Posted on 01/15/2005 9:45:07 AM PST by Francis
Propaganda and Pandora's Box
January 8, 2005
by John J. Abele
The name Quisling became synonymous with "traitor" in the late 1930s. About the same time, the name Joseph Goebels became synonymous with "propaganda". He was the minister of propaganda for the Nazi government of Adolph Hitler and spread the wild stories of German racial superiority and ultimate victory in World War II.
Generally propaganda is "any systematic, widespread, deliberateindoctrination, now used as deception or distortion." Joseph Goebels certainly did all of that.
The American people generally want to believe that they are morally above such deceptive activities and that is normally the case. But the nation's founders saw that the elected and appointed officials would be tempted. It is normal human nature to want to portray your morality and activities in the best light, and to win people over to your points of view. The distance between best light and propaganda can be very short.
I think our government has been deliberately and consciously using propaganda for many years, but I have been unable to find the proof. One form that it has taken is the radio and television advertisements sponsored by the "Ad Council". Who provides the messages and the money for the Ad Council? I suspect it has been congress.
The proof surfaced in early January 2005, when we learned that Armstrong Williams, a black media personality, was paid about $250,000 by the Department of Education to "sell" a program called "no child left behind".
Mr. Williams has admitted that he was paid and he did sell the program. He has further stated that he believes this was wrong and he will never do it again. I believe that he has high personal standards, and he will be especially careful not to repeat this activity.
Syndicated columnist, Michelle Malkin, said: "There are no shades of gray about this, friends: the Bush Education Department subsidized a prominent minority conservative "journalist" with federal taxpayer dollars to sell black parents on the Teddy Kennedy-inspired No Child Left Behind boondoggle – a program that represent the largest single expansion in federal education spending since Jimmy Carter created the Education Department.
"This fiscally irresponsible, ethically challenged and possibly illegal arrangement deserves only one thing from conservatives: unqualified contempt."
Syndicated columnist, television commentator and man about town, George Will, had the sources to learn that this is the tip of the iceberg. He suggested that the total spending on No Child Left Behind propaganda was a million dollars. He said: "...government by the consent of the governed should no mean government by consent produced by government propaganda."
This episode has opened a Pandora's box. Clearly this action by the Department of Education is not an exception but the rule. I assume that federal government agencies generally participate to a greater or lesser degree. I remember one blatant piece of pure propaganda by the Ad Council about 25 years ago. If you are old enough you will remember that this was the time when inflation and interest rates were in double digits. The dictionary said inflation was caused by government, and the Ad Council told us it was the greedy merchants who were raising their prices to make a higher profit. They succeeded. Later dictionaries do not mention governments as a primary cause.
Does congress appropriate the money for this activity with full knowledge of how it will be used? To deny knowledge would be to admit that they are incompetent or not doing their duty. How do they decide what programs will get money for propaganda,and how much? Worse still, how do they rationalize this with the Constitution?
While some people have doubted it, I did go to school in my early years. If any children were left behind, I didn't see it and it certainly wasn't publicized.Somehow we learned what we needed to know without the assistance of a Department of Education. Schools were built and operated by local municipalities, with no help from the federal government. Did the federal government fail to fulfill the provisions of the Constitution until 50 years ago?
Who was the enlightened bureaucrat in the Carter administration who found the requirement in the Constitution for the federal government to control the schools?
And what is the Section and paragraph so that I can read it? Or perhaps it was a decision by the Supreme Court where Justice Ginsberg looks to foreign customs and laws for guiding her decisions.
I did not hear Armstrong Williams touting "no child left behind", but the very words suggest that some students are less than brilliant and might benefit by special assistance from teachers. But there is no mention of the impact of 10 million illegal immigrants in the United States today, and their three million children who do not speak English.
And you probably thought there was only one Pandora's Box. These children need help if they are going to be productive citizens. But how can they become productive citizens when they violated our laws the day they first stepped on U.S. soil?
These issues are not going to go away, but I suspect that our elected officials will do their best to minimize discussions. They continue to fail us, and our president is the man in charge, and he appears to be doing the same.
Propaganda
January 8, 2005
by John J. Abele
The name Quisling became synonymous with "traitor" in the late 1930s. About the same time, the name Joseph Goebels became synonymous with "propaganda". He was the minister of propaganda for the Nazi government of Adolph Hitler and spread the wild stories of German racial superiority and ultimate victory in World War II.
Generally propaganda is "any systematic, widespread, deliberate indoctrination, now used as deception or distortion." Joseph Goebels certainly did all of that. . . .
