Think For Yourself
“In our time, political
speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible . . .. Political
language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging, and sheer
cloudy vagueness . . .. Political language . . . is designed to make lies sound
truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure
wind.” These words written by George
Orwell shout out a loud clear message of how the government’s number one
priority is to pull the cover over its loyal citizens’ eyes. For those who believe our government is
perfect without flaw, hopefully the following passages shall help sway his or
her mind from a clouded perspective of politics.
While all politicians
and ideas pertaining to politics aren’t evil, they should not be considered
faultless. The government purposely
deceives voters by telling them what they want to hear, while meaning something
entirely different. The best way they
go about this is through a method called propaganda. Not all propaganda is bad, but it is such a powerful tool that if
it is used improperly it can lead to regrettable situations, such as the Holocaust. There are thirteen different types of
propaganda, all of which are very powerful and work if used properly.
Now that you understand
the basic meaning of propganda, it’s time for you to discover the types and understand
exactly what they are and how to recognize them. Name-calling is exactly what it says, literally calling someone
else names. This can be seen in
campaigns when politicians will call their opponents “radical” or maybe even a
“communist.” The second type of
propaganda is that of glittering generalities or name-calling in reverse. This is using words that have a positive
response from an audience instead of a negative one. This may be the most
common type used by all politicians, and can be heard when the President says,
“It is our God given right as Americans” or the most infamous one “The American
Way.” Nobody really knows exactly what
these two things are, but they make us proud to be living in America.
Next comes plain-folks appeal or when a politician
refers to him or herself as one of the ordinary people just like us. This is why politicians kiss babies, in
order to show they’re no different or better than any other person. Even though it may be reassuring that this
person can relate to the “common man,” it tells nothing about his ideas and
programs and whether or not they’ll work.
After plain-folks appeal comes the Latin saying argumentum ad populum,
“argument to the people.” In plain
English, this is telling the people what they want to hear, or stroking them
like a cat would be stroked to make it happy.
This is seen when politicians call people “hard working taxpayers” or
tell a group of factory workers they are the “back bone of the American economy.” The point of this is to make voters not
judge the individual on his issues, but instead to think he’s a “nice” guy
because he realizes how important we are.
This is not true; he’s trying to sidetrack you.
Another
device to be aware of is yet another Latin phrase argumentum ad hominem,
“argument to the man.” This is another
way of distracting voters from the issues at hand. When politicians use this they will mainly focus on the physical
appearance or qualities of people who support certain issues, which obviously
has no influence on whether or not the idea is sound. The next tactic used is guilt or glory by association. This is used by associating a topic with one
of either great glory, such as the former great presidents or great leaders, or
with one of a guilt-ridden past, such as communist party members like Fidel
Castro.
Sometimes politicians will encourage people to
support something because everyone else is doing it. This is better known as jumping on the bandwagon. This works because no one wants to feel left
out and everyone wants to feel accepted.
Next there is faulty cause and effect or one thing happened after
another so the thing that happened first affected what came after, to put it
simply. A politician says the
unemployment dropped when he came to office or it happened while he or she was
in office. Though this is true, the
event may or may not have happened to due to their work, but the politician makes
it seem as if it was his or her doing, even though that may not be true. The ninth type of propaganda is false
analogy; a poor comparison is between two ideas, events, or things. The most popular example of this is, “Don’t
change horses in the middle of the stream.”
The question to ask here is what does a stream have to do with a crisis
and a horse like a political leader?
Although the phrase is catchy, the person saying it obviously has some
reason to try and persuade people to stay on his or her side. Besides, is changing a horse in the middle
of a stream anything like changing a leader whose ideas and actions aren’t
working?
Begging the question is yet another form used by
sneaky politicians. The easiest way to
explain this is by example. If a politician is asked if a policy is acceptable,
his response may be, “No thinking
citizen could approve such a completely unacceptable policy as this one.” The problem with this is the question is
whether or not the policy is acceptable and by this response there is no
answer. This is just saying that you
should support it, not if it has any reason to be supported. The next type of propaganda is false dilemma
or creating only two sides to every argument with no possibility in
between. Or in other words, if a person
isn’t one hundred percent in favor of something they must be on the other
side.
The next to last possibility is card stacking. Card stacking is best described as bringing
to notice the facts that support a person’s ideas ignoring all others. Such as saying a legislature raised
unemployment wages, but not mentioning that the government didn’t have enough
money to fund this action, so cuts were made in social security, or many other
possibilities. The final type of
propaganda is testimonial, having someone loved and/or respected to give a
statement of support. This is the use
of famous people such as athletes, actors, and music artists to announce how
much they support the person running for office. However, chances are this person hasn’t the slightest idea about
this person and has an interior motive to say these things, in particular,
money.
Now that you understand
the different types of propaganda, it is entirely in your hands to realize it
and avoid being fooled. As a voter, you
must always be on the defensive and stay aware of what exactly the people
running for public office are saying.
This is just the beginning, there is still plenty more of which the
voter must be aware, such as the unclear way politicians speak.
