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The Just Use of Propaganda (?): Ethical Criteria for Counter-Hegemonic Communication Strategies

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 77; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10570314.2013.785014

1745-1027

John Arthos,

Communication in Education and Healthcare

Abstract In the face of an entrenched corporate ideological apparatus that has captured our state institutions, mainstream media, and the governing classes, this article identifies an ethical problem for critical rhetoric. To what extent are democratic communities justified in utilizing the 'master's tools' of strategic communication to fight the vast political machinery of the corporate state? The debate in rhetoric studies on the ethics of persuasion and the debate in communication theory launched by Lippmann's critique of mass communication serve to open up areas of concern for considering the just use of propaganda. An ethical criteriology based on Michel de Certeau's concept of "making do" is developed to guide thinking about appropriate responses to the stranglehold of postmodern hegemony over the political economy. The Wisconsin Scott Walker repeal campaign of 2011 is used as an extended example to test this criteriology. Keywords: HegemonyMetisMichel de CerteauPropagandaStrategic CommunicationSymbolic Inducement Acknowledgments The author wishes to express his gratitude to Bill Eadie and the readers for carefully guiding this article through the revision process. Notes Krugman and Wells point to popular commentaries that have recently done this kind of political-economic analysis. Habermas gave this phenomenon its most famous articulation when he described the illicit cooperation of government and special interests "above the public whose instruments they once were," a public "included only sporadically in this circuit of power," and even then "only to contribute its acclamation" (The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere 176). The theory of what is now called "extraction economies" has become prominent in mainstream economics (see, especially, Acemoglu and Robinson). The exposure of the machinery of regulatory, legislative, electoral and state capture by corporate interests is now commonplace (see Johnson). Chomsky's longstanding analysis of the media and government cooptation is virtually indistinguishable from the rhetoric of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and this can be seen in a recent book by Chomsky on Occupy Wall Street (see Chomsky). This analysis is even making its way into mainstream news organizations like the New York Times (see Morgenson). "We have to be real about the media environment. They're there, and they reach millions of people, so we can't simply ignore them" (Tucker). For instance, in October of 2011 PETA published billboard ads with the logo "Payback Is Hell: Go Vegan" immediately after a spearfisher lost a leg to a shark attack (Kelly). In another campaign PETA published a photoshopped mash-up of caged chickens and Holocaust survivors with the banner "To Animals, All People Are Nazis" (Vamburkar). One critic who agrees with PETA's aims opposes their tactics: "I think their campaigns are sexist and racist, and that they're willing to sacrifice the dignity and the rights of one group in order to make the case for the rights of another" (Jill [sic]). Cicero described the method, championed first by Carneades, in book 5, section 4 of the Tusculan Disputations, and demonstrated it throughout the De Oratore (On Oratory and Orators). The national political reporter Andrea Seabrook quit her job at NPR because of what she called collusion: "As journalists, walking into a situation that we know is political theatre, and then recording those words and playing them back to the American people as if they were news plays into the game that they're playing" (Garfield). For a history of the construction of a media infrastructure that has now effectively captured public discourse and shaped political narrative, see Brock. Olmsted 50. "There is a certain faculty called Cleverness [metis], which is the capacity for doing the things aforesaid that conduce to the aim we propose, and so attaining that aim. If the aim is noble, this is a praiseworthy faculty: if base, it is mere navery" (Aristotle 367–69, bk. 6, par. 12). Each of us knows in our own lives, whether working on the neighborhood watch, the school board, the professional organization or the voluntary group, that we sometimes think expediently about how to outwit an opponent or nudge an ally, and we are also aware intuitively that there is a line not to be crossed when we begin doing this, and that scruples usually kick in to keep us from going over that line. If we make these concessions at the personal level, how do such concessions translate up the chain to mass movements and campaigns? The epigraph that begins this article refers to a traditional principle of Ciceronian rhetoric: "Deliberative reason permits people to adjudicate between the demands of the honorable and the expedient" (Olmsted 50). But rhetoric is an art that is schooled by theoretical self-awareness, and it would be good to have some clarity about how to navigate between the honorable and the expedient. Jacques Ellul may have anticipated the challenges posed to theories of mass communication by the increasingly individualized form of digital communication: "Thus all modern propaganda profits from the structure of the mass, but exploits the individual's need for self-affirmation; and both actions must be conducted jointly, simultaneously" (8). Among the most notable discussion on this topic, Malcolm Gladwell, in a series of high-profile exchanges with critics, proposed and then attempted to defend the thesis that the new digital social media was not going to be a significant new force in fomenting social change, because it relied on distended ties of filiation rather than the strong face-to-face bonds that support revolutionary movements (see Gladwell.) Gladwell wrote this thesis just prior to the Egyptian spring—sometimes called the Facebook Revolution because of the use of Facebook to plan and execute the early stages of the uprising—an event which seemed to contradict his thesis. Similarly, the Occupy movement was catapulted to prominence and sustained in its early months by a series of viral videos that overcame mainstream media suppression. But then the famous Kony 2012 Youtube video (the most viral video of all time up to that point) and its aftermath (a negligible activist response) gave considerable support to the Gladwell thesis. These are early days for understanding the