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133-443: The novels are set in a future dystopia Earth where a parallel world called Overworld reminiscent of the worlds featured in post- Tolkien secondary world fantasy has been discovered. The corporations that run Earth send actors into Overworld in order to provide the masses of an overcrowded world with virtual-reality entertainment. Hari Michaelson is a famous Actor and son of a now-mentally ill libertarian professor. On Overworld, he

266-467: A biased approach. Richard Alan Nelson provides a definition of the term: "Propaganda is neutrally defined as a systematic form of purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of specified target audiences for ideological , political or commercial purposes through the controlled transmission of one-sided messages (which may or may not be factual) via mass and direct media channels." The definition focuses on

399-403: A one-child policy place in this futuristic dystopian society. In a 1967 study, Frank Kermode suggests that the failure of religious prophecies led to a shift in how society apprehends this ancient mode. Christopher Schmidt notes that, while the world goes to waste for future generations, people distract themselves from disaster by passively watching it as entertainment. In the 2010s, there

532-566: A boot stamping on a human face – forever , would aptly describe the situation of the denizens in Dante's Hell. Conversely, Dante's famous inscription Abandon all hope, ye who enter here would have been equally appropriate if placed at the entrance to Orwell's " Ministry of Love " and its notorious " Room 101 ". Dystopias typically reflect contemporary sociopolitical realities and extrapolate worst-case scenarios as warnings for necessary social change or caution. Dystopian fictions invariably reflect

665-417: A broad definition of the term propaganda, writing it as: "the expression of opinions or actions carried out deliberately by individuals or groups with a view to influencing the opinions or actions of other individuals or groups for predetermined ends and through psychological manipulations." Garth Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell theorize that propaganda and persuasion are linked as humans use communication as

798-572: A cacotopia (or the imagined seat of the worst government) discovered and described". Though dystopia became the more popular term, cacotopia finds occasional use; Anthony Burgess , author of A Clockwork Orange (1962), said it was a better fit for Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four because "it sounds worse than dystopia". Some scholars, such as Gregory Claeys and Lyman Tower Sargent , make certain distinctions between typical synonyms of dystopias. For example, Claeys and Sargent define literary dystopias as societies imagined as substantially worse than

931-467: A cataclysmic decline in society. Themes typical of a dystopian society include: complete control over the people in a society through the usage of propaganda and police state tactics, heavy censoring of information or denial of free thought, worshiping an unattainable goal, the complete loss of individuality, and heavy enforcement of conformity. Despite certain overlaps, dystopian fiction is distinct from post-apocalyptic fiction, and an undesirable society

1064-435: A commercial product or shapes the perception of an organization, person, or brand. For example, after claiming victory in the 2006 Lebanon War , Hezbollah campaigned for broader popularity among Arabs by organizing mass rallies where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah combined elements of the local dialect with classical Arabic to reach audiences outside Lebanon. Banners and billboards were commissioned in commemoration of

1197-469: A form of soft power through the development and cultivation of propaganda materials. In a 1929 literary debate with Edward Bernays , Everett Dean Martin argues that, "Propaganda is making puppets of us. We are moved by hidden strings which the propagandist manipulates." In the 1920s and 1930s, propaganda was sometimes described as all-powerful. For example, Bernays acknowledged in his book Propaganda that "The conscious and intelligent manipulation of

1330-465: A great effort in justifying, revising or denying mass war crimes committed by Serb forces during these wars. In the early 20th century the term propaganda was used by the founders of the nascent public relations industry to refer to their people. Literally translated from the Latin gerundive as "things that must be disseminated", in some cultures the term is neutral or even positive, while in others

1463-494: A joint venture of academia and government to promote an anti-traditionalist social agenda, are contemptuous of religion and require initiates to desecrate Christian symbols. Margaret Atwood 's novel The Handmaid's Tale takes place in a future United States under a Christian-based theocratic regime. In the Russian novel We by Yevgeny Zamyatin , first published in 1921, people are permitted to live out of public view twice

