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Does Using The Word 'Propaganda' Help Corporations?
By Ben Mack
11/16/05 "ICH
" -- -- The greatest marketing trick of the 20th
century was the positioning of propaganda. Marketing is propaganda.
Positioning propaganda as distinct from other forms of marketing is
state-of-the-art persuasion.
The definition of Propaganda varies greatly by source. The Catholic
Church coined the word "propaganda" in 1622 within the Sacra
Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, which was commissioned by Pope
Gregory XV. One of Pope Gregory's accountants came to the conclusion
that it was more cost effective to teach Catholicism than to invade
and force conversion. The accountant had the insight to recognize
that a territory could be acquired less expensively by converting
people's minds. It might take more time, but if you convert the
minds, the bodies will follow. And, converting minds is less
expensive than physically enforcing new sovereignty.
The word propaganda has radically changed during the 20th Century.
In the Introduction to the re-release of Edward Barnays' Propaganda,
Mark Crispin Miller explains, "Prior to World War One, the word
propaganda was little-used in English, except by certain social
activists, and close observers of the Vatican; and, back then,
propaganda tended not to be the damning term we know today."
Many people see propaganda as marketing. Many Americans are waking
up from a propaganda-induced coma yelling things like, "They lied!
They packaged a lie and they sold it to me." Great. Many of these
same folks then rant about the evils of propaganda. Their anger is
long overdue. But, bashing propaganda strengthens the control of the
world's greatest oppressor, our present form of world government,
Corporatocracy.
The division between government and corporations is blurry at best
and illusory at worst. Evidence of corporate influence on government
continues to mount. Corporate contributions to politicians is
regularly reported. The payouts appear to extend beyond campaign
contributions: in the '05 Halloween issue of The New Yorker James
Surowiecki reported that the average portfolio of a Senator grew
twelve percent annually, four-times the growth of money managers
described as genius for their performance during the same period.
The deepest division between government and corporations is in the
minds of consumers holding a distinction between propaganda and
marketing.
Statements defining marketing as propaganda are regularly dismissed
as "merely semantics." This perspective either ignores the meaning
of the word semantics or how marketing works.
Semantic adj: of or relating to the study of meaning and changes of
meaning; "semantic analysis" (WordNet (r) 2.0, (c) 2003 Princeton
University)
Influencing meaning and changes in meaning is the goal of marketing.
Behaviors are changed by altering perceptions. When we see things
differently we act differently. Beliefs, attitudes and constructions
of categories are the primary levers of shifting perception.
Marketing manipulates the meaning of symbols, images and
associations. Marketing affects changes in meaning or it's not good
marketing. Marketing is applied semantics, either actively changing
perceptions or staving-off potential changes.
In business, semantic analysis is often called consumer research, a
$100,000,000,000/year business. That expenditure does not include
the trillions of dollars required to leverage the insights garnered
through consumer research.
The business community is obliterating the distinctions between
propaganda and marketing. Paul B. Farrell of Investor's Business
Daily warns, "Wall Street's 'Fabulous Brainwashing, Mind-Control,
Propaganda & Hype Machine' is in full swing. Call it the
'Brainwashing Machine' for short. And you're the target. They want
your money." (Wall Street's 'Brainwashing Machine'; October 31,
2005) Farrell is pointing out that businesses will communicate
anything to help the big players make more money. Farrell is calling
business communications propaganda.
In America's spreading economy, money makes right. Isn't that the
goal of spreading Capitalism? Let the market correct itself. Money
will dictate who gets what. Money is the essence that bonds
propaganda and marketing. When you influence people, you redirect
the flow of money. It is less expensive to market an idea to a
population than to take the region by force.
Unless we can create a mutually exclusive distinction,
distinguishing propaganda from marketing is like holding a
distinction between drugs and alcohol, it's a semantic distinction.
There are billions of dollars to be lost if alcohol is lumped in
with drugs, and there are trillions of dollars to be lost if
Corporatocracy is held accountable for crimes against humanity.
Semantics is the heart of marketing. While semantics is the analyses
of change in meaning, marketing is about controlling the change.
