Propaganda and the distortion of Worldview: A Preliminary Analysis

Propaganda and the distortion of Worldview: A Preliminary Analysis[1]

By Wan Ahmad Fayhsal bin Wan Ahmad Kamal[2]

“The systems real strength lies not in the violence of the dominant class nor in the coercive power of the state apparatus, but rather in the citizen’s acceptance of the worldview of those who rule them”

Antonio Gramsci

Clarification of the terms worldview, propaganda and distortion

Before we delve deeper into the whole subject matter it is better for us to clarify properly what we meant by these three important terms that we used in the title above:

Worldview

Human being is a unique creature by itself. The ability to speak and reasoning gives him an ability to create wonders as well terrible things too. His action, be it visible one like walking and invisible one like thinking are strongly being influenced by his weltanschauung or worldview.

According to al-Attas, a worldview, is a metaphysical survey of both visible and invisible world. Al-Attas elaborated:

“From the perspective of Islam, a ‘worldview’ is not merely the mind’s view of the physical world and of man’s historical, social, political and cultural involvement in it as reflected, for example, in the current Arabic expression of the idea formulated in the phrase nazrat al-islam li al-kawn. The worldview of Islam is not based upon philosophical speculation formulated mainly from observation of the data of sensible experience, of what is visible to the eye;nor is it restricted to kawn, which is the world of sensible experience, the world of created things. There is no dichotomy between sacred and profane, the worldview of Islam encompasses both al-dunya and al-akhirah.[3]

Reality is not what is often ‘defined’ in modern Arabic dictionaries as waqi’iyyah whose use, particularly in its grammartical form waqi’iy is now in vogue. Reality is haqiqah, which significantly is now seldom used due to the preoccupation with waqi’iyyah which only points to factual occurrences. A factual occurrence is only one aspect in many of haqiqah, whose ambit encompasses all of reality.

What is meant by ‘worldview’, according to the perspective of Islam is then the vision of reality and truth that appears before our mind’s eye revealing what existence is all about; for it is the world of existence in its totality that Islam is projecting. Thus by ‘worldview’ we must mean ru’yat al-islam li al-wujud.”[4]

The Islamic vision of reality and truth, which is a metaphysical survey of the visible as well as the invisible worlds including the perspective of life as a whole, is not a worldview that is formed merely by the gathering together of various cultural objects, values and phenomena into artificial coherence. What al-Attas meant by artificial coherence, is a coherence that is not natural in the sense we mean as fitrah. Such coherence projected as a worldview must necessarily subject to change with the change of circumstances.[5]

These fundamental elements act as integrating principles that place all our systems of meaning and stands of live and values in coherent order as a unified system forming the worldview; and the supreme principle of true reality that is articulated by these fundamental elements is focus on knowledge of the nature of God as revealed in the Qur’an.

Propaganda

In this paper, the concept of propaganda is stemmed out from the conceptual framework of Jacques Ellul’s which defined propaganda as union of two very different categories of technique which yield a new system of human technique.[6]

Before we elaborate further in the concept of technique that being used to describe propaganda, it is better for us to understand the meaning of technique that being applied by Ellul. In his monumental work The Technological Society, Ellul defined technique as totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity.[7]

Ellul sees that technique is a prevalent sociological phenomenon in various domain of modern man’s life. According to Ellul, he derived this definition not through a theoretical construction instead by examining each activity and observing the facts of what modern man calls technique in general as well as by investigating the different areas in which specialists declare they have a technique.[8]

Coming back to the definition of propaganda, Ellul views the two very different categories as a complex of mechanical techniques and a complex of psychological/psycho-analytical techniques.

Mechanical techniques can be described principally as television, radio, press and motion pictures which permit direct communication with a very large number of persons collectively, while simultaneously addressing each individual in the group. Ellul held that these techniques “possess an extraordinary power of persuasion and a remarkable capacity to bring psychic and intellectual pressure to bear”[9]

The second category which is the psychological/psychoanalytical techniques gives access to knowledge of human psyche and it has been proven workable as how Edward Bernays, the father of Public Relation in United States and also the nephew of Sigmund Freud made use of his uncle’s theories in developing his own model of propaganda for politics and economic purposes.[10] Propaganda in this sense is based on scientific analyses of psychology and sociology.[11]

In this paper we would not delve much into a totalitarian kind of propaganda or in Orwellian sense; instead we would focus more into the so-called free society kind of environment that actually a kind of hot-bed for unnoticed mode of propaganda.

