SECOND EDITION Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion RANDAL MARLIN
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Marlin, Randal, 1938- author, writer of preface Propaganda and the ethics of persuasion / Randal Marlin,—Second edition.
Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-55481-091-8 (pbk.) To my wife Elaine, for so much help i. Propaganda, i. Persuasion (Psychology). 3, Propaganda—Canada. I. Title. in so many ways, over so many years 3. Business ethics. I. Title, II. Series: Broadview guides to business and professional ethics
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This book is printed on paper MIX containing 100% post-consumer fibre. Papeaperr frotm responsibllelble sourceBO s FSC*COQ4071 Printed in Canada Jacques Ellul frightening notion that technology has developed a pattern of "self-augmentation" (auto-croissance), which continues whether this growth benefits society or not. Ellul There is probably no other thinker who has thought as deeply about propaganda in is not concerned with science fiction but is looking at social realities, recognizing that all its dimensions and ramifications as Jacques Ellul. What sets him apart from other scientists and technicians have livelihoods to make and noting ordinary human pro- analysts is his rare if not unique combination of expertise in history, sociology, law, pensities, such as the desire to have influence and to turn a profit. His description of and political science, along with careful study of biblical and Marxist writings. He the scientist's dilemma in wanting to be cautious before allowing a new discovery to lived through some of the century's most pervasive propaganda periods, from the call be marketed, yet not wanting to thwart the companies funding his or her research, has to arms from Spain in the late 19305, to the phoney war, the years of Nazi occupation, contemporary relevance. The case of Dr. Nancy Olivier! in Toronto is a highly publi- the rise of liberation movements, and the Cold War. At the end of World War II, he cized example of a researcher refusing to be silent about possible dangers relating to had a brief experience as a holder of political power in the Bordeaux city administra- a particular drug use. When, in 1998, her research found unexpected risks associated tion. He came to have a profound distrust for the notion that political solutions can with a drug manufactured by her corporate sponsor, Apotex, Inc., the company threat- be found for human problems and wrote The Political Illusion*9 as a testament to the ened her with legal action should she disclose the risks to patients at the Hospital constraints he saw likely to confront an idealized approach to world betterment. His for Sick Children or publish her findings. The Canadian Association of University study of propaganda, Propaganda, translated as Propaganda, appeared originally in Teachers came to her defence, and in October xooi a Committee of Inquiry issued 1962, the year when French rule in Algeria ended. He wrote a special study of FLN a report on the case, warning that tougher measures were needed to protect patients' (front de Liberation Nationale) propaganda intended for a second edition of his book, rights and to ensure that clinical drug trials were free from the influence of drug
but it never appeared in that form.50 manufacturers.52 Some have viewed Ellul as a Calvinist and a pessimist, but his works belie any What Ellul writes about technique is fundamentally connected to his thoughts attempt to categorize him as a fatalist. From printed interviews and by reading widely about propaganda: among his writings, it becomes clear that he is far from adopting a position of hope- lessness concerning political involvement. He does believe that human nature is thor- Technique has become autonomous; it has fashioned an omnivorous world which oughly flawed and that it is a pervasive human characteristic to be swayed by illusions. obeys its own laws and which has renounced tradition. Technique no longer rests on Opportunists can exploit this tendency; others may be as much dupes as dupers. tradition, but rather on previous technical procedures; and its evolution is too rapid,
Ellul's message is not to remove oneself from political action and to "cultivate one's too upsetting, to integrate the older traditions.53 garden." It is, rather, to free oneself of illusions. These may be packaged by an official propaganda arm of a state, or of some movement, or by commercial interests. In every In other words, propaganda is itself a technique, resulting partly from the application case the illusions challenge an individual's search for, and affirmation of, his or her of the social sciences, including psychology, to technology. It is a technique used to unique identity. promote acceptance of other techniques. Viewing the technological system as a whole, Ellul's studies of the history of institutions gave him an extraordinarily rich back- we see that maximal efficiency—defined, for example, as maximal return on invest- ground for the understanding of today's power structures." When he writes about ment over a given period of time—may