We hear the terms, Marxism, Socialism; we hear people disrespectfully call President Trump ‘Hitler’ ‘fascist,’ or ‘Nazi’.
We hear the Democrat-Progressive camp call the Republican camp the ‘enemy of the state’. This is all rather confusing. What is going on in the freedom, liberty and search for happiness in America?
I turned to Ron Schleifer, Ph.D, a senior lecturer in the School of Communication at Ariel University, Israel, specializing in Psychological warfare, and head of the Ariel Center for Defense and Communication. The point of speaking with Mr. Schleifer was to get his perspective as to why I sense there is resounding and overreaching propaganda coming loud and clear, from the mostly left-leaning American media.
Not at all surprising, Mr. Schleifer claims it all goes back to the days of the revolution in Russia.
In today’s astonishingly confused world, democracy’s enemies are using egregious dictators’ names, the likes of ‘Lenin,’ ‘Stalin’ and ‘Hitler’ who viciously ruled over the majority, the proletarian masses.
Vladimir Lenin, the former Premier of the Soviet Union, was the revolution’s mastermind. Facing a huge problem as to how to teach complicated Socialism doctrine, based on Karl Marx’s writing, to millions of people who were illiterate, Lenin had to find a way to bridge this gap. Mind you, even today, not many lecturers have read all of Marx’s dozens of volumes of rather complicated doctrine, let alone people who lacked reading and writing skills, whose struggle for basic daily existence was to make sure they had enough potatoes to satisfy their sub-nutritional staple diet. That literally translates to the fact that if you find a potato you could survive one more day.
Though his targeted masses presented a great challenge, Lenin succeeded. He managed to convince enough peasants, factory workers and the intellectuals to support his Communist dogma.
And the way that he achieved this, was through the use of propaganda.
The Socialist Propaganda Approach
Basically, propaganda is a communication method primarily used to influence an audience and to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts, to encourage a particular synthesis or perception; or the use of loaded language to produce an emotional, rather than a rational, response to the presented information. Propaganda is used by governments, the CIA, activist groups, companies, religious organizations, the media, and individuals who can afford it.
Essentially, propaganda is used to explain to a targeted audience a concept according to the understanding of that particular group.
To the intellectuals, Lenin preached historical determinism, a sophisticated way of saying that capitalism is on the decline, is about to die and the new age of an equal, classless society is the bright future. However, we know that Communism was not a classless society. Once Communism became the rule of the land, the intellectuals were always first to die on the stake of that new revolution’s ideology. This is because a revolution first consumes the intellectuals who came up with it, as the French and Soviet revolutions attest.
To the peasants, Lenin promised he would divide the landlords’ lands. To the factory-workers he promised ‘work and bread,’ meaning, the state would take care of the people, providing housing and food. This refers to a complicated socialist principle, whereby, each person is viewed according to what he or she is able to give and his or her need to receive.
Here we can point at the Israeli Kibbutz Socialist structure, which, at its inception, was identified as the closest to a perfect Socialism norm and the whole world eyed it. Also, the reason why years later Israel’s Kibbutz system failed.
Worthy of mentioning, the Kibbutz, meaning ‘gathering or ‘ingathering,’ referencing a large prayer assemblage, was an idea from Breslov, a branch of Hasidic Judaism.
How Propaganda Works
After World War One, during the years 1917-1919, the propaganda machine became rather sophisticated. The way to approach a targeted audience was to speak with catchy slogans.
An example of the Soviets’ sophisticated propaganda was the propaganda train.
On the train’s cars walls they painted the ‘hammer and sickle’ logo and posted posters of much sunshine and bright future, using loads of bright red color. The propaganda trains were equipped with motorcycles and cars, even a garage to fix the vehicles. The people on the propaganda trains offloaded the bikes and cars and rode and drove them into villages near the train tracks and beyond, covering tens of thousands of square miles. They reached and indoctrinated millions of peasants by advertised in advance and then organized large rallies. This is similar to going door to door in modern society.
A film crew and film lab were part of the propaganda train’s staff. After the film crew filmed a segment of an ongoing rally, at the train’s film lab they developed and edited this clip and incorporated it into a propaganda film they prepared in advance. Then they screened the newly edited film to the people attending the rally. That made a huge impression and had an immediate impact on the people at the rally.
Lenin’s Three Principles and Contemporary America
When the Soviets came to power they had to control the Soviet Union’s vast territory and the masses.
They realized that in order to influence the masses they need to control the information sources, i.e. newspapers, books, exhibitions, posters. Therefore, first, they took control of the media.
Lenin incorporated his theoretical knowledge as well as his amazing political skill to develop a doctrine named Agitprop, a combination of two concepts: agitation (‘Agitaziya’) – which meant to bring the people to a state of emotional ecstasy in order to get them out of their comfort zone – and propaganda. Agitprop, the Communist political propaganda, was used in Soviet Russia to spread explicit political messages to the general public, through popular media such as literature, plays, pamphlets, films, and other art forms.
In his activism Lenin pitched the “you never win by being nice” principle, followed by his “the worse it is for the people, the better it is for the revolution,” perception. In order to win, you have to put into in everything you can and is available to you.
‘Phrasing’ was one other important principle Lenin used. How you frame ideas is what makes you win.
The revolution’s imperative aspect was organization; the more organized you are, the more successful you become. Though this may be seen as a given, for activism, regardless of your real number, this is a key principle.
The Socialist Revolution Is at America’s Doorstep
Combine all the principles Lenin used, to see what’s happening in contemporary America.
