Propaganda is a tool. As such, it's neither good nor bad. It only becomes bad in the hands of bad people. However, the people most interested in propaganda are people with a lust for power, which makes propaganda more commonly connected to evil than to good. We get the impression that propaganda is evil, that we must protect ourselves from it, and never resort to using it ourselves.
But a defensive strategy towards propaganda is ineffective at best. Constantly trying to find lies hidden in stories is not getting us anywhere, especially if we don't have a clear world view against which we can define truth.
To defend ourselves against propaganda, we need to have our own world view because propaganda promotes world views. Without a solid world view of our own we're powerless against it. Our world view becomes whatever the most effective propaganda tells us that it is.
When done well, propaganda forms an ubiquitous set of ideas that together form a consistent whole. This becomes in turn the dominant world view of society. There may be lies everywhere. But they fit so neatly together that the overall impression is truth. Even smart people can end up believing that democracy is freedom, that the state is us, that politicians have our best interest at heart, and so on.
However, to be truly effective, our word view must not only be consistent. It must reflect the truth, and this is where nature, aka God, comes in on the side of those who want to stand up to the evils propagated through state sanctioned propaganda.
Armed with a good world view, we can do more than just defend ourselves against propaganda. We can use the tool ourselves to promote the better world view.
My particular world view is anarchy based on Christian values. I believe that the golden rule is all we need for a functioning legal system, and that Jesus was right. There's no conflict between the teachings of Jesus and my world view.
An interesting aspect of Jesus' teachings is that he lays out the path forward when it comes to the spread of his message. He tells us how to use propaganda to promote Christian ideas. He tells us to focus on love, hope and faith. This optimistic message should be promoted wherever we go.
To defend ourselves against evil, we must never accept narratives that demoralize our efforts. Defeatism should be countered and ignored. Such ideas are for losers. They are not for us.
Our message should focus on everything good, including personal success. We need to be the person we'd like to see in the world. But the message must never be about us. We're not successful due to some personal cleverness. Rather, our success is due to our world view.
Furthermore, success isn't limited to material gains or power. That's part of the lie that we aim to expose. Any kind of personal victory is a success. Overcoming an illness is just as much a success as a fine career. Being content in our lives is better than being constantly striving for more material wealth.
The point of our propaganda isn't to come across as better or more wealthy than we are. That would be lying. Our propaganda should be truthful. Step one is therefore to live the lifestyle that we promote, and to apply our chosen world view in all our affairs. Only then does it makes sense to study Edward Bernays's Propaganda and similar texts for useful insights into how propaganda works.
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| Liberty |
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