no longer involve adapting products to human technological society, he does so from a perspective incorporating many social changes wants, practices, and capacities. It may instead require adaptation of human beings to based on numerous scientific and technological advances over three millennia. For the requirements of the system. If the reader is involved with an institution of any size, instance, his study of recruitment by the French Army in the sixteenth and seven- he or she may be familiar with the scenario wherein perfectly workable routines, which teenth centuries gives him insights into the techniques of persuasion or control on have performed satisfactorily, are replaced by a new system that appears to accomplish matters of life-and-death significance. the same tasks more efficiently, but does not. Certain important things are lost in the With that background, Ellul sounds the alarm against one of the most threaten- process, such as continuity and the ability to make adequate comparisons with past ing illusions he sees facing the world since the 19505: the faith that human ingenuity, practice. Another common result is that the range of discretion is reduced, and equi- in the form of technology, is going to solve all our problems. This faith allows that table concerns are de-emphasized in favour of mechanistically arrived-at results. For new gadgetry may create problems, but these can be solved by more refined inven- instance, in the health care profession, more and more reliance is being placed on gad- tions. Against this faith and ahead of his time, Ellul warns in The Technological Society getry and monitoring rather than on human contact between patient and caregiver. (1964) that human beings are losing their control over technology. He presents the But if the frenetic pace of modern life is too upsetting to some individuals, the system
2.1 PROPAGANDA AND THE ETHICS OF PERSUASION CHAPTER I: WHY STUDY PROPAGANDA! 2-3 itself does not have to slow down. What we see is the development and marketing of locally." In order to act effectively, people must understand the influences operating mood-enhancing drugs to enable people to cope. As Ellul points out, one branch of on their consciousnesses, influences often generated from sources that seek to benefit technology makes up for deficiencies in another, but the technological system as a their own, private interests, which often have little to do with the public good. One whole keeps growing. might be tempted to dernonize external forces, but Ellul focuses not just on the pur- Propaganda plays a key role in all of this. At each stage various interests work to veyors of propaganda but on the willingness of the population generally to accept it. minimize the prospective harms and inconveniences and to maximize prospective Ellul sees the modern individual as hungry for a sense of meaning for his or her benefits appearing in the assessment of some new technique. Each specialized contri- existence. The decline of church, village, and family influences has tended to atomize bution to the technological system is promoted in connection with the narrow con- human existence, cutting people off from bonds that automatically provided a sense tribution it can make, without any overall assessment of where the system as a whole of identity. Under these circumstances, with individuals thrown together in a mass, may be heading—for example, to an unsustainable ecology, to pill-popping zombies, there is a fertile field for propaganda. Lacking the determination and energy required or whatnot. Publicly funded bodies, designed to look at the long-range, overall impact to make sense of the world, the modern individual is all too willing to have meanings of technological developments on society, might be expected to provide a counter- supplied to him or her through the mass media. Or else they opt out of any seri- weight to specialized interests, but the experience in Canada has been that they have a ous thinking. In an interview with Claude Steiner and Charles Rappleye, Ellul says, precarious existence and are easily targeted when the government is looking for ways "Today, the greatest threat is that propaganda is seeking not to attract people, but to cut back on spending. For instance, cutbacks put pressures on universities to accept to weaken their interest in society. I am astonished by the enormous number of TV funding from private sources, which may dampen the enthusiasm for speaking out on game shows, football games, computer games. They encourage people to play: 'Let matters that might adversely affect those same sources.54 yourselves be entertained, amuse yourselves, do not concern yourselves with politics, Ellul's analysis of propaganda comes from a concrete source: his experience in it's not worth the trouble.'"55 working on such local projects as the preservation of the fishing life in southwestern France in the 1950$. His opponents worked for a bureaucracy with the impressive name PROPAGANDA ANALYSIS of the "Interdepartmental Mission for the Amelioration of Aquitaine." It involved three One of Ellul's main contributions to the study of propaganda is his