Engineering Perception

The power of the imperialist is not due to its military and economic superiority. These criteria only enable the superpower to maintain its authority over its colonies or "client states" once they have already been subdued. The real power of the imperialist comes with its ability to shape, mold, and shape public opinion. As world-renowned intellectual Noam Chomksy states, "public opinion is the imperialist's greatest obstacle."

Adolf Hitler's Third Reich was the paragon of "legitimacy through propaganda" type rule. Joseph Goebbels was pronounced the Minister of Propaganda and National Enlightement and was in charge of literature, art, music, radio, film, newspapers. Hitler's "Mein Kampf" states how propaganda must have a holistic property that should permeate throughout the whole of society:

All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be. But if, as in propaganda for sticking out a war, the aim is to influence a whole people, we must avoid excessive intellectual demands on our public, and too much caution cannot be extended in this direction. (Mein Kampf)

Furthermore, he also states that propaganda must harp on the major points often and repeatedly in order to make an impression either directly or subliminally. More importantly, propaganda cannot be objective for such a strategy would prove counterproductive:

...all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. As soon as you sacrifice this slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away, for the crowd can neither digest nor retain the material offered. In this way the result is weakened and in the end entirely cancelled out...its task is not to make an objective study of the truth, in so far as it favors the enemy, and then set it before the masses with academic fairness; its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly. (Mein Kampf)

Now it would be ingenuous to directly parallel Hitleristic propaganda with that of the US. For one, the American media is not state-run and the competition between networks forces one media outlet to present issues in alternate angles, tones, and perspectives. However, some of the basic criteria of Mein Kampf are still prevalent.

For example, take the color coded terror threat levels that are supposed to indicate the "level" of state security. The simplistic nature of this mechanism is laughable to say the least. But to the common blue-collar worker in southern Mississippi, these threat levels are probably serious ways to decipher whether him and his family will wake up alive the next day. ---> All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to.

More often than not, two opposing sides will be presented (more often on CNN) that argue about a certain issue to provide the viewer with an objective analysis. However, there are instances where this "objectivity" is merely an illusion. The former show "Crossfire" on CNN was taken off air amid controversies stirred up by political comedian Jon Stewart. He maintained that the hosts did not ask the hard hitting questions and were guilty of "partisan hackery".---> its task is not to make an objective study of the truth, in so far as it favors the enemy, and then set it before the masses with academic fairness; its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly.

Reptition has also been a crucial success of propaganda. Lo and behold, CNN is the first network to offer headline news that repeatedly attempts to dent the human psyche with facts that they want you to believe.---> ...all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan

Another example is the repeated play of the collapse of the twin towers in order to elicit an emotional response (patriotism), thereby justifying wars on Afghanistan and subsequent attacks on oil-rich states in order to maintain supreme hegemony. Playing on the emotion of the populace is a key component of propaganda because pragmatism and reason are thrown out the window when any type of emotion is brought into the equation. Playing on fear is a favourite of the US media, "we must attack first, because if they do, we'll be destroyed".

This results in a general acceptance of whatever stories the government concocts to further its hegemonic goals (ie: Saddam (secular nationalist) in cahoots with bin Laden (religious fundamentalist)). The US also engineers perception by villainizing regimes before any potential invasion, also referred to as "character assassination". This is done to "soften" public opposition against a potential war by arousing anger within the population against that particular regime. The media is currently practicing this very character assassination against Ahmadinejad and the Iranian government. Similarly, the filming of coffins of US soldiers coming back from Iraq is prohibited to prevent domestic outcries against the war. They want to control what we see and what we hear.

Further to this was the demolishing of Saddam's statue. Camera angles were zoomed in to prevent the viewer from seeing the the limited support that was there. The symbolism of the US soldier climbing up and wrapping a US flag around the statue's face spoke volumes which fomented a feeling of superiority, relief, and immortality among the US populace. The effective use of drama, theatre, and heroism in collaboration, further ingrains the "we are good, they are evil" type attitude and harnesses greater support for imperialist actions.

From a general perspective, this play on emotion goes beyond any news or issue. Most news anchors are generally attractive, because a certain message from an appealing point of view is more likely to be internalized by the masses. US media is looking more and more like some hollywood production with catchy music, and names like "The Situation Room" gives the interactive feel of watching some sort of army command centre. It is safe to assume that emotion is the way perception is engineered ---> The art of propaganda lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the great masses and finding, through a psychologically correct form, the way to the attention and thence to the heart of the broad masses.

As the general public, it is up to us to look beyond the media and think critically. To take the media at face value is highly credulous. We must look beyond our television sets and begin to think for ourselves, or become pawns of our government, which sadly, most US citizens have already become.

copyright Aurangzeb Qureshi 2006