That brings up the question, why is the revolutionary Left so much stronger than the traditional Right in their organizational and fighting skills and the way they propagate their ideas?
The answer lies in their successful propaganda drive. If one is in a satiety state and the aim is to direct someone toward supporting your revolutionary ideas, you have to give them something they do not have. The same principle applies to empty belly, unsatiated people. The principle of, ‘what is it that you need and I will provide it’ applies to both groups.
To the poor people they will promise to provide food and housing. To the economically better off people they will provide a life goal, such as justice in society in general, in which social justice is one of its forms.
The trouble is that everything sounds so good and appears to be very alluring, however, it is all one huge lie. The reason is that in human history there has never been a state of complete justice and social justice. That is because human beings are not born and/or built to behave in this manner.
Referencing contemporary America, for the poor, the state promises to ‘take care’ of them, such as provide them with food and housing. For the more economically well-off people, already have much of what is possible, bored and need a purpose in life, the propagandists promise to give them a purpose in life, a good and bright future. Together with the government the well-off will ‘take care’ of the poor to create a wonderful social oasis.
The troubles begin when the propagandists reach the power they were seeking and the people realize they do not want to live under such social vision. At that point coercion begins.
Referring to Soviet Russia, that is when the Gulag started. The government agency in charge of the Soviet secret police and prison system network set up forced labour camps, by order of Vladimir Lenin.
Each revolution has to be more extreme than the previous revolution. The new and more extreme revolutionary generation slaughters the former revolutionaries, as happened during the French Revolution. It slaughtered a large number of the revolution’s activists who were not revolutionary enough. That is how the cycle repeats itself.
The oxymoron concepts, ‘World Peace,’ ‘Free World,’ were invented by the Soviets. The Soviets came up with the constitution, regarded to be the most advanced in its ‘freedoms’ among all other world constitutions, adhering to their constitutional ‘freedom’ along with what the people want, which is order. And the party promises to provide that order. And since society is made of ‘one people’ you can only have one party from which the government comes; the party is the political arm, the government is its executive arm. The party is the personification of the people. Since there can only be ‘one will’ to freedom there is only room for one party.
The Classic Soviet Revolutionary Structure
For the revolution to succeed, the leaders conscript and agitate the people; provide them with slogans and use the basic laws of persuasion, such as targeting personalized emotions. They commit the people to action, all the while making them feel their behavior is a result of their own free will and volition.
Since activism is based on ‘you cannot win by being nice and civilized,’ the opponent is seen as the enemy. The Democrats call Republicans, “the enemy of the state.”
As history attests, after the Bolsheviks rose to power, people stormed the streets, looted the shops and destroyed property resulting, three days later, in the rise of the Cheka, a predecessor to the KGB – the Soviet Union secret police force and main security agency from 1954 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
It is important to mention that Joseph Goebbels, Hitler and Nazi Germany Minister of Propaganda studied Leninism propaganda.
According to Mr. Schleifer, “toppling a government system and winning a revolution is a very messy business. If you really want to achieve it, you simply cannot be nice.”
The Misconception
The educated people consoled themselves that propaganda works only on the uneducated, thus, they are immune to it. This was a huge mistake; propaganda primarily influences the intellectuals.
Lenin approached each group of people with a different propaganda message. Likewise today, the propagandists approach the black people, the hispanics, the blue chip, and the campus communities with a different propaganda message for each group. The propagandists accuse and label you, intimidate and use demagoguery and a large list of other techniques.
Today, we witness how people work so hard to “prove” they are not racist.
As a rather unconvincing example, a basic propaganda tenet thought to be applicable to the peasants and from which the intellectuals are immune, is the common belief of ‘Hitler shouting and waving his hands.’ However, it is the other way around. It is much more difficult to indoctrinate the simple people. The intellectuals are more complicated and that helps to make it easier to get them to be more complex and fuzzy.
Society’s Fragility
Propaganda is extremely effective. By using constructive organization and controlling the means of delivery, by providing funds, organizers have on hand the most devastating tool. This is exactly what we have been witnessing in America’s citiy streets.
Mr. Schleifer advises all of us to read the history of propaganda and to watch for the manipulation that is all around us. Watch out for the propaganda tool messages, used by the media, interested only in the media while having to cope with great pressure put on it.
One way to influence the media is to influence the reporters, through what was done on campus during their studies. Another way to influence is to claim ‘we are winning,’ even when they are not. That is what the Left and their supportive media constantly do.
The Soviets exported their revolution and propaganda tactics widely; to third world countries, Cuba, North Korea, China. They even attempted to export it to the West, i.e., Europe and the United States. The most recent victim is Venezuela. The leaders of those countries studied in Moscow, even Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas.
Many people, Americans and those in other nations, believe that President Donald Trump is the greatest disaster that ever befell America. Consequently, one must research how they arrived at such a conclusion. Propaganda?!
People, outside the United States, wonder what happened to the American society. From across the pond, from Britain, an outsider, a neutral opinion, tells us about the propagandists’ uncomfortable truth:
Some years ago, I conducted an interview with Aaron Adirim, a California business owner who immigrated to America from Riga, Latvia, a former USSR satellite state. In few simple words Aaron explained to me the difference between Communism and Capitalism: “Living in a society where I am judged by what I represent, here in America, and not by how many members of my family are communists, which is how communist USSR mistreated its citizens, makes me have a positive outlook on life.”
Conclusion
This conclusion starts with two questions. Does any of the above remind you of what is taking place today? Is the United States sagging towards Socialism? Watch out for what you wish for because the way back is very slow and very painful!
