Cause and Effects of Propaganda Essay

Throughout history you find that many techniques of propaganda have affected today’s society. Whether it affects it in a good way or a bad way, propaganda is efficacious and does influence the way we think and act. You probably aren’t aware of what sort of propaganda is circling its way around, but once you are, you’ll think â€Å"wow did I really fall for that†? Propaganda is â€Å"information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc† (Dictionary. Com). There are several techniques of propaganda. It can go to anywhere from a glittering generalities commercial with enough colors galore for you to actually purchase it, to a name calling ad saying that your choice of candidate is not the word you’d like him or her to be called. All of these propaganda techniques leave some sort of impact on your mind. There are three types of different messages your mind could classify propaganda underneath, one is being Ethos. An ethos message can be a message from propaganda ads advertising some one or something in your favor. In that case you might just be convinced that the product or message the advertiser is trying to tell to you about is worth it or correct. In commercials using ethos you’ll find that most of the ads are basically a testimonial ad. Advertisers take in mind that there is a chance that a famous star or person is someone you would admire and in that case you’d believe what the commercial advertisers want you to believe. The next message there is to look at is a pathos message. That being a message that is sent to you arousing your emotions to think differently. The American Cancer Society could put up an ad with a child hooked up to what seems like a million IV’s. This would affect people with a sympathetic mind who actually will look at the piteous sight and will be willing to donate those ten dollars because some advertiser knew he could get you with that little child. The final & third message is a Logos Message. When you hear or look at a logos type message you will find yourself come to reasoning. You’ll find yourself doing that because propaganda plus a logos message behind it will make sense and be clear and it will be seem realistic at the time. A logos message will send your mind the message â€Å"that’s a good reason to get that/ believe that†. Now knowing these three types of propaganda you are more aware of how to recognize propaganda and what it is classified as. How much can propaganda affect you and those around you? Looking at the three kinds of propaganda messages, you realize how easy it is for you and others to fall into a propaganda trap. A propagandist wants to do three things. One, they want to modify the content of our opinion, two, change most of society’s views, and three they want to destroy the moral of an enemy (259 Ellul). Sounds pretty evil right? If the finale of a propagandists â€Å"show† happens, it is thanks to society, the people who purchased the tickets to see that the moral enemy is destroyed. Not only will it affect the person being destroyed but it will affect us. Propaganda doesn’t simply leave an effect on ones thoughts it can adjust our attitude for life. â€Å"The way in which an individual reacts to a stimulus depends on the entire pattern of his attitudes†¦ Therefore propaganda must base itself on existing tendencies to have the greatest effect (279 Ellul). Jacques Ellul endorses that a propagandist will do anything to change our attitude because our attitude is the way we react to things and fulfill our life. Ponder about your attitude towards life. It probably has been influenced by propaganda without you even knowing. For instance you could be a teenager reading a magazine, you probably feel a little under pressure because you’ll never be like Taylor Swift. You’ll just spend long years caring about something that’s not going to happen and you don’t even recognize that the magazine you looked at for ten minutes switched your attitude towards yourself for many long years. Its time to take charge, and time for society to realize our own genuine beliefs. We as a group need to come out of the media and look at we really believe deep down inside. (16 Hibbert) Think before you share your opinions and make sure they aren’t lead by beliefs you as a person would actually never believe if it wasn’t for propaganda. We need to never let propaganda get a hold of us because once we do it will set off a trend if it already hasn’t. As shown in the past, propaganda has killed a whole nation; it has been sinner’s best friend. Propaganda can go a long way. Many leaders have gained power and authority through it. Stalin in the Russian revolution had propaganda as his oxygen basically. It is what kept him running. Within the revolutionary war people, wanted the Tsar, the leader at the time, to be thrown out and within time he was killed. Momentarily Stalin was in for leader. At the time of the circumstance, the communist controlled the paper company making Stalin seem like a really good guy, also history books were rewritten so it would show the â€Å"importance† of Stalin. It can be quite amusing to see how far people will go for a disaster waiting to happen. While kissing up to society and making sure his image looked great, Stalin was able to organize 10 million independent farmers to form a communist collective farm. And when they didn’t cooperate, he went and organized troops to kill them. Realizing the ammo was a little bit too much out of his selfish pocket he managed to remove most sources of food and cause the farmers to starve to death. But society thought Stalin was good. It doesn’t take that much brain power to realize that propaganda had a lot to do with this. If people in the first place would’ve just stood up and said Stalin was doing bad pernicious things, no one would’ve believed the propaganda communist were sending around (756 Bullock). Stalin was not the only man in history that used propaganda to his advantage. Adolf Hitler hit home base being able to convince part of the European Nation that all Jews were bad and weren’t human whatsoever. He then hit second base being able to form a group of Nazis to help him with his dream. Getting to third base, basically was making sure all the propaganda he needed to be spread got into the human mind. He made home base by killing around 6 million Jews; unfortunately he won his game. Yet again I don’t know why people couldn’t catch his teams’ ball by standing up and saying it was wrong in the first place. Did anyone ever stop to look at the propaganda being exposed and say what the heck?. No instead they just looked at the ball and let it go because what good could they do? In today’s society we can find propaganda being used all the time. 694 Bullock) Right now Obama is taking the word â€Å"hope† and using it as his own. He is giving it a new meaning. He is using pathos and making you feel better about choosing him as your president. Meanwhile he doesn’t show all the mishaps along the road that are soon to come. Don’t be the person to let propaganda affect someone else’s WHOLE life because you looked at it for three seconds. Because if one man can start only god knows what one person influenced can do. Now you may wonder how in the world you can ever make sure you’re not falling for a propagandists trap. The first thing you should do is form a belief system, and examine it to make sure that what you say you believe is actually what you believe. Then you should really just be careful before you judge. When you say something that might possibly cause controversy, don’t let thoughts influenced by propaganda get in the way. If you have even the slightest care for humanity, you won’t permit propaganda to cause or provoke someone again, and if you don’t have the slightest care, maybe should find somewhere in your heart to fit it. Because propaganda is powerful and will influence the way you think and act.