Recently I visited the National Holocaust Museum. I have intended to visit there for quite some time and have been even more interested since the installation of the special exhibit entitled “State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda.”

The permanent exhibition of the museum is sheer gravitas.  Even when one has significant knowledge of the topic of The Holocaust, the presentations of the museum bring a much greater depth to understanding that when man dispenses with the knowledge of nominal morality, all measures of evil are possible.  Methods of propaganda were among the human designs that caused these things to occur.

A portion of the State of Deception exhibit provided a concise description of the integrated methods of propaganda.  An open-minded viewing of these details validates concerns that these methods continue to be used today to control society and enslave the individual into service of seen and unseen masters.  Recognizing these methods quickly removes the veneer and allows us to see through what is otherwise effective deception.

Perhaps a description that is common to the Nazi use and the uses we witness today could be this: A systematic deception through grand promises made to a populace that desires to accept the lies.

The ultimate aim of propaganda is to shape and manipulate the ideas, values, and actions of a society in order to fundamentally, and perhaps permanently change that society, or to disarm the society from resisting a political agenda.  Within the Holocaust Museum website, the purpose of the Nazi propaganda is described thus:

Propaganda served as an important tool to win over the majority of the German public who had not supported Hitler and to push forward the Nazis’ radical program, which required the acquiescence, support, or participation of broad sectors of the population.

The State of Deception exhibit is very extensive in covering the specifics of the Nazi propaganda methods.  Particularly, the iconography in itself is worth an extensive study.  However, of most interest to us today is the reduction to the basic methods that we again see in use today.  These fundamentals of propaganda include a broader structure of power acquisition as well as more specific practices that are imposed as an ongoing process.

The broad structure includes these things:

• A simple message
• Cult of a leader
• Creation of affiliated organizations to attract a wide range of supporters
• Use of outright terror or intimidation

The more specific process includes:

• Simplifying of issues
• Advertising a cause
• Playing on emotion
• Attacking opponents
• Targeting desired audiences
• Using tools of mass communication

Listed in this way, these things nearly look like the elements of any public relations campaign or a targeted marketing campaign.  As similar methods, effectively these are the same things.  So, other than through the “terror and intimidation” part where does the evil come in?

The evil enters as the content or the aims of the campaign.  The propaganda methods are intended to change the thinking of the target audience in a way that disassociates the change of mind from the values held, or previously held, by the target audience.  Propaganda can install a false knowledge within the mind and in turn it intends to change the value system within the target audience in such a way that the audience then chooses to carry out the will of the propagandist.  This could be a will to action or a will to acquiescence.

Today, our society is very vulnerable to methods of propaganda.  It is so because of our lack of grounding in solid values.  The affluent consumer society is one based upon chasing after the next thrill of consumerism, the thrill to quench the next peer pressure hunger.  The power and influence of pop culture is a moment-by-moment demonstration of the shallowness of many members of our society.  We are maneuvered further into a zone of vulnerability every time one of us becomes disabused of deeply held fundamental, objective, transcendent values.  When we give up on those, we become putty in the hands of the propagandist.

Countering the methods of propaganda consists of two major areas of thought process.  First, each of us must endeavor to discover and hold to a set of personal values, the things that we determine to be our fundamental morality as determined by intuitive and rational processes.  Second, we must simply dissect the methods of the propagandist.  Applying these two simultaneously, individually we may constantly apply our values to the interpretation of the things we see, read, and hear, and to the choices we make about how we apply our resources of wealth, time, study and association.

The process of determining those fundamental values is beyond the scope of this article.  That is a life-long enterprise.  However, here are a few thoughts on disassembling the methods of the propagandist as mentioned above.

Simple messages and simplification of issues:

A message may be simple, but an issue rarely is.  Every issue, policy and decision produces ripples throughout the universe.  Through simplification of a message, the expected ripples and perhaps the real intent of the advocacy are hidden.  On the other hand, messages of virtue can be simple, profound and create ripples of goodness.

Cult of a leader:

This metaphor may be out of fashion because of its presumed lack of “gender equality.”  Oh well…  It goes like this: “He puts his pants on the same as you, one leg at a time.”  The point of this is to claim that no man is Superman, and no man is a god.  Therefore, each is fallible just as each has something to offer to humanity.  Men of actual or imagined great stature become the worshipped object of other men who do not know how to comprehend or worship the real God.  Often is the case that cult figures are followed because of their promise of an earthly salvation or deliverance from calamity.  History usually discredits these claims over time.  They are mere mortals as are we.

