I don’t know which social-political-sporting system has won most battles throughout history, but when thinking about it recently, I thought that the authoritarian should win more than it does, with more of a total war attitude, and wondered why it didn’t.
Media War Propaganda My Doctoral Thesis
I don’t know if it’s a common theme or knowledge, and if I’ve read it somewhere long ago, perhaps in my studies, where it was my specialist subject. It emerged recently into my head as an original idea, inspired by thinking about the quick collapse of I.S. in Syria.
I thought that while a totalitarian attitude with promising propaganda can work to build a quick big following initially, if the promising propaganda is shown to be false, then it will also result in a quick big collapse.
The democratic side doesn’t have the sudden burst of energy from ‘big lie’ propaganda, but can sustain itself better through defeats, as they are not as crushing to its whole rationale. To use a food analogy, its like a sudden sugar rush v complex carbohydrates.
‘Big lie’ propaganda is like a ‘set in stone’ monolith that cannot be repaired when cracks start to show, whereas democracy is more like a brick wall that can be renovated, with the ‘new bricks’ derived from debate and policy-strategy changes.
Having chosen creative writing after my PhD I have written a Folding Mirror poem to demonstrate how I see the two sides of the above discussion. It also has relevance to ordinary society and culture, where these kinds of battles also go on; and even more now in the social media age; and to individual personalities, with regard to self-development and sociability.
Mirror Poem about Media War Propaganda
Democracy Debate v Authoritarian Agitate
weakness a waving
for all to see
positive attribute
enlightened society
balance power better
when enjoying strong economy
displaying replaceable tail, possible false trail
cultures with closed society
brainwash people by
boasting superiority
negative occurrences
set true picture free
exercise inner strength
mistYmuse 