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orthodoxymoron · 01-07-2010, 02:28 AM

Please watch this four part BBC documentary video entitled 'The Century of the Self'. It chronicles the effect of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays, and others on marketing, mass manipulation, and politics...based upon the theory that the masses are dangerously irrational...and must be manipulated and controlled.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?...tury+of+&dur=3

I hate to be cynical...but I am tired of being the idealistic goody-goody who is so heavenly minded that I am of no earthly good. I don't know if I can stomach the following...but perhaps there are some who can. Are there some lessons to be learned below regarding the promotion of the United States of the Solar System? Just giving people the facts in a cool, calm, and collected manner really does not seem to work. So how does one ethically promote goodness in a manner which actually works? Is there a way to positively restate the following such that it becomes a completely ethical modality of persuasion?

THIS IS A LESSON IN HOW TO DECIEVE (CONVINCE?) THE MASSES http://www.learntoquestion.com/resou...oculation.html

Clearly in the late 1930s, there were folks out there who thought propaganda could be dangerous. A private organization with an ambitious agenda, the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in New York, took on the Olympian task of trying to identify propaganda strategies and develop a scientific approach to its detection, along the lines of disease detection and prevention. Concerned about the difficulty of finding truth, particularly in a media-saturated wartime environment, the Institute issued a statement called the "Ten Commandments of Propaganda" in 1937. Designed to be a manual of strategies used by writers of propaganda, the Institute offered what it believed was the strategy of the propagandist:

1. Divide and conquer.
2. Tell the people what they want.
3. The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it.
4. Always appeal to the lowest common denominator.
5. Generalize as much as possible.
6. Use "expert" testimonial.
7. Always refer to the "authority" of your sources.
8. Stack the cards with "information."
9. A confused people are easily led.
10. Get the "plain folks" onto the "bandwagon."

The Institute identified seven basic propaganda devices:

Name-Calling: Giving an idea a bad or negative label, leading its audience to reject and condemn it without examining it further.

Glittering Generality: Associating something with a word that has virtuous associations, leading its audience to accept and approve it without examining any further evidence.

Transfer: Shifting the authority and prestige of something respected or revered to something else in order to make it more acceptable or associates disapproving language with something the propagandist wants an audience to reject.

Testimonial: Invoking the words of someone either respected or despised to state that a particular idea, product, or person is good or bad.

Plain Folks: Suggesting that the speaker and his ideas are good and right because they are "of the people": the "plain folks."

Card Stacking: Layering an array of facts or falsehoods in a complex web of logic in order to make the best (or worst) case for an idea, program, or person.

Bandwagon: Implying that everyone is doing something and that folks need to "jump on the bandwagon" and follow the crowd.

Namaste

01-07-2010, 02:28 AM	#178
orthodoxymoron Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Lunar Base II Posts: 3,093	Re: The United States of the Solar System Please watch this four part BBC documentary video entitled 'The Century of the Self'. It chronicles the effect of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays, and others on marketing, mass manipulation, and politics...based upon the theory that the masses are dangerously irrational...and must be manipulated and controlled. http://video.google.com/videosearch?...tury+of+&dur=3 I hate to be cynical...but I am tired of being the idealistic goody-goody who is so heavenly minded that I am of no earthly good. I don't know if I can stomach the following...but perhaps there are some who can. Are there some lessons to be learned below regarding the promotion of the United States of the Solar System? Just giving people the facts in a cool, calm, and collected manner really does not seem to work. So how does one ethically promote goodness in a manner which actually works? Is there a way to positively restate the following such that it becomes a completely ethical modality of persuasion? THIS IS A LESSON IN HOW TO DECIEVE (CONVINCE?) THE MASSES http://www.learntoquestion.com/resou...oculation.html Clearly in the late 1930s, there were folks out there who thought propaganda could be dangerous. A private organization with an ambitious agenda, the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in New York, took on the Olympian task of trying to identify propaganda strategies and develop a scientific approach to its detection, along the lines of disease detection and prevention. Concerned about the difficulty of finding truth, particularly in a media-saturated wartime environment, the Institute issued a statement called the "Ten Commandments of Propaganda" in 1937. Designed to be a manual of strategies used by writers of propaganda, the Institute offered what it believed was the strategy of the propagandist: 1. Divide and conquer. 2. Tell the people what they want. 3. The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it. 4. Always appeal to the lowest common denominator. 5. Generalize as much as possible. 6. Use "expert" testimonial. 7. Always refer to the "authority" of your sources. 8. Stack the cards with "information." 9. A confused people are easily led. 10. Get the "plain folks" onto the "bandwagon." The Institute identified seven basic propaganda devices: Name-Calling: Giving an idea a bad or negative label, leading its audience to reject and condemn it without examining it further. Glittering Generality: Associating something with a word that has virtuous associations, leading its audience to accept and approve it without examining any further evidence. Transfer: Shifting the authority and prestige of something respected or revered to something else in order to make it more acceptable or associates disapproving language with something the propagandist wants an audience to reject. Testimonial: Invoking the words of someone either respected or despised to state that a particular idea, product, or person is good or bad. Plain Folks: Suggesting that the speaker and his ideas are good and right because they are "of the people": the "plain folks." Card Stacking: Layering an array of facts or falsehoods in a complex web of logic in order to make the best (or worst) case for an idea, program, or person. Bandwagon: Implying that everyone is doing something and that folks need to "jump on the bandwagon" and follow the crowd. Namaste Last edited by orthodoxymoron; 01-08-2010 at 03:27 AM.