In this environment, the word propaganda is not being used at it has become a taboo therefore the propagandist has cosmetically changed it the word into the notion of ‘public relation’ and the propagandist himself is none other than the social scientist or psychologist who used their knowledge in rational ways but with greater efficiency in limited space and time.

The application of this soft propaganda, (just to make a distinction from the hard propaganda that has much prevailed in totalitarian environment), has really spread far and wide beyond our common sensical understanding of the word propaganda. This could have never been truer than in democratic society where Ellul’s definition of propaganda works very well in the environment where people might think they have absolute control whereas they are not. For example politics, business and social planning have not being exempted from Freudian psychoanalysis propaganda technique which had been extended by Edward Bernays and Ernest Dichter.[12]

Distortion

Distortion etymologically comes from the word distorquere in Latin, which means ‘twist apart’. Distortion in this paper would refer mostly to the misrepresentative account or impression of certain conceptual understanding that governs our worldview which leads to confusion and error in knowledge.

Combined with a false presumption, error in knowledge manifests not just the mind’s failure to know but also its fallibility, misconception, misjudgment and excesses.[13] This would lead into a distorted worldview as the confusion and error of knowledge ‘dislocate’ or misplace the important meaning of key terms that are necessary to project a coherent picture of a particular worldview.

Philosophically speaking, no true worldview can come into focus when a grandscale ontological system to project it is denied, and when there is a separation between truth and reality and between truth and values.[14]

Mechanism of Propaganda

Jacques Ellul, one of the foremost thinkers in technological determinism insists that propaganda only can strive under modern scientific system.

I do believe in this too, especially when it comes to modern scientific worldview of Cartesian and Newtonian that normally reduce realities to physical level as well compartmentalization of thoughts to various dislocated domains of life. This condition is ripe enough for propaganda of technical kind that derives it strength from scientific and technological endeavor.

For example, modern day propaganda is not limited only to a totalitarian regime like USSR and Nazi. It does happen to democratic states such as United States of America which hidden under the rubric of Public Relation.

By using Ellul’s definition of technique, we could see vast possibilities of so-called objective and innocent-looking medium as part of propaganda as long it applies to rationality with great efficiency as being depicted in academia world and consumerism lifestyle.

Propaganda substitute slogans and images for well-reasoned arguments and can turn complex issues into vulgar black-and-white caricatures of reason.[15]

This phenomenon can be delved further through the concept of thought-terminating cliché, where its application as a means of dismissing dissention or justifying fallacious logic which always appear in modern day politics. In George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the fictional constructed language Newspeak is designed to reduce language entirely to a set of thought-terminating clichés. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World society uses thought-terminating clichés in a more conventional manner, most notably in regard to the drug soma as well as modified versions of real-life platitudes, such as, “A doctor a day keeps the jim-jams away.”[16]

In Manufacturing Consent, Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman realized that in democratic society like United States where big corporations have massive influenced in day to day affair, mode of propaganda in this environment will normally create a necessary illusions in order to reduce apathy among the people.

In this context, Chomsky distinguished the society into two portions; 20% of the society which consists of political class, professionals and decision makers will be affected by this necessary illusions in order to dull people’s brain while the remaining 80% of working class and laymen is being affected by this necessary illusions through diversion of their mind from the real issues that matter which at the end reduce their capacity to think in critical and coherent manner.

The 20% group of people will normally be indoctrinated systematically through standardized and dogmatic education for example through certain textbook, academic journals and newspapers which also could be considered as part of propaganda.[17]

Even in so-called objective based academic discipline like science, propaganda is alive and kicking through various channels especially scientific journals that presumed to be objective and truthful in nature without ever consider to reveal the whole picture of those scientific endeavors.[18]

As for the remaining 80%, Chomsky has this to explain:

“It does not require very far-reaching, specialized knowledge to perceive that the United States was invading South Vietnam. And, in fact, to take apart the system of illusions and deception which functions to prevent understanding of contemporary reality [is] not a task that requires extraordinary skill or understanding. It requires the kind of normal skepticism and willingness to apply one's analytical skills that almost all people have and that they can exercise. It just happens that they exercise them in analyzing what the New England Patriots[19] ought to do next Sunday instead of questions that really matter for human life, their own included.”[20]

One of the most apt analogies Chomsky makes in this book is that professional sports, as an example, are one means for deflecting attention from real and important issues. The layperson can argue and analyze football to death and feel comfortable making his/her own analysis of athletics. However, these same people see world affairs and politics as out of the realm of their experience and expertise and do not even attempt to learn about it. Naturally something is to be said for the fact that many Americans so not have interest in these affairs and are more interested in sports but it is a cyclical and indoctrinated response. From a young age, Americans are indoctrinated to focus on what their favourite team is doing as opposed to what is happening in another part of the world.

One of great examples of using propaganda in business world could be seen through the lenses of Freudian psychoanalysis. The idea of “Engineering of Consent” was motivated by Freud’s idea that humans are irrational beings and are motivated primarily by inner desires hidden in their unconscious. If one understood what those unconscious desires were, then one could use this to one’s advantage to sell products and increase sales.

Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays was responsible in the late 1920s for converting attitudes towards women’s smoking from a social taboo to a socially acceptable act. Indeed an act seen as attractive and even desirable by society. He used his uncle psychoanalysis theory and applied it in business world to a great affect.

He did this by associating women’s smoking with the ideas of “power” and “freedom” which he did by using the slogan “Torches of Freedom”, during a famous parade in New York City.[21]

It can clearly be detected that manipulation and correlation of semantic changes to an action, in this case smoking a cigarette do create a new milieu and value upon women in those days. It is no longer a matter of perception as the women who smoked did that purely with an utter conviction thus indicating a shift of worldview from old one to a new one.

Effects of propaganda

I would agree with Neil Postman in his celebrated book Amusing Ourselves to Death that major new medium, in this case the shift from typographical medium to electronic media, changes the structure of discourse by encouraging certain definitions of intelligence and wisdom and by demanding a certain kind of content – a new form of truth telling.[22]

Since modern day propaganda, especially in the advent of various kinds of electronic media, propaganda has become more sophisticated technique. According to Ellul, there are two types of psychological effects that propaganda could harness upon man, which I believe could turn into a catalyst of confusion and error in knowledge:

1) Psychological Crystallization

Propaganda could influence certain latent drives that are vague, unclear and often without any particular objective suddenly become powerful, direct and precise. Ellul sees this type of effect furnishes objectives, organizes the traits of an individual’s personality into a system, and freezes them into a mold. It also standardizes current ideas, harden prevailing stereotypes, and furnishes thought patterns in all areas, thus codifies social, political, and moral standards.[23]

2) Alienation

Propaganda strips the individual, robs him of part of himself, and makes him live an alien and artificial life, to such an extent that he becomes another person and obeys impulses foreign to him. He obeys someone else. Propaganda limits the application of thought thus limiting the nature of critical and personal judgment. Ready-made thoughts (whether real or unreal) as well stereotypes will become the staple diet for the mind of the propagandee. It orients him toward very limited ends and prevents him from using his mind or experimenting on his own. It determines the core from which all his thoughts must derive and draws from the beginning a sort of guideline that permits neither criticism nor imagination. More precisely, his imagination will lead only to small digressions from the fixed line and to only slightly deviant , preliminary responses within the framework.[24]

These psychological effects could nurture a medium that help to propagate the problem of corruption and error of knowledge in one who is trapped under the influence of propaganda

According to al-Attas, intellectual confusion emerged as a result of changes and restrictions in the meanings of key terms that project the worldview derived from Revelation which at the end leads to crisis of identity.[25]

Examples above could be seen to depict this confusion where the semantics of key terms such as happiness, progress, development, justice and other key terms have been distorted either due to political reasons or the influence of capitalistic economic system that operate in certain worldview that largely based upon humanism and materialism.

Defense against – Islamic worldview case

Despite the sophisticated technique of modern day propaganda and the successful rate of its application upon modern day society, alas all hope is not lost when it comes to construct our own defense against this onslaught.