It’s happened to the
best of us, we listen to a politician speak and after they are through, we
realize we didn’t understand a word he or she said. Few people know that the speaker intentionally wrote the speech
this way. The reason for this is to
confuse people. If the audience isn’t
entirely certain on what was said, they shall focus on the little they did,
which is most likely one of the many previous forms of propaganda mentioned
before. Not to mention that by speaking
so vaguely, if something goes wrong they can avoid trouble, but if the opposite
happens they can still take all the glory.
Politicians also use ambiguous speech to make things disagreeable not
sound as disgraceful or unethical.
George Orwell gave some very vivid examples, “Defenseless villagers are
bombed from the air, the inhabitants driven out from the country side, the
cattle machine-gunned, with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification.” According to our government, the only way to achieve peace or
calm is through brute force and intimidation, the exact opposite of what the
word means. But when we hear that
troops are pacifying the enemy, we tend to think of peaceful negotiations and
compromise, not horrible killing. This
is understandable; certainly a politician is going to say, “Today, we killed
hundreds of people in order to achieve peace.” He wouldn’t receive any backing from the American public. Always remember, politicians aren’t out to
be your friends, they have one goal in my mind and that’s to get votes. So, the next time you listen to a debate or
an address, listen to the speaker and think of whether he is really answering
the question asked or is he just pouring out word upon word of meaningless
political babble.
To go along with the
vague language of politics, there is the aspect of political parties. Political parties are the great divider
among the American people. A simple
word can drive people to hate each other and ruin friendships. The writers of the Constitution never really
intended nor supported the idea of political parties, afraid of the people
being divided like they are today.
Actually, compared to other countries, our parties aren’t even
considered diverse, and many feel our choices to be limited. If you really think about it, the people who
are most commonly elected aren’t even true to Democrats or Republicans; they
are in reality moderate or fall in between.
This once again is not by chance, in order to appeal to the most voters,
candidates will try to please both sides of the political spectrum. There is very little difference in our two
parties, other than they disagree on the amount of control the central
government should have compared to the power of the states, a problem that was
prevalent when the constitution was trying to be passed. And because of that problem, the writers
were afraid of political parties. But
truly, the worst part of political parties is how one party feels they can do
no wrong and the other party is never right.
In my opinion, there is one-thing voters should be aware of, and that’s
the fact that politicians are the puppets of political parties, where the
parties dictate to the candidate what to say and he simply does it, somewhat
like a programmed computer. The worst
part about political parties is the fact that they will probably never be abolished
and will always play a major part in politics.
Another aspect of
parties is that people feel as if they have to vote for one of the two main
parties or they are considered to be wasting their vote. I do not feel this way so I vote for a third
party, and have received the comment, “Leave it to you to vote for someone who
has no chance of winning.” I tried
explaining to this person that voting is not about choosing who will win, or
jumping on a bandwagon with the leader, but it is about standing up for what
you believe in, letting your opinions have some way of being represented. Unfortunately, this person still feels the
same way, and I pity them for being so foolish and not truly understanding the
honor we have of choosing any person with whatever ideas we please.
Another thing that should
be changed, although not directly related to the government, is political
correctness. The only reason it exists
is because the government is afraid of getting any group of people upset with
it. Once again, political correctness
is used as way to please people to get votes.
Parties figure if they do what people want and listen to their
complaints, voters will be more willing to vote for that party’s
candidates. Honestly, people seem to
look for things to complain about and feel as if the government “owes” it to
them, especially minority groups.
Minority groups have been, throughout history, excluded and mistreated,
but this may not necessarily be true still to this day. Therefore these groups feel as if for
mistreatments in the past they deserve some type of incentive. How can the government be held responsible
for individuals’ actions years ago? If
anyone should apologize or make amends it should be the individual, unless it
was the government, which purposely created the injustices for the people. The worst part about it is the government is
more than willing to succumb to any demands and would rather let people have
their way then face a problem. This
shows signs of weakness. You can’t make
everyone happy all the time, and it wouldn’t make sense to. So, why does the government consistently do
that? But of course, fear of losing
votes. The one thing that runs the way
the government works. Actually, most
cases of political correctness are almost laughable and it seems as if people
sit around waiting for something that will offend them. For example, a storeowner received a letter
from a psychiatrist because his store name contained the word crazy. The psychiatrist claimed the sign offended
his patients. That just seems
ludicrous, that a store sign, which has been in business for fifteen years, all
of sudden will offend people. Is this
sign really offensive, or do people have a condition of chronic complaining?
After hearing all these
ideas I hope everyone of you is more prepared and aware of what is happening in
the world. Things aren’t always as
clear-cut as they seem. Don’t be fooled
and let “Big Brother” pull the cover over your eyes. It is not written anywhere that you must conform to society’s
ways. Don’t be afraid to stand for what
you believe in, and use all the rights to which you’re entitled. Don’t be silenced and remember the power you
hold as a voter.
By:
Nathan Purdue
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