Propaganda when I was growing up was always referred to as Soviet or Chinese or Eastern Block or "Behind the Iron Curtain". But, as I entered college I began to realize that there was also American Propaganda. And as time went on I realized "American Propaganda" was actually the best in the world.
People say that the Soviet Union collapsed under the weight of the lies of it's propaganda but I would say it collapsed because of it's war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, Chernobyl and Reagan. Because Reagan being a product of American Hollywood Propaganda out of the 1930s and 1940s was the best American Propaganda President we have ever seen. He believed it. He lived it. He was it. No one was better at American Propaganda than Ronald Reagan in politics that I ever saw. If there is one person who caused the Soviet Union to collapse it is Ronald Reagan. But you might say, "Wasn't this a good thing?"
Of course the answer is yes because ideas are what keep nations alive. It is not about whether these are good ideas or bad ideas it is about how people in the world feel and think about those ideas.
In the 1950s U.S. propaganda was about at the level of Fox News on TV now. It had a lot of holes in it. It was factually deficient, but it was all we had. People who are very American traditional gravitate to Fox News because it harkens back to the 1950s to simpler but more racist times. But, now the U.S. is becoming too sophisticated and also too entertainment oriented to tolerate Fox News much longer.
We have become to "Outward directed" both towards our survival and to our detriment to be swayed as a group the same way as we used to be by ideas from entertainment instruments like Fox News. We see the series of errors often as we watch it. So, even though Jon Stewart watches a lot of it for his show, "The Daily Show" it is so factually off he parodies it. The Colbert Show is a parody of Fox News and Bill O'Reilly. The Daily Show and the Colbert Show are testaments to the entertainment value of Fox News but also demonstrate the incompetence of that level of propaganda.
The main problem that I see with people in the U.S. and around the world is that they are less interested in facts. Only the most educated and intelligent and rich people are interested in facts anymore it seems. The rest only want to be entertained. They are tired of wars in or near their countries. They see politics as mostly boring and all they want to do is to be entertained sexually, and in every other way and to pretend that all the bad stuff isn't really happening except in some form that entertains them. So, they aren't really serious about the news. They aren't really serious about knowing anything at all. And these are the people towards which all propaganda is directed. It is directed towards the suffering masses of mankind that only want to be entertained because life is just too much for them to survive otherwise.
Understanding this is the key to understanding information and propaganda worldwide. When I write I am trying to share what I know about this. I am trying to make as many people as possible aware of enough to survive well and if possible prosper in all ways so that all of us can make this world a better place. People who ONLY want to be entertained will tend to die young from all sorts of accidents and diseases as a result of their life style choices. But those interested in real facts often will live very long and useful lives, become wealthy, raise intelligent and useful kids and tend to be the foundation of the future of everything good that happens on Earth. I don't want humans to go extinct.
No comments:
Post a Comment