expansion of the things he detested: technocracy, the bureaucratic attitude, and capitalist power. The horizons under which it is commonly viewed as a highly organized, top-down, politi- technocrats chose a place for tourist development, without consideration for the actual cally motivated strategy for controlling a population. This needs to be supplemented terrain. If flaws in their studies were pointed out, the technocrats claimed the stud- by other categories and related considerations. The study of propaganda needs to take ies were outdated. Maps were drawn not to scale but to fit the preconceived plan; for into account the way a targeted group is conditioned to make it more receptive to the instance, what appeared on their maps as a hairline back road was, in reality, a major propagandist's message. Ellul calls this "pre-propaganda." No direct propaganda can be expressway. Administrative secrecy was the rule. effective, he writes, without pre-propaganda, which creates images, ambiguities, and Ellul feels that people have to be educated to deal with this kind of circumstance, stereotypes, apparently without any particular purpose. The essential objective is to that universities should not turn out good technicians who will make capable executives prepare a person for a particular action and to do so without delay. It does not have a who are also nonentities. Instead, he thinks students should learn, along with the appro- precise ideological objective. "It proceeds by psychological manipulations, by character priate knowledge of their field of study, an understanding of people and a fundamentally modifications, by the creation of feelings or stereotypes useful when the time comes." critical approach to their discipline, their lives, and the world. Then, the justificatory Besides altering stereotypes, a propagandist may seek to build up useful myths in the ideologies and powers of any kind can be questioned, not in order to destroy them, but minds of a population, which would also count as pre-propaganda. Ellul explains what to allow each person to exercise freedom. Social transformation begins with business he means by "myth": executives, since it is no good separating the expertise that gets things done from the criticism of society in which Marxists, for example, engage. You need both expertise and By "myth" we mean an all-encompassing, activating image: a sort of vision of desir- criticism. In Ellul's view, Marx is important because he wanted to reintegrate the totality able objectives that have lost their material, practical character and have become of the human being in a scientific study of economy and society. strongly coloured, overwhelming, all-encompassing, and which displace from the Ellul makes clear that his goal is not to seek to eliminate technology but to recap- conscious all that is not related to it. Such an image pushes man to action pre- ture a space for human spontaneity, openness, and understanding of what is happen- cisely because it includes all that he feels is good, just, and true. Without giving a ing in the world. He has been credited with inventing the phrase "Think globally, act metaphysical analysis of the myth, we will mention the great myths that have been
7.4 PROPAGANDA AND THE ETHICS OF PERSUASION CHAPTER I: WHY STUDY PROPAGANDA? created by various propagandas: the myth of race, of the proletariat, of the Flihrer, of Here, Orwell and Ellul are in contradiction. Ellul may have qualified his statement to Communist society, of productivity. Eventually the myth takes possession of a man's allow for the special circumstances of Nazi Germany; Orwell, himself, amended his mind so completely that his life is consecrated to it. But that effect can be created own statement by concluding "Perhaps later on they will get sick of it [the struggle, only by slow, patient work by all the methods of propaganda, not by any immediate etc.] and change their minds, as at the end of the last war." Alternatively, one could propaganda operation.51" argue that Nazi propaganda was presenting its own version of happiness, interpreted as living a supremely Germanic existence, with Hitler the apotheosis of the German spirit. Elsewhere Ellul refers to other governing myths, which he identifies as work, hap- Pre-propaganda in the form either of myths or stereotypes may be less easy to piness, the nation, youth, and the hero. His thesis is that when one or other or all of detect because it is "softer," in the sense of less galvanizing, but once it has settled into these myths take hold of a population's consciousness, they pervade all thinking. The a public's consciousness, it will be much more difficult to counteract the subsequent obvious case is the racist myth in Hitler's Germany, but Ellul claims that other myths propaganda. Therefore, it is important to expose and resist pre-propaganda before it can also take root and dominate our outlook on life. Take the notion of work. A non- is utilized for nefarious purposes. mythological attitude is that work is something most of us have to do to provide a There is much common ground between Orwell, Ellul, and Noam Chomsky con- livelihood. It would be