Does propaganda still exists?
I believe this question is relevant for the simple fact that a lot of people think of propaganda as something out of a history book. “That was in the past” “That was the Nazis” and so on… personally I find extremely curious when people can study history, see that there has always been some group trying to control the opinion of the populous, and then say things like “Propaganda is a thing of the past”. Really? If we are sure there has been propaganda since the invention of writing and makes our time so special? Or someone can be aware of propaganda and manipulation in general, with the certitude that he is immune to it.
But before we have a deeper look at it let’s say what is propaganda. Allow me to copy the Wikipedia definition:
“Propaganda is a form of biased communication, aimed at promoting or demoting certain views, perceptions or agendas. Propaganda is often associated with the psychological mechanisms of influencing and altering the attitude of a population toward a specific cause, position or political agenda in an effort to form a consensus to a standard set of belief patterns.”
So let’s put propaganda and manipulation on the same basket.
We all like to think that we can not be manipulated… “of course not” in fact I have never met a person who told me “Yes, I spent money on that cleaning product because I was influenced to do so” not a single person in the world… but then how come the advertising industry moves hundreds of millions of dollars?
You might also say “Well… is not that big of a deal if I get influenced to buy a particular toothpaste”
Many decades ago some company invented the instant cake. They where counting on it to be a huge hit… to their surprise it was not people where barely buying them. So they realized that the reason people where not buying was that women felt guilty to make such an “easy” cake. So they added these 3 words to the cover. “ Add 1 egg” and guess what?… The instant cake became a giant hit.
Again… buying a cake is not that big of a deal. But let me just give you another example.
The great illusionist Darren Brown once did an experiment.
He took some person and try to influence them in order for them to do something. So far so good.. But what was that thing he was trying to make them do?… well I’ll tell you … he was trying to get them to kill someone! That is right! Of course not really kill someone everything was very safe, but they did not know that, for them they would just be pushing someone from the rooftop. Now you might think …” well this is more serious than buying a cake” Yes it is indeed, and you might be thinking this is ridiculous , of course nobody would ever do that. He did the experiment on 4 people and you know how many did NOT commit murder?… One, one in 4 decided not to kill a stranger after a few hours of manipulation.
So here is the point … this guy takes some people creates a illusion and within a few hours with a Tv show budget he manages to get 3 people to commit murder… Is this insane?! Yes but true also. Three people killed someone, it just a few hours of conditioning. So the question is how not susceptible to propaganda are we? And an even better question is, if a single guy could do this in a few hours for entertainment, what could some group of people to access to the best minds in the world, unlimited funding, all the time and no moral compass could do?
So it is safe to say that we can be more influenced than we like to admit.
Does propaganda still exists? I think the question is, to what level does it exists?
And again… why would this time be so special and without mass manipulation unlike any other era? I wish I had an answer to that question.
Goebbels himself said that he learned all he used as Minister of propaganda from the American advertisement industry. And have we ever lived in an era with more advertisement ? With more screens? That can lead the brain into an alpha state. with more distractions and consumer options? With more celebrity obsession? I believe that we are living in propaganda’s heyday.
So next time I’ll meet someone who says propaganda is something in a History book or that only self proclaimed fascists and communists use it or that only the advertisement industry uses manipulation on the public… I am really going to try and understand what can cause such an opinion.
I know this seems obvious but I keep ruining into this opinion that propaganda is a thing of the past… Maybe some of you have had this experience also...