{"id":104,"date":"2011-07-07T13:20:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-07T13:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lidaprypchan.org\/?p=104"},"modified":"2015-07-19T21:32:51","modified_gmt":"2015-07-19T21:32:51","slug":"political-propaganda-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lidaprypchan.org\/?p=104","title":{"rendered":"POLITICAL PROPAGANDA: Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Lida Prypchan<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
An attempt to influence opinion (1)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
It is possible to conceive of a world dominated by an invisible tyranny that\u00a0<\/i><\/span>wears the trappings of democratic government. (Kenneth Boulding)<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
We are sold the image of a political candidate just as we are sold a commercial product. \u00a0Adlai Stevenson complained about precisely this during the 1952 U.S. elections when he was defeated by General Eisenhower. \u00a0Stevenson said, \u201cThe idea that political candidates for the highest office can be marketed like breakfast cereal\u2026 is the ultimate indignity of the political process.\u201d \u00a0Not only is it an indignity, it is also highly dangerous.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
It is dangerous because as surely as we are in the era of the masses, so are we also in the era of the \u201cisolated\u201d individual. \u00a0We should not heedlessly dismiss the idea of man as an isolated being \u2013 this solitary type has his roots back in history. \u00a0To understand this, we should look at the two main elements that characterize man\u2019s evolution during the nineteenth century: \u00a0firstly, the structural and spiritual standardization of the world and secondly the demographical and environmental evolution that occurred. \u00a0The first aspect deals with how man became a participant in public life, and the second with the tragic consequence of the resultant accumulation and impersonality: the breakdown of this traditional units (the family, for example). \u00a0The upshot of all this was that since man felt isolated and disoriented, he sought refuge in the false sense of human warmth emanating from the masses. \u00a0People who live in huge impersonal cities experience fear: fear of unemployment, of war and of poverty. \u00a0Propagandists, the political image-builders, take advantage of this situation. \u00a0This is why political propaganda has gained a bad name. \u00a0But I believe the error lays not so much in political propaganda and those who are behind it, but rather in the concept of man within society. \u00a0To explain what I mean, let\u2019s take Aldous Huxley\u2019s famous vision of the future in his Brave New World. \u00a0In this book Huxley satirized the preconditioned mind, where conditioning begins as soon as a child is born and continues throughout school, society and numerous other institutions. \u00a0If we are trained from birth like puppy dogs in a cage, it\u2019s logical for us to be accustomed to servitude. \u00a0On the other hand, the longer we savor freedom the more self-willed we become. \u00a0Human beings should not be pigeonholed or typecast \u2013 they should be taught to reason, not to accept. \u00a0Then they could develop the ability to avoid swallowing so many myths, which are nothing but \u201cseductive havens where internal effort is replaced by comfortable subservience.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Political propaganda, opinion manipulation, or whatever you\u2019d like to call it, is not an invention of the twentieth century. \u00a0Ever since political rivalry has existed, that is, since the beginning of time, propaganda has existed and played a role. \u00a0Here we are reminded of Demosthenes, Philip, Cicero, Catiline, Napoleon, Lenin and Hitler. \u00a0Napoleon was a true artist in this field. \u00a0He had what he himself called his \u201cBureau of Public Opinion\u201d for \u201ccreating political trends to order,\u201d but his impact was certainly nothing compared to that of Lenin and Hitler. \u00a0These two masterminds of propaganda left a deep impression on our recent history, but in a very different way.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
After 1950 political propaganda took a giant leap forward, based on the findings of Pavlov, Freud and Riesman as well as Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn \u2013 Pavlov with his conditioned responses, Freud with his paternal images, Riesman and his concept of the modern North American voter as a spectator consumer of politics, and B. B. D. and O. and their theory of mass merchandising.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
We must add to this the accepted concept of politics and opinion. \u00a0It\u2019s well-known that for Freud there was no such thing as basic social instinct; an individual\u2019s \u201cworld\u201d is limited to a small group of people who have acquired \u201csupreme importance\u201d among themselves. \u00a0Gallup has confirmed this: \u201cThe tendency of the majority must be interpreted as the tendency to follow, not the opinion of the population in general, but rather that of the small intimate group that represents the extremely limited world of the voter.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
In election campaigns, publicity agents manipulate the candidate\u2019s image more than anything else. \u00a0It\u2019s all about cult of personality, cult of the paternal figure. \u00a0Eugene Burdick who wrote The Ninth Wave, which deals with irrational political trends, gives an excellent summary of the perfect President: \u201cAn extremely likeable man, who inspires confidence rather than admiration and is not so perfect that he seems unreal; he must have accomplished things in fields other than the political arena and must possess a genuine sense of humor.\u201d \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m just one of many,\u201d or \u201cPut yourself in my place,\u201d are phrases to which statesmen in democratic countries frequently resort.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lida Prypchan \u00a0 An attempt to influence opinion (1) \u00a0 It is possible to conceive of a world dominated by an invisible tyranny that\u00a0wears the trappings of democratic government. (Kenneth Boulding) \u00a0 We are sold the image of a political candidate just as we are sold a commercial product. \u00a0Adlai Stevenson complained about precisely … <\/p>\n

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