role of the new media in social activism. A masterpiece of standard persuasion and marketing techniques applied to a progressive Youtube campaign attracted the most views of any Youtube up to that point in time, but created a fire-storm of protest over ethical questions (see Memmott.). In Lippmann's words, "The limitations of social contact, the comparatively meager time available in each day for paying attention to public affairs, the distortion arising because events have been compressed into very short messages, the difficulty of making a small vocabulary express a complicated world" (30). "Propaganda is needed in the exercise of power for the simple reason that the masses have come to participate in political affairs" (Ellul 121). Representative definitions of propaganda can be found in Jowett and O'Donnell 7; Taithe and Thorton 6; Parry-Giles xxvi; Sproule 8. By doxastic I mean the reliance on or exploitation of popular memes, tropes, narratives and clichés; a practice that can short-circuit the rigorous process of reasoning. A good example of a de Certeau tactic is what was called the "horror show" developed during the Vietnam era to help recruits avoid the draft. In collusion with others, a potential recruit stages an elaborate and devious misrepresentation designed to dissuade the recruiters (see Maher). Thus a North African living in Paris or Roubaix (France) insinuates into the system imposed on him by the construction of a low-income housing development or of the French language the ways of 'dwelling' (in a house or a language) peculiar to his native Kabylia. He superimposes them and, by that combination creates for himself a space in which he can find ways of using the constraining order of the first place or of the language. (de Certeau, "'Making Do'" 163). Wisconsonites intuitively understood what was going on as an economic reorganization under cover of what is referred to now (see Klein) as disaster capitalism. For an example of how this structural change was being engineered in Wisconsin, see Lounsbury, "Walker Spent 1.25 Million," and Lounsbury, "Walker Redefines Act 10." The prank call in fact had a significant effect on public opinion (see Dayen, "Prank Koch Call"). The fact that, according to polling, a majority of voters throughout this period remained Obama supporters was a good control against this opinion shift (see Eric Black). A Willie Horton-style ad campaign was launched against Tom Barrett (see Russell). Sixty percent of those polled said recalls are only appropriate for official misconduct (see Edison Research). Six out of the seven jobs Walker took credit for "were created by Wisconsonites getting jobs outside the state" (Senator Kathleen Vinehout reported by Conniff, "Walker's Deceitful State of the State"). Walker plugged the state deficit with mortgage relief funds from the federal government (see Wisconsin State Journal). Deferred salary programs are funded by the worker's own payroll contributions. Governor Walker raised $30.5 million, 66% of which was out-of-state donors, while Tom Barrett, the Democratic contender, raised $3.9 million, of which 26% was out-of-state donors. The super-PAC Americans for Prosperity spent $6.5 million on ads for Walker (see Abowd). For a good aggregation of polling data on the shift in Wisconsin public opinion, see Ekins. Qtd. in Conniff, "Which Way, Wisconsin? How to Compete with Walker?" This recall process should be one in which the candidates make the cases for themselves without having to rely on either the deceptive efforts by the groups supporting them or the special interest influences that Russ Feingold and Progressives United have worked so hard to keep from corrupting our democratic system, Feingold added. "If we can't allow our candidates to campaign for themselves without taking pot-shots or deceiving the people we represent, we are in severe trouble."Quoted in Conniff, "Feingold and Wisconsin vs. Obama's Super PAC." "Feingold is a 'loser,' progressive commentator Ed Schultz shot back on his radio show. Having lost his Senate seat in 2010, Schultz added, Feingold is now just a 'heckler from the stands.' 'This is about winning,' Schultz said. 'If you don't have the money, you can't win.' " (qtd. in Conniff, "Feingold and Wisconsin"). Leading up to the recall vote, progressive media reported heavily on the possibility that Scott Walker was the target of a criminal investigation on allegations of embezzlement and use of taxpayer money as a Milwaukee County executive (see Terkel.) Three days before the vote, anonymous government lawyers confirmed Walker as a target of the criminal corruption probe by the Milwaukee County District Attorney (see Bice; Bottari). For a well-documented case for this interpretation see Perlstein. If you answer "already lost," then change the word "poisoning" to "turning" in the formulation and ask the question again. "Political campaigns are pretty much where movements go to die, get betrayed or are stillborn. A mass movement consciously aims to lead politicians, not to be led by them" (Dixon). The populist movement that arose from the uprising could have used every dollar given to a politician or an outside campaign spending group and used it in community-based organizing. We could have seen well-funded nonviolent actions. We could have seen education campaigns, going door to door with a message rather than asking to support Tom Barrett or whoever else. We could have seen economic boycotts on Walker-supporting businesses. We could have seen more organizing into broad coalitions around the idea of repealing the rights-stripping collective bargaining law. We could have seen an insurgent movement, one that captured the energy of the uprising rather than re-channeled it. (Dayen, "After Wisconsin"). "The form of a movement is a rhetorical form" (Cathcart 86). The permeability of persuasion and coercion is now well established in rhetorical studies (see Burgess; Andrews; Starosta). A fascinating and important debate took place around this issue in the wake of black bloc activities at Occupy Oakland in the winter of 2012, when activists nationally faced the possible growth of violent confrontation within the movement (see Hedges at about 45 minutes into the interview. This quotation is not recorded in the written transcript.). See danps [sic]. "[Ivy] Lee maintained that propaganda's ability to move crowds was only as good as its transparency … open and disclosed propaganda could serve a greater good" (St. John III 226). Olmsted 50. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJohn Arthos John Arthos (PhD, Wayne State University) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Denison University.