The post How World War I unleashed total war and the power of propaganda appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>Nov. 11, now called Veterans Day, was originally Armistice Day, a commemoration of the end of World War I, in 1918, the cessation of 50 months of shooting, shelling and killing that claimed the lives of 9 million combatants. It was the Great War, the war to end all wars, but today, 100 years after the armistice was signed, it may chiefly be remembered as the exact opposite of all that — a prelude to many conflicts still to come.
The causes and the operational and geographic details of this truly catastrophic global war have faded from our national memory; nonetheless, we live in a world still shaped by World War I. Geopolitically, it spelled the end of the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany’s colonial empire and Imperial Russia. It terminated European monarchies and literally and disastrously redrew the map of the Middle East. It unleashed modern, industrialized warfare — total war — and it introduced the world to the full extent of the power of modern communications, in the form of the war’s propaganda.
Of course World War I, which began in 1914, was not the first in which participants sought to publicize their aims, the rightness of their cause and the perfidy of their enemies. But it was the first in which mass communication techniques were controlled and deployed by governments for a wide variety of patriotic aims: to demonize their enemies, to attract soldiers, to bolster the morale of their citizens, and to fund the staggering costs of full militarization.
Large-scale public information campaigns were conducted by all the major participant nations and aimed at their own soldiers and civilians, at the enemy forces, and at other nations not yet involved in the war, most notably the United States, which didn’t enter the war until April 1917. Propaganda media included mass-circulation newspapers, advertising, photography, popular cinema, cartoons, songs, magazines and books.
The medium that had lasting impact, and became most emblematic of the war, was vivid propaganda posters. Nearly all war nations produced them, but the most artful and memorable are those of Britain and the United States.
British posters such as “Remember Belgium!” interpreted (or “spun,” we would say now) alleged atrocities including civilian rapes and murders committed by the invading German armies. German soldiers were “Huns,” uncontrolled barbarians whose acts included torching libraries and cathedrals. The German Kaiser became “The Beast of Berlin.” The images were motivational, stoking hunger for justice and revenge and assuring audiences that this war was an existential conflict.
Britain had entered the conflict with a comparatively small volunteer army. Much of its early propaganda sought to promote voluntary enlistments with such slogans as “Come Along Boys, Enlist Today,” and “Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?” After about two years of war, Britain turned to conscription, as had France, Russia and Germany years earlier; “selective service” began in the United States soon after it entered the war. American artist James Montgomery Flagg responded with one of the most durable pieces of U.S. propaganda ever produced, and one now considered not just a patriotic ad, but art: the iconic stern-faced, finger-pointing Uncle Sam: “I Want YOU for the U.S. Army.
U.S. posters, like Britain’s, romanticized military service with such entreaties as “A Wonderful Opportunity for You: United States Navy.” As the war dragged on and costs skyrocketed, the emphasis in propaganda posters shifted to fundraising: “BUY VICTORY BONDS” (the U.S.); “LEND YOUR FIVE SHILLINGS TO YOUR COUNTRY AND CRUSH THE GERMANS” (Britain). Germany and France also sought to fund their war efforts by asking for civilian loans via poster appeals.
As the war dragged on, the horrific casualties mounted, privations on the home front grew and political unrest spread. Military units mutinied, and desertion rates increased. Weary civilians turned cynical. The posters’ optimism, glamorization, appeals to patriotic national symbols and depictions of soldiers’ heroism soured.
The posters are harbingers of the modern state’s ever more sophisticated attempts to sway us. And they are also harbingers of our doubts about those attempts. Britain, the U.S., Germany and France couldn’t paper over the ghastliness and the costs of World War I. Propaganda, after all, is propaganda.
Michael W. Robbins wrote the historical text for the book “Lest We Forget: The Great War — World War I Prints from the Pritzker Military Museum and Library.” This article has been reprinted, with the author’s permission, from the Los Angeles Times.
The post How World War I unleashed total war and the power of propaganda appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>The post Fighting to protect our freedom? appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>I have to share some thoughts about how we are being manipulated into repeating the falsehood that our military men and women are “fighting to protect our freedom.” Everywhere you look, we are forced to see and hear this over and over… at ballgames, big ads in the paper, fundraisers for military families, etc. The fact is that humans have been fighting for power and over resources since the first caveman hit his neighbor over the head with a club in order to steal his food.
