In French academic Jacques Ellul's classic tome on the nature and uses of propaganda, Ellul warns against the arrogant and misguided assumption in most social democracies to discount the use of such unobtrusive means of political persuasion in their societies. According to Ellul, all of the Western democracies are every bit as vulnerable to propaganda's sinister anti-democratic effects as any other sort of `less sophisticated' (read "totalitarian" here) culture. As Ellul persuasively argues, no such invulnerability pertains. Indeed, in a modern society characterized by a powerful, affluent, and resourceful central government, one that is highly influenced by the predominant voices of industry and the economically powerful, the means of such `friendly persuasion' are both more prevalent and more dangerous than anywhere else. In this book, "Weapons Of Mass Deception", we have a literal case study of how the authors, Sheldon Rampton and John C. Stauber, have observed the current Bush administration blatantly attempt to subvert the democratic process by foisting such a propaganda campaign in support of a war of aggression against the Iraqis.
Indeed, shortly after the events of September 11, 2001, members of the current administration hired advertising executives to direct a media campaign to convince the populace of the need to conduct a preemptive attack of Iraq in pursuit of eventual security against perceived potential terrorist threats. President Bush's National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice was quoted as pointedly requesting position papers from her White House staffers as to how the administration could immediately begin using the events of 911 to further the administration's domestic and foreign policy goals. Other public relation advisors were brought in to help construct the Bush administration's on-point approach toward justifying and selling the idea of the preemptive strike to a public both disoriented and frightened by the terrorist attack on 911. A variety of different attempts to forward this action were taken and `floated' in various ploys to judge what specific combinations of reasons and justifications would best `play' to sell the war to the aggravated and anxious populace.
Thus we had an initial attempt by the organs of government to use the realtively straightforward idea of simple `regime change' as a justification for moving against Iraq, which clearly failed to elicit the desired positive effect on public opinion. Next on the sheet of potential arguments that the Bush administration was auditioning was a rather tortured attempt to use the United Nations as a forum to drag out old unresolved charges against Iraq involving international inspections, an issue which had both they and the Clinton administration hasd allowed to lay fallow for the previous four years. When this argument also failed as the rest of the civilized world reacted in horror to the procoative notion of immedaitely attacking Iraq, the Bush administration began to thread together a more independent and more substantive (though circumstantial) set of `smoking gun' notions linking Iraq to terrorist groups like Osama Bin Laden's Al Quaida on the one hand, and suggesting renewed attempts to gain a significant new capability to develop and deploy weapons of mass destruction (WMD) on the part of Saddam Hussein's government, on the other. Evidently the Bush White House staffers and the analysts with both the Defense Department and intelligence agencies didn't allow themselves to be unduly hamstrung by the available evidence. Instead, they exaggerated, misinterpreted, and even prevaricated about both the nature of and the validity of such "evidence" in constructing their arguments suporting intervention to the public.
This is obviously a book that will be seen as exteremly controversial and politically provocative, one that the various pundits on either side of the political aisle will rush to either endorse or assail in order to gain immediate advantage, and to attempt to put the best `spin' on long before the public has a chance to evaluate it on their own. In this way, even the argument about the way this administration has used a cynical, subversive and anti-democratic propagandist approach to explain and justify the war against Iraq may become yet another weapon in the ongoing media effort to persuade and describe the public perceptions of and interpretation of, events the powers that be want to manipulate for public consumption. This is a wonderful book, and one that is sure to soon be the talk of the pundits. Move over, Ann Coulter, your fifteen minutes in the spotlight's glare is over. Enjoy!
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Top reviews from other countries
stetch
Spannende Darstellung der US Kriegspropaganda im Irak-Krieg
Reviewed in Germany on April 7, 2020