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1596-416: A long time period, the roles were eventually reversed – the rich degenerated and became a decadent "livestock" regularly caught and eaten by the underground cannibal Morlocks. Some fictional dystopias, such as Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 , have eradicated the family and kept it from re-establishing itself as a social institution. In Brave New World , where children are reproduced artificially,

1729-564: A more generalized Soviet hero. Only his eyes and famous moustache remained unaltered. Zhores Medvedev and Roy Medvedev say his "majestic new image was devised appropriately to depict the leader of all times and of all peoples." Article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits any propaganda for war as well as any advocacy of national or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence by law. Naturally,

1862-747: A new administrative body ( congregation ) of the Catholic Church created in 1622 as part of the Counter-Reformation , called the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide ( Congregation for Propagating the Faith ), or informally simply Propaganda . Its activity was aimed at "propagating" the Catholic faith in non-Catholic countries. From the 1790s, the term began being used also to refer to propaganda in secular activities. In English,

1995-634: A primary cause of the collapse of morale and revolts in the German home front and Navy in 1918 (see also: Dolchstoßlegende ). In Mein Kampf (1925) Hitler expounded his theory of propaganda, which provided a powerful base for his rise to power in 1933. Historian Robert Ensor explains that "Hitler...puts no limit on what can be done by propaganda; people will believe anything, provided they are told it often enough and emphatically enough, and that contradicters are either silenced or smothered in calumny." This

2128-788: A simple transmission, such as a leaflet or advertisement dropped from a plane or an advertisement. Generally, these messages will contain directions on how to obtain more information, via a website, hotline, radio program, etc. (as it is seen also for selling purposes among other goals). The strategy intends to initiate the individual from information recipient to information seeker through reinforcement, and then from information seeker to opinion leader through indoctrination. A number of techniques based in social psychological research are used to generate propaganda. Many of these same techniques can be found under logical fallacies , since propagandists use arguments that, while sometimes convincing, are not necessarily valid. Some time has been spent analyzing

2261-502: A term that was coined by Thomas More and figures as the title of his best known work , published in 1516, which created a blueprint for an ideal society with minimal crime, violence, and poverty. The relationship between utopia and dystopia is in actuality, not one of simple opposition, as many dystopias claim to be utopias and vice versa . Dystopias are often characterized by fear or distress, tyrannical governments, environmental disaster , or other characteristics associated with

2394-715: A variety of peoples worked together against the Axis menace: Stage Door Canteen (1943) features one segment meant to dispel Americans' mistrust of the Soviets, and another to dispel their bigotry against the Chinese. Polish filmmakers in Great Britain created the anti-Nazi color film Calling Mr. Smith (1943) about Nazi crimes in German-occupied Europe and about lies of Nazi propaganda. The West and

2527-549: A vast industrial and mining complex, which is totally devoted to the production of ever more powerful and destructive weapons, and which is ruled by the dictatorial and totally ruthless Prof. Schultze – a militarist and racist who dreams of world conquest and as the first step plots the complete destruction of the nearby Ville-France, a utopian model city constructed and maintained with public health as its government's primary concern. The economic structures of dystopian societies in literature and other media have many variations, as

2660-495: A very subjective and often misleading light, primarily meant to persuade rather than inform. Normally they use only subtle propaganda techniques and not the more obvious ones used in traditional commercial advertisements. If the reader believes that a paid advertisement is in fact a news item, the message the advertiser is trying to communicate will be more easily "believed" or "internalized". Such advertisements are considered obvious examples of "covert" propaganda because they take on

2793-618: A weapon of war, building on the experience of WWI , by Goebbels and the British Political Warfare Executive , as well as the United States Office of War Information . In the early 20th century, the invention of motion pictures (as in movies, diafilms) gave propaganda-creators a powerful tool for advancing political and military interests when it came to reaching a broad segment of the population and creating consent or encouraging rejection of

