On Propaganda and Advertising 1-12

Propaganda cannot be written about without writing propaganda. In any event, one should fully understand one's enemy...
1. On Rhetoric and Propaganda
i. Rhetoric may be defined as the art of persuasive and effective expression of language, which may or may not contain insincerity or pretense. This tool is utilized for maximum advantage in all things by the propagandist. For any work, style and structure are important considerations determined and dependant upon both the desired effect and the target audience. For example, self-identified intellectuals desire and respond to appeals to the intellect, and may be stroked like a cat to achieve the aims of the propagandist. On the other hand, a less well formally-educated target may require a more blunt approach. Job loss fears are easy means. Optimal efficiency is the primary consideration. Knowledge is essential for mitigation. Errors always provide fruit. Extreme situations require specificity in focus, and must be decisive. The rhetoric employed must leave no doubt of the speaker's verbal sincerity even when questionable. Even when knowing better, the most determined adversary will respect those whom seemingly believe what they advocate. Often prior propaganda will provide fertile ground for planting additional seeds to be utilized later on for the appearance of consistency. Base appeals are preferable by allowing raw emotion to be harnessed and exploited for maximum advantage. Being less susceptible to rationality, psychological triggers are most effective when manipulating "gut" emotional reactions. Despite outward appearances, unless intentionally agitating an adversary, the successful propagandist never goes against the grain. Allowing less energy to be spent for maximum effect, the path of least resistance is always preferable. The ingrained is always more comfortable. Prejudices and stereotypes utilize the least effort by virtue of proven reliability. Tailored to fit a certain personality type, additional methods include archetypal appeals. The advertising industry is built upon this practice. Of course, nobody ever believes themselves susceptible, only others. Multifaceted approaches operate like a drift net. Some fish may escape, but the bulk will not, and even these may be useful for spawning purposes. After all, the propagandist may always claim dissenters have a right to their opinion, thereby demonstrating a supposed willingness to respect opposing points of view. Outright falsehoods and blatant exaggerations should by avoided at all cost. Rather than employed as a hammer, lies should be like grains of sand. On a large scale, burying is more efficient than bludgeoning. Few targets will appreciate being played for a fool and stand for it twice. The best tools are willing. No matter how skillful the rhetoric, nobody trusts an exposed liar. Mistakes are opportunities. Lies are stupid. Rather, the optimal approach involves exploiting established myths and supposed truths which contain very little substance beneath their hollow shells. Progress is the best tool for the job. Nobody can define it, but all believe they know it when they see it. Even under technical standards, which may always be suitably redefined, the greatest lies are always open to interpretation. The propagandist is best advised to erect a thick facade of sincerity. The best building material is propaganda already present and accepted. Political campaigns almost always center upon deeply ingrained themes. Convictions are instilled by constant repetition. Sheer bulk exposure creates the impression of widespread concern. Extreme points-of-view are given attention far beyond import. In a society where money matters, the talent largely does what it is told. Sales and Ratings are everything. Resources are difficult to replace. The alternative press cannot reach a broad audience or largely appeal to top talent. Until the poorest communities are wired through public computing networks, minority appeal is submerged. Systemic solutions are invalid. The possibilities seem worse, because the present order glitters. A void is filled with wants rather than needs, an anti-natural situation, which validates the faithful through passive participation in unfolding events. The system validates itself. A need is supposedly fulfilled through rhetoric. None will ever admit their own ignorance of issues or impotence over world events. Besides control is exercised in other more immediate concerns. Only the jobless start revolutions. At present, the relatively well-off population is not generally starving (at least in urban areas) and kept busy one way or another. Like a shorn lynch-pin, an economic depression would prove disastrous. Only the insane would pull such a structure down prematurely. Are the deranged always wrong? Policy decisions require passive approval, and an advocate who appears sure of the course will experience less obstacles than those who waver. The opponent is the misguided. Compromise is maximum advantage where both win. Who can resist? The day will come, sooner or later, but not necessarily made to order. Propaganda will often facilitate acceptance among the passive or uncommitted. Those using its tools become the enemy. Few will admit it. Power beats even money. It must be earned. The age of kings is over. The shadow creeps across the land. If this economic system were to collapse, what will be the replacement? Debate is simply another avenue of support for the machine. Talk leads nowhere but allows a safety valve. Having been enshrined in law, the First Amendment is the most powerful myth. It may be abused. We see it all as good. One wonders if a corporation is a person. It certainly is not a human organism. Portraying opposing viewpoints as not credible through guilt by association is a common tactic. Mediocrity is rampant for one reason or another. Of course, it is never our fault. It just happens. Technique systematically creates such impressions by washing overboard and drowning true discourse. The opposition negates itself through its own contradictions. Many people simply do not belong in the present era. Being forced into avenues demanded by the modern age, these sort are removed and easily systemically negated. On the other hand, idealists are the blind by-products of the modern era, and are best dealt with by facilitating the creation of verbal worlds off-center from their idealistic intent. The commonalities exploited are based on language and symbol. Thought may be influenced. The pragmatist will always win over abstractions in a world of concrete concerns. Be sure to hand the idealistic just enough rope...
