Propaganda

The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human: Aldous Huxley

"It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear." : General Douglas MacArthur, Speech, May 15, 1951

"It's not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true." --Henry Kissinger

"In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. And if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us.": Thich Nhat Hanh - Vietnamese monk, activist and writer.

Propaganda is no accident and is never by accident. Once Lisa began to research this area used to manipulate how people thought and perceived their realities, she quickly saw how it is used, when and where. The media tools used to spread this form of behavior control were rampant and totally unchecked nor regulated. In actuality, the reverse was true. Propaganda is conducted with the most serious intent and determination.

The main users of propaganda were those elected to serve and protect!

It is a very specific form of communication that is directly aimed at influencing the opinions of society instead of impartially providing factual and non biased information. Every newspaper and television show embraces and contains this form of mind manipulation daily. And quite often it wasn’t what was said, but what was not said.

The sanitized or deliberately misleading ‘news’ fed to the population is easily seen as such as ALL the media provide near verbatim articles even when they pretend to be in opposition to each other. And it is often what the media do not report that is vital. Lisa noticed the mindless trash being fed as important news events whilst real important information was never mentioned.

From the earliest days, cowboy and Indian shows preached that it was very OK to slay native inhabitants with impunity – even glory. The historical truths were deftly avoided and replaced by visions of poor settlers trying to survive on THEIR land. Whites versus Natives was the theme, when all the way any hint of reconciliation was replaced by brutal and unending force. Black versus white, poor versus rich. Constant conflict and separation. The propaganda machine successfully victimized some and glorified others. And once the false ideas and notions were installed, they became very difficult indeed to change or correct back into truth.

This successful mix was then again used in war movies. The excitement/noble cause angles of warfare were relentlessly pushed whilst the true reasons and horrors were brushed lightly aside. This resulted in endless streams of young people to enlist with totally unaware expectations of Truth thus providing elitist masters and profiteers to have a ready source of youths ready to die for manufactured causes and sadly this even continues to this day.

Lisa became extremely interested when the crop of alien and extraterrestrial movies began to appear whereby once again the valiant and skillful militaries of Earth slaughtered invaders with hugely successful outcomes. Lisa was sure that these battles were in fact a glimpse into a known and potential future for earth – but with differing outcomes. Never show pragmatism and negotiation nor peaceful resolutions and co-existence because these same notions rarely exist in the minds that create such violence and mind manipulation.

And the crazy thing is, Lisa saw that people believed it. More than using death, murder and blood as some form of macabre entertainment, Lisa saw people taking it all in as historical fact.

And the list of movie/television propaganda grew. From shows highlighting insane false wealth and equality for all – through to shows depicting intrusive and privacy breaking government actions as the norm. Shows highlighting the world as a murderous crime cess pit, then portrayed DNA, phone tapping, finger printing, border security bullying as a necessary part of life. Sinister mind conditioning indeed. The reality is that the world is NOT filled with intricate and unending murder – even though the media presents sensationalist crimes with glee and perpetuity. Lisa even began to suspect that a lot of the reported murders never even occurred but were part of the fuel to clamp down on civil freedoms and enacting over reaching and knee-jerk laws. Because people do not actually know, they take it all as gospel and begin to believe in it. But what if the true reality was far different than portrayed by television?

Another type is Political propaganda. It is conscious, intensive and intelligent manipulation of the attitudes and behavior of the voters and electorate with a view to control the democratic process and determine any outcome desired. Most people are by now so fully engrossed in their own daily lives and struggles that they pay little regard to political and public affairs and are thus prone to political manipulation. Few even know the true political process. They absorb biased and self serving information as balanced fact and even vote according to the nicest candidate.

In this age of electronic media and internet, those who control the information or disinformation control the political process. And the reality is, it isn’t who casts the votes, it is who counts the votes that matters.

Adolf Hitler of Germany is quoted in saying "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."  And to Lisa, the saying “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” took on a new and urgent meaning.