It’s 2016 and there’s still a lot of people who are skeptical about the control communication has over society, therefore the results of certain elections cause astonishment . Is it possible for society to be reliving a cycle where propaganda destroys the people’s ideals just by using the “right” words?
Politic propaganda grew stronger during the Russian Revolution and it’s turned into an ideological weapon used by the communist state with the intention to guide the masses, a weapon to reach the people and impose the vision of the world and the state that the political leader wants to create. Posters and cartoons communicated effectively through pictures, which made them ideal mediums for the Bolsheviks to spread their message of revolution.
Nazi censorship and the education system had an important role at the time of communication and creation of ideals for the people. Hitler knew the power that lied in the bombarding of propaganda since World War I, he was aware of the value and mobilizing power persuasion has at the moment of moving multitudes to pursue their objectives.
Joseph Goebbels, Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda of the Nazi government is considered the father of the propaganda mechanism, he was in charge of centralizing and monopolizing the media and communications system. Goebbels was an expert on the psychology of the masses and communications, with the ability to transform a character like Hitler in a brilliant and crucial leader, a hero that would give Germany its honor back at least in the eyes of his millions of followers.
Power was reached based in eleven principles created by Goebbels but inspired in studies and characteristics of the fundamentals of communications. Some of them are:
- Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige.
- Propaganda must be carefully timed.
- Propaganda must affect the enemy’s policy and action.
- Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans.
- Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.
Le Bon noted that, in many cases, the mob’s influence can be traced to its leader: a charismatic individual who exhorts a large mass of followers to act in ways that run counter to accepted practice: “As soon as a certain number of living beings are gathered together, whether they be animals or men, they place themselves instinctively under the authority of a chief”.
Propaganda is deeply rooted to feelings and the psychology of the society, psychological techniques bounded to persuasion and suggestion make the insertion of ideologies into the group easier. People believe that the ideals are inserted in people’s minds, but the ideals are already planted in the psychology of the population; the propaganda and suggestion only enhance them.
Goebbels left an important intellectual inheritance to all the political leaders after World War II, that is continually used by governments and institutions around the world. The younger population has to be more aware of what’s going on around them, be educated about the propaganda and your ideals, of what you want for your country and for society as whole before casting a vote or choosing a political party to support.
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