In Listen to Britain, Jennings is selling a myth of national unity; that in spite of pre-war differences all classes were united in war socialism but it's a bottom up view that highlights individuality, the "unity within difference". Having learnt through Mass Observation that the British people were uncomfortable with detecting propaganda, Jennings used a poetic style to mask it. The use of sound was vital in this, allowing the montage of shots to imply hidden meaning, such as the sound of an unseen aircraft on a seemingly peaceful day. Edgar Anstey feared the "beauty" would detract from the message and when the film was released in America, an introduction was added because the art had made the message ambiguous. Only at the end was the film's ambiguity dropped as Rule, Britannia! plays out over a sequence that at last implies 'totalised' unity. "Propaganda finally wins out over poetry".
We have our own propaganda, of course, as all countries do.
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If you tell a lie enough times, it become believable and the "truth". We've seen this from the last administration.
ReplyDeleteThat they were so willing to lie and now so willing to continue to lie... That so many are willfully ignorant, willing to believe just coz [insert name here] says so, unwilling to do the slightest bit of fact-checking but continue to spread the lie without even attempting to provide evidence... It's pathetic. But here we are.
DeleteInteresting. Some lessons are never learned. The ignorance of our citizenship is stunning.
ReplyDeleteAin't that the truth! :(
DeleteI'm nearly finished reading a book called These Truths. That reminded me a bit of the book, too. Of course, we live in a world where "fake news" didn't exist until five years ago. I DO remember what Ike said about the military-industrial complex, though. You can dress propaganda up in different clothes coming from different faces and religions, and it will still be propaganda.
ReplyDeleteYes. Recognizing it is an effort. And you have to be willing to make the effort.
Delete...propaganda has and will always be with us.
ReplyDeleteSadly. We should be on the lookout for it.
DeleteHumans will always try to control other humans, it seems. Propaganda is one big way--as we can see today--both here and around the world. Wherever it can take root, sadly, it will grow. That is one hellofa paragraph. So true.
ReplyDeleteThe indoctrination starts early, fed by lies, and the propaganda works. It's pathetic what lies some people can swallow :(
DeletePropaganda, biased news, fake news, we need to be constantly vigilant! That was a quote from Mad Eye in Harry Potter. Valerie
ReplyDeleteConstant vigilance is exactly what it takes. You have to be able to recognize it for what it is.
DeleteThe most dangerous propaganda isn't coming from the government, it's coming from our evening news and education system. Both parties try to spin their policies in the most positive light hopefully most people realize this. Where the news has disguised opinion as facts and the schools have replaced education with indoctrination.
ReplyDelete"Both parties" is another example of the "both sides" nonsense the news on the left is full of. I see it when I hear the PBS NewsHour interview yet another far-right elected official refusing to debunk the big lie while the interviewer refuses to address it by providing actual facts. I don't know what evening news you watch. The news I watch doesn't disguise opinion as fact, but clearly distinguishes between them. Things like NewsMax making fun of Biden's dandelion moment, on the other hand... I swear I don't know how anybody can watch them. School textbook selection has long been an issue and religious sermonizing disguised as school prayer did a lot of damage until it was stopped -I agree those are good examples of an indoctrination that erases history more than moving a statue was ever in danger of doing. The demonizing of everything that benefits the people as a whole instead of the top 1%, naming it "socialism" and "communism" in turn, because they don't understand the difference or what either one is is an example of the fear and ignorance out there. Oh, I could go on. This isn't a "both sides" moment.
DeleteIt is a both sides moment unless you believe all the nonsense that politicians spew. We have infrastructure now including preshool and elder care weather you agree with the proposal or not it's a stretch to call those infrastructure. If you want to go straight to fear mongering how about every election cycle the Dem's telling us how the GOP is going to gut social security.
DeleteThe only reason a person wouldn't see the news media (mainline ABC, CBS,,NBC, FOX) as skewing the facts with opinion and bias is because they agree with the so called facts, given some of it is subtle.
Schools are spending so much time on nonsense the 1619 project, critical race theory that we end up with children who can't make change or read a clock.
