A Shortcut for Decision Making
The two largest American Political parties, democrats and republicans, accuse the other not only of manipulating voters but also of being evil. Just watch any far-right or far-left political commentator or news cast and you’re sure to find stereotyping and simplification of complex political issues. When discussing these issues, democrats may call those who disagree with them fascist and racist while Republicans may call people in opposition to their position ignorant social justice warriors (SJW).
If you are on the fringes of the political spectrum or you call people who adhere to a political party or belief fascist or SJW then it's highly likely that you're a victim of Propaganda. However, you don’t have to be on the far ends of the political spectrum to be a victim of propaganda. Propaganda is everywhere, which is why nearly everyone is a victim.
You’re especially likely to be a victim of propaganda if you implement shortcuts in your decision making, such as relying on others for information and not critically assessing evidence before coming to conclusions. Really, everyone implements these shortcuts in their decision making because no one can critically assess everything. This is where propaganda comes in. It can be used when people want to make shortcuts in their decision making. For example, a media organization may have an expert speak on a particular subject and expect viewers to accept that expert's opinion as fact.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a consensus that using propaganda as a shortcut for critical thinking is getting worse. In fact, several organizations and universities are now researching propaganda and misinformation, including Harvard University, Rand, and Pew Research Center. Some may think that propaganda and misinformation is worsening due to increases in technology and the use of social media, but that's an overly simplistic line of reasoning. If we go back to the 1900s, we can see from Jacques Ellul, a scholar that studied and wrote about propaganda, that increases in and susceptibleness to propaganda is likely more a result of culture than technology.
Propaganda Thrives in Individualist Societies
Ellul, the scholar who wrote the book Propaganda, explained that an individualist society, such as present-day American society, has the perfect conditions needed for propaganda. In a nutshell, America’s individualist society says that the small groups individuals belong to, including religion and family, are no longer needed. This removal from smaller groups makes the individual become part of the masses. In other words, Ellul explained that there is a mass society that the individual becomes a part of once smaller groups deteriorate.
Prior to this individualist society, the individual was less affected by propaganda due to engaging in smaller local groups. Ellul explains that as members of small local groups, people are more protected from collective influences, customs, and suggestions. However, this does not mean that people are freer when they are a part of small groups, it simply means that the small groups have more influence over the person and broad ideological influences have less influence. This may be the reason why societies such as Soviet Russia were staunchly against religion. They saw religious institutions as a threat to communist propaganda and to forming the individual in a specific image.
Additionally, there has been a misconception that if society becomes more individualistic and small local groups are dismantled then it would lead to people being free. Instead, what is happening is people are becoming more exposed to the influence of the masses. This means that mass currents are taking the place of small local groups. This can be seen in our present-day society where Political Parties are the mass currents that are taking the place of small local groups. In other words, people are now largely subject to the influences, customs, and suggestions of political parties. In fact, people are much more entrenched in their political positions, with Republicans becoming more conservative and democrats becoming more liberal.
Our Susceptibleness to Propaganda
It’s important to acknowledge the reasons propaganda is present and the reasons people are susceptible to propaganda. Yes, technology may be contributing to the development of propaganda, but our present culture is a large reason for why people are so susceptible to propaganda. As mentioned earlier, the culture of diminishing the influence of local social groups is negatively impacting the United States. The individual cannot live without being influenced, instead the individual must be grounded in a system. The foundations of this system are usually either small local groups or large mass currents.
Without returning to a state where local groups have more of an influence on individuals, there will continue to be a vacuum where the local groups used to have influence. This increasingly leaves open the possibility that something else will take the place of these local groups. Right now, political parties are taking the place of these local groups. If the destruction of these local groups continues, it’s likely that people will become more entrenched in these political parties. However, what's more concerning is that there is no reason something else couldn’t take the place of filling the whole that is left in the individual due to the deterioration of smaller groups.
