Friends Romans and the Power of Propaganda

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest–

For Brutus is an honourable man;

So are they all, all honourable men–

Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.

The Forum is hushed. The terrible murder of Julius Casar has taken place and it’s time for his funeral. And with his clever words, Mark Anthony gives a eulogy and in so doing turns the knife in the conspirators’ backs as surely as they stabbed Caius Julius and incites the mob to turn against them. It’s a brilliant piece of oratory and uses all the tricks of rhetoric to turn the mob.

So whilst we’re on soap opera and conspiracy, let’s talk about it’s brother - Propaganda.  This is constructed from the same materials.  Sensation and incident appealing to the emotional reward centres of the brain

If you’ve read from the beginning of this series (and if you haven’t, I strongly reccommend you do. There are some jokes) I make the argument that story telling is a form of gossiping and thus a way of making me, the story teller, more important . One of the definitions of gossiping is that it involves talking about somebody not present.  And although that could very well mean that I am gossiping about someone’s sweetness and goodness it is more likely to contain a subtle “but…” within it.  “She’s a lovely girl.  Good to her Mother, but…” and I give a knowing wink. I do this for all sorts of status reasons.  Mostly to enhance my own status – here is something I know but you don’t.  Thereby demonstrating my superior knowledge or perception.  Perhaps it is to ally myself with you and draw myself into your circle.  And it becomes a zero-sum game. In order to raise my status, I need to to lower the status of the object of our gossip.

And propaganda operates in exactly the same way.  For propaganda to work there must be an object, a third party. The story-teller may begin be lauding some aspect of the object or by finding some area that we generally agree upon.  The fact that you are unemployed, say.  The story teller offers their condolences and then begins the journey that will take you into an area of belief.

But… all propaganda has a but in it.

And, as we all know, Mark Anthony cleverly switches the propaganda about Caesar to a condemnation of Brutus. 

Propaganda works by agreement. 

There is no place for debate.  The story-teller and the listener are always in accord. And if there’s a crowd you never feel able to voice those little niggles you have about what I am saying. “I don’t like the man but what he says makes sense.” You say. And why does he make sense? Because he agrees in some small part with what you think.  You’ve only got to believe one small thing that he says and all those uncomfortable fears and doubts are allayed. Research has shown (what research? by whom?) that you only have to find one area of agreement to swallow this rest of it. This is not a debate.  The propagandist is not here to challenge you or to make you think but to take some annoyance great or small and suggest it is the fault of some outside agency and then to lay into them. That makes you feel good. There always has to be something, someone or some people that can be blamed. 

Propaganda needs someone to blame.

You may not go along with his assertions for the moment but “what he says makes sense.”  So, for propaganda the story must create a triangle in which you and the story teller are in some agreement about something outside.  You may not go along with the final solution yet but every time he appears to make sense to you the wider and wider the door leading in that direction opens.  The more he speaks, the more you feel a warm feeling of agreement and the more unaware you are that the story he is propounding is entirely spurious, made up by him. The evidence he presents so convincingly may not provide a complete picture.  He throws tiny titbits to you and waves flags and feathers to distract you from any questions.  You have never even considered that there may be a different story. He has always sounded plausible because that is what you have often thought.  You think.  At least you think you thought that.  And here he is with some figures and illustrations to prove that you were right. Clever you. A different story teller might come up with a different outside agency to be attacked and perhaps, at some point, your feelings may have been directed in that direction.  But by now you have already given your attention to the propagandist and there is no turning back.  You have allied yourself with him, joined his tribe.  No debate or new facts will turn you back now.

Propaganda is salesmanship of the highest order. ….

And so it is with all story-telling.  I set the agenda which may have some tiny relevance to you and then proposes a course of action which you follow.  We must at some level agree.  You must continue nodding and saying “yes” every so often at my clever observations. This is why I may create a character to tell the story with so there is a layer of defence and he or she can carry on while all the time we’re agreeing that this narrator is a bit of a jerk.

And we agree because the world I describe to you is complete and you never have the chance to look up and say “that doesn’t sound right”

At the end you may well surface from the fantasy spluttering in disbelief.  But the story-teller has the pay off line something like “Makes you think, doesn’t it?”  and having constructed this alternative world where bears live in cottages or people with different coloured skins are somehow inferior, then the audience does think and has already accepted this remote possibility. What was fantastical becomes somehow normalised. As I mentioned in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy phase, a fantasy becomes a possibility, becomes a probability, becomes a “Why Not?” Next time, that story is that much easier to tell. 

Propaganda is not rhetoric

Of course, what we are hearing here is rhetoric and often the two things are mixed up.  When we think of propaganda we often think of the great dictators making impassioned speeches that sway crowds to their bidding but propaganda is usually far more insidious than that. Great rhetoric is there to persuade but it needs a step by step careful logic. Rhetoric may put both sides of a case even if it comes down on one side or another. Propaganda does not need logic, it can make leaps and assumptions based in prior agreements between the speaker and the audience. The enemy of propaganda is logic and reason. And, indeed, like salesmanship and advertising it works best on the emotional pleasure centres. it works best with visual images, associations with familiar faces, with feeling that you are one of the crowd.

Propoganda relies on repetition

However much you disagree, if you hear it often enough it will become part of your thinking. It worms into your sub conscious. It becomes familiar. You may even make jokes about it. Harmless banter. What we call today “Normalisation”. It joins all those other tropes and memes that wash round your consciousness and in the end…

And indeed, does propaganda consist of any more lies than my fictions about imaginary characters?  Is it any more self serving then me trying to winkle a few quid out of you to buy a ticket to see a play I wrote or download one of my books from Amazon?  Is it any more manipulative than Jane Austen’s attempts to get you to look in the wrong direction in her novels?  Is it not even any more malicious than Daniel Defoe’s pops at the government of the day. I suppose what makes it propaganda is the fact that these elements are all brought together in a deliberately slick and highly crafted way for the other side.   Whilst all our stories are well reasoned rational arguments eschewing the weapons of rhetoric for our own point of view.

And, come to that, what is the difference between propaganda and the advertising we are surrounded with every second of every day?  Some of the greatest stories of our contemporary age are those of advertisements.  You know the sort of thing:  Man buys self assembly bed from Ikea.  Is unable to assemble same.  Blue colour grading. Marital disharmony, children cry because man unable to provide Rice Krispies for breakfast.  Man gets in Ford Focus, goes to B&Q and buys Black and Decker power drill.  Warm colour grading.  Bed assembled.  Family happy.  All eat Bird’s Eye fish fingers for tea. Closing shot of bed assembled with good looking wife lounging on it.  Man stands triumphant with Black and Decker cradled in arms.  It is so obvious, so basic we would never fall for it.  But the story telling is so powerful that we do fall for it.  Every time. Other wise you wouldn’t know any of those brand names above.  Look at the voting patterns in any country in the world. Story telling wins three nil against rationality every single time.

Spin Doctors

Churchill.

I’m desperately sorry to be part of such a grubby undertaking. But, heigh ho, as I’ve said before, if I was capable of doing anything else I would.