Wars have always been about power and resources, and they still are. Empires… Roman, Ottoman, British.. have all been about expanding the limits of their power. The British bragged that the “sun never sets” on their empire because they controlled territory all over the globe. And they were merciless in the way they treated their subjects.
Fast forward a couple of centuries. As the United States grew, the decision makers were just as brutal as the British, Germans, Spanish, Dutch had been centuries before. We eliminated the people who had settled our territory before we Europeans came. Once “westward expansion” was accomplished, we looked beyond the oceans. The Spanish American war was all about resources and distant ports needed for refueling military and domestic ships. After the Spanish surrendered in the Philippine Islands, we stayed another year to put down a rebellion by the people who lived there. That part of the story didn’t used to make it into the history books, but it does now. We took control of those islands and Cuba.
Latin America…. vital resources again. Post WW II, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his brother were on the board of United Fruit Company. The history of our involvement in Central America is nothing short of shameful. No, it wasn’t about stopping the spread of communism, but that made a great fear tactic to get Americans to look the other way when Catholic priests and nuns who had been helping the poor were murdered.
Once the Soviet Union fell apart, the war mongers had to find a new scapegoat/bad guy in order to continue to spend resources on the military. Even though President Eisenhower warned against the “military industrial complex,” and who knew better than he did, we allowed the Pentagon budget to expand to today’s $700 billion a year.
The war on terrorism is the new enemy, and, conveniently for the military industrial complex, terrorists pop up everywhere and will never be “defeated.”
This is not to say there are not good jobs in the military branches of service. I know a local young man who is in the Marines and trained to maintain and repair helicopters and jet planes. That’s a skill he can use as a civilian. But let’s face it, it’s all volunteer now, and that might work for some who want job training or to further their education. But our “freedom” is not in jeopardy. The biggest threat we face today is either nuclear war brought on by our insane president or being killed by a neighbor or family member. We have the “freedom” to own and carry guns anywhere we want. And that is more of a threat to us as individuals than terrorist bombs.
So spare me the nonsense about “fighting for our freedom.” I’d rather have most of that $700 billion spent on education, job training and universal health care for everyone living in our country. And we’d have a lot fewer enemies abroad if we spent some of that money helping desperately poor families overseas instead of bombing them.
The post Fighting to protect our freedom? appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>The post Why he quit: Fox News analyst denounces propaganda channel appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>Calling Fox News “a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration,” Lt. Colonel Ralph Peters [US Army, retired] quit his job as strategic analyst for Fox on March 1, 2018. Peters, a military intelligence veteran who specialized in the Soviet Union, had been affiliated with Fox for 10 years. On his way out, he sent an explanatory note to his co-workers at Fox News, castigating the organization and many of its on-air personalities for “assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law, while fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among viewers.”
In one section of his scathing departure letter, Peters—an intelligences professional who knows Russia very well—affirms the contents of the controversial Steele dossier, which describes links between Trump world and Russia. “It rings very true,” he states. “That’s how the Russians do things.”
Here is the full text of his email letter, which was first published by BuzzFeed. It’s worth a read. And stick around for the sign off. It’s priceless.
On March 1st, I informed Fox that I would not renew my contract. The purpose of this message to all of you is twofold:
First, I must thank each of you for the cooperation and support you’ve shown me over the years. Those working off-camera, the bookers and producers, don’t often get the recognition you deserve, but I want you to know that I have always appreciated the challenges you face and the skill with which you master them.
Second, I feel compelled to explain why I have to leave. Four decades ago, I took an oath as a newly commissioned officer. I swore to “support and defend the Constitution,” and that oath did not expire when I took off my uniform. Today, I feel that Fox News is assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law, while fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among viewers. Over my decade with Fox, I long was proud of the association. Now I am ashamed.
In my view, Fox has degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration. When prime-time hosts–who have never served our country in any capacity–dismiss facts and empirical reality to launch profoundly dishonest assaults on the FBI, the Justice Department, the courts, the intelligence community (in which I served) and, not least, a model public servant and genuine war hero such as Robert Mueller–all the while scaremongering with lurid warnings of “deep-state” machinations– I cannot be part of the same organization, even at a remove. To me, Fox News is now wittingly harming our system of government for profit.
