Propaganda Provides an Excuse to Commit Evil, Rather than Manufacturing Consent

Some years ago, I was watching, or rewatching, a YouTube video which was trying to tout the efficacy of government and corporate propaganda. Maybe it was something by Adam Curtis or a derivative work using excerpts from The Century of Self. In any case, the precise identity of that clip has no relevance to the topic of this series- for reasons which will soon become obvious. While I usually find such bullshit quite entertaining, if only for the apparent conviction of belief displayed by those who are into such stuff- this was different. Perhaps I was feeling extra misanthropic that particular evening, but an interesting idea came to my mind. What if all propaganda simply provides an official excuse for people to act out their pre-existing depraved beliefs, rather than put anything new in their mind or make them act on it?

As regular readers of my previous blog know, my opinions about human beings as a species have never been especially high- to put it mildly. You can see this post as an extension of my opinions on that subject. Anyway.. let us get back to the main topic of this series by asking ourselves a question. Which is the one central but unspoken assumption that has to be true for any propaganda to "work"? And remember that this assumption underlies every conventional explanation for the efficacy of propaganda- from Noam Chomsky and his 'Manufacturing Consent' crap to the pseudoscience of psychology spouted by any random loser slaving way at a marketing firm. Could it about linguistics, 'neuroscience' or some other clever sounding bullshit?

Think harder.. because once I reveal it many of you might say that it was obvious.

All conventional explanations for efficacy of propaganda are based on the assumption that human beings as a species are naturally good, kind, decent, altruistic, humane etc. Even the class of explanations which assume that humans are imperfect creatures make the implicit and unspoken assumption that they are basically good. As I will explain later on, there is a reason why even the most fucked-up human being firmly believes that he or she is a 'good' person. At this point, some might wonder whether I see human beings as 'risen apes' or 'fallen angels'. Surprise.. I don't see them as either. In my opinion, comparing human beings to apes is rather insulting to the later. So how do I see human beings as a species?

To be blunt.. the majority of human beings are not capable of anything approaching objective thought, let alone reason. They are also fundamentally incapable of being kind, decent, altruistic or anything else which they want to believe about themselves. Instead.. they are a greedy, short-sighted, narcissistic and delusional species with an obsession for trying to dominate others and an all-consuming fear of their inevitable mortality. Human beings as a species not only lack a 'moral compass' of any kind, but are incapable of creating anything along those lines. Perhaps more importantly, this is the case irrespective of their "culture", ethnicity, race, "IQ" or sex. And they also have a predilection for self-destruction. The fact that humans have not made themselves extinct after invention of nuclear weapons is a minor miracle.

While this assessment might sound unpleasant, it is based in reality. Read enough history and you will be hard pressed to identify which party was the lesser fuckup and delusional asshole in any interaction. If that is too much work, just look at the world around you with critical eyes. Think about all the people you have worked for, worked with, had sex with or are related to and ask yourself.. "Is this what passes for average humans?". To be very clear, I am not saying that every single person is a delusional sadistic fuckup. Indeed we can all think of a few people, based on personal experience, who are clearly not so, but most are sad fuckups. And that is why I use the expression 'human beings as a species' as opposed to 'all humans'. In other words, it is not everyone- just the majority.. but the majority, nonetheless.

Now you know why it was always easy to find so many people willing to burn alleged witches in 15th-17th century Europe or why persecution and lynching of Jews and other religious minorities was a popular pastime during the Great Plague epidemic of 1347-1351. That is also why mass human sacrifice was an central part of Aztec culture or why the very 'Christian' Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors went about killing and enslaving tens of millions in south and central America. This is also how tens of millions died due to famine during British Rule of India or how many tens of millions of men killed each other during WW1 and WW2. Did I mention all those ethnic genocides which occurred in the last century such as Armenian Genocide, Holocaust, all the millions who died in China between 1959-1961. And that is separate from the millions killed during Japanese occupation of (parts of) China during 1937-1945.

And this is just a tiny sliver of what you can find when you read enough history. Now tell me.. do you still believe that human beings as a species have to be "brainwashed" to do evil and stupid things? Do you still think that human beings require a bunch of master manipulators to get them to kill each other for no good reason? Or perhaps 'propaganda' just gives people a public excuse to act out their most depraved desires and pretend that it was not their idea. The far more straightforward, if unpleasant, explanation is that 'propaganda' simply provides most people a means to externalize responsibility for their shitty and stupid behavior. That way, they can keep doing all of that horrendous stuff while still pretending that they are good persons. It is about the ability to enjoy the morbid deed but externalizing all responsibility for said deed.

In the next part, I will use a series of examples to show you that 'propaganda' is really about telling people that is OK be pathetic, depraved and murderous assholes.

What do you think? Comments?