Auditory Hallucinations
Political ideologies are rarely derived from thoughtful consideration of history, statistics, human psychology or anecdotal evidence. More often than not, individuals adopt their wide range of beliefs from external sources. Personal philosophy can be traced back to personal relationships, academia, in-groups, or even propaganda.
No one would dare to admit that their strongly held views are not their own. Humans like to think of themselves as intelligent beings with free will and the ability to come to their own conclusions. History has taught a different narrative. The consciousness of a group is far different from the individual. Social creatures tend to band together physically and ideologically to protect their status within the broader group. Minds are particularly malleable to protect the host from physical threats, or worse, social ostracization.
It is no secret that that politics can divide populations into factions of opposing groupthink. Left vs Right. Authoritarian and Libertarian. Keynesian and Austrian economics. The attitude towards partisan division is attributed to differing personalities that just can’t see eye to eye. It is commonly accepted that every contentious issue is a natural occurring symptom of the modern world. Somehow these arguments are understood to be necessary, yet the conclusion is nonexistent. Perhaps the ideological divide is not organic at all. Conceive for a moment that the political tensions in each country are deliberate; that the ideas of warring factions are just predetermined sets of acceptable viewpoints concocted by propagandists with the intention of bottlenecking information and directing contention away from the true purveyors of hate.
Once You See It, You Can’t Unsee It
Effective propaganda requires appealing to all modes of persuasion. Ethos is the development of authority and credibility for any given spokesperson. This demands reputable sources with longstanding influence or positions of power. This part is easy because authority can be manufactured from within, and information can be broadcasted to the most amount of people through diverse avenues of media. The reputation of the expert and the trustworthiness of their information comes from the people’s understanding of credentials created by those same authorities. Artifacts of credibility can come from fancy sounding degrees, Nobel prizes, a modest lab coat, or just the simple fact that they are on the television. Propagandists primarily develop their authority from widespread acceptance that is initially fabricated and organically dispersed.
Pathos is the appeal to emotion. Sympathy is a powerful method of persuasion because it creates a victim and an offender. The goal is to create a black and white narrative where there is a clear hero and villain. The audience will root for the obvious side and vilify the perpetrator of evil. Pandering to a noble cause makes the spectator feel good about themselves, creating a moral high ground. Anyone who can’t see the nobility of the manufactured protagonist is no better than the evil doer. In many communal circles it is imperative that everyone subscribes to same moral interpretations. Opposition to the groupthink can be social suicide as they recluse themselves from the moral hierarchy. Emotional pleads are particularly effective on younger generations as they place more importance on their image and fitting in.
Logos is the rationality and logic portion of persuasion which requires far more calculated levels of deceit and distortion. The more agreeable and trusting individuals do not require this stage as they have already made up their mind from sources they trust or the immediate emotional response. The self-proclaimed intellectuals require well positioned statistics and “facts” that they can rationalize and “come their own conclusion”. This is the most dangerous form of propaganda because it is difficult to disseminate truth from opinion. The skeptic and the scholar will absorb far more information than the average individual. However, this particular knowledge could be fabricated or subjective. A person can recite data points, employ rehearsed narratives, and even effectively argue for an agenda that was maliciously implanted via logical fallacies.
We All Have One and They All Stink
No one is safe from cognitive biases. Each person thinks that they have the most logical inference of every topic and everyone else is a brainwashed supernumerary with opinions formed from propaganda. The reason modern propaganda works is because each side full-heartedly believes that they are the opposition speaking truth to power. Everyone wants to believe they would be the hero of Nazi Germany, who went against the grain and spoke against tyranny. However, it is far more likely that they would goosestep in line with everyone else. People are far more cooperative than they would like to believe.
The public is influenced in far more ways than imaginable. Popular entertainment, clothing, food, and even ideological dissent is heavily influenced by tactful marketing. Edward Louis Bernays is probably the most prominent provocateur of American Culture that most people have never heard of. He is considered the father of public relations, a leading advertiser of consumer products, and genius of psychological warfare. The American Joseph Goebbels is responsible for public approval of multiple wars, foreign military coups, numerous political movements, widespread tobacco use, women’s fashion, and even the typical American breakfast. Noone has influenced United States’ culture as much as Bernays. He wrote multiple books detailing the malleable nature of society and he describes his techniques to sway public opinion.
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mech
anism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons... who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind”.
– Edward Louis Bernays, Propaganda (1928) pp. 9–10
Who Spins the Thread?
The collective personality of a nation is what defines culture. That expression of communal nationality and customs make each country unique. The distinctive principles of Americans are vastly different from others and are often antithetical to the beliefs of other nations. Each country has its own perceived history and teaches it according to their preferred outlook. The acceptable narrative of any given war commonly goes to the victors of that conflict. That ideologies that beat out all others are adopted as the correct conviction rather than the winning one. Pure democracy is more simply put as mob rule. The victorious ideas don’t have to be the best or the most though out, just the most popular. If the collective thoughts and opinions of the masses can be so easily manipulated, how could a society built on collective sentiment ever actually be free and independent of tyranny.
Propaganda comes in many shapes and sizes. Political discourse is just the tip of the iceberg. Entertainment, academics, scientific consensus, and even our own history can be manipulated to justify unpopular actions or vilify valid dissent. In a war of information, the ideas held by both parties could be the most offensive to our society. The political sphere has ideological eco chambers where many facts fail to cross partisan lines. If the rails of communication are so easily tampered with, and the masses so sheltered from opposing knowledge, imagine the levels of information that is kept from both political opponents.
How much history has been rewritten or kept from the pubic? How many aspects of culture were manufactured by well-placed advertising. How deep does online censorship go? Is education a collection of intellectual disputes, or just a fabricated assortment of narratives designed to dispel ideas that differ from the norm? It is important to be critical of any commentary frequently recited to the masses. The most popular beliefs are likely the most synthetic. Any appeals to agency, emotion, or rationality, routinely have an underlying agenda. The perceived opponent of any given policy may have far more validity than the advocate would like their supporters to hear. Due diligence in the pursuit of truth requires reading between the lines and paying attention to what they don’t say rather than what they do. No authoritarian system has ever existed without the consent of the majority. The enemy is not the person on the other side of the fence, but the person who built that fence and instilled hate on both sides. If culture is the fabric that connect us all… ask who spins the thread, and why?
The Age of Information has led to an indulgence of deceptive knowledge instead of productive. The divisive and self-destructive culture created by this excess information is quite intentional and beneficial to those who purvey it. Dystopian societies are created by those who live in them, it’s a fate that must be widely accepted by an uninformed and misinformed people. Question everything. Only distribute knowledge that arises from organic thought and personal anecdotes. Create a culture built around real and shared experiences. Unanimous agreement is impossible, but an informed citizenry determined to find truth and compromise is destined for prosperity.
Those angry opinions emitting from the screens are not real, come back to reality and pay attention to new ideas. The answers are out there, but you won’t find them on *insert mass media outlet here*