Propaganda & Manipulation:
30 May 2009
By Steven JamesEducation has been proved in the past to be the best defence against propaganda and manipulation. Education shows you how to think. Propaganda tells you what to think. Good educators present all sides of an issue and encourage discussion. Propagandists relentlessly force you to hear their view and discourage discussion. Often their real motives are not apparent. They sift the facts, exploiting the useful ones and concealing the others. They also distort and twist facts, specializing in lies and half truths. Your emotions, not your logical thinking abilities, are their target.
The propagandist makes sure that his message appears to be the right and moral one and that it gives you a sense of importance and belonging if you follow it. You are the smart one, you are not alone, you are comfortable and secure, so they say.
How can you protect yourself from the types of people that the Bible calls profitless talkers and deceivers of the mind. Once you are familiar with some of their tricks, you are in a better position to evaluate any message or information that comes your way. Here are some ways to do this.
Be selective, a completely open mind could be likened to a pipe that lets just anything flow through it even sewage. No one wants a mind contaminated with poison. So we need to be selective. We need to scrutinize whatever is presented to us, deciding what to accept and what to reject.
However, we do not want to be so narrow that we refuse to consider facts that can improve our thinking. How can we find the right balance. By adopting a standard with which to measure new information.
Use discernment. Discernment is acuteness of judgment. It is the power or faculty of the mind by which it distinguishes one thing from another. A person with discernment perceives subtleties of ideas or things and has good judgment.
By using discernment, we will be able to recognize those who are merely using smooth talk and complimentary speech in order to seduce the hearts of guileless ones. Discernment enables you to discard irrelevant information or misleading facts and distinguish the substance of a matter. But how can you discern when something is misleading.
Test whatever you are reading or watching, to see if it is truthful. Some people today are like sponges, they soak up whatever they come across. It is all too easy to absorb whatever is around us.
But it is far better for each individual personally to choose what he will feed his mind. It is said that we are what we eat, and this applies to food for both the body and the mind. No matter what you are reading or watching or listening to, test to see whether it has propagandistic overtones or is truthful.
Moreover, if we want to be fair minded, we must be willing to subject our own opinions to continual testing as we take in new information. We must realize that they are, after all, opinions. Their trustworthiness depends on the validity of our facts, on the quality of our reasoning, and on the standards or values that we choose to apply.
Ask questions. As we have seen, there are many who would like to delude us with persuasive arguments. Therefore, when we are presented with persuasive arguments, we should ask questions.
First, examine whether there is bias. What is the motive for the message. If the message is rife with name calling and loaded words, why is that. Loaded language aside, what are the merits of the message itself. Also, if possible, try to check the track record of those speaking. Are they known to speak the truth. If authorities are used, who or what are they. Why should you regard this person or organization or publication as having expert knowledge or trustworthy information on the subject in question. If you sense some appeal to emotions, ask yourself, when viewed dispassionately, what are the merits of the message.
Popular opinion is not always reliable, do not just follow the crowd. If you realize that what everybody thinks is not necessarily correct, you can find the strength to think differently. While it may seem that all others think the same way, does this mean that you should. Popular opinion is not a reliable barometer of truth. Over the centuries all kinds of ideas have been popularly accepted, only to be proved wrong later.
We at Hardcore Investments are alarmed that under the cover of global warming, the financial crises and terrorism. Western governments are slowly but surely building the capacity to wage war. They are in the process of regaining industrial capacity, disengaging from the global economy and vilifying individuals and sovereign states through propaganda and manipulation.
In short we are already on the path to war.
