“The Institute for Propaganda Analysis: Protecting Democracy in Pre-World War II America,” an article authored by Zachary Reisch and kept in the Bryn Mawr Institutional Library, offers clarification about the exploration of propaganda in our country.

“What is democracy?” Reisch asks and he goes on:

This is the question that liberals in late 1930s America tried to answer as they discussed the many issues facing their nation. The rise of communism and Nazism, as well as military conflict in Europe and Asia, forced Americans to consider what was important to them and what was worth fighting for. Liberals, whose goal was to promote democratic principles, framed their debates around the term democracy. They evaluated the claims to democracy that many groups in America made in the second half of the 1930s. Nazis, communists, and anti-communists all characterized their ideologies as democratic, as did British agents trying to coax America into helping England in its attempt to contain Nazi Germany. Additionally, President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration urged Americans to support a Western Hemisphere united against Nazism; the Hemisphere encompassed the United States and the Central and South American “republics,” many of which were clearly dictatorships. In order to advocate their particular visions of democracy, all of these groups used what Americans in the 1930s called “propaganda.” For the IPA, Nazism, communism, the conservative anti-communism movement, England’s foreign policy, and Latin American dictatorships were all undemocratic. By labeling these groups as such, the IPA promoted a democratic society based on freedom of speech and citizen participation in government, and also attempted to accomplish concrete goals such as preventing the rise of Nazism in America.

With a current president directing his country’s citizens to disregard newspaper accounts of what is happening in our country, to not believe in fact-checking and to believe that he is the one who matters not our laws or our Constitution (I am President,” he says frequently, in interviews “and you are not.”), it has become more important than ever for our art to stand above propaganda and for our art to help people in this country become and remain unwilling to support his dictum “don’t believe what you see and hear.” True art evokes the fullness of human spirit and emotion through close observation. It opens up a way of putting the world together that says, “Yes, you can believe what you see and hear; yes, despite humankind’s abilities at manipulation, spreading fear, and encouraging racism, there are true feelings of engagement, compassion and love we hope will overcome the dark side of human nature.”

To be art, a story, a play, or a poem does not arise from an intention to twist minds into disregarding personal experience; it offers an artful, often playful allowing of vulnerability so minds outside of the authors’ open up and say yes to the full experience of being human. Yes, we are afraid and yes we can manipulate and yes we are fearful—but we must own that and the ways in which those dark emotions close us down, create tribalism and a mob mentality taking us away from what is godly, what is good, what is deeply vulnerable and beautiful in its humanity. Art recognizes this and helps us recognize a path toward the light.

In the spirit of helping you reinvest in your writing during this turbulent time in our country and the world, I am quoting from an article about the seven techniques of propaganda and offering a writing exercise at the article’s end that is intended to help you use these very techniques to spin the reader in a new direction, one that shows the strength of art to expose the hypocritical, inauthentic and untrue, and hopefully, its strength to save our lives and world.

The Techniques of Propaganda

Morgan Crouch offers a list in her article “What Are the Seven Techniques of Propaganda?”

Name Calling

Using negative or discriminatory words, propagandists arouse suspicion and prejudice. The goal is to create an overall dislike of a group of people, so verbally attacking their beliefs, institutions, leaders or religion is fair game. Name calling is often used in ridiculing cartoons or writing.

Glittering Generalities

Using slogans or simple catchphrases, propagandists make generalized statements attractive to their audience. Usually these statements involve ideas of love, honor, glory, peace, family values, freedom, patriotism — anything general enough to inspire pride. These statements usually say very little, so they cannot be proved or disproved.

Transfer

A transfer associates a revered symbol with an idea the propagandist wants to promote. If an idea can be linked with, say, a flag, it has a greater chance of winning popular approval. The stir of emotions makes it difficult for people to clear their minds and think critically.

Testimonial

A testimonial makes an association between a respected or authoritative person and the cause. The hope is that the respected person will lead others to follow his ideas. It is similar to a celebrity endorsement of a product.

Plain Folks

The goal of this technique is to convince the audience that the spokesman is like them and shares their woes and concerns. Using plain language and mannerisms, he is able to build trust by his followers.

Bandwagon

This technique capitalizes on the human drive to be part of a crowd, a member of the winning team. By creating the illusion that widespread support exists, the propagandist hopes those who are on the fence will join the cause. If they refuse, this technique seeks to make them feel isolated.

Card Stacking

By using only those facts that support their ideas, propagandists can make it seem that their way is the only correct way. The aim of card stacking is for the audience to assume these facts are conclusive. By “stacking cards against the truth,” propagandists can control the beliefs of their audience.

I am sure we all recognize the ways in which the seven techniques are being employed during this mid-term election cycle from watching video of people wearing MAGA hats and chanting USA, USA, USA, Lock her up, Lock her up, CNN sucks, CNN sucks, as if they are cheering on a home town football team. How do they not know or care about the difference between fight cheers to help a team win a game and cheering to destroy the legal institutions of our democracy? How do they not see that someone who encourages them to put down others of his choosing can someday have others put them down in hurtful and even disastrous ways? How have they escaped learning that even in competitions there is something called sportsmanship?

Here’s a writing idea for addressing propaganda and facilitating an understanding of the tragedy encouraged by thoughts that shut down our humane and democratic ideas:

1. Take one of the seven techniques and see if you can write about an ordinary activity that many people on both sides of the aisle enjoy. I chose gardening. You might choose golfing or ballroom dancing, picking blackberries or rocking a grandchild to sleep.
2. Find something that you can describe through the eyes of a person who has fallen for the propaganda, using one of the propaganda techniques. See if you can come up with writing that might be satirical but, more than being biting, evokes the experience of wearing the blinders of propaganda and thus defeating one’s own best interests.

Here’s my modest attempt at using the “glittering generalities” propaganda technique. I tried to speak from a persona who is applying those generalities to his gardening and my hope is that the tongue-in-cheek writing I offer might encourage a reader to examine the wrong-headedness of pardoning or ignoring oft repeated, degrading generalities

The MAGA Gardener Considers What He Can Do

There’s a caravan of yellow-headed dandelions in my backyard,
infiltrated now by silvery blow balls that multiply each
time I turn my back. They’re all, the bunch of them,

hell-bent on seeking asylum in my vegetable beds, hell-bent
on spreading their flat and horrifying leaves over
the soil where I staked my claim and planted lettuce seeds.

I’ll do my duty and take these weeds to court
as taraxacum is their scientific name, derived from Arabic.
God knows we don’t need Muslims taking up our space.

And just last fall I planted tulip bulbs and learned too late
they came from Turkey years ago. Those tricky chain
migrationists! Must I dig them up?

****

See what you can do to put a “gander” into propaganda. Doing our part as creative writers will help us and others survive the spread of damaging and divisive falsehoods. It will help us stay focused on a way to behave in this world that honors our humanity and our hearts.