Meaning is not limited to words, but words are a common way we
discuss meaning. Wittgenstein asserts he can only know things for
which he has a word:
"The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is
what I have words for."—Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosopher (1889 –
1951)
But, language works the other way, too. Having two words can blind
people from seeing that separate labels represent the same idea.
Distinguishing drugs and alcohol is an obvious example. A subtle
example can be found in mathematics: elliptic curves and modular
forms. Having two separate labels so blinded the mathematical
community that the original conjecture by Taniyama and Shimura was
universally ridiculed by the their professional community,
compelling Taniyama to commit suicide. Why is this important?
Because, math is supposed to be immune to psychological tricks and
politicking. Because, suicide is only a particular of the stakes of
this discussion. Genocide is the real stake of this of this game.
Propaganda is the feel-good pill of a fascist agenda. That's what
these words mean today: "Religion is the opiate of the masses."
Propaganda is what facilitates fascist citizens to believe they're
supporting what's good and right. The keystone of manufacturing
these beliefs is in controlling meaning. Words become the crux of
this control. "The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the
manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you
can control the people who must use the words." Philip K. Dick,
Novelist (1928-1982)
This is a war for reality. Consensus reality is held in place by the
masses. The commonly used words and their common meanings have great
impact. Monitoring these meanings, and affecting the change of these
meanings, is the dynamic implicit in Lippman's phrase,
"manufacturing consent."
Who will help us fight propaganda? Corporations. Corporations are
not only willing to help us fight propaganda, if we reach a critical
mass they'll flame the passions of the fight. As they market the
need to fight propaganda, they'll sell us all the equipment we need.
As they investigate our fight against propaganda, they monitor and
affect its usage.
Bashing propaganda is akin to demonizing street drugs,
gerrymandering the mental landscape to favor corporate products. Are
street drugs evil, worse than what is for sale at grocery stores? It
is difficult to prove that illegal drugs do less harm to society
than alcohol and tobacco. So, what is the difference? Illegal drugs
are sold by pirates, moneymakers outside of the official control of
government and taxation.
Propaganda is employed by governments to garner consensus while
advertising is the marketing of corporations, to make money? This is
a vacuous distinction. This distinction ignores the impact that
corporations have on what we traditionally call a government.
Moreover, this distinction ignores that governments are
incorporated.
Generally, the American public won't call product advertising
propaganda even when the advert lies about itself or a competitive
product. The word propaganda is reserved for "political" or
"military" communications, and this selective use reinforces a
mental distinction between companies and governments, a distinction
that is questionable given their intimate relationship and
revolving-door staffing.
Propaganda is a tool. Propaganda is a weapon in the war for reality,
but holding propaganda as inherently evil is like saying that TNT is
evil. TNT and Propaganda are both strong forces. They can be used to
construct or destroy. Many times, something needs to be destroyed
before something new can be built.
Maintaining a mental distinction between corporations and
governments can fabricate a virtual consensus. There are three
primary faces of corporations: governments, churches and companies.
There are plenty of ancillary faces: non-profits, cities, NPOs among
others. One type of corporation can quote the other as if they were
distinct institutions, creating an echo chamber where one voice
appears as a chorus of consensus, a concert performed by mass media.
Propaganda is the marketing of an engineered reality. Relegating the
word "propaganda" to the subset of corporations called government
fuels the engine of Corporatocracy.
Edward Bernays' 1928 seminal work entitled Propaganda binds all
social endeavors with propaganda, "Whatever of social importance is
done today, whether in politics, finance, manufacture, agriculture,
charity, education, or other fields, must be done with the help of
propaganda. Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible
government."
If propaganda is any intentionally persuasive communication, then
all marketing is propaganda. Those who control the media have a
great deal to lose if mass media is suddenly perceived as a
propaganda mechanism. Their preemptive strike was to label mass
media as liberal and opposing big business. Mass media requires
sponsorship, usually in the form of advertisements. The only mass
media today without corporate or government sponsorships is the
occasional website.
This is a political issue. Sustaining a distinction between politics
and business requires continual marketing. Like every political
issue, today, the preliminary skirmishes will be fought with images
and ideas on the battlefield for your mind known as television.
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