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2926-427: A week for one hour and are only referred to by numbers instead of names. The latter feature also appears in the film THX 1138 . In some dystopian works, such as Kurt Vonnegut 's Harrison Bergeron , society forces individuals to conform to radical egalitarian social norms that discourage or suppress accomplishment or even competence as forms of inequality. Complete conformity and suppression of individuality (to

3059-579: A world in which Nazi Germany won the Second World War can be considered as dystopias. So can other works of Alternative History, in which a historical turning point led to a manifestly repressive world. For example, the 2004 mockumentary C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America , and Ben Winters ' Underground Airlines , in which slavery in the United States continues to the present, with "electronic slave auctions" carried out via

3192-513: A world we should like to live in, but one we must be sure to avoid. 1968 New Scientist 11 July 96/3 It is a pleasant change to read some hope for our future is trevor ingram ... I fear that our real future is more likely to be dystopian. See also Gregory Claeys. "When Does Utopianism Produce Dystopia?" in: Zsolt Czigányik, ed. Utopian Horizons. Utopia and Ideology – The Interaction of Political and Utopian Thought (Budapest: CEU Press, 2016), pp. 41–61. Propaganda Propaganda

3325-711: Is also explained in Suzanne Berne 's essay "Ground Zero", where she explains her experience of the aftermath of 11 September 2001. Fictional dystopias are commonly urban and frequently isolate their characters from all contact with the natural world. Sometimes they require their characters to avoid nature, as when walks are regarded as dangerously anti-social in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 , as well as within Bradbury's short story " The Pedestrian ". In That Hideous Strength , science coordinated by government

3458-714: Is another example. In Nazi Germany , Hitler frequently appeared on postage stamps in Germany and some of the occupied nations. A British program to parody these, and other Nazi-inspired stamps, involved airdropping them into Germany on letters containing anti-Nazi literature. In 2018 a scandal broke in which the journalist Carole Cadwalladr , several whistleblowers and the academic Emma Briant revealed advances in digital propaganda techniques showing that online human intelligence techniques used in psychological warfare had been coupled with psychological profiling using illegally obtained social media data for political campaigns in

3591-546: Is as bad as possible; opp. UTOPIA (cf. CACOTOPIA). So dystopian n., one who advocates or describes a dystopia; dystopian a., of or pertaining to a dystopia; dystopianism, dystopian quality or characteristics." The example of first usage given in the OED (1989 ed.) refers to the 1868 speech by John Stuart Mill quoted above. Other examples given in the OED include: 1952 Negley & Patrick Quest for Utopia xvii. 298 The Mundus Alter et Idem [of Joseph Hall] is...the opposite of eutopia,

3724-452: Is blocked by a spell that causes others to forget the existence of the resistance group's members. The remainder of the book plays out the conflict between Ma'elKoth, Caine and the resistance. Hari finds himself manipulated by both the powers on Overworld and the Studio on Earth, and must defeat them both in order to save himself and Pallas Ril from death. Heroes Die contains moral questions

3857-400: Is commonly called Utopian is something too good to be practicable; but what they appear to favour is too bad to be practicable". Decades before the first documented use of the word "dystopia" was "cacotopia"/"kakotopia" (using Ancient Greek : κακόs , "bad, wicked") originally proposed in 1818 by Jeremy Bentham , "As a match for utopia (or the imagined seat of the best government) suppose

3990-425: Is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is being presented. Propaganda can be found in a wide variety of different contexts. Beginning in

4123-435: Is considered commonplace contemporary political strategy around the world to implement bots in achieving political goals. Common media for transmitting propaganda messages include news reports, government reports, historical revision, junk science , books, leaflets, movies , radio, television, and posters. Some propaganda campaigns follow a strategic transmission pattern to indoctrinate the target group. This may begin with

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4256-490: Is different. These are things that are very visceral and very obvious, and they make you question the future, and how we will survive. It's so much a part of everyday life that young people inevitably – consciously or not – are questioning their futures and how the Earth will be. I certainly do. I wonder what kind of world my children's kids will live in." The entire substantial sub-genre of alternative history works depicting