2. The world view espoused and created by propaganda utilized for maximum advantage has dual purpose. Targets must be capable of being agitated by conditioned trigger responses while remaining largely submissive. The populace must be capable of emotional restraint. Discontent must be re-channeled. The propagandist will often become caught in his own web. Personalities oriented towards control must subdue themselves first. Mouthpieces may ride the wave but will always be engulfed one way or another. Any challenger will always employ the same methods. Tools mold their users. Mediocrity does not have much imagination. The less perilous road is best traveled for Maximum Advantage. Generalities will not trap one as a fly in amber. Corruption is a mistake. Every scheme has its limits. Like a controlled blaze which becomes a wildfire, some measures should be pondered with care. Specifics are highly flammable. Supposed truths should remain hazy and vague enough to offer at least partial concealment. The inclusive provides the best cover. After all, most opponents will also inhabit such realms (or believe they do). Unity maintains systems for maximum advantage by seizing a middle ground for opportunists to further their aims and goals. An opportunist would be ill-advised in not seizing any double edged swords to avoid nullification by their consequences. Unless some honorable defeat is desired, a call to arms will only benefit the opportunist unless successful. Hence, in the United States, the power structure has chosen to exploit appeals to patriotism rather than outright crass nationalism. Benefits are insured even in defeat. The ideal lives and may be called upon in future conflicts including those against internal adversaries. Devotion may always be questioned. The concept of "Un-American" really has no exact counter-part, and cannot be compared with any mere nationalistic concept. This allows the power structure a security unseen in history without invoking religion or boring Marxist rhetoric. The absence of the present order is simply unimaginable by the great mass of the populations, rendering the remaining tiny minority essentially inconsequential or exploited as proof of its benevolence and need. Mutability is also another great strength. Cosmetic change does not alter the actual balance of power in any significant manner. Stagnation is death. Internal stability is achieved by a mix of the mythical and tangible. Policy is best enforced through acquiescence rather than police truncheons, and any rogue elements may be cast adrift, ensuring easy survival of the whole. The power structure will not always win, but will never loose. Even defeat in war, both internally and externally, changes nothing fundamental, only the window dressing. The air is dense and stagnant. A boil is simply never reached. The rational is used as a cloak. Fluidity is efficiency is survival.
3. On War
Obviously, propaganda may be utilized to whip-up nationalist and patriotic sentiments in support of war. Strangely, not one single individual would ever admit to ever being influenced by any propaganda. We all just happen to think that way. The ego would never admit or accept that kind of realization of malleability. All egos are inflated in a media-driven society. Despite its power, propaganda does have limits. Immunity does develop. Conscription is now a matter of last resort. A clash between verbal worlds and reality will ultimately prove fatal for the former. In an age which does not value loyalty for its own sake, propaganda may not erase the reality of brothers and sons being returned home in body bags for no good reason. However, the enemy is a different matter, provided the carnage is kept as abstract as possible. An entire population may be starved provided no one actually sees it. Any casualties inflicted by the enemy must be portrayed to appear as much as victims of terrorist acts. Only the deranged would dare challenge official policy. Death may always be exploited to maximum advantage in all things. Agitation is a fine art. Too much or not enough will backfire. The gulf war learned much from the experiences of Vietnam. War must be kept as unreal as possible. The ease is amazing. Lest they be crushed like insects, any contemplating armed insurrection had best keep this new reality in mind...