Affiliated organizations:

Propaganda efforts may build ideological arms that are not openly connected to the head of the beast but are in fact crucial to the movement.  Multiple organizations that are surreptitiously aligned create an image of broad-based support.  These methods appeal to the natural followers, those who are looking for a place to belong.  The propagandist merely designs multiple ‘band wagons’ that are figuratively painted in the colors of various affinity groups.  By dividing society into specialized groups, the propagandist can then develop target messages that will appeal to each group.  With sufficient focus and effective division, the various messages can even be contradictory as each group comes to believe itself as the favorite, the one that is not being lied to

Intimidation (and terror):

Those weak in conviction, courage and moral fortitude will be intimidated by even subtle words.  Intimidation must be dealt with on two levels.  In the area of knowledge, we must be firm in our belief of an objective truth, have strength in reasoned convictions and be aware of a complete lack of shame on the part of the propagandist in his use of lies and threats.  In the area of courage, which is both moral and physical, we must know that if we allow intimidation to be successful, we will ultimately be enslaved.  There is a significant paradox here: When we come to terms with our mortality, we become invincible.  On the other hand, if we believe that to live forever is our right and our goal (as irrational as it is), we shall never preserve freedom.

Causes:

“It just shouldn’t be this way, therefore the government should do something about it.”  Those who expect a heaven on earth will forever be disappointed, but first they will be vulnerable to the idea that the propagandist can deliver such a world.  This is the thought of the simpleton, the one who fails to recognize the likely hidden agenda of social control of people intended by the cause.  In the past, “causes” were frequently intended to influence individuals to adjust their choices.  However, in the current era, “causes” are usually intended to result in the imposition of legal restrictions or mandates upon the whole of society.

Emotion:

Appealing to emotion is used to maneuver around our rational thought.  This method is often characterized by the use of images, music, and glittering generalities within speeches and slogans.  Initially our minds interpret images and the spoken word at a primal level.  Unless we endeavor to look completely past the medium and analyze only content, we will be significantly influenced through irrational paths in our minds.  One can defeat the effects of emotional appeals by ignoring the pageantry of the propagandist and instead by using written text as the primary source on information for analysis.

Attacking opponents:

The propagandist intends to discredit or destroy the opposition before the opposition has had an opportunity to speak.  The propagandist knows he cannot afford to engage in open and fair debate.  A speaker of the truth should not expect fair play.  A speaker of the truth should not expect an opportunity for open and fair debate.  When the propagandist goes on attack, a frontal fight against them may not be fruitful.  Lies can be produced at a rate faster than truth can be communicated.  Therefore, lateral action is necessary.  Perhaps clean living is the best defense.  Put simply, the righteous must remain righteous.  Constantly, we must be cultivating within society an intellectual capacity that becomes fertile ground for application of reason, intuitive values and appeals to natural law. …and never, never, never give up.

Targeted audiences:

Related to causes and affiliated organizations, the propagandist identifies targeted audiences.  The propagandist will first divide the populace into various markets and then develop specific messages to apply to each market.  A specific target may be chosen to incite to action.  Or an audience, may be specifically targeted to be disarmed, assuaged, or bribed away from their moral objection.  Audiences that may be resistant to the propagandist, and cannot be co-opted into the propagandist’s camp, will become a target for destruction for the propagandist.

Mass communication:

Until recently, mostly because of the economics, mass communication consisted of messages emanating from a few central sources.  These sources were determined by the concentration of capital resource that was required to establish the infrastructure of methods of distribution of the message.  That was the old media.  In the context of countering the methods of propaganda, the internet is nothing less than a game-changer.  There is a natural appetite for the truth and there is a natural desire for people to tell the story as they saw it.  In the absence of filters that can be imposed upon old media broadcast nodes, the power of knowledge is returned to the people who are casually willing to look for that knowledge.  Effectively, anyone who has an Internet connection, now also has the opportunity to control a printing press, a worldwide telegraph, a radio station, and a television station.  Amazing.  This is a very good thing.

Although it holds some beauty, and for now is home to us, this world contains a dark nature, a nature of evil against which the good will always struggle.  The fight for freedom, the fight for the rights of the individual, and the striving to pass on virtue to our succeeding generations, is a fight that must never end.  Evil is among us, the great deceiver walks this earth, and the use of propaganda is merely one method he uses to sell his lies.

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