4389-403: Is directed toward the control of nature and the elimination of natural human instincts. In Brave New World , the lower class is conditioned to be afraid of nature but also to visit the countryside and consume transport and games to promote economic activity. Lois Lowry's " The Giver " shows a society where technology and the desire to create a utopia has led humanity to enforce climate control on

4522-674: Is later used by Hugh Howey in his series of dystopias of the Silo Series . Excessive pollution that destroys nature is common in many dystopian films, such as The Matrix , RoboCop , WALL-E , April and the Extraordinary World and Soylent Green , as well as in videogames like Half-Life 2 . A few "green" fictional dystopias do exist, such as in Michael Carson 's short story " The Punishment of Luxury ", and Russell Hoban 's Riddley Walker . The latter

4655-408: Is not necessarily dystopian. Dystopian societies appear in many fictional works and artistic representations, particularly in historical fiction , such as A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens , Quo Vadis? by Henryk Sienkiewicz , and A Man for All Seasons (1960) by Robert Bolt , stories set in the alternate history timelines, like Robert Harris ' Fatherland (1992), or in

4788-413: Is on Overworld as Caine, the sections are portrayed from a first-person viewpoint and are meant to be Caine's interior soliloquies he runs for the benefit of the audiences on Earth; toward the end of the novel he addresses the audience directly. These segments tend to be more in plain speech, more peppered with profanity, shorter paragraphs, and tangents that follow Caine's train of thought. Caine mentions

4921-500: Is reflected in Norman Jewison 's 1975 film Rollerball (1975). Some dystopias, such as that of Nineteen Eighty-Four , feature black markets with goods that are dangerous and difficult to obtain or the characters may be at the mercy of the state-controlled economy. Kurt Vonnegut 's Player Piano depicts a dystopia in which the centrally controlled economic system has indeed made material abundance plentiful but deprived

5054-720: Is set in the aftermath of nuclear war, "a post-nuclear holocaust Kent, where technology has reduced to the level of the Iron Age ". Contrary to the technologically utopian claims, which view technology as a beneficial addition to all aspects of humanity, technological dystopia concerns itself with and focuses largely (but not always) on the negative effects caused by new technology. Dystopian themes are in many television shows and video games such as Cyberpunk 2077 , Half Life 2 , The Hunger Games , Cyberpunk: Edgerunners , ' Blade Runner 2049 , Elysium and Titanfall . "An imaginary place or condition in which everything

5187-400: Is stressed, and the addition of other themes—the dangers of science and technology, of social inequality, of corporate dictatorship, of nuclear war—are also traced. A psychological approach is also favored here, with the principle of fear being identified with despotic forms of rule, carried forward from the history of political thought, and group psychology introduced as a means of understanding

5320-530: Is the assassin Caine, while his estranged wife Shanna is another Actor, playing the mage Pallas Ril. Actors who travel to Overworld through advanced technology and assume an alternate persona which they then use to carry out 'adventures'. Pallas is captured by Ma'elKoth, the Emperor of Overworld's human kingdom of Ankhana, on one of her adventures. Ma'elKoth's plan to rule Ankhana by wiping out a final resistance group

5453-497: Is the last Roman civil wars (44–30 BCE) during which Octavian and Mark Antony blamed each other for obscure and degrading origins, cruelty, cowardice, oratorical and literary incompetence, debaucheries, luxury, drunkenness and other slanders. This defamation took the form of uituperatio (Roman rhetorical genre of the invective) which was decisive for shaping the Roman public opinion at this time. Another early example of propaganda

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5586-422: Is the willingness of the propagandist to change people's understanding through deception and confusion rather than persuasion and understanding. The leaders of an organization know the information to be one sided or untrue, but this may not be true for the rank and file members who help to disseminate the propaganda. Propaganda was often used to influence opinions and beliefs on religious issues, particularly during