I think our government has been deliberately and consciously using propaganda for many years, but I have been unable to find the proof. One form that it has taken is the radio and television advertisements sponsored by the "Ad Council". Who provides the messages and the money for the Ad Council? I suspect it has been congress.
The proof surfaced in early January 2005, when we learned that Armstrong Williams, a black media personality, was paid about $250,000 by the Department of Education to "sell" a program called "no child left behind".
The perspective on propaganda in this article by John J. Abele is interesting; it adds an interesting historical context to the topic of propaganda in America.
The name Quisling became synonymous with "traitor" in the late 1930s. About the same time, the name Joseph Goebels became synonymous with "propaganda". He was the minister of propaganda for the Nazi government of Adolph Hitler and spread the wild stories of German racial superiority and ultimate victory in World War II.
Generally propaganda is "any systematic, widespread, deliberateindoctrination, now used as deception or distortion." Joseph Goebels certainly did all of that.
The American people generally want to believe that they are morally above such deceptive activities and that is normally the case. But the nation's founders saw that the elected and appointed officials would be tempted. It is normal human nature to want to portray your morality and activities in the best light, and to win people over to your points of view. The distance between best light and propaganda can be very short.
I think our government has been deliberately and consciously using propaganda for many years, but I have been unable to find the proof. One form that it has taken is the radio and television advertisements sponsored by the "Ad Council". Who provides the messages and the money for the Ad Council? I suspect it has been congress.
The proof surfaced in early January 2005, when we learned that Armstrong Williams, a black media personality, was paid about $250,000 by the Department of Education to "sell" a program called "no child left behind".
Mr. Williams has admitted that he was paid and he did sell the program. He has further stated that he believes this was wrong and he will never do it again. I believe that he has high personal standards, and he will be especially careful not to repeat this activity.
Syndicated columnist, Michelle Malkin, said: "There are no shades of gray about this, friends: the Bush Education Department subsidized a prominent minority conservative "journalist" with federal taxpayer dollars to sell black parents on the Teddy Kennedy-inspired No Child Left Behind boondoggle – a program that represent the largest single expansion in federal education spending since Jimmy Carter created the Education Department.
"This fiscally irresponsible, ethically challenged and possibly illegal arrangement deserves only one thing from conservatives: unqualified contempt."
Syndicated columnist, television commentator and man about town, George Will, had the sources to learn that this is the tip of the iceberg. He suggested that the total spending on No Child Left Behind propaganda was a million dollars. He said: "...government by the consent of the governed should no mean government by consent produced by government propaganda."
This episode has opened a Pandora's box. Clearly this action by the Department of Education is not an exception but the rule. I assume that federal government agencies generally participate to a greater or lesser degree. I remember one blatant piece of pure propaganda by the Ad Council about 25 years ago. If you are old enough you will remember that this was the time when inflation and interest rates were in double digits. The dictionary said inflation was caused by government, and the Ad Council told us it was the greedy merchants who were raising their prices to make a higher profit. They succeeded. Later dictionaries do not mention governments as a primary cause.
Does congress appropriate the money for this activity with full knowledge of how it will be used? To deny knowledge would be to admit that they are incompetent or not doing their duty. How do they decide what programs will get money for propaganda,and how much? Worse still, how do they rationalize this with the Constitution?
While some people have doubted it, I did go to school in my early years. If any children were left behind, I didn't see it and it certainly wasn't publicized.Somehow we learned what we needed to know without the assistance of a Department of Education. Schools were built and operated by local municipalities, with no help from the federal government. Did the federal government fail to fulfill the provisions of the Constitution until 50 years ago?
Who was the enlightened bureaucrat in the Carter administration who found the requirement in the Constitution for the federal government to control the schools?
And what is the Section and paragraph so that I can read it? Or perhaps it was a decision by the Supreme Court where Justice Ginsberg looks to foreign customs and laws for guiding her decisions.
I did not hear Armstrong Williams touting "no child left behind", but the very words suggest that some students are less than brilliant and might benefit by special assistance from teachers. But there is no mention of the impact of 10 million illegal immigrants in the United States today, and their three million children who do not speak English.
And you probably thought there was only one Pandora's Box. These children need help if they are going to be productive citizens. But how can they become productive citizens when they violated our laws the day they first stepped on U.S. soil?
These issues are not going to go away, but I suspect that our elected officials will do their best to minimize discussions. They continue to fail us, and our president is the man in charge, and he appears to be doing the same.
But why confine the question to the children of illegal immigrants? A better question is: how can any of us become or remain productive citizens in the face of a legal system designed to penalize productivity?
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