subject: Propaganda and Democracy [print this page] Propaganda and Democracy Propaganda and Democracy
Democracy has a very important role to play in most of the political dispensations across the world. However, the meaning is often vaguely understood by many. As a matter of fact, there are several things that are not clear when people talk about democracy. Sometimes, for whatever reasons, certain persons have in the past in various places used persuasive means in an attempt to gain loyalty from those being persuaded. This is precisely what propaganda is all about. The motive is often very ulterior, because rather than encourage people to use discursive reason, it seeks to direct people's thoughts. It is done with the aim of benefiting the mastermind. Person's spreading propaganda will often use various modes of making their word heard. Images, word of mouth, symbols, and even sometimes, codes are some of the ways that persons can use to spread propaganda. The reason why these two can be discussed on the same platform is that one effectively eliminates the other. If it is properly understood, democracy excludes the possibility of propaganda, because central to democracy is acceptability. It is not sufficient to come up with materials, which are already designed for a particular end, and assume that democracy has been achieved. Democracy is a very basic, yet very complex topic of discussion, and as will be shown, it forms the spring board for the practice of human rights. This study therefore will be looking at Democracy as understood by various political theorists, as well as the reasons why propaganda kills it. This study will therefore proceed from an explanation of the meaning of democracy as seen in the various models proposed by various theorists, and then give the meaning of propaganda and finally show how if allowed, it leads to the demise of democracy, and with it, human rights.
Towards an Understanding of Propaganda
As already mentioned, propaganda refers to well orchestrated attempt at indoctrination. In other words, the person responsible for passing on propaganda uses particulars means to get people behave in a way that is geared only to the gratification of ulterior motives. In propaganda, reason is often discouraged, and sometimes various means may be used, including eliciting of certain emotions among the people in order to advance one's agenda (Brown, 1963). Propagandists make use of a variety of materials towards this end. With the advance of technology, it is even easier now to communicate propagandist materials. In order to achieve their goal, propagandists mainly make use of fallacious arguments with the aim of deceiving those whom they target. In the United States, both the government and the corporate world have often had to result to propaganda for various reasons. It is important to distinguish between three types of propaganda.
White Propaganda
This kind of propaganda requires a lot of reasoning to recognize as such. This is because its source is not obscured (Brown, 1963). It is clearly defined so that everyone knows where it is coming from. It uses more friendly kind of persuasive arguments, but if one critically analyses these arguments, one realizes that they are subjectively oriented. This is to say that the information that is offered is only one sided. It is easier to raise arguments against claims made in this kind of propaganda, because one needs only to take a position against the propagandist one and defend it.
Black Propaganda
Unlike the white propaganda, the source of this propaganda is obscured. Disguise is the most common thing in black propaganda (Brown, 1963). The material used to propagate this propaganda is identified with a source which in reality is not the original source. The kind of material passed on in this case is more of negative material.
Grey Propaganda
This kind of propaganda is recognized from the fact that it lacks a definite source. This aim of this kind of propaganda is to make people believe something that are not true in the real sense. The fallacy of straw man is the most commonly used in this kind of propaganda. This simply means that the real issue is set aside through the presentation of a different, often very irrelevant idea. If the trick in this comes into the light, it often sparks serious public dissension (Brown, 1963).
Edward Bernays and Walter Lippman, the great propagandists
These two gentlemen were experts in public relations. Central to their argument was the claim that sometimes it was necessary to create illusions which once circulated would appear as real (Brown, 1963). Bernays was content that this kind of reasoning was the best in aiding the government to gain control and persuade the people to act in its favor. It is worth noting that Bernays was very well aware that this did not lead to democracy (Brown, 1963). The kind of reasoning developed by Bernays greatly benefited the Nazi massacre of the Jews. During the World War I, he and Walter Lippman were instrumental in reversing the mental convictions of the Americans with regard to the war. They claimed that the world would only be more secure if there was democracy, and this was only achievable through the war. This kind of reasoning was happily received by the American peoples (Brown, 1963). Even after the war, Bernays considered and even proposed propaganda as the best way of governing. He now went on to the corporate world, where he used his propagandist methods to influence actions such as March for Freedom' kind of protests by women in favor of smoking in New York. These tricks by Bernays greatly influenced companies such as Lehman Brothers to use means similar to Bernays in order to maximize sales. These tricky deals were largely contributory to the Great Depression of the year 1929 (Brown, 1963).
The Century of the Common Man and the U.S. Corporate Propaganda
Henry Wallace thought that in the twentieth century, America would have a truly democratic society, one in which consent would be key. In his book, Taking the Risk out of Democracy, Carey felt that propaganda was the greatest culprit in this failure. He argued that the organizational propaganda was largely to blame for the failure of the realization of Wallace's vision. Corporate propaganda was seen as having been used as a weapon for the advancement of a certain class of society. There was a clash, according to Carey, between the corporate powers and the growth of democracy (Dahl, 2000). As would be expected, the corporations realized the need for self protection against the new trends. The resulting factor was that unions as well as governments were branded tyrannical, while free trade was seen as a value to be jealously guarded. Social science also became a tool for the advancement of business propaganda (Dahl, 2000). This significantly reduced the capacity for reflection among the Americans.