4. On thinking
The Information Age is the latest incarnation of progress. An informed citizenry believes itself to be free. Progress is defined by increasing freedoms. Similar to a heroin addict, the good citizen feels a drive or need for data, even though possessing none of the analytical skills to digest it properly. This weakness may be easily exploited to maximum advantage in a culture which allows the free dissemination of propaganda. Indeed, the citizen will even pay to be propagandized, allowing financial profit to be gained as a fringe benefit. The advertising industry was among the first to make this realization, and subsequently utilized artistic expression to those ends. In a supposed democracy different viewpoints are accepted, but more radical (or reactionary) viewpoints will often discover an uneven playing field. Their existence is tolerated to allow an outlet, much like a steam valve on a boiling kettle, lest the true status quo ever really be threatened by anything more than words, stupid crap like plastic-hippies beating drums, and damage of insured property. Note the nonexistence in western societies of politically motivated assassinations. Only the lone lunatic remains, easily exploited to maximum advantage in justifying the price tag of the police state. Maintenance propaganda is tailored for the broadest cross section of society by preying on the fears of cattle. The ideal of unity may always be promoted by the crassest of means. The supposed need for data stimulation provides the path of least resistance. Propaganda feeds the cravings of an intangible psychological addiction for data. The individual has an instilled need to feel connected through mass rather than personal communication. Hence, in a materialistic culture, the propagandist, unlike a drug dealer, is never blamed and need take no responsibility for the product and its effects. Thoughts are a commodity like no other, ensuring, at least, the partial co-option of any and all new ideas. The propagandist asks for the highest possible price, and often gets it. Indeed even counter-propaganda has the same effect by continuing to propagate and promulgate the system, thus ensuring the cycle of addiction will never be broken in a technological society.
5. On Decadence
Decadence is exhibited by cultural and social decline, and may be considered a manifestation of disorder in these systems. The ordered life begins to decline, leaving only progress. After all, the idealized and romanticized past would never have tolerated such things. Essentially, a symptom of increased isolation from the base physical world, decadence has many shapes and faces sometimes mistaken for something else. Rather than as an expression of apathy with the world, a skilled propagandist may portray such things as a sign of increased freedom and tolerance. The idle need something to occupy their time, and mental pursuits simply fall short in a materialistic culture. The isolated feel a need to be part of something. Appositional solidarity may be divided and conquered through enabling certain segments to be diverted by decadent pursuits. Some feel the need to be part of the spectacle. As long as vested interests are never actually threatened, indeed actually profit, cultural decadence will be allowed as a safety valve. No matter the effort, the organized opposition will never satisfactorily channel the energy of the decadent. However, they can be guaranteed to keep on trying much like an idiot driver who keeps gunning the engine of a car firmly stuck in the mud. Too many believe in 1960s folklore. Any serious questioners of the current order should not even bother. The decadent are mostly lost. The bond of kinship between opponent and decadent must be severed. The opportunist would be ill advised not to take note of any failures. Associations are among the easiest to exploit.
6. On Conflict
Propaganda is useful for simultaneously alleviating and aggravating conflicts. Emotions best simmer without going beyond the point of control. An entire world view may thus be created based on eternal conflict. Clash and conflict is ripe for exploitation via propaganda. Although the end result may be anti-natural by its complete refusal to deny the possibility of cooperation, it need not be decadent or nihilistic. It depends upon choices or lack thereof. A skilled opportunist will always apply braking mechanisms before reaching the anti-natural. Unfortunately, most are not so talented...
