Smear & Brainwashing Propaganda

It's common knowledge that every war worldwide is waged not only in the battleground, but also in people's mind by using propaganda. It can dramatically change people's perception of reality by  sugar-cotting the truth and demonizing the foes as to make people ardent advocates of the cause. 

In George Orwell’s Novel, ‘’1984’’, the thinking of citizens is strictly and tightly controlled by the party, using propaganda as a vital and powerful tool to cover lies and widely spread false information, but most importantly to control people. Furthermore, it makes citizens truly believe that what the party does and commands them to do is always the right thing to do. George Orwell presents two major types of propaganda: (1)the double-think and (2) a fear-inducing one.

Double-think is a term coined by George Orwell in his novel and it means: 

‘’.. the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. ... To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies—all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.’’ (Orwell, 1948).  

For instance, Winston Smith works at the ministry of truth. His job is to delete shameful facts from the public domain and compose and create a story  to cover what has really happened  and make people ''swallow it''. Another example of this in the novel is when the party makes people believe that they’ve been attacked by the enemy. They were the ones who launched the rockets and set the bombs to its own people. Additionally, the slogan ‘’ Big Brother is watching you’’ was supposed to give citizens a sense of protection and safety. The odds that something could go wrong are none. 

The fear-inducing aspect of propaganda is embedded in the fact that the party claims that if there were no ‘’big brother’’, chaos would take place in Ocenia and citizens would be in dire danger .

While I was reading the novel, i could not help, but thinking about the current affairs across the globe. Unfortunately, War and growing violent conflicts are in vogue. For instance the so-called ‘’war on terror ‘’in which propaganda broadcasted mainly by The United States of America and Britain depicts Iraq as an immediate and grave threat to the world. It flourished after September 11th terrorist attack on the United States. The  major goal of this is to convince citizens that ‘’action’’ meaning war is needed urgently. Both Tony Blair , former prime minister of the U.K and George W. Bush started this campaign that is still in Obama’s and Cameron’s agenda. It is meant to tackle both organization designated terrorist and regimes accused of supporting them such as al-Qaeda, authorizing the use of arm forces to battle countries accused of supporting terrorism. The military operations are called ‘’Operation Enduring Freedom’’, but there’s no freedom seeking at all!!!!

Another example of ‘’shady’’ propaganda is what took place a few months ago in Russia, regarding  Crimea and Ukraine. The occupation of crimea was accompanied by a remarkable propaganda broadcasted by Moscow. Vladimir Putin’s Klemir did shut down independent voices, dismantling the press. He also forced several editors in chief of independent radio programs and newspapers to abdicate, placing pro-russian advocates in exchange. Consequently, rumors and lies were wide spread, confusing Russians. When troops were sent to Ukraine and Crimea he said that it was for the sake of security and safety of those countries and that the troops would be stanionized there until the situation ‘’normalizes’’, when the truth was that he wanted to overthrow the president and take over the place.

Apparently, the reality between what happens in the novel 1984 and the real world is not strikingly different. Everyday, we are overwhelmed by propaganda that does not have the very best interest at heart. Besides, we don’t even know those who are behind it.It seems to me that what Orwell wanted to guard us off has already taken place in our world.  What do you think? Can you think of other examples in which propaganda has been used as to convince people to support something?

Bibliography

Regis, H. (2012). George Orwell 1984. Brazil: Universidad de Campina Grande.

Orwell, G. (1946). Politics and the English Language. London: Horizon.

Yuhas, A. ( March 17th, 2014). Russian propaganda over Crimea and Ukraine: How does it work? The Guardian .

Shah, A. (March 30th 2003). Media, propaganda and Iraq. Global Issues. Obtenido de http://www.globalissues.org/article/400/media-propaganda-and-iraq#SomeExamplesofPropaganda