better if we had the leisure to do creative things, but life is not cerning their perceptions of propaganda, even though their politics, at least in the case so kind to everyone, and work in the sense of something necessary but disagreeable is of Ellul and Chomsky, differ considerably. Like Ellul, Chomsky sees propaganda as the lot of many or most people. But work is mythologized when it is treated as some- not necessarily controlled by the state. In Chronicles of Dissent he said of the United thing especially meritorious, as if the "worker" were some being superior to others. The States: "We're not a society which has a Ministry of Truth which produces doctrine mythologized notion of work is convenient for the unscrupulous capitalist, since it which everyone then must obey at a severe cost if you don't. Our system works much provides the psychological conditions for an exploited class to accept atrocious work- differently and much more effectively. It is a privatized system of propaganda, includ- ing conditions willingly, even enthusiastically. Ellul is not contradicting St. Benedict's ing the media, the journals of opinion and in general including the broad participa- idea that work, carried out in the right spirit for love of God, can be good for the soul. tion of the articulate intelligentsia, the educated part of the population." In apparent What he treats as myth is the idea that work is good in and of itself, salvific, conferring partial agreement with Ellul, Chomsky saw the media and educational structures as nobility and superiority on the working class over other classes in society. Ellul thinks set up in a way "to design, propagate and create a system of doctrines and beliefs which that work took on a mythical nature in the nineteenth century, when the factory work will undermine independent thought and prevent understanding and analysis of insti- required of workers became repetitive, uncreative, and degrading. The mythologized tutional structures and their functions."59 view of work helped to restore self-esteem. As myth, one could perhaps view it as a capitalist tool to motivate the workers, but if so it was turned against its originators CATEGORIES OF PROPAGANDA by the labour movement. Ellul's notion of pre-propaganda has contributed greatly to propaganda theory. So also Each of Ellul's proposed "myths" could be the subject of extensive discussion, but has his much-used and discussed analysis of the different categories of propaganda. It there is one area in which his arguments can be juxtaposed with those of Orwell. Ellul is important to understand and appreciate these categories even though they make it says that one of the "four great collective sociological presuppositions in the modern difficult to maintain a tight, consistent grasp on the definition of propaganda. world" is the myth of happiness and that "A propaganda that stresses virtue over hap- Ellul groups, propaganda into four different pairs of contrasting kinds. As pre- piness and presents man's future as one dominated by austerity and contemplation sented here, the first of each pair represents the kind that would normally spring to would have no audience at all."57 Orwell, by contrast, writes in his review ofMein mind when people think about propaganda. The second represents Ellul's extended Kampfthat "however they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psy- notion, which terms as propaganda things not ordinarily viewed as such. chologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life." Obviously, he is not writing in approval of these doctrines, having put his life on the line in opposition to i. Political versus sociological propaganda. Political propaganda is carried out by a them; instead, he is remarking on the psychological appeal of these ideas to the masses: definite body—for example, a government, a political party, an administration, a pressure group—for definite goals. The methods are quite deliberate and calculated; Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people goals are clearly distinguished and quite precise. By contrast, sociological propaganda "I offer you a good time," Hitler has said to them "I offer you struggle, danger and is diffuse, based on a general climate of opinion operating imperceptibly without the death," and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet.58 appearance of propaganda. It is the sum of the ways in which society tries to integrate