7. Fiction and Myth as Propaganda
Outright lies are best avoided at all costs. Truth may only be bent so far. Even sheep question blatantly false assertions. The world has moved onward. New concepts are required. Subtlety is longer lasting and more efficient than harassment. Lies are out. Fiction and myth are different matters. Fiction, especially when coupled with imagery, is often taken for granted as based on reality. The opportunist must always exploit these tendencies for maximum advantage in all things. Ronald Reagan was a master of these traits because he believed it himself. History has always been re-written by the slanted premises of the ruling elite and power structure but never so easily. Fiction is beyond moral and escape. Ready believers are easily found due to a lack of knowledge considering actual occurrences. How could it be any other way? Crime paranoia may be instilled by a constant barrage of actual, semi-fictional and completely fictional accounts of criminal atrocity. Hence, the greater population supports the world's largest prison industry and calls itself free. Fiction enhances credibility. For instance, science fiction allows billions of dollars to be spent on unworkable schemes like the strategic defense initiative (see Scientific American). Romance novels (and pornography) allow isolation to seem more bearable. After all, that prince (or princess) is just waiting around the corner. Comedy and tragedy have always been utilized to explore moral and ethical issues, but now instills value. The herd is moved by the drama of the stage and literature, all the while suspending disbelief and forgetting it is all just an elaborate (if entertaining) lie. Propaganda is strongest at these openings, especially when exploiting the prestige of their authors and actors.
8. On Reactionaries and Radicals
For the purposes of regimentation, human beings are individuals that must be shaped into a mass. In a supposed democracy, where individuality must be given lip service, a single propagandistic approach will necessarily appeal to some while alienating others. Therefore, competing approaches toward the same aim must often be utilized to ensure unity of purpose if not thought. As long as compliance is widespread it matters little what each individual thinks of it. In fact, this state of affairs is actually most desirable because it requires the individual to incorporate it within the personality and claim it for his own. The non-violent upon whom this approach fails are symbols of a tolerant regime which respects the rights of all to hold divergent opinions. As mentioned above, the violent remainder is crushed and used to justify the expenses of a democratic police state.
9. On Homogeneous and Non-Homogeneous Populations
Being less segmented, homogeneous populations are more easily unified. Lacking the inherent internal divisions of a mixed population, the focus may be directed inward toward supposed improvements and maximized efficiency. All challenges may be portrayed as external. In the case of non-homogeneous populations, internal divisions must be exploited and directed along lines which will not threaten the power structure. Hence, racial differences may be played against one another, whereas class divisions are best avoided, lest one uncorks the genie of class warfare by allowing commonalities to overcome differences. This assertion means absolutely nothing.
10. On Revolutions
Revolution means nothing except change. However, revolution has still managed to maintain some of its mystical connotations. The opportunist will attach these even to the smallest alteration in circumstances, and exploit the result to maximum advantage in all things. Dissent may even be suppressed for a time by a resulting "wait and see" attitude. It might even be true. Revolution may also be coupled with the myth of progress to portray very little as something momentous. Lacking any concrete meaning or definition, any desire for radical change may be blunted by tossing a few insignificant crumbs to feed the birds until the next cycle of discontent. Else why bother?

11. A Warning for Opportunists
A successful propagandist is not necessarily immune to his own craft. Propaganda vectors effect and infect beyond intent. Even if the propagandist does not believe the actual content of the message, the cause may be a different matter, even in cases where pure power is the only motivation. After all, the propagandist must believe in their right or necessity to rule. Propaganda is an inevitable by-product of mass culture and may not be eliminated without its demise. One way or another, all involved are a product of that environment, including and especially its most ardent and vehement critics.

12. On Apologists
Apologists are a strange breed plagued by the guilt of actions they themselves did not personally commit. Their actions are similar to the Christian atonement for perfectly natural actions. The past never ends. The victims are kept in place by reduction. All actions are made equivalent. Hence, the social environment remains static and exploitable to maximum advantage. Being based upon the past actions of others, often long dead, the divisions thus created are artificial. Hence, nothing ever changes. Perhaps the minds of those living in the past are affected by a sort of twisted nostalgia fixated on the negative rather than the usual idealizations more common among the narcissistic. This requires a higher structure to prevent any possible reoccurrences, and its authority will never be questioned by apologists. Eventually, even myths are created to justify the need. In all, the innate evil of human beings is stressed, over the offenders being sad products of their time. As a result, the opportunist will always find the apologist most malleable. The opponent should view these sort as bullet stoppers.