Amongst Friends – January 2009 – Edition 2
The first part of this edition returns to the theme of looking at Strategic Leadership and noting what challenges those seeking to play an important part in the development of their community, company or society might face. The topic for this edition is propaganda. In the next editions I will be turning m attention to the ‘Trust the Difference’ section of the new IA courses.
Propaganda
The famous science fiction writer H G Wells thought propaganda to be:
"Modern means of communication—the power afforded by print, telephone, wireless and so forth, of rapidly putting through directive strategic or technical conceptions to a great number of cooperating centres, of getting quick replies and effective discussion—have opened up a new world of political processes. Ideas and phrases can now be given effectiveness greater than the effectiveness of any personality and stronger than any sectional interest. The common design can be documented and sustained against perversion and betrayal. It can be elaborated and developed steadily and widely without personal, local and sectional misunderstanding.’’
H G Wells, Author
Propaganda is an appeal to human emotions in contrast to an appeal to their intellect. It shares techniques with advertising and public relations. Advertising and public relations can be thought of as propaganda that promotes a commercial product or shapes the perception of an organization, person or brand, though in post-World War II usage the word "propaganda" more typically refers to political or nationalist uses of these techniques or to the promotion of a set of ideas, since the term had gained a pejorative meaning, which commercial and government entities couldn’t accept.
Propaganda also has much in common with public information campaigns by governments, which are intended to encourage or discourage certain forms of behaviour. Again, the emphasis is more political in propaganda. Propaganda can take the form of leaflets, posters, TV and radio broadcasts and can also extend to any other medium.
Propaganda, in a narrower use of the term, connotes deliberately false or misleading information that supports or furthers a political (but not only) cause or the interests of those with power. The propagandist seeks to change the way people understand an issue or situation for the purpose of changing their actions and expectations in ways that are desirable to the interest group. Propaganda, in this sense, serves as a corollary to censorship in which the same purpose is achieved, not by filling people's minds with approved information, but by preventing people from being confronted with opposing points of view. What sets propaganda apart from other forms of advocacy is the willingness of the propagandist to change people's understanding through deception and confusion rather than persuasion and understanding. The leaders of an organization know the information to be one sided or untrue, but this may not be true for the rank and file members who help to disseminate the propaganda.
Propaganda is a powerful weapon in war; it is used to dehumanize and create hatred toward a supposed enemy, either internal or external, by creating a false image in the mind. This can be done by using derogatory or racist terms, avoiding some words or by making allegations of enemy atrocities. Most propaganda wars require the home population to feel the enemy has inflicted an injustice, which may be fictitious or may be based on facts. The home population must also decide that the cause of their nation is just.
Propaganda is also one of the methods used in psychological warfare, which may also involve false flag operations. The term propaganda may also refer to false information meant to reinforce the mindsets of people who already believe as the propagandist wishes. The assumption is that, if people believe something false, they will constantly be assailed by doubts. Since these doubts are unpleasant, people will be eager to have them extinguished, and are therefore receptive to the reassurances of those in power. For this reason propaganda is often addressed to people who are already sympathetic to the agenda. This process of reinforcement uses an individual's predisposition to self-select "agreeable" information sources as a mechanism for maintaining control.
Types of propaganda
Ad hominem
A Latin phrase which is to attack your opponent and their personality, as opposed to attacking their arguments.
Ad nauseam
This approach uses tireless repetition of an idea. An idea or slogan is repeated many times and may begin to be taken as the truth. This approach works best when media sources are limited and controlled by the propagator.
Appeal to authority
Appeals to authority cite prominent figures to support a position, idea, argument, or course of action.
Appeal to fear
Appeals to fear seek to build support by instilling anxieties and panic in the general population. In modern times this has been done against Jews, Tutus and the tensions that exist in some countries between Christians and Muslims.
Appeal to prejudice
Using loaded or emotive terms to attach value or moral goodness to persuade others that your beliefs are, in some way superior and should be accepted or followed
Bandwagon
Bandwagon and "inevitable-victory" appeals attempt to persuade the wider audience to join in and take the course of action that "everyone else is taking."
· Inevitable victory: invites those not already on the bandwagon to join those already on the road to certain victory. Those already or at least partially on the bandwagon are reassured that staying aboard is their best course of action.
· Join the crowd: This technique reinforces people's natural desire to be on the winning side.
Black-and-White fallacy
Presenting only two choices, with the product or idea being propagated as the better choice, so you are either with us, or you are with the enemy
Beautiful or attractive people
This type of propaganda deals with the use of famous people or in advertising shows attractive and happy people. It is hoped that those viewing this form of propaganda will be persuaded to buy the product and so assume some of the pleasure the ‘celebrity’ is supposedly enjoying.
Common man
The "'plain folks'" or "common man" approach attempts to convince the audience that the propagandist's positions reflect the common sense of the people. Some observers have noted that the weekly radio broadcast of successive US Presidents is written in a way that appeals to ‘Joe the plumber’, who made a somewhat embarrassing entry into the 2008 Presidential election campaign.
Demonizing the enemy
Making individuals from the opposing nation, from a different ethnic group, or those who support the opposing viewpoint appear to be subhuman. Alas, many Africans will have first hand experience of this being used by one political party or leader.
