PROPAGANDA
TWO
First, a short story. As a boy, I
lived in New Jersey, across the street from a professional violinist. During
warm weather, I often sat in his backyard, listening to him practice. Years
later, my wife, and I, were sightseeing near my old home and we stopped in to
visit my, now retired, friend. “I was just playing when you arrived,” he said.
I begged him to play something for us. He refused, saying, “Nowadays, I play
for my own amazement.”
Recently, I resigned from the task
of trying to convince people that our nation’s overriding problem is special
interest money corrupting our elected representatives, and that voting as a
path to improvement is obsolete and will remain so until the corruption problem
is destroyed. I attribute my failure to the pervasive power of propaganda.
How can it be, I wondered, that
intelligent, educated people can be so emotionally involved in the endless
battle between left and right that they can’t see the futility of a win-lose
attack and ignore problems that are taking our nation ‘down the tubes’—problems
that predate today’s hot issues?
I’ve learned a few things about
propaganda:
It appeals primarily to our
emotions.
We live with it in almost every
aspect of our lives.
It’s not always bad—a means of
putting lies over on the ignorant and uneducated. For example, images of
children are often used by charities to raise money for the oppressed.
Once we’re emotionally committed, we
find it extremely difficult to change our minds, even when presented with,
verifiably true, new evidence.
In politics, it’s always used by the
other side. My party fights back with information. The occasional
slip into hyperbole is justified—the ends justify the means—especially when the
other side fights dirty.
In an earlier essay, I wrote that
America’s left and right are irreconcilable and that one cannot defeat the
other and that democracy is the only form of government designed to manage our
situation. We need to reclaim ours.
For democracy to work we need to
recognize that there are shortcomings on our side and be willing to
change. Further, we need to listen—really listen and incorporate some of the other
side’s thinking into our combined solutions.
P.S. I recognize that many of those
on my list rarely read these essays and that many of those who do read through
the filter of their own opinions. That’s okay, nowadays I write for my own
amazement.
Joe Bakewell
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