Propaganda: From Mahomet to Mao
by Zaharan Razak on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 1:45pm
Belief in any dogma and its propagation follows a familiar path from Mahomet to Mao.
A dogma is an insistence that yours is the only right way, others are wrong or an intransigent attitude saying, ok, you do it your way, I do my way, your belief is your belief, my belief is my belief, without reference to a third-party benchmark as the intransigent party sees it as another trojan horse, conspiracy or the work of the devil himself. It is proof perfect that the chloroform of propaganda has begun to work its effect and the mind is fast losing its rationality.
The route (ingredients): Ascribe absolute power to an absolute Thing, create a hierarchy to dispense the power on a human scale, create a senior-junior, teacher-pupil relationship to drive home the point/agenda, make a virtue of humility (to make the human mind more receptive, the easier to coerce and manipulate), use the cadre/recruit to attract more recruits or as frontliners (e.g. suicide bombers, drum beaters), create a single, mass icon, language and identity, create an opposable enemiy/ies (reminiscent of opposable thumb), make an example of traitors and turncoats, denounce enemies and traitors with equal ferocity even if only verbally and symbolically, ban any materials - books, icons, symbols, images - of other persuasions, replace reality wth fantasy and mythology, replace or do totally without the rules of science with traditional beliefs and practices, laugh off or herd out any deviant or non-conforming oddballs, emphasize the forms (never mind the substance) by the use of rituals, slogans, dressing, chanting, ceremonies, symbolic buildings, visual arts, the use of all-is-well, formulaic, courtly, cliched language, the use of threats and promises, patronage, appeal to guilt, fear and shame, use of name-calling, the use of soft-hard interrogation method, etc.
The purpose: to create a single, monolithic mass appeal, the mass mind, the easier to manipulate, to maintain the status quo and hierarchy of power. It has produced tribes, feudal societies, totalitarian regimes, communism, dictatorships, absolute monarchies, racism, sexism, cults, religions. History is littered with the effects of their onslaught. The only bulwarks that can contain or slow down their lemming rush over the cliff are science, rationality, the arts, democracy and liberal humanism.
A dogma is an insistence that yours is the only right way, others are wrong or an intransigent attitude saying, ok, you do it your way, I do my way, your belief is your belief, my belief is my belief, without reference to a third-party benchmark as the intransigent party sees it as another trojan horse, conspiracy or the work of the devil himself. It is proof perfect that the chloroform of propaganda has begun to work its effect and the mind is fast losing its rationality.
The route (ingredients): Ascribe absolute power to an absolute Thing, create a hierarchy to dispense the power on a human scale, create a senior-junior, teacher-pupil relationship to drive home the point/agenda, make a virtue of humility (to make the human mind more receptive, the easier to coerce and manipulate), use the cadre/recruit to attract more recruits or as frontliners (e.g. suicide bombers, drum beaters), create a single, mass icon, language and identity, create an opposable enemiy/ies (reminiscent of opposable thumb), make an example of traitors and turncoats, denounce enemies and traitors with equal ferocity even if only verbally and symbolically, ban any materials - books, icons, symbols, images - of other persuasions, replace reality wth fantasy and mythology, replace or do totally without the rules of science with traditional beliefs and practices, laugh off or herd out any deviant or non-conforming oddballs, emphasize the forms (never mind the substance) by the use of rituals, slogans, dressing, chanting, ceremonies, symbolic buildings, visual arts, the use of all-is-well, formulaic, courtly, cliched language, the use of threats and promises, patronage, appeal to guilt, fear and shame, use of name-calling, the use of soft-hard interrogation method, etc.
The purpose: to create a single, monolithic mass appeal, the mass mind, the easier to manipulate, to maintain the status quo and hierarchy of power. It has produced tribes, feudal societies, totalitarian regimes, communism, dictatorships, absolute monarchies, racism, sexism, cults, religions. History is littered with the effects of their onslaught. The only bulwarks that can contain or slow down their lemming rush over the cliff are science, rationality, the arts, democracy and liberal humanism.
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