{"id":17348,"date":"2018-07-10T20:11:51","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T03:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/?p=17348"},"modified":"2018-07-10T20:22:42","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T03:22:42","slug":"huxley-on-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/2018\/07\/10\/huxley-on-propaganda\/","title":{"rendered":"Huxley on propaganda"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

I just happened across Huxley\u2019s 1958 Brave New World Revisited<\/a><\/cite>; specifically, part V, \u201cPropaganda Under a Dictatorship<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

It\u2019s primarily an analysis of how Hitler influenced the masses. I\u2019m dubious about some aspects of what Huxley says, but there are some elements that I thought were interesting in light of modern politics. One doesn\u2019t have to believe that a given leader is just like Hitler, nor even to believe that the US is on its way to being a dictatorship, to recognize some of these techniques as being in modern use by various people.<\/p>\r\n

Here are some excerpts:<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

At his trial after the Second World War, Hitler\u2019s Min\u00adister for Armaments, Albert Speer [said,] \u201cThrough technical devices like the radio and the loud-speaker, eighty million people were deprived of independent thought. It was thereby possi\u00adble to subject them to the will of one man\u2026 Earlier dictators needed highly qualified assistants[\u2026]. The totalitarian system in the period of modern technical development can dispense with such men; thanks to modern methods of communication, it is possible to mechanize the lower leadership.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n

Since Hitler\u2019s day the armory of technical devices at the disposal of the would-be dictator has been con\u00adsiderably enlarged. [\u2026] Thanks to technological prog\u00adress, Big Brother can now be almost as omnipresent as God.<\/p>\r\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n

As [Hitler] himself said, \u201cTo be a leader means to be able to move the masses.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n

[Hitler said that the masses were] uninterested in any fact outside the circle of their immediate experience. Their behav\u00adior is determined, not by knowledge and reason, but by feelings and unconscious drives. It is in these drives and feelings that \u201cthe roots of their positive as well as their negative attitudes are implanted.\u201d To be success\u00adful a propagandist must learn how to manipulate these instincts and emotions. \u201cThe driving force which has brought about the most tremendous revolutions on this earth has [always been] a devotion which has inspired [the masses], and often a kind of hysteria which has urged them into action. Whoever wishes to win over the masses must know the key that will open the door of their hearts.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThe masses\u201d of whom he speaks were these bewildered, frustrated and chronically anxious millions.<\/p>\r\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n

Otto Strasser called [Hitler] \u201ca loud-speaker, pro\u00adclaiming the most secret desires, the least admissible instincts, the sufferings and personal revolts of a whole nation.\u201d [\u2026] Hitler was systematically exploring and exploiting the secret fears and hopes, the cravings, anxieties and frustra\u00adtions of the German masses.<\/p>\r\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n

[Propaganda] must be constantly repeated, for \u201conly constant repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea upon the memory of a crowd.\u201d Philosophy teaches us to feel uncertain about the things that seem to us self-evident. Propaganda, on the other hand, teaches us to accept as self-evident matters about which it would be reasonable to [\u2026] feel doubt.<\/p>\r\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n

The dema\u00adgogic propagandist must therefore be consistently dogmatic. All his statements are made without qualification. There are no grays in his picture of the world; everything is either diabolically black or celestially white. In Hitler\u2019s words, the propagandist should adopt \u201ca systematically one-sided attitude to\u00adwards every problem that has to be dealt with.\u201d He must never admit that he might be wrong or that people with a different point of view might be even partially right. Opponents should not be argued with; they should be attacked [or] shouted down[\u2026]<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

(\u2026Side note: Worth mentioning that that last paragraph is also more or less something that Saul Alinsky recommended that community organizers do, in his book Rules for Radicals<\/cite>. It\u2019s an effective technique, no matter who\u2019s using it.)<\/p>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17348"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17355,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17348\/revisions\/17355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/jed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}