Direct order
This technique hopes to simplify the decision making process by using images and words to tell the audience exactly what actions to take, eliminating any other possible choices.
Disinformation
This form focuses on the creation or deletion of information from public records, in the purpose of making a false record of an event or the actions of a person or organization. In World War 2 a British citizen working for the Nazis (known as Lord Haw Haw) broadcast to Britain telling of events that had been fabricated. This was designed to demoralise the British public. He was executed after the war had ended.
Euphoria
This attempts to build a sense of excitement within the audience or population. Euphoria can be created by declaring a holiday, making luxury items available, or mounting a military parade with marching bands and patriotic messages. In show business many well known entertainers walk on stage a few minutes late and so build a sense of expectation within the audience.
Flag-waving
An attempt to justify an action on the grounds that doing so will make one more patriotic, or in some way benefit a group, country, or idea. The feeling of patriotism which this technique attempts to inspire may not necessarily diminish or entirely omit one's capability for rational examination of the matter in question.
Intentional vagueness
Generalities are deliberately vague so that the audience may supply its own interpretations. This allows the audience to put its own interpretation on events, normally moving towards supporting those who put the original idea forward.
Labeling
This is often done by spreading false information against someone. ‘Mud sticks’ and it takes a long time to persuade the general populace that the original story was not true.
Name-calling
Propagandists use the name-calling technique to incite fears and arouse prejudices in their hearers in the intent that the bad names will cause hearers to construct a negative opinion about a group or set of beliefs or ideas that the propagandist would wish hearers to denounce.
Oversimplification
Favourable generalities are used to provide simple answers to complex social, political, economic, or military problems. The user selects the lowest common denominator and uses this to allow people to feel that they have understood a complex message and can therefore pass an opinion.
Scapegoat
This is to assign blame to an individual or group, thus alleviating feelings of guilt from responsible parties and/or distracting attention from the need to fix the problem for which blame is being assigned. Politicians are very good at this, especially when answering difficult questions!
Slogans
A slogan is a brief, striking phrase that may include labelling and stereotyping.
Testimonial
These are quotations, in or out of context, especially cited to support or reject a given policy, action, program, or personality. An expert is called forth to pronounce on something and so suggest to the general audience that it must be true because they have said so.
Transfer
This is a technique of projecting positive or negative qualities (praise or blame) of a person, entity, object, or value (an individual, group, organization, nation, patriotism, etc.) to another to make the second more acceptable or to discredit it.
Unstated assumption
This technique is used when the propaganda concept that the propagandist intends to transmit would seem less credible if explicitly stated. The concept is instead repeatedly assumed or implied.
Virtue words
These are words in the value system of the target audience which tend to produce a positive image when attached to a person or issue. Peace, happiness, security, wise leadership, freedom, "The Truth", etc. are virtue words. Gordon Brown, the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom gained his reputation as a formidable Minister of Finance by using the word ‘prudence’ in many of his speeches. The British people accepted that he was a competent Minister because of this somewhat vague word.
Charles Darwin
2009 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of the ‘Origin of Species’ by Charles Darwin. In the opinion of many thinkers and writers this considerable work changed philosophy, sociology and theology in a way no other publication has done before or since.
What follows is an attempt to explain how Darwin would have analysed some of the situations a leader may face. I hope you find it useful.
Those facing the challenges of leadership may like to stop for a while and ask themselves some questions. The questions have been designed to encourage readers to consider what is it that determines human behaviour? Why, in all our forms, do we behave in certain ways? Darwin and those who follow ‘Darwinism’ apply a set of principles to explain how we behave and why. When considering some of the fundamental challenges you will face as leaders it might be interesting to address the questions that follow.
These are: why does the USA have a higher murder rate when in most states conviction leads to execution, why 80 years after the votes for women and 40 years after the feminist revolution why do men earn more than women and why is it so hard to eradicate poverty?
Traditionally, we would seek answers to such complex questions by looking at philosophy, sociology and even religion. But on occasions the answers that come back are less than satisfactory. They describe but do not explain. This might be because we are ignoring what made people what they are: the forces of evolution. If we add this to our analysis then it might be that no amount of education, social conditioning or political rhetoric changes people. May be we need to look at the work of Charles Darwin to discover why people behave the way they do.
Modern life has some very important objectives we need to consider. The first is the constant strive for economic growth. The other is that no matter how rich a country becomes the poor always exist. Now, if we think of wealth as being earning at least 100$ more than the income of my wife’s sister’s husband (H L Mencken) then the above can explained but what explains the need to make such an observation? May be Darwin has the answer? He put forward that human beings are here to react to two facts of life, namely, to survive and to reproduce. So, much of our existence is about showing off, attracting a mate and passing on our genes. Girls like rich men as they provide materially for their children and high status individuals have the genes which will promote good health and intelligence – so women look for ‘success’ and assume it will have more benefits than just material comfort. Status is relative but it is often linked to money and this drives the desire to have more as we can show off and outdo the competition. Is this the real driver of economic growth? Could it be that individual ego satisfaction is so great that we hope in vain to see some re-appearance of community based ego? After all, communism was, at its very core, an attempt to distribute wealth more equally. No individual would, in theory, would have greater access to wealth than any other. Communism is now virtually non-existent in the world. Capitalism, driven by self interest has won.