Authors: Mickey Huff
Censored 2012 (53 page)
Social propaganda, according to Ellul, is a form of propaganda that aims to influence society’s “style of life.”
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This propaganda appeals to and reinforces common societal assumptions. Examples in the United States include the conviction that forty hours constitute a workweek, the notion that more money equals a better job, the reinforcement of traditional gender roles, and the emphasis on Western democracy’s supremacy over other political systems. These assumptions lead individuals to believe that their society—including their government, educational, and economic systems—holds the best way of life. It follows from this reasoning that other societies and cultures are inferior or inadequate at best, and evil or loathsome at worst. Examples range from the use of pejorative references, such as calling others “un-American” or “anti-Christian,” to feeling justified in going to war in an “inferior” or “backwards” country.
One of the key dangers of both political and social propaganda is that each propagates a particular ideology. Ellul, who was deeply influenced by the theories of Karl Marx, believed that ideology (or “false consciousness” as Marx called it) served to increase the numbers of unthinking, inactive masses, with the ultimate purpose of integrating
the individual into the political and social system. Once this occurs, the system can continue to develop, grow, and dominate.
Ellul maintained that, before social and political propaganda could be effective, the public had to be conditioned to accept various types of psychological manipulation. Ellul referred to this conditioning as “pre-propaganda,” which he distinguished from the “active propaganda” discussed thus far in this chapter. The goal of pre-propaganda is to lock individuals into the current ideological system, to prepare them to act in a certain way.
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Ellul stated:
[P]re-propaganda does not have a precise ideological objective; it has nothing to do with an opinion, an idea, a doctrine. It proceeds by psychological manipulations, by character modifications, by the creation of feelings or stereotypes useful when the time comes.
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In other words, in order to prepare one for orthopraxy (i.e., “correct” behavior), one must first be conditioned. One needs to see the world through a predetermined lens, to think in certain categories, and to truly believe that one’s social and political decisions are necessary and efficacious.
Pre-propaganda involves two methods, according to Ellul:
conditioned reflex
and
myth
.
First, propagandists condition reflexes by training the public to respond in specific ways to certain signs, symbols, images, and authority figures. By doing this, the propagandist can predict a given response with a high degree of accuracy. For example, since the 1970s, many fast food restaurants have been giving children toys with their meals. This creates an image in the child’s mind, as well as a specific response: the child goes on to associate the establishment with not only food, but also new toys, and is thus magnetized by this restaurant above others. Even adults can now get specialized movie or sports paraphernalia at fast food restaurants with their meals. One imagines
these adults being conditioned as children to associate a particular restaurant with a toy and therefore buying into the same tactic today. Whether or not this is the case, the adult customer is as lured by the restaurant’s free gift as is a child.
Another example of a conditioned reflex is found in the strong reactions evoked by the American flag. From a young age, those of us who grew up in the United States have been programmed to unquestioningly respect and honor this symbol. Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with hands over hearts in elementary school, standing to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at sporting events, and watching presidential debates with the flag prominently displayed in the background all add to this pre-propaganda. The flag symbol evokes in many a deep sense of pride, patriotism, and even awe. Furthermore, people are unconsciously conditioned to assume that anyone disrespecting the flag must be disrespecting the United States and all of its good qualities. Ellul explained:
Each person’s psychology is shaped by that culture. He is conditioned by the symbols of that culture, and is also a transmitter of that culture; each time its symbols are changed he is deeply affected. Thus, one can change him by changing these symbols. The propagandist will act on this [knowledge] …
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As the second method of pre-propaganda,
myth
creates a worldview that is rarely questioned. According to Ellul, propagandists are highly skilled at creating myths: narratives and images reliant on symbols, which shape the individual’s consciousness.
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Some examples include idealized stories about the “discovery” of the Americas; fairy-tale wedding, marriage, and family traditions; and sentimental rags-to-riches legends that purport the divine superiority of capitalism. These myths can lead to a blind faith in the message of the propagandist, creating both the illusion that buying into its industry or customs is morally right, and the assumption that one’s culture and way of life are legitimate, beneficial, and superior to all others. In turn, a firm foundation of pre-propaganda is created, preparing the individual to be further psychologically manipulated by social and political propaganda. Ellul described:
Eventually the myth takes possession of a man’s mind so completely that his life is consecrated to it. But that effect can only be created by slow, patient work by all the methods of propaganda, not by any immediate operation. Only when conditioned reflexes have been created in man and he lives in a collective myth can he be readily mobilized.
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Propaganda’s reliance on brainwashing, conditioned reflexes, and myth make it increasingly difficult to detect without a solid theoretical framework. This is precisely why only knowledge of the various methods and forms of propaganda can free us from the layers of persuasion with which we are faced on a daily basis.
