When Pope Francis hears the word “propaganda”, he may well think first of all about the historical “Congregatio de propaganda fide” (“Congregation for propagating the faith”) of the Roman Catholic Church instead of the current misinformation disseminated to the public by the news media. In the 17th century, the Catholic Church initiated a missionary campaign to spread information about its beliefs and imbued the Latin word “propaganda” with a new meaning. Literally, the word means “things that need to be spread”, but obviously, the Catholic Church was not simply spreading neutral, objective information about religion. Instead, it was concentrating on those ideas that seemed most beneficial to its own future. Propaganda in this sense was selective and incomplete, but it was not yet as perfidious as it is today. In its original form, propaganda was still information that addressed the intellect of the hearer, whereas modern propaganda circumvents the intellect in order to manipulate the emotions. The transition from intellectual propaganda to emotional propaganda took place during the First World War and was made possible by the development of modern psychology. In the simplest terms, it was the marriage of the mass psychology of Gustav Le Bon and the depth psychology of Sigmund Freud that gave birth to propaganda in its present form.
The French psychologist Gustave Le Bon was vehemently opposed to the notion of democracy, and in the late 19th century, he developed his theory of mass psychology in order to combat democratic movements in society. Le Bon viewed the public with disdain and characterized it as “the confused herd”, which is incapable of making rational decisions about political matters. According to Le Bon, simple assertions that are constantly repeated and charged with emotion are the key to manipulating public opinion and avoiding the pitfalls of democracy. All of us are familiar with the effectiveness of Le Bon’s ideas in the area of advertising. In our generation, almost everyone knows which soft drink was “the pause that refreshes”, and most of us could complete the jingle “double your pleasure, double your fun…” The repetition of these simple assertions has imprinted them in our memory. Balanced arguments and rational dialogue are much more difficult to remember.
Nevertheless, it is not just the repetition of the simple assertion, but rather the emotional charge imparted to the assertion that enables it to reach the unconscious mind and to control behavior. In communicating with the public, rational arguments are, according to Le Bon, not only useless, they are counterproductive. Public opinion is moved not by reason, but by emotion. At this point, the research of Sigmund Freud on the unconscious part of the human psyche came into play. Freud’s nephew Edward Bernays was a member of the team established by Woodrow Wilson to promote the First World War, and making use of his uncle’s research, Bernays was able to combine the science of the unconscious with the rules of manipulation worked out by Le Bon. This remarkable development yielded two results that can easily be observed in our current political situation.
Firstly, Bernays recognized that fear is one of the most powerful emotions of the unconscious. So he formulated the simple assertions of Le Bon in such a way that they evoked fear in the public mind–a method that is very much in use today. In an article entitled “GOP freak-out goes from bad to worse” (3/3/16), Politico’s Eli Stokols writes: “In the hours before the GOP debate here Thursday night, Mitt Romney offered his own thorough, pragmatic denouncement of his party’s presidential frontrunner in Salt Lake City, labeling Trump as a ‘phony’ and a ‘fraud’ who might destroy the GOP, and warning that his demagoguery is reminiscent of a ‘brand of anger that has led other nations into the abyss.’” On analysis, where is the real information in this statement? The reference to “other nations” is hopelessly vague, and the “abyss” is left undefined. The warning that Trump will lead the country into an abyss is a typical fear tactic of modern propaganda.
Secondly, Bernays demonstrated quite effectively the influence of association on the unconscious, and he utilized this technique throughout his career in both advertising and public relations. Remember the Marlboro man? He was the rugged guy sitting on the horse, and he was smoking a Marlboro cigarette. The association of masculine strength with the Marlboro cigarette was intended to address the unconscious emotions, and it did. The emotion about “A” was transferred unconsciously to “B”. The reality of the situation was, of course, quite different. The famous Marlboro man Wayne McLaren died at the age of 51 with lung cancer. In the days before Super Saturday, the picture of Donald Trump together with Adolf Hitler was presented repeatedly in media such as Facebook. No rational argument was given, and no real comparison was made. But the association touched the unconscious emotions.
So on Super Saturday, we observed a sudden reversal of Trump’s popularity, and “Comeback Cruz” took center stage. Was the “new” Cruz any different from the “old” Cruz? Certainly not! But after the Republican Establishment had spent millions within a few days in order to bombard the public with negative propaganda about Donald Trump, Cruz became the shining hero of Super Saturday. Can anyone seriously argue that this had anything to do with the political process in a free society? Once again, the wealthy oligarchy–in the words of Noam Chomsky–manufactured consent.
Still, I have the impression that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the political establishments to manufacture such consent. In spite of the enormous power and wealth of the Clinton propaganda machine, Bernie Sanders has just won an amazing victory in the Michigan primary, and despite all efforts of the Republican Establishment to discredit Donald Trump, he has apparently regained his momentum as front-runner in the Republican primary. Perhaps, we have finally had enough of establishment politics! And perhaps, we are slowly becoming immune to propaganda!
Villager Jack Brush is a frequent contributor to Villages-News.com