2.6 PROPAGANDA AND THE ETHICS OF PERSUASION CHAPTER I: WHY STUDY PROPAGANDA? 27 the maximum number of people into itself, to unify its members' behaviour accord- solved this problem by simultaneously subjecting his people to stereotypes, slogans, ing to pattern, and to spread its style of life abroad. It creates new habits and new and interpretations that integrated them well into the group. standards of judgment and choice that appear to have been spontaneously adopted. US films of the 19505, with their stay-at-home mothers and businessman fathers, are 3. Vertical versus horizontal propaganda.. Vertical propaganda, is what people normally an example of this kind of propaganda. think of as classic propaganda; it occurs in a top to bottom direction, from the leader Sociological propaganda does not fit our usual definition of the term, which to the people—Nazi propaganda is one example. The leader is a technician, a political includes the idea of an "organized attempt" to persuade. Ellul, himself, writes, "one or religious head who acts from a position of authority. Such propaganda is conceived hesitates to call all this propaganda,"60 but he has a reason for wanting to extend the in secret enclaves and uses all the technical methods of mass communication. The definition to cover these cases: it is to draw attention to the fact that the effects on us masses undergoing this propaganda are seized, manipulated, and become committed. of these influences are similar to those of propaganda in the usual sense. Sociological In a sense, they are like hypnotic subjects. They become depersonalized, acting from propaganda, like its political counterpart, imparts myths and standards of good and conditioned reflex. They do not act spontaneously, though they may believe they do. bad behaviour. A persons environment is changed at the deepest level by sociologi- They are mechanized, dominated, and passive. cal propaganda. It acts gently, introducing an ethic in benign form, penetrating very By contrast, horizontal propaganda is made within the masses, not top to bottom. slowly, and ending by creating a fully established personality. It is more like pre-pro- The group leader acts as animator, letting individuals condition each other, but the paganda than propaganda, inasmuch as it does not lead, by itself alone, to concerted person who enters the group does so on the basis of information, data, and reasoning mass action. Rather, it provides the basis for organized propaganda. For example, in that are distorted. Horizontal propaganda works with small groups—about 15 to zo the United States, the "American way of life" is the backdrop for much propaganda. people. Reaching the masses therefore requires a huge organization of group leaders. Once one accepts the American way of life as superior, it becomes a criterion of good It is a characteristic of horizontal propaganda that it is not distinguished from educa- and evil; things that are un-American become evil. Thus, it provided the rationale for tion by the participants. This is how Mao could proceed from subversive agitation to McCarthyism in the 19505 and supported Monroe Doctrine foreign policy, permitting integration propaganda. invasions of Central American countries. A good example of this kind of jingoism, US style, is Red Nightmare, a Cold War propaganda film made in the 19505, supported by 4. Irrational versus rational propaganda.61 Once again, irrational propaganda represents the US Department of Defence, and directed by Jack Warner. Good things like fam- what we denote by propaganda in its familiar sense—emotive appeals, myths, symbols, ily life, democratic meetings, involvement with schools, etc., are treated as if they are and so on, which are used to influence people. What is novel is Ellul's characterization peculiarly American rather than common to many other liberal democracies. Because of some forms of rational communication as propaganda. Despite appearances, ratio- of the source of its funding, Red Nightmare can be considered to belong in the politi- nal and irrational propaganda have much in common. Rational propaganda has the cal category, but its ideas and images form the subtext of many Hollywood movies appearance of genuine scientific truth, but it is often mystification. Citations of facts not so funded. and figures leave the impression of great rationality, but the hearer is unable or unwill- ing to analyze the figures and is persuaded by the appearance of rationality rather than z. Agitation versus integration propaganda. Agitation propaganda is the most visible by coming to grips with genuine reality. The individual affected is often convinced by kind. It is usually revolutionary, but it can be used by a government to whip up its peo- an emotional-feeling, treating science in effect as myth. As people become progressively ple to some very high level of sacrifice—to go to war or increase productivity, etc. It more educated, propaganda becomes more rational and factual in form. It is not clear cannot be kept up for very long. The usual form of agitation, subversive propaganda is whether rational persuasion ceases to be propaganda when there is a genuine, rational easy to make. Hatred of a particular enemy is fomented; liberty, bread, and fulfilment appraisal of the information offered. Ellul writes that the use of facts, statistics, and are offered as inducements. This propaganda feeds on itself and does not require the economic ideas is still propaganda because it "uses these facts to demonstrate, rationally continued use of the mass media. the superiority of a given system [the Soviet one in his example] and to demand every- By contrast, integration propaganda is a propaganda of conformity aimed at get- body's support."62 His form of words suggests that genuinely rational persuasion can ting the individual to participate in society in every way, stabilizing the social body, still be propaganda, but the example points to the opposite. Ellul does not believe for and unifying and reinforcing it. It seeks a total moulding of the person in depth. a moment that the system in the Soviet Union was superior. Therefore, any facts used Intellectuals are particularly susceptible to this form of propaganda. It is difficult to to prove that it was would in his view have to be insufficient and misleading, if not develop when a nation has been whipped up by agitation propaganda. Mao Zedong downright false. Genuinely factual and rational claims, made without, for example,
