I have a collection of propaganda too...well, I guess it depends on who you talk to. At my old job for the health department, I had a bit of a problem not calling their propaganda "propaganda."
prop·a·gan·da
Noun
--a form of communication aimed towards influencing the attitude of a population toward some cause or position.
So, when I called the handouts that we were giving people to influence them towards the cause of covering their mouths when they sneeze & the handouts that we made to influence the population to the cause of preparing for a disaster so that they can better face it & survive, it was NOT propaganda.
This is because, propaganda also has a negative connotation behind it.
prop·a·gan·da
Noun
-- a committee of cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church responsible for foreign missions, founded in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV.
No, wait, that's not the definition that really works for the point is it?
Maybe we should try this again.
prop·a·gan·da
Noun
-- information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.
It's that "biased or misleading nature" that really is what most people associate with the word. It's not exactly accurate, but it is the definition that has taken over in our culture.
So we are going to focus on that definition & then we are going to show the differences & explain why the negative propaganda is better than the positive propaganda & who uses which to the best results.
Savvy?
Unless you're on the far, far, left, like I am, than you hear the word "Propaganda" & instead of instantly jumping to Orwellian New Speak, your mind goes to the propaganda that we are exposed to every day.
It's really the same thing, isn't it? You're looking at advertisements, but they are there to sway you view so that they will convince you that by drinking Sprite, you are simply obeying your thirst & not falling prey to all the other propaganda from all the other soft drink companies that are trying to convince you to disobey your thirst & drink their product instead.
One of my friends, David, actually got me propaganda out of the blue for a house warming gift. Now it wasn't authentic propaganda, it was a reproduction. The bad ass thing about that piece of propaganda wasn't the fact that it was totally beautiful as much as it was that he knew me for all of, like, five minutes before he got it for me.
And you can probably imagine my jaw dropping when I opened it. The thing was awesome. It was a nice piece that actually went along with a lot of my other wall art...which I have way too much of.
It floored me. I'm the type that loves shit like that because, well, it's beautiful, it's a part of history, it's a part of politics, & it's sort of the reason why we think what we do about things.
Yeah, that's great Sam, you're patting Dave on the back, now what the fuck does that have to do with this post?
Well, I just sort of wanted to thank Dave for a thoughtful gift, but, well, moving on....
The modern word is derived from Latin & the modern form of propaganda started with religion. You remember the second definition, right?
Alright, well that's modern & it's from the Libertarian website, but you get the picture, it started, as we know it today, with the Catholic church in the 17th century....
That one comes from the TEA Party.
...but, yeah, it's older than that. Propaganda used to be literally carved in stone.
In this case, the first known propaganda has to deal with the Battle of Kadesh where Egypt, led by the Pharaoh Ramesses II clashed with the Hittite Empire led by Muwatalli II in what is now Syria. It was actually, honestly, what could be called the first real Race War that the world had ever seen.
The Egyptians had become extremely Xenophobic because of an influx of what they called the 'Sea Peoples" who we now think might have been the Atlantians that Plato talked about, or rather the survivors of Minoa that had fled their island empire after an enormous volcano eruption & might have also become the Philistines that we know from the Torah.
Wild isn't it? It's also sorta kinda in the realm of pseudoscience because we really can't prove where either the Philistines of the Sea People that pissed the Egyptians off so much came from.
It's also why you need to pay attention to what the local Health Department & FEMA & the Red Cross tell you to prepare or a disaster....you're welcome, Keri.
Suddenly, however, Egypt had an armed population of warriors that were not African & trying to settle in Egypt & that didn't set well in the sands. It's one thing to have new immigrants, it's another to have armed immigrants, so the Egyptians turned to another band of armed mercenaries to counter the Sea People, & because of that, after the Egyptians turned on these hired guns, we have Five official Books of Moses & a sixth & seventh that the modern Wiccans ignore for psuedoreligion.
Super wild.
And for a very, very long time we thought that the Egyptians kicked some serious Hittite ass. I mean, that is what was literally carved in stone &, for a very long time, we weren't sure that the Hittites were really big movers & shakers, we thought that they were only footnotes in Bronze age history...
...that is until we found the first peace treaty that contradicted what we now know as the first real misleading propaganda.
Even after we found it, for a very long time, we had no idea what it said. Here is an example. Read this out loud. Remember, it's in Latin, so you pronounce every letter.
Now, you could certainly read it out loud, but you really didn't know what you were reading did you? Here's the translation:
Don't feel dumb, I had to use Google Translate to write it. Like everyone else on Earth: Nisi Latine loquor in cliches. The same basic rule applied for the first peace treaty, It was written in Cuneiform, which was a Middle Eastern script, but it was written in a language we didn't understand.
We could read it, but we didn't know what it said.
It was written in Hittite & we couldn't read it because it we were looking in the Middle East for the translation & Hittite is a European language. We translated it because of the word "water." which is actually a hell of a lot older than we give it credit for.
We have used propaganda for years, some of it we really don't look at as propaganda because, well, it doesn't fit the image of misleading, & we tend to think of propaganda as lies & not truth & sometimes we think that it is nothing more than handouts & posters & not things like books & photographs.