As a Russia analyst for many years, it also has appalled me that hosts who made their reputations as super-patriots and who, justifiably, savaged President Obama for his duplicitous folly with Putin, now advance Putin’s agenda by making light of Russian penetration of our elections and the Trump campaign. Despite increasingly pathetic denials, it turns out that the “nothing-burger” has been covered with Russian dressing all along. And by the way: As an intelligence professional, I can tell you that the Steele dossier rings true–that’s how the Russians do things.. The result is that we have an American president who is terrified of his counterpart in Moscow.
I do not apply the above criticisms in full to Fox Business, where numerous hosts retain a respect for facts and maintain a measure of integrity (nor is every host at Fox News a propaganda mouthpiece–some have shown courage). I have enjoyed and valued my relationship with Fox Business, and I will miss a number of hosts and staff members. You’re the grown-ups.
Also, I deeply respect the hard-news reporters at Fox, who continue to do their best as talented professionals in a poisoned environment. These are some of the best men and women in the business.
So, to all of you: Thanks, and, as our president’s favorite world leader would say, “Das vidanya.”
The post Why he quit: Fox News analyst denounces propaganda channel appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>The post Republicans haven’t beheaded anyone yet…but appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>
I recently watched a segment on Rachel Maddow’s show about how the US State Department is seriously trying to combat the propaganda ISIS puts out online. They’ve hired a full time social media/policy wonk, who happens to be Muslim, to manage what I guess they call hackers to take down and otherwise interfere with ISIS websites, Facebook pages and twitter accounts.
Another purpose of the State Department program is to counter ISIS propaganda and explain how much damage ISIS is doing to innocent people, most of whom are Muslim. The State Department “messaging” team is working overtime to convince anyone tempted to join ISIS or help them financially not to do that. ISIS plays off grievances that young people have, especially their lack of economic opportunity in the societies where they find themselves. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims and folks of other religions have been displaced by civil war and find themselves helpless and frustrated.
As I watched that story, I couldn’t help thinking that our goal as Progressive Democrats is similar to what the State Department is doing. There are millions of American voters who are manipulated by Republicans, who prey on their fears and prejudices. As far back as Thomas Frank’s “What’s the Matter with Kansas,” writers have pointed out how voters vote against their own best interest because they are inundated with lies meant to keep them ignorant of the damage being done to them by Republicans. Kansans re-elected Gov. Brownback despite the damage his policies have done to the state’s credit rating and employment rate. Why is that?
In Missouri, similarly, voters continue to put people in charge whose main goal is to destroy the middle class and push more and more wealth up the income ladder. Why is that? Republicans want to privatize everything regardless of consequences to the general population. They are adamant in refusing to expand Medicaid despite 300,000 Missourians without health insurance. They continue to weaken organized labor every chance they get. They cut taxes for the upper class and corporations and then say they wish there were more funds available to support education. Well, there would be more money available if they hadn’t overturned Gov. Nixon’s veto of their huge tax cut last year.
They play on the fears of people. They use the “big government” boogie man to convince voters that some nameless bureaucrat is coming to take their freedoms away. The biggest lie is that Obama wants to take away their guns. The next big fraud is that “illegal aliens” are going to take their jobs and marry their daughters. And, of course, there is always the threat of Sharia Law replacing the American Constitution.
Why do people fall for this stuff? Republicans haven’t beheaded anyone yet, but the damage they are doing with their lies is only a matter of degree.
The post Republicans haven’t beheaded anyone yet…but appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>The post Taken in by Republican propaganda appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>The 90-year-old, college-educated woman sitting across from me is someone whom I know for sure voted for President Obama in 2008. I also know that she reads the newspaper every day, she follows current events and issues, and she can talk about them. We were chatting amiably about the weather, her hobbies and her dog, when my husband asked her if she’d watched any of the 2012 Republican convention, which had just come to a close. Her answer shocked and disappointed me, and it turned out to be a here-and-now object lesson in the effectiveness of the Republican propaganda machine. Here are a few paraphrased excerpts from our conversation:
Q: What did you think of the Republican convention?
A: I didn’t watch all of it. But there were some really good speakers who seemed to have done nice things for people. I think it’s possible that the Republicans have the good of the people at heart.
