Bewildered Herd

PROPAGANDA AND BEWILDERED HERD


Fazli Rrezja

Noam Chomski about the propaganda emphasises that the issue is not simply just a disinformation. The issue is much broader. It’s weather we want to live in a free society or whether we want to live under what amounts to a form of self-imposed totalitarianism, with the bewildered herd marginalized, directed elsewhere, terrified, screaming patriotic slogans, while the educated masses goose-step on command. That’s the choice you have to face. The answer of these questions is very much in the hands of people like you and me. Nobody with the common sense wants to go to the war by its own will; it’s propaganda that makes this huge impact in modern societies.



Chomsky describes in a very good way the different conceptions of democracy and propaganda influence in modern societies. One conception of democracy is one in which the public has the means to participate in some meaningful way in the management in their own affairs and the means of information are open and free.

An alternative conception of democracy is that the public must be barred from managing of their own affairs and the means of information must be kept narrowly and rigidly controlled.

According to Chomsky, in totalitarian state or military state it’s easy to control bewildered herd, you just hold bludgeon on their heads, and if they get out of line you smash them over the head. But as the society has become more free and democratic, you lose that capacity. Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state. That’s wise because again the common interests elude bewildered herd.

In a study done by university in Massachusetts, a study on beliefs and attitude in television watching, one of the question was .How many Vietnamese casualties would you estimate that there were during the Vietnamese war? The average response on the part of Americans today is about 100,000. The official figure is four million. It has been marvelous success from the point of view in deterring the threat of democracy, achieved under conditions of freedom, which is extremely interesting. It’s not like totalitarian state, where it’s done by force.

Propaganda’s role impacts the way in which to keep the bewildered herd from paying attention to what’s really going on around them, to keep them diverted and controlled.

Noam Chomsky points out the spectacular achievement of U.S propaganda about Iraq. First, that the voices of Iraqi democrat opposition against Saddam’s regime are excluded by U.S administration, and second, it’s interesting that nobody notices it. Then he continuous to develops his theories of propaganda impact in Gulf War.

The techniques of propaganda are sophisticated, with the television and lot of money going into it. Chomski, thinks that the issue is not simply disinformation and the Gulf crises. The issue is much broader. It’s weather we want to live in a free society or whether we want to live under what amounts to a form of self-imposed totalitarianism, with the bewildered herd marginalized, directed elsewhere, terrified, screaming patriotic slogans, while the educated masses goose-step on command. That’s the choice you have to face

(Book review, Chomsky, Noam. The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda. Media Control, Seven Stories Press, New York, 2002)