Propaganda in our everyday lives
IT seems to me Filipinos are in a perpetual state of war with the government and vice versa, the government against the people. Those who are not fighting the government are perhaps fighting each other, instead.
One thing that keeps us locked in this state of war is the constant holding of local and national political elections. In these exercises, every citizen associated with a political group or as plain individuals will be actively engaged in the campaign to get their candidates and parties win the election.
After the election, except a few, nobody among the losing candidates will truly concede defeat. Loudly or silently, their mouths or attitudes communicate the view that they were cheated.
To some of the candidates, election battles in its many forms, continue whether they won or lost a just-concluded election. The campaign for the next election, the making and circulation of propaganda, and fake news does not rest, long after the ballots were counted.
All ideological-political parties and their members want to come across like they are servants who will work for the people’s best interests and that of their families and communities. The truth is that they desire and aspire to be in control of the government, of power over the nation, its people, and resources. Their election campaign platforms promise genuine development and progress. These are best treated as propaganda.
The ensuing battle for control is fought on at least two grounds: the minds of the people (via propaganda), and the ballot.
No matter how this statement will be denied or denounced by “good” candidates and parties who would tell us “only the truth,” the reality in politics today is that candidates are not saints. The leaders and their followers engage in misleading their people to win their votes. They distort, exaggerate, fabricate, and use the selective, subjective, and inaccurate information to receive support and attain a sense of legitimacy.
To the poor and middle-income citizens, there is not much to be desired in our election exercises today. We resort to all kinds of propaganda and vote-buying. Political candidates spend millions in campaign funds to hire propaganda machines and pay votes.
Our election practices perpetuate an endless political war that affects all citizens.
Those who win the election battles will soon use the government machinery and its resources to hold on to power. Those who want to take over the reins of government will sabotage or deny good governance, development and progress for the party in power. In this environment, propaganda is perhaps the most relevant occupation.
In his book “munitions of the Mind,” Dr. Philip Taylor explained the significance of propaganda in war media coverage. “Propaganda itself is neither sinister nor evil. It is no more than the organization of methods designed to persuade people to think and behave in a certain way, and in wartime that usually means getting them to fight or to support the fight.”
In war and politics, “the ability to win public support can be just as important as the ability to fight the war.”.
Political propaganda is actually everywhere. Labor and the different professions use it. Newspapers and almost every type of mass media contain elements of propaganda. Webster’s College Dictionary defines propaganda as “information or ideas methodically spread to promote or injure a cause, movement, nation, etc, and the deliberate spread of such information or ideas.”
When news on the rebound of agriculture in the Cordillera after years of low productivity was published, and mainly attributed to the good