Q: What do you think of Mitt Romney?
A: He seems like a kind man who has helped other people. They told the stories of the good things he’s done, and I think his business experience would help turn the country around.
Q: I thought I remembered that you supported President Obama in 2008?
A: Well, I did. But he’s been in office for the past four years, and the way things have gone hasn’t been so good. He hasn’t gotten a lot done. He doesn’t have the business experience. From what I’m reading and seeing on the news, I think maybe the Republicans could do a better job. I just think that maybe government doesn’t have to do everything for everybody. And they’d do a better job with Medicare.
Q [Well, not really a question–more like a rant delivered as gently as possible]: Really? My understanding is that the Republicans have a plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program, in which you’d get about $6,000 per year to go out and buy your own insurance from a for-profit company.
A: Are you sure about that? I haven’t heard that.
Q [Okay, lecture]: Also, about Obama being a failure: His plans to stimulate the economy and create jobs have been blocked at every turn. Maybe you haven’t heard this, but on the night that President Obama was inaugurated, the Republican leaders got together and vowed to block anything that Obama suggested. The Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell stood up in front of hundreds of people—it’s on tape—and said that the Republicans’ top priority would be to prevent Obama from getting a second term.
A: I don’t believe that.
So, this is what we’re up against. I’m trying to figure out where this woman got her information. I asked her what news stations she watches, expecting to hear Fox. But, no: She watches CNN and PBS. [Of course, neither of these news sources is right-wing–propaganda free, because both purport to balance and regularly offer air time to Republican spokespersons. So she could be getting some of the propaganda there.] She reads the local newspaper, whose editorial page is surprisingly liberal, but, of course, people quoted in news stories and op-eds may not be. But I’m guessing that the most powerful source of the information that is influencing her are political ads. Some are subtle; others are overt in their anti-Obama, visceral and very often misleading—if not downright lying—messages. If this conversation reflects what’s going on out there, the messages are seeping in. And when I think of all the otherwise intelligent people whose brains are being subverted by this stuff, I fear for the outcome of the 2012 election–and for our democracy.
The post Taken in by Republican propaganda appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>The post Unions are hitting the bull’s-eye appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>I’d never heard of Valley Stream. It sounds like the sorta non-descript town that could be anywhere in America. (Apparently it’s in New York.) It has a population of 37,000 people. Around 260 of those people are employed at their local Target. They may not sound terrible exciting, but these people are movers and shakers. I say that because some of those 260 Valley Stream employees have done something no one else in twenty years has done: they tried to unionize Target.
The idea was to have workers of Target join the United Commercial and Food Workers Union. Employees had complained about low wages and not getting enough hours a week to support themselves. (Various employees were on foodstamps and some parents were only able to get 10 hours a week. Definitely not what most would consider a livable wage.) These people petitioned for union representation. A member of the local U.C.F.W. union worked with them, contacted the other employees at Target, explained the benefits of joining a union, and then most of the employees voted on whether or not to join. It failed by a vote of 85 for and 137 against, but still it set a precedent. Other people working for big box stores and surviving on low wages, could stand up for themselves and tackle Goliath. Maybe the next group would be more successful. (Indeed, other Target stores in New York are already talking about trying to unionize.)
Target isn’t the only bad guy here (I’m looking at you, Walmart) but they definitely didn’t do themselves any favors with the working class. They have been accused of bullying, restricting the rights of employees to wear pro-union buttons, and not allowing employees to discuss current working conditions. Worse yet, all incoming employees have to watch this hilariously bad video which talks about how unions only want you so they can collect union dues, would force you to not be able to help customers, and could shut down the Target you work for. It’s a shameless piece of propaganda. And sadly, so far it’s worked.
I’m not saying unions don’t have their flaws (They’re also know for bullying tactics and discrimination) but when you have 1,755 stores and net earnings (just for 2010) of $2,920,000,000.00, you can afford to pass along some of that to your employees. Target supposedly prides itself on being a shining beacon of corporate responsibility. If it really cares about the communities it serves, it should take the initiative to support its workers more. It doesn’t even have to unionize to do that. Increasing wages or allowing people enough hours so they can apply for health insurance would be a step in the right direction.
The post Unions are hitting the bull’s-eye appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>