How War Propaganda Shapes Us

It's been a bit longer than I'd like since my last posting-- I promise the next one will come sooner (it's already in the pipeline and it's a doozy). Rehearsals are progressing really well; tix are available anytime you want to grab 'em at http://www.secondwindtheatre.com/. But today's video entry is a look at war propaganda images from WW2 and the subtle "amplification" used today. At the suggestion of historian Ronald Takaki (Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb), I began to study how propaganda (and it's opposite, censorship) contributed to our decisions. Today, the Pentagon calls propaganda that we generate and then start to believe oursselves "incestuous amplification." What makes proganda so powerful is that it's not just about shaping public opinion about the enemy, it's about shaping opinion about ourselves. We build polar myths.




Video courtesy of Hurricane Images Inc.