During the build up to the American Civil War & throughout the whole anti-slavery debate, a lot of propaganda was spread across the United States, printed in books, & read in churches & congress. A lot of it has even survived today.
It also failed miserably.
It tends to be the difference between liberal and conservative propaganda. Most of the time, when liberals issue propaganda, they try to shine a light on facts to open up a dialogue about what is actually happening.
That's because liberals don't understand how propaganda works. For the most part they present their propaganda as arguments that are grounded in fact & intended to play on people's intellect. Unfortunately, this is only going to appeal to the people that are already open & receptive to the message the propaganda is trying to convey.
Conversely, most conservative propaganda traditionally plays on base emotions such as fear & prejudice & hatred. This works better because it is made to appeal to the people that don't want to stop & think & debate an issue.
Conservative propaganda is traditionally designed to evoke an emotional & not an intellectual response & that is more effective because it calls for an immediate reaction based off of the human fight or flight reflex.
And this is important, because that difference between how the liberals make their propaganda & how the conservatives make their propaganda actually was a deciding factor in one of the biggest wars that the world had ever seen. It was actually the war to end all wars.
During World War I, the Germans were using the liberal method of propaganda & trying to appeal to the intellectual side of the human psyche in order to rally the troops & make the the population support the war effort.
While America & the rest of the Triple Entente created propaganda that was geared to the reactionary fight or flight response that is actually a part of all animals.
The thing is that during World War I there was a little German soldier who was actually very poor & a failed artist that was paying really close attention to what he saw the Germans were doing with their propaganda & what he saw the Americans & everyone else doing with their propaganda.
Now pay attention to this, because Hitler was absolutely 100% correct. He knew something about art & how to convey a message through simple imagery & play off of peoples emotions.
He actually wrote a book on the subject & he blamed the start of World War I on the Jews & the Rothschild family & the socialist & he blamed the economic situation that followed WWI on the liberals & the intellectuals & the socialists.
Most of us, the ones that don't watch Fox News & actually know something about WWII, are familiar with how Hitler blamed the liberals & the socialists on the economic situation following World War I. However, it's really only the people that have actually read Mein Kampf that realize that he blamed Germany's lose of the war on one thing....
That's right. Hitler didn't blame the Jews for losing the war. He didn't blame the socialists, he didn't blame the intellectuals. Those were the scape goats that he blamed the post-war economy on. He blamed losing the war on the propaganda that Germany was making & he was right.
So he found an out-of-work man & gave him a copy of his book & told him to do things right.
Germany was going to go to war again & this time, they were going to use propaganda effectively & play off the base emotions & the prejudice of people rather than the old liberal method of presenting a researched debate based off of facts. Which was the old German way, which failed.
In fact, they even went so far as to design the Nazi Flag using a principle of propaganda that nearly everyone ignores. The ease of replication. You've gone into a public bathroom, right? How often have you seen the American flag etched onto the wall.
And, conversely, how often have you seen this etched onto the bathroom stall.
But, it wasn't just the Nazis that were playing off the base emotions & not off of an intellectual debate during World War II, the United States was doing it as well, along with the Soviet Union & the UK.
World War II was the mother of all propaganda wars & the reason that we now look at the word "propaganda" & think that it is a web of lies & not a useful tool.
Which has created a backlash, especially among the liberal population of the United States, which is why you see a hell of a lot more conservative propaganda on the internet than you see liberal propaganda, because that backlash has caused the liberals in America to revert back to the intellectual propaganda they were using to counter slavery & not the emotional propaganda...& it is failing them, just like it did before.
Remember, we wouldn't have actually ended slavery if the South had not shot first...just like Han Solo.
That's right, Castro, the man that stopped the Bay of Pigs invasion by handing out guns to the Cuban people is on that little slice of Propaganda, along with Amin, who armed a citizens army to help the regular army oppress his people.
But, the thing is, you don't have to use facts to sway emotions. Facts don't work well with propaganda, in order to do it properly, you have to appeal to the base emotions. Fear, prejudice, & hatred.
It's a simple fact of life & politics. Civil debate doesn't win wars & elections, emotions do. You can leave the facts at the door.
If you want to win an argument, don't use reason, instead just scare people. Fear & prejudice wins elections & wars, facts have no place in this game, unless, of course, you can use them to appeal to emotions & not reason.
I'll leave you with this:
prop·a·gan·da
Noun
--a form of communication aimed towards influencing the attitude of a population toward some cause or position.
War is Peace
This is because, propaganda also has a negative connotation behind it.
prop·a·gan·da
Noun
-- a committee of cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church responsible for foreign missions, founded in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV.
Freedom is Slavery
No, wait, that's not the definition that really works for the point is it?
Maybe we should try this again.
prop·a·gan·da
Noun
-- information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.
It's that "biased or misleading nature" that really is what most people associate with the word. It's not exactly accurate, but it is the definition that has taken over in our culture.
So we are going to focus on that definition & then we are going to show the differences & explain why the negative propaganda is better than the positive propaganda & who uses which to the best results.
Savvy?
