The Philippine Online Chronicles

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” - Joseph Goebbels

Initially, I sat down to write something about the state of Election in the Philippines. Comparing to those that came before it with the intent of showing ... how things change the more they seem to be the same. Like in George Orwell's Animal Farm,  Benjamin the Donkey and friends looking at the card game between Man and Pig but seeing no difference. Then I glanced at the latest tweets, plurks, and posts over the Internet. And it began to show another aspect from Animal Farm.

“Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.”- Adolf Hitler

Propaganda

“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.” =  Avram Noam Chomsky

Both sides use it. Supporters from both or all sides use it to move a person to their cause or to veer away from the Enemy's cause. The term "The Enemy" itself is a good propaganda term; it denotes everything that is negative and insidious about a person or cause. Charles Dickens and George Lucas use it well in their creations, Scrooge and Darth Sideous. It is good propaganda: It is good branding.

Propaganda can come in different forms and shape - some are poetic truths, some are jingoism, some are gossips, some are urban legends, and some are things we have not seen.

It comes in many forms, from a snippet in a post, to an e-mail detailing the worst thing about a person - whether it's truth, half-truth, or falsehood.

To be honest, since most of us already have decided on who to vote for, probably a great number of the things we write or talk about is a form of propaganda or counter-propaganda or even black-propaganda. The difference between the three is that the first promotes a positive or idealistic view, the third promotes a negative negative view or something not fair of hue through malicious tales and innuendo, and the second counters both positive and negative promotion with something positive.

“The goal of modern propaganda is no longer to transform opinion but to arouse an active and mythical belief” - Jacques Ellul

How can you tell whether what is said is propaganda? What is your point of view on this?

The difference between a point of view and propaganda is its purpose, A point of view is a person's take on things. He or she may not mind if you agree with it or not. A piece of propaganda is crafted and/or used to elicit a response or to recruit. At least that is my point of view.

Test propaganda

The best defense against propaganda is to test it. See if it will stand up to scrutiny.

“We have made the Reich by propaganda.” - Joseph Paul Goebbels

Photo: “propaganda” by Emer Värk, c/o Flickr. All Rights Reserved