“Whatever of social importance is done today, whether in politics, finance, manufacture, agriculture, charity, education, or other fields, must be done with the help of propaganda.” ― Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda
It’s all propaganda. Propaganda derives from a new administrative body of the Catholic Church created in 1622, called the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Congregation for Propagating the Faith), or informally simply Propaganda. Its goal was aimed at “propagating” the Catholic faith in non-Catholic countries, and you know how well that went. And with propaganda comes perception and awareness. How you see something and it registers. Based on your framework, vantage, ken, experience, frame of reference, history, experience, bias and predilection. If politics is ever to resonate it must register with the perception and awareness of the target. And with that comes the symbolism that is used with a particular ideology or persuasion or direction. If talk radio had been around in the 60s it would’ve been primarily “liberal.” The reason why is that it was the liberal who was angry and felt disenfranchised.
Days of yore. It was the liberal who fought against the Vietnam War, who supported women’s rights and civil rights and the environment. It was a liberal who was angry. It was the liberal who had a passel of symbols, semiotics. But then the worst thing happened for liberalism. Liberals won. And with that came the diffusion and dilution of what was once its collective passion. In the 80s with the advent of Rush Limbaugh it was the angry white man and conservative who dominated talk radio because they were the ones who felt alienated and castigated and left out. Their symbols are still seen today: the flag, God, the family, Ronald Reagan and a series of syrupy, sappy, saccharine imagery that replaces well thought and well formed ideology. Let me repeat, it’s all about perception and awareness which are crafted and channeled and directed to the artful use of and deft application of surgical propaganda.
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