28 PROPAGANDA AND THE ETHICS OF PERSUASION CHAPTER I: WHY STUDY PROPAGANDA? 29 misleading suppression of other pertinent facts, would not constitute propaganda as Government information, corporate public relations (PR.), and advertising figure we have defined it earlier. prominently, but the relevant list is much broader. It is not difficult to show that the negative associations attached to propaganda Ellul's categories provide a refreshing, inspirational base from which to approach the are often richly deserved. This book aims to expand awareness of the most pernicious understanding of propaganda. They throw into confusion any attempt to give a precise forms of propaganda and to draw attention to social and legal controls over it. It seems definition for the term, but that is not necessarily a shortcoming, since, as we have indisputable that propaganda has contributed mightily to some of the worst evils of seen, there are already deep divisions in the way the word is understood. Ellul's aim our time, but is there any form of control over it that will not require compromis- is to concentrate on the phenomenon of propaganda and its effects on us. For this ingwith the ideal of self-reliance and self-development ? And if compromise is neces- purpose the widening of the concept of propaganda has the useful function of making sary, to what extent? The Internet has brought with it added complexities related to us aware of the more subtle ways in which we can be manipulated. As we develop our the technical difficulties—some would say impossibility—related to control of that understanding of propaganda in the following chapters, it will be useful to keep these medium. The question of control occupies the penultimate chapter of this book. categories in mind, even though we will not always refer specifically to them. What most people typically think of as propaganda is political, agitative, vertical, and irratio- nal. Yet, if Ellul is right, we have every reason to be concerned also about sociological, Notes integrative, horizontal, and supposedly rational propaganda. A final problem arises from Ellul's repeated assertion that propaganda, to be wor- i The idea that advertising and public relations learned a lot from World War I activities is only part of the truth, The other part is that some of the techniques were well-established in advertising and chat there was thy of the name, must be total. Total propaganda in Ellul's view only came into being indebtedness in the other direction. The famous Alfred Leete poster, "Britons: Lord Kitchener wants you!" with the development of psychological, sociological, and other sciences of the human appears to have taken its cue from a noted BCV cigarette advertisement a few years earlier. See Nicholas being together with the manipulative possibilities they provided. In that sense, pro- Hiley, "'Kitchener Wants You' and 'Daddy, What Did YOU Do in the Great War?': The Myth of British Recruiting Posters," Imperial War Museum Review II (1997): 40-58, at 53. paganda is very recent, arriving only with the twentieth century. It appears that Ellul z On December 2.9, ion, The Ottawa Citizen carried a story from The Times (London), headlined "Iran does not adhere consistently to such a narrow understanding of propaganda, since he Warned Not to Shut Oil Route." Well down in the story was the followingparagraph: "The West has stepped provides a history of propaganda that goes back to Ancient Greece, and his defini- up sanctions against Iran since the International Atomic Energy Agency published compelling evidence last month that it was pursuing nuclear weapons...." A similar claim made obliquely by The New York Times tion of propaganda in terms of gaining or maintaining power does not stipulate total has been contested by FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) with the result that the public editor control. We arrive at consistency only if we allow that Ellul has a wider and a narrower Arthur Brisbane agreed that his newspaper had been incorrect in referring to "a recent assessment by the understanding of what "propaganda" means. The narrower one, in which propaganda International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran's nuclear program has a military objective." FAIR noted that the November report did not come to such a firm conclusion and that critics have questioned the evidence must be total, helps us to see the immense power the phenomenon of propaganda has collected by the Agency (sec
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