Subject:
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Re: debates (was: John Leo's opinion of "The West Wing")
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Sun, 6 Oct 2002 19:30:40 GMT
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Viewed:
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1244 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Ed Jones writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher L. Weeks writes:
> I think the bigger question is: What isn't propagandized? Isn't all
> advertising propaganda? Isn't every book propaganda? Every medium's main
> purpose is to promote its ideas. Isn't the very promotion of ideas
> propaganda?
Certainly advertising is by nature propagandist. There seems like a critical
difference between a piece of fiction that is written solely to entertain and
one that is written with underlying political/religious/social/whatever
messages that are meant to soak into and alter the reader's behavior.
As I wrote the above statement, I realized that it was kind of wiggly. When I
read a book, I am likely to talk about it, or alter my future reading based on
that read. So it has changed my behavior whether or not there are social
messages involved. So I guess I'm leaning toward intent as the primary
defining factor.
An author might write about some alternative social institution as a curiosity
for his story, but if there is no attempt to promote that (or the converse)
institution, I don't think it's reasonable to call it propaganda.
I guess I don't think the dissemination of information is equivalent to the
promotion of ideas. Even if there is lots of risk of simple dissemination
becomming promotion (even accidentally).
Houghton Mifflin Company says that propaganda is "the systematic propagation of
a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of
those advocating such a doctrine or cause."
I don't like when edumacators make the claim that by teaching kids about
sexuality, we are endorsing sexual activity. It seems to me that they are
understanding propaganda too broadly and we are just providing information
(hopefully) without bias. The contradiction with the dictionary
definition (in the case of books, or sex ed) comes from the "systematic"
and "doctrine" bits, I think. (But this might be the kind of debate over
meaning that irritates you..?)
Chris
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