That you disagree that "both parties" isn't a fit for what's going on in politics today doesn't surprise me.
DeleteThis: "We have infrastructure now including preshool and elder care" is just not true, and I'd love to see you defend it. Our infrastructure is crumbling, and our preschools and elder care are an expense that makes it impossible to say "we have [them]". Some have them, that's true. The meme I posted isn't about the current incarnation of any particular bill being considered today.
That you put FOX in a list of "mainline" media outlets with ABC, CBS, and NBC is an odd choice. I didn't say the news I watch doesn't include opinion, but that it's readily discernable as opinion and not part of the news reporting segments. "Subtle" lol That some people can't tell the difference is a shame, but I'm not one of those people. I make an effort to root out the facts and fact-check what I see and hear. That some people don't bother is why The Big Lie lives on and why trump continues to have influence in these days.
I'm unfamiliar with how the public school systems are run where you are. Here, the reason some kids can't make change has nothing to do with "the 1619 project, critical race theory".
I go back to that meme I posted here, I read that last sentence again, and I agree with it wholeheartedly. That Republicans yell "socialism" or "communism" and sometimes both every time Democrats propose using our tax dollars to support anything other than "a piratically over-inflated military-industrial complex" or "to ease the tax burden of the immensely wealthy" is a damning indictment of the current GOP.
If your spending time on the 1619 project or critical race theory that's time you could be teaching kids reading, writing, and arithmetic. The proposal that Biden is trying to ram through includes both elder care and pre-school.
DeleteAgain, I don't know how your schools are managed, but here there are blocks of time set aside for reading, math, history, social studies, etc., so the use of any particular history curriculum framework does not take any time away from other classes. No one here is currently using the 1619 project framework in classrooms. Are they using it there? That's also the case here with Critical Race Theory. Those have become buzzwords with the far-right crowd, who don't seem to have actually read anything about them or how they might be connected with public school classrooms that are young enough to still be teaching "reading writing, and arithmetic".
DeleteBiden is not "trying to ram through" anything but is meeting with members of both parties trying to work out a way forward. Your statement that "We have infrastructure now including preshool and elder care" is what I'm disagreeing with, not whether or not they're included in Biden's proposal.
The point was that the President and the news media keep calling his proposal infrastructure and a large part is clearly not infrastructure. In Ohio, at least in grade school time allotment for classes is not clearly defined. I'm not going to try to say exactly what was in Biden's executive order from a week to 10 days ago but it had something to do with mandating the use of curriculum that includes critical race theory.
DeleteI'd need to see that executive order and can't find it in a quick search. "Critical race theory" is an academic movement, not an educational curriculum. I don't know much about it, but am keeping my ears open. According to Wikipedia: "CRT is loosely unified by two common themes:
DeleteFirst, that white supremacy (societal racism) exists and maintains power through the law.
Second, that transforming the relationship between law and racial power, and also achieving racial emancipation and anti-subordination more broadly, are possible."
That doesn't sound far-fetched to me. It's worth discussing. It is one perspective I'm ready to look at. I've not seen an executive order mandating it in public school curricula. I've never seen any suggestion that it might be used at all except in high school civics classes, but as I say, I don't know much about it.
wowie! I had to read this to my husband! How astute, and so true. After moving to the maverick state of Colorado, land of taxes that get us NOTHING not even road plowing in all this snow, while the people demand their freedom not to wear masks, we are disgusted. Then there is the propoganda that it's heaven on earth while guns are allowed to even the mentally disturbed who routinely mow down innocent bystanders.
ReplyDeleteAmazing how repeatedly saying something even lies or misrepresentations can lead a group to vote against their best interests. I remember a vote to use some excess collected taxes to repair roads that was voted down by republicans here... they bragged that they won! I asked, don't you want safer roads? I was met by neighbors with confused looks and shrugs.
Sounds like TN, where they just passed a law allowing carrying guns without a license, because FREEDOM! while refusing to consider medical marijuana, because, um, uh... what happened to freedom? Talk about propaganda! The anti-marijuana brigade could give lessons.
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