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July 21, 2005
Prescient Progressives Predicted Pro-Bush Propaganda Perils ... 60 Years Ago!
In compiling the list of Books That Made Me a Progressive recently posted here, I received online input and also spoke with real, live Democrats at various gatherings. Two titles kept popping up: Language in Thought and Action by S. I. Hayakawa and The True Believer by Eric Hoffer.
Both books were originally published in the 1940s-50s and re-issued in several revised editions. People who had read them recalled them and talked about the influential ideas contained therein. Ashamed of never having read (or even heard of) these two classics, I ordered them from Amazon.
Ironically, I found that these time-worn titles form perfect precursors to two of the most popular progressive titles of our day, George Lakoff's Don't Think of an Elephant and Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas?.
Here are some nuggets of wisdom from the two books that are applicable to the Bush era's unprecedentedly successful propaganda machine. First, Hayakawa on language, foreshadowing Lakoff:
| Hayakawa on Language | Resonance in the Bush Era |
|---|---|
| Language is the most highly developed form of symbolism, but we must remember that "the word is not the thing." It is easy to prize the symbols of patriotism above actual patriotism. | Bush and his many "Mission Accomplished"-type moments; the Republicans in Congress and their recently reprised obsession with flag-burning, etc. |
| With the "language of social control," we try to influence the actions of others in roundabout ways. For example, we might get people to help in the prosecution of a war by claiming that it is God's war. | Bush's and his religious fundamentalist supporters' intimations of a direct line to God on the Iraq War and related issues |
| The penchant to divide the world into two opposing forces and to ignore the existence of any middle ground is called "the two-valued orientation." It results in language such as "good and evil," and it sustains itself by creating fear. | Bush and "You are with us or against us"; DeLay and his orders to lobbying firms to fire Democrats and hire only Republicans, etc. |
| The two-valued orientation becomes dangerous when the political party in control decides that it is best for the country, and it can therefore silence any dissent. | Bush's screening of town hall meeting participants; Karl Rove's speech branding liberals as wimps and traitors; Bush's and Rove's attempts to silence critics of the war, from Richard Clarke to Joe Wilson, etc. |
| A multi-valued orientation and a willingness to learn are necessary for democratic discussion and human cooperation. | Democrats are furthering the democratic discussion by learning about the needs of all the people, with grassroots working groups, real town hall meetings, political blogs, and more. |
Eric Hoffer, on the hand, explains how dissatisfaction with oneself leads to credulity and readiness to accept propaganda. He might have been describing the zealotry of the nonwealthy right-wingers in What's the Matter with Kansas:
| Hoffer on True Believers | Resonance in the Bush Era |
|---|---|
| People who see their lives as irremediably spoiled seek new elements of pride and purpose by identification with a cause or popular movement. | Those who have been bumped out of the middle class due to loss of manufacturing jobs and then become fervent believers in right-wing causes.... |
| The true believers have an ability to "shut their eyes and close their ears to facts." | Despite many official reports to the contrary, Bush's followers continued to believe that WMDs had been found in Iraq and that there were ties between Saddam and the 9/11 terrorists, etc. |
| True believers' animosity to others springs from self-contempt. Their leaders can easily concentrate their hatred on a single foe, even on someone unrelated to the perceived wrong. | Bush and Cheney et al were able to distract many Americans from the real threat of Osama Bin Laden and the perpetrators of 9/11 with propaganda about the threat of Saddam Hussein. |
Has anyone out there in the houstondemocrats.com blogosphere read either of these books? If so, what say you?
Posted by at July 21, 2005 12:57 AM | Permalink
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Comments
S.I. Hayakawa was a neighbor of mine in Mill Valley California, growing up there in the 50's. Ironically, he was viewed from his works then and service as the Chancellor of San Francisco State University as a "conservative". San Francisco State was a hotbed of pro-labor socialism and no small measure of Marxism back then and while Berkeley got all the publicity on the free speech movement, San Francisco State actually led in the development of that movement.
Hayakawa had the reputation of repressing free speech on his own campus. Cruel irony.
Posted by: stan merriman at July 21, 2005 07:51 AM
Thanks, Stan, for the info on Hayakawa ... although it is disappointing to hear about another innovative thinker who cannot live up to his own ideals. Hayakawa is on an infinitely lower level of significance, of course, but it reminds one of a certain slaveholder who wrote a document about independence ....
Posted by: Marguerite Reed at July 21, 2005 07:31 PM
Hayakawa was influential but much more in the libertarian movement. Hoffler was great and I have recalled *The True Believer* often since 2000. It is often instructive to listen to conservative talk radio which is where today's American true believers get their misinformation and compare it to the book. Oddly enough several months ago Rush was apparently sent some excerpts from the book and tried to say it was about those "dirty liberals" - the current internal group to blame as "IslamoFascists" and "decadent Europeans" and the UN are the external groups - and how they are brainwashed.
Posted by: Easter Lemming Liberal News at July 23, 2005 03:44 AM