Propaganda

 

On Pages 102 through 104 of his book, The True Believer, Eric Hoffer comments on the connection between propaganda and its influence on mass movements. I will quote him and then respond to his content.

 

Hoffer (H after this): “We tend today to exaggerate the effectiveness of persuasion as a means of inculcating opinion and shaping behavior. We see in propaganda a formidable instrument. To its skillful use we attribute many of the startling successes of the mass movement of our time, and we have come to fear the word as much as the sword.

 

Actually the fabulous effects ascribed to propaganda have no greater foundation in fact than the fall of the walls of Jericho ascribed to the blasts of Joshua’s trumpets. Were propaganda by itself one tenth as potent as it is made out to be, the totalitarian regimes of Russia, Germany, Italy and Spain would have been mild affairs. They would have been blatant and brazen but without the ghastly brutality of secret police, concentration camps and mass extermination.

 

The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force itself into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something new; nor can it keep people persuaded once they have ceased to believe. It penetrates only into minds already open, and rather than instill opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already in the minds of its recipients. The gifted propagandist brings to a boil ideas and passions already simmering in the minds of his hearers. He echoes their innermost feelings. Where opinion is not coerced, people can only be made to believe only in what they already ‘know.’

 

Propaganda by itself succeeds mainly with the frustrated. Their throbbing fears, hopes and passions crowd at the portal of their senses and get between them and the outside world. They cannot see but what they have already imagined, and it is the music of their own souls they hear in the impassioned words of the propagandist. Indeed, it is easier for the frustrated to detect their own imaginings and hear the echo of their own musings in impassioned double-talk and sonorous refrains than in precise words joined together with faultless logic.

 

Propaganda by itself, however skillful, cannot keep people persuaded once they cease to believe. To maintain itself, a mass movement has to order things so that when the people no longer believe, they can be made to believe by force.

 

As we shall see later (Section 104), words are an essential instrument in preparing the ground for a mass movement. But once the movement is realized, words, though still useful, cease to play a decisive role. So acknowledged a master of propaganda as Dr. Goebbels admits in an unguarded moment that ‘A sharp sword must always stand behind propaganda if it is to be really effective.’ He also sounds apologetic when he claims that ‘it cannot be denied that more can be done with good propaganda than by no propaganda at all.”

 

My response: Hoffer seems to be cautioning the reader that propaganda is useful but not a miracle instrument of communication. It works best with people that already if unconsciously think and agree with the message sent them by the propagandist himself.

 

He also warns that it is more effective if it is backed by state terror and the masses realize that.

 

H: “                                                                84

 

Contrary to what one would expect, propaganda becomes more fervent and importunate when it operates in conjunction with coercion than when it has to rely solely on its own effectiveness.

 

Both they who convert and they who are converted by coercion need the fervent conviction that the faith they impose or are forced to adopt is the only true one. Without this conviction, the proselytizing terrorist, if he is not vicious to begin with, will feel like a criminal, and the coerced convert see himself as a coward who prostituted his soul to live.

 

Propaganda thus serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others; and the more we have to feel guilty, the more fervent our propaganda.”

 

My response: Fervent propaganda is most utilized by those that used terror and the sword to advance the holy cause.