Ellul’s sociological work concerning modern propaganda offers a clear and accurate description of mass psychological manipulation. He calls us to challenge the systems of power and to encourage one another to discover the truth without relying solely on mass media, politicians, educational systems, and other institutions. In order to do this, we need to distinguish among the sources, consequences, and complications of propaganda. Only when we can make these distinctions will we be able to fight and resist. Ellul concludes
Propaganda
with the following:
The only truly serious attitude—serious because the danger of man’s destruction by propaganda is serious, serious because no other attitude is truly responsible and serious—is to show people the extreme effectiveness of the weapon used against them, to rouse them to defend themselves.… [I]n this game, propaganda is undoubtedly the most formidable power, acting in only one direction (toward the destruction of truth and freedom), no matter what the good intentions or the good will may be of those who manipulate it.
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Ellul’s work can give us the theoretical tools needed to arm ourselves against propaganda. And once armed, we can authentically
adopt the serious attitude Ellul encourages us to take, to work toward a greater dissemination of truth and, ultimately, freedom.
1.
Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes
by Jacques Ellul (New York: Knopf, 1968).
First published in France in 1962, this work is primarily a sociological analysis of methods of propaganda in the modern Western world. Ellul conclusively demonstrates the inextricable relationship between the rise of propaganda and political and corporate systems of control.
2.
Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion
by Randal Marlin (New York: Broadview, 2002).
Marlin, a former student of Jacques Ellul, presents a brief but excellent overview of the history of propaganda, and gives insightful examples of propaganda in contemporary society. Marlin is particularly perceptive in his analysis of the consequences of propaganda and in his discussion of its intersection with ethics.
3.
Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion
by Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2002). Social psychologists Pratkanis and Aronson focus specifically on propaganda’s connection to human emotions, unconscious desires, and fears. This book, originally published in 1992, is of particular interest for those concerned with the psychological dimension of propaganda.
4.
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky (New York: Pantheon, 2002). Now a classic work in the field of propaganda studies, the authors outline their theoretical “propaganda model” via various case studies, demonstrating that corporate-dominated media is profoundly ideologically biased and undemocratic.
5.
Mass Media, Mass Propaganda: Examining American News in the “War on Terror”
by Anthony R. DiMaggio (Lanham, MD: Lexington,
2008). A scholarly analysis of propaganda techniques used in the corporate media’s coverage of September 11 and the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. An engaging work full of clear and insightful examples proving that propaganda is more ubiquitous in the West than ever.
6.
Public Opinion
by Walter Lippmann (New York: Free Press, 1997). First published in 1922, celebrated journalist Lippmann argues that, due to the complexity of modern society and the ignorance of the masses, a special class of elite individuals should “manufacture consent” in order to persuade and control public opinion. Although it is blatantly pro-propaganda, this work is certainly recommended for those seeking a deeper understanding of the theoretical foundations of modern psychological manipulation from the propagandist’s perspective.
7.
Propaganda
by Edward Bernays (New York: IG Publishing, 2005). Originally published in 1928, Bernays, known as the “father of Public Relations,” argues that various methods of propaganda are efficacious in politics, business, education, science, and nearly every other social sphere. Influenced by Lippmann, Bernays unapologetically endorses propaganda that relies primarily on knowledge of Freudian psychoanalysis. On Bernays’s work, Noam Chomsky states: “Bernays’s honest and practical manual provides much insight into some of the most powerful and influential institutions of contemporary industrial-state capitalist democracies.”
JACOB VAN VLEET
teaches philosophy at Diablo Valley College in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a member of the International Jacques Ellul Society and a contributor to
The Ellul Forum: The International Journal of Jacques Ellul Studies
. He lives in Berkeley with his wife, Moriah.
1
. Jacques Ellul,
Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes
. (New York: Knopf, 1968), 11.
2
. Originally published as
Propagandes
by Librarie Armand Colin in 1962. English version translated by Konrad Kellen and published in 1965 by Alfred A. Knopf Inc. This work has since become a classic text in the field of propaganda studies, but is little known outside academia.
3
. Ellul’s primary work on freedom,
The Ethics of Freedom
(1976), is primarily theological
in nature, but relies to a great extent on his earlier sociological works, such as
Propaganda
(1965) and
The Technological Society
(1954).
4
.
Propaganda
, 61.
5
. Ibid., xiii.
6
. For examples of Bernays’s techniques, see Larry Tye,
The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations
(New York: Holt, 1998). Also, Bernays’s own book give insight into his methodology. See Edward L. Bernays,
Propaganda
(New York: Ig Publishing, 2005).
7
.
Propaganda
, xiii.
8
. See James C. McKinley Jr., “Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change,”
New York Times
, March 12, 2010.
9
. See Matthew Shaer, “Gulf Oil Spill: To Control Message, BP Buys Search Terms from Google,”
Christian Science Monitor
, June 9, 2010.
10
. We should remember that Ellul is primarily a sociologist and his work is often descriptive rather than definitional. It is helpful to think of Ellul as a phenomenologist similar to G. W. F. Hegel. Like Hegel, Ellul often works to carefully describe a large system of thought—including all of its components, corollaries, and entailments—rather than simply offering definitions.
11
.
Propaganda
, 4.
12
. Ibid., 62–70.
13
. Ibid., 63.
14
. Ibid., 62.
