There are too many examples in our lives where spin simply overwhelms us. We cannot turn on a television, a radio station or even go to our places of work without it permeating our very fiber. We barely notice it anymore because we're numb to its bombardment and deaf from its white noise.
Every government has some kind of spin. An agenda. A message. So do advertisers, executives and anyone else looking to make strides in the business and political arenas. I'd offer that propaganda and other components that facilitate advancement keep the society at bay and allow the bloated ranks of greed, glutton and lust (because so much of it, tragically, is carnal and sexually fueled in the first place. Just ask Clinton) to do things we wouldn't much like to know about.
That said it's not as if we all don't have our own agenda. Whether we call it propaganda, our message, or what we believe, it is what it is. If you believe in God, or believe in religion (and the two are mentioned separately here on purpose), whatever consecrates that believe in words is propaganda. Your (or your reverend's) view.
Stretch it farther. David Baerwald has a son, Beker. Father is the greatest advocate of son. Regardless of act, DB would most certainly champion and uphold the son's efforts, regardless of its ilk. In effect, he carries the message of his family and its values forward because he loves them and entered into -- legally and spiritually -- agreement to do as much. In a sense, it is what Microsoft, Amazon and others ask of its employs during and following employment (though I'd bet DB's love of his son is pure and unfettered).
Mass media delivers and explodes the messages. Since Sept. 11, we have been force fed patriotism, as if it had been on a shelf somewhere and the GWB administration took it off the shelf and let us play with it. Bothered by seeing the twin towers in that "Spider-Man" preview? The White House made a phone call. "Everything is all right now ..."
Moreover, there are horrid, clich�-littered Lee Greenwood songs. Obituary-like adverts for SUBWAY FREAKING SANDWICHES. Dismembered baseball games filled with trite, overwrought salutes.
The Seven Major Media Companies That Own Everything (picture vultures on a wire in some darkly written "Roadrunner" cartoon) swept in to pick the 5,000 sets of bones quickly. That travel industry commercial still makes me want to vomit every time I watch those charlatans applaud themselves.
Worse? Mass media using *us* to further government's cause (which helps keep it alive), further capitalism's cause (where did that change-the-face-of-computing Microsoft antitrust trial go? Hmmm ...) and keep us calm. Sedentary. Unmotivated. Working.
The harm, it would seem, is when propaganda, especially in mass media form, takes a foothold in the sort of evasive, confusing tactics the past three US administrations have presented. Clinton asked the court to define "is". Do you think Dubyah will ask the court (when his time comes) to define "the"?
There are no lies, half-truths or sins now. No negatives. No problems. There is legality and pre-courtroom maneuvering. It all seems to come down to a courtroom trial and nothing that is done in government, business or charity goes forward with good legal footing and a "win" attitude, despite who gets the "W." That in and of itself seems to dampen messages from people like Jefferson, Thomas Payne and others who told us, in effect, we should be and can be more than what we are.
Simply, propaganda, spin or whatever you may deem it is not some form of evil that is chunked off like pieces of the dead wizard from "Time Bandits" or packaged like chicken nuggets. It is what we all make it in whatever form we find it. How evil, pointed, or despicable propaganda may seem, it must all be viewed in the context of the message sent, who's sending it and its intent.
There have been several tenuous references here as to how closely our own government's messages mirror those of the Nazi regime of the early 1930s. For example, there are charismatic leaders, dogmatic spokesmen and sword holders of all kinds to carry the message to the masses. We still have conventions for political parties, rallies, young republicans and Junior ROTC.
Looking back, there were many lessons learned from the Nazis that have most certainly been applied by our parents and grandparents today. Like it or not, those tactics worked. Scary as that may seem, certainly -- although not admitted -- there are tenants and values that moved forward through that decade that are applied now and are working on us today.
And those misgivings don't stop with government. The 30 seconds to 1 minute we have with advertisers between the soothing chocolate milk we call "Friends," and "ER" (i.e. all network programming, another hit of Lithium) most certainly applies the "good ideas" of mighty regimes past and present. Mea Culpa, Genghis Khan.
Sadly, Americans are a society and the world is a culture that can be assuaged by message, gift and word. No more tanks, bullets or slaughter is needed. We are beaten and in only the slightest corners of the world do brave people rebel against having their nationalism taken from them and becoming a pasteurized, homogenized group of Sony/McDonalds/AOL users.
The USA, perhaps above all, is culpable for whatever may or may not overcome our lives. It is only the courageous few who will stand, ball up their fists and say to their foe, "Enough." Its opportunity message may have been the catalyst in creating something far more insidious than a two-car garage, white-picket fence and 2.5 children.
Propaganda affects us all in different ways. It seems to enlist a wealth of anger and resentment to those who see through it, admiration from those who seek to emulate it and compliance from those who simply take the hook, swallow and move along to their insipid existence.
George Carlin may have said it best: "We're sending our kids to become soul-dead conformist members of the American consumer culture." Similarly, as DB alluded to, the NSA of 1947 (which coincidentally created the Air Force I serve in) may have been the harbinger of a deeper doom for our society, and much of world population as a whole. We don't have to fight wars. Our bombs and shells are zero percent interest, one-click shopping, and free weekend calling plans.
Soul-dead? Perhaps, but soul, like respect, courage and character, is earned through action. Words have influence. It is fine to talk. But unless you act decisively, you are no better than the message you send -- and it's just more propaganda in the thick gray garbled media fog.
Dichotomy aside, we are human creatures. Americans are taught and programmed from our youths, mostly thanks to six hours in front of the tube each day growing up and giant billboards across the country. We can be weak if we choose. We can be strong if we choose.
But can we change if we choose? Are there revolutionaries anymore, or just "terrorists?" Note the wording and how it even wreaks of spin. If our multi-tenticled Draconian politicians (a fine cast and extras list for "Sleepy Hollow 2") support your effort, perhaps they label you revolutionaries, send money and give you Oliver North. Make you heroes, even. But do something counter to commerce, capitalism and the Big Mac -- then your labeled evildoers, unscrupulous -- terrorists. Imagine the Boston Tea Party today. Terrorists and hooligans indeed.
In closing, there are but a few people who are so drawn to employ change upon this world that is good for the whole of man. Very few even still today because of the barriers, locked gates and tricky hurdles in place to make them stop. The motivated are seduced by big money and power and later uses the masses as a petri dish.
When we buy the jewels, the cars and the Diamondique because we don't want the terrorists to win, it may be time for deep reflection. It may be time for grassroots change.
It also might be time to act and be what our Constitution made us originally believe we could be. There is hope and future. I'm sure DB would tell you that when he looks in his son's eyes. But it is a grim stage we have set for ourselves these days to reach that second act with the big show tune close.
Two-hundred years of propaganda, fortressed and propagated over time can make us weary and may have had us believe our Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence are nothing more than old paper, like some Mickey Spillane novel.
Perhaps instead of watching the spin, we should engage it, challenge it and test it; break the paradigm that has us believing that so much of what we follow is a grotesque creation of our forefathers sins, unintentional weakness and addiction to things material.
It is a dichotomy we can no longer afford to ignore.
Jason Tudor