I would firmly believe, the original Islamic worldview which has been formulated and explained succinctly by luminaries of great Islamic scholars of the past would be able to confront this deceit without ever being confused and distorted as what we can see clearly today upon contemporary secularized worldview that being heavily influenced by modern scientific framework of Cartesian and Newtonian worldview.

The experience of Western civilization that constantly shift from one particular framework to another, which always in the state of ‘becoming’ rather than ‘being’ is always in a state of incoherently fragile framework as al-Attas described:

“If we could strike even a superficial similitude between a worldview and a picture depicted in a jigsaw puzzle, the jigsaw of modernity is not only far from depicting any coherent picture, but also the very pieces to form such a picture do not fit. This is not to mention postmodernity which is already undoing all the pieces.”[26]

This state of incoherentness that prevailed in modern society especially in the west is very ripe for propaganda to exert its true potential in distorting their worldview thus giving birth to a deeper problem of confusion and error in knowledge. Truth and error can no longer be discerned properly as the worldview itself has become corrupted by foreign influences that de-emphasizing the permanent state in the meaning of truth and reality.

Al-Attas re-iterate the importance of reality and truth in confronting this distortion and confusion:

“ One must see that the kind of problem confronting us is of such a profound nature as to embrace all the fundamental elements of our worldview that cannot simply be resolved by legalistic and political means. Law and order can only find their places when recognition of truth as distinguished from falsehood, and real as distinguished from illusory, is affirmed and confirmed by action in acknowledgement of the recognition. This is achieved by means of right knowledge and right method of disseminating it. So let us not dissipate our energies in attempting to find the way out by grouping in the labyrinths of legalism, but concentrate them instead by grappling the main problem, which is bound up intimately with the correct understanding and appreciation of religion and the worldview projected by it, because that directly concerns man, his knowledge and purpose in life, his ultimate destiny.”[27]

This phenomenon best represented in the history of the west itself. The western civilization history is regarded as a phase changing experience and life altering period classical, medieval, and modern and postmodern these classification are artificial, their own making so make their life cohere with that worldview, they have to invent the millieu that somehow correspond with that dress (fashion), design of houses language, mannerism and the list goes own when Muslims tried to comply their life’s with the way of life that Islam dictates, that is true coherence, because that rules and regulations are true and real.[28]

What makes our great Muslim ancestors could prevailed from insidious propaganda, be it in the form totalitarian one in the case of Mu’tazilites ideology in the days of Al-Ma’mun or even during the colonial era in 16^th to 19^th centuries, I think the success can be attributed by their ability to have a systematic exposition of our worldview that linked very well to the aqidah (creed) and the dynamic of the knowledge tradition in confronting, sifting and influence without compromising the basic tenets of our creed based on Qur’an and prophetic traditions (sunnah).

Our great scholars in the past did realized the importance of preserving the meaning of important key terms of worldview of Islam thus they are very careful in accepting alien concepts from being incorporated into the corpus of Islamic knowledge system like what al-Ghazali did by writing Tahafut al-falasifah (Incoherence of the philosopher) in confronting Greek philosophy, particularly Aristotelian version of worldview that could really jeopardize worldview of Islam.

Not to mention various lexicons being written to help protecting worldview of Islam such as Kitab al-Ta’rifat by al-Jurjani, Lisan al-‘Arab by Ibn Manzur, and Kashf Istilahat al–Funun by al-Tahanawi. These important lexicons are also being used extensively with the correct usage of constructing sentences and detecting errors in doing them by learning Islamic logic (mantiq) through excellent works of Islamic logicians like Ibn Sina’s Al-Isharat wa al-Tanbihat. All of these tools had helped the Muslim to build an empire of mind that is so strong, coherent yet flexible when it comes to adapt in new surrounding and culture as long those foreing influences do not change the semantics of the key terms that had shaped the worldview of Islam. That is why, we can see Islam is flourishing in various parts of the world, yet geographical and sociological differences could not alter the fundamental aspects of worldview of Islam in any version of space and time.

One must have the proper tools to intellectually filter info-noise to extract only the pristine clear knowledge, that lead to guidance and wisdom.[29]

Propaganda can never thrive under this kind of environment where the worldview of its people stand upon true knowledge, in this case the worldview of Islam, rather than doubt and inner tensions that could be seen in the west currently as well in their history.

END