Unless you're on the far, far, left, like I am, than you hear the word "Propaganda" & instead of instantly jumping to Orwellian New Speak, your mind goes to the propaganda that we are exposed to every day.
The Heart Beat of America
Obey Your Thirst
One of my friends, David, actually got me propaganda out of the blue for a house warming gift. Now it wasn't authentic propaganda, it was a reproduction. The bad ass thing about that piece of propaganda wasn't the fact that it was totally beautiful as much as it was that he knew me for all of, like, five minutes before he got it for me.
"I got you a house warming gift, Sam."
And you can probably imagine my jaw dropping when I opened it. The thing was awesome. It was a nice piece that actually went along with a lot of my other wall art...which I have way too much of.
It floored me. I'm the type that loves shit like that because, well, it's beautiful, it's a part of history, it's a part of politics, & it's sort of the reason why we think what we do about things.
Well, I just sort of wanted to thank Dave for a thoughtful gift, but, well, moving on....
The modern word is derived from Latin & the modern form of propaganda started with religion. You remember the second definition, right?
...but, yeah, it's older than that. Propaganda used to be literally carved in stone.
The Egyptians had become extremely Xenophobic because of an influx of what they called the 'Sea Peoples" who we now think might have been the Atlantians that Plato talked about, or rather the survivors of Minoa that had fled their island empire after an enormous volcano eruption & might have also become the Philistines that we know from the Torah.
It's also why you need to pay attention to what the local Health Department & FEMA & the Red Cross tell you to prepare or a disaster....you're welcome, Keri.
Suddenly, however, Egypt had an armed population of warriors that were not African & trying to settle in Egypt & that didn't set well in the sands. It's one thing to have new immigrants, it's another to have armed immigrants, so the Egyptians turned to another band of armed mercenaries to counter the Sea People, & because of that, after the Egyptians turned on these hired guns, we have Five official Books of Moses & a sixth & seventh that the modern Wiccans ignore for psuedoreligion.
And for a very, very long time we thought that the Egyptians kicked some serious Hittite ass. I mean, that is what was literally carved in stone &, for a very long time, we weren't sure that the Hittites were really big movers & shakers, we thought that they were only footnotes in Bronze age history...
...that is until we found the first peace treaty that contradicted what we now know as the first real misleading propaganda.
Non potes legere. Nescis quid dicit. Cognoscitur litteras. Litterarum verba quaecumque locutus fueris in potes, sed non scire quid sit.
Now, you could certainly read it out loud, but you really didn't know what you were reading did you? Here's the translation:
You can not read this. You do not know what this says. You can recognize the letters. You can turn the letters into words that you speak, but you do not know what this means.
Don't feel dumb, I had to use Google Translate to write it. Like everyone else on Earth: Nisi Latine loquor in cliches. The same basic rule applied for the first peace treaty, It was written in Cuneiform, which was a Middle Eastern script, but it was written in a language we didn't understand.
We could read it, but we didn't know what it said.
It was written in Hittite & we couldn't read it because it we were looking in the Middle East for the translation & Hittite is a European language. We translated it because of the word "water." which is actually a hell of a lot older than we give it credit for.
We have used propaganda for years, some of it we really don't look at as propaganda because, well, it doesn't fit the image of misleading, & we tend to think of propaganda as lies & not truth & sometimes we think that it is nothing more than handouts & posters & not things like books & photographs.
During the build up to the American Civil War & throughout the whole anti-slavery debate, a lot of propaganda was spread across the United States, printed in books, & read in churches & congress. A lot of it has even survived today.
It also failed miserably.
Conservative propaganda is traditionally designed to evoke an emotional & not an intellectual response & that is more effective because it calls for an immediate reaction based off of the human fight or flight reflex.
While America & the rest of the Triple Entente created propaganda that was geared to the reactionary fight or flight response that is actually a part of all animals.
He actually wrote a book on the subject & he blamed the start of World War I on the Jews & the Rothschild family & the socialist & he blamed the economic situation that followed WWI on the liberals & the intellectuals & the socialists.
Propaganda.
That's right. Hitler didn't blame the Jews for losing the war. He didn't blame the socialists, he didn't blame the intellectuals. Those were the scape goats that he blamed the post-war economy on. He blamed losing the war on the propaganda that Germany was making & he was right.
So he found an out-of-work man & gave him a copy of his book & told him to do things right.
But, it wasn't just the Nazis that were playing off the base emotions & not off of an intellectual debate during World War II, the United States was doing it as well, along with the Soviet Union & the UK.
Which has created a backlash, especially among the liberal population of the United States, which is why you see a hell of a lot more conservative propaganda on the internet than you see liberal propaganda, because that backlash has caused the liberals in America to revert back to the intellectual propaganda they were using to counter slavery & not the emotional propaganda...& it is failing them, just like it did before.
Remember, we wouldn't have actually ended slavery if the South had not shot first...just like Han Solo.
But, the thing is, you don't have to use facts to sway emotions. Facts don't work well with propaganda, in order to do it properly, you have to appeal to the base emotions. Fear, prejudice, & hatred.
It's a simple fact of life & politics. Civil debate doesn't win wars & elections, emotions do. You can leave the facts at the door.
I'll leave you with this:
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