In the comments of the last article I wrote about propaganda, a commentor asked a good question, “How does propaganda affect us?”

First, in my understanding from research, is that this thing we call “Propaganda” has been with us all our lives. The vast majority of what we see and hear, whether in the pages of a newspaper or book... or, the sounds broadcast over radio and TV’s images… or, whether streamed into our homes, or the palms of our hands… propaganda is coming at us in a steady continuous stream... repeated... and repeated... in an endless loop...

A quote before I go on,

"There is no need for propaganda to be rich in intellectual content. -- Joseph Goebbels"

Or, another way to look at it, the best propaganda is many times the simplest to remember...

Even an individual that is totally unplugged from the 24/7/356 information cycle and entertainment blitz, would find it hard to interact with this world, without being in some way influenced by propaganda… It's a rare man indeed that could interact with a propagandized people and not be affected...

In reading the writings of Bernays and Lippmann, both early pioneers of Modern Propaganda, one finds a chilling picture of the techniques developed to control crowds. There are of course many things that were very different then, than now… and, the early Master Propagandists didn’t have the same kind of electronic propaganda devices as today’s propaganda practitioners do. But, it certainly didn’t stop those Masters, or government institutions from empowering committees to study and implement the propaganda techniques necessary to bring a very reluctant Nation, cheering to WW I.

One of the early strategies The Committee on Public Information, used to drag Americans to war, in lieu of today’s devices, was the establishment of the Four Minute Men as described in this quote from Wikipedia,

”The Four Minute Men were a group of volunteers authorized by United States President Woodrow Wilson, to give four-minute speeches on topics given to them by The Committee on Public Information (CPI). In 1917-1918, around 7,555,190 speeches were given in 5,200 communities” -- Wikipedia

So, newspapers, magazines, books and radio were only a few of the tools at the disposal of a turn of the Century, but well-funded Propaganda Machine.

An interesting observation about the Committee on Public Information, our Government claimed the Committee was abandoned in 1919… At least that’s the story given… But, I have to ask why would any Government want to give up the power of the Propagandist, when trying to control a people?

Those early propagandists didn't just go home, at the end of the war... not when the Corporatist saw how successful the Committee’s efforts at molding public opinion were… the Corporations quickly hired many from the Government’s propaganda machines... and, well... that’s a story for another day, and since time is short…

I’ll leave you with these words from Edward Bernays 1928 book titled, Propaganda

"In a democracy an educator should, in addition to his academic duties, bear a definite and wholesome relation to the general public. This public does not come within the immediate scope of his academic duties. But in a sense he depends upon it for his living, for the moral support, and the general cultural tone upon which his work must be based. In the field of education, we find what we have found in politics and other fields-that the evolution of the practitioner of the profession has not kept pace with the social evolution around him, and is out of gear with the instruments for the dissemination of ideas which modern society has developed. If this be true then the training of the educators in this respect should begin in the normal schools, with the addition to their curricula of whatever 1s necessary to broaden their viewpoint. The public cannot understand unless the teacher understands the relationship between the general public and the academic idea.
The normal school should provide for the training of the educator to make him realize that his is a two­fold job: education as a teacher and education as a propagandist.”

Make no mistake, Government’s never give up any power they can wield over the people... and I doubt many disagree that the Propagandists got their hands on the young minds of most schoolchildren... But, how many know propaganda's influences have been with us for generations? If our grandparents and parents were raised on a steady diet of propaganda, how could they even teach us how to recognize it and ask why... if they too... were blind?

There are more examples of how, ‘propaganda affects us’, but, I’ll need to write some more at another time… this subject of propaganda is huge, and my studies need to continue…
stay tuned...