Propaganda – Ideology of the Modern Crowd

In the world, where information rules we are constantly bombarded with whiz bangs of news, advertisement and knowledge. It is useful to spend some time on thinking and observing whether all this information is reliable or it is a kind of propaganda, the method used by the news makers to make you think in a way they want you to think. The news is supposed to be provided objectively to give you an opportunity to form your own opinion. However, sometimes the facts are omitted with purpose to make things look not as they really are for you.

One of the most vivid examples of propaganda in politics was performed in Nazi Germany. Even the scientific facts were falsified to prove that other races are evolutionarily worse than Aryans. Another bright example of political propaganda is the Cold War between US and the Soviet Union. Each country made the other look as ugly as possible by concentrating the public attention only on the negative facts. The famous American movie “Blast from the Past”, for instance, shows that the average American even made a bunker to save his family from the attack of the Soviet Union. The situation is humorous but it reflects the state of mind of the Americans formed by the political propaganda.

Propaganda techniques are also widely used in advertisement which make us buy more goods than we actually need. For instance, there is a bandwagon technique. It appeals to the herd instinct of people. You are told that everybody uses some product or service and if you do not buy it you will be left out of trend or even out of the society.

To avoid becoming a victim of propaganda and preserve independent state of mind you should always practice a critical approach to the information you are given and collect more facts from different sources on the issue you are interested in.