5719-464: Is then recycled in the media and in the educational system, without the need for direct governmental intervention on the media. Such permeating propaganda may be used for political goals: by giving citizens a false impression of the quality or policies of their country, they may be incited to reject certain proposals or certain remarks or ignore the experience of others. In the Soviet Union during

5852-494: The Antichrist have taken over the world and the only remaining source of dissent is a tiny and persecuted Catholic minority. In Brave New World the establishment of the state included lopping off the tops of all crosses (as symbols of Christianity) to make them "T"s (as symbols of Henry Ford's Model T ). In C. S. Lewis 's That Hideous Strength the leaders of the fictional National Institute of Coordinated Experiments,

5985-467: The Axis Powers . Others were intended to help Americans understand their Allies in general, as in films like Know Your Ally: Britain and Our Greek Allies . Apart from its war films, Hollywood did its part to boost American morale in a film intended to show how stars of stage and screen who remained on the home front were doing their part not just in their labors, but also in their understanding that

6118-702: The French Revolutionary period movement of 1789 to 1799 between the start and the middle portion of the 19th century, in a time where the word started to be used in a nonclerical and political context. The first large-scale and organised propagation of government propaganda was occasioned by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. After the defeat of Germany, military officials such as General Erich Ludendorff suggested that British propaganda had been instrumental in their defeat. Adolf Hitler came to echo this view, believing that it had been

6251-581: The Peloponnesian War , the Athenians exploited the figures from stories about Troy as well as other mythical images to incite feelings against Sparta . For example, Helen of Troy was even portrayed as an Athenian, whose mother Nemesis would avenge Troy. During the Punic Wars , extensive campaigns of propaganda were carried out by both sides. To dissolve the Roman system of socii and

6384-706: The Soviet Union both used propaganda extensively during the Cold War . Both sides used film , television, and radio programming to influence their own citizens, each other, and Third World nations. Through a front organization called the Bedford Publishing Company, the CIA through a covert department called the Office of Policy Coordination disseminated over one million books to Soviet readers over

6517-898: The US Government , resisted by Pentagon Public Affairs and critiqued by some scholars. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (section 1078 (a)) amended the US Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (popularly referred to as the Smith-Mundt Act ) and the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 1987, allowing for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be released within U.S. borders for

6650-472: The "actor" or "system" that performs it. Propaganda is also one of the methods used in psychological warfare , which may also involve false flag operations in which the identity of the operatives is depicted as those of an enemy nation (e.g., The Bay of Pigs Invasion used CIA planes painted in Cuban Air Force markings). The term propaganda may also refer to false information meant to reinforce

6783-473: The "slow cancellation of the future". Theo James , an actor in Divergent (originally a novel by Veronica Roth ), explains that "young people in particular have such a fascination with this kind of story [...] It's becoming part of the consciousness. You grow up in a world where it's part of the conversation all the time – the statistics of our planet warming up . The environment is changing. The weather

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6916-587: The Archivist of the United States. The Smith-Mundt Act, as amended, provided that "the Secretary and the Broadcasting Board of Governors shall make available to the Archivist of the United States, for domestic distribution, motion pictures, films, videotapes, and other material 12 years after the initial dissemination of the material abroad (...) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit

7049-473: The Department of State or the Broadcasting Board of Governors from engaging in any medium or form of communication, either directly or indirectly, because a United States domestic audience is or may be thereby exposed to program material, or based on a presumption of such exposure." Public concerns were raised upon passage due to the relaxation of prohibitions of domestic propaganda in the United States. In

7182-406: The Earth in luxury with access to technologies that cure all diseases, reverse aging, and regenerate body parts. Written a century earlier, the future society depicted in H. G. Wells ' The Time Machine had started in a similar way to Elysium – the workers consigned to living and working in underground tunnels while the wealthy live on a surface made into an enormous beautiful garden. But over

7315-477: The Greek poleis , Hannibal released without conditions Latin prisoners that he had treated generously to their native cities, where they helped to disseminate his propaganda. The Romans