the indefinite future and we respect their religion unlike some nations we know.

(MG) I made the point in an earlier post that Iran's return of the sailors/marines has given them an important advantage, they COMMAND the higher moral ground. World opinion will be on their side. At least SOME American opinion too.

Behind the propaganda, it’s Iran’s way of sending U.S. and Israeli hawks a don’t-get-it-twisted message: Iran is willing and able to project its power in their own backyard and won’t roll over just because Bush and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee says so.

(MG) I still contend that Iran is fully prepared to be attacked by either the U.S. or some proxy. This is wisdom. And, yes, they are stirring up the cauldron, on their terms. Never forget this: ours is a nation that countenances torture, rape, breaking into houses into the middle of the night, holding captive innocents, holding American citizens without the benefit of hearings. This is who we are. This is what we do. We, the people, have expressed little outrage.

The Global War on Terror changed everything. Right. Just who in the world are we fighting? The main propoganda target of the US GWOT is the Greater American Public. This can be seen day after day after day.

But, how much of the GAP is willing to fight this war? I suggest that everyone who is not actively criticizing it, writing letters to editors, congress-critters, or marching in visible opposition is de facto supporting the "war."

We get the leaders we deserve. GWB won the 2004 elections. GOPpers controlled the House and Senate. WE THE PEOPLE have supported the perpetual war machine being sold to us by the cheney administration.

This only scratches the propaganda surface. In my next letter I’d like to discuss with you one particular piece of propaganda – the essentially unchallenged idea that expert opinion should be followed and public opinion shouldn’t be taken too seriously because it’s allegedly inconsistent, incoherent, and ignorant. ...

(MG) I can hardly wait.

A lyrical diversion: Wind Up by Jethro Tull

When I was young and they packed me off to school
and taught me how not to play the game,
I didn't mind if they groomed me for success,
or if they said that I was a fool.
So I left there in the morning
with their God tucked underneath my arm --
their half-assed smiles and the book of rules.
So I asked this God a question
and by way of firm reply,
He said -- I'm not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.
So to my old headmaster (and to anyone who cares):
before I'm through I'd like to say my prayers --
I don't believe you:
you had the whole damn thing all wrong --
He's not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.
Well you can excommunicate me on my way to Sunday school
and have all the bishops harmonize these lines --

how do you dare tell me that I'm my Father's son
when that was just an accident of Birth.
I'd rather look around me -- compose a better song
`cos that's the honest measure of my worth.
In your pomp and all your glory you're a poorer man than me,
as you lick the boots of death born out of fear.

I don't believe you:
you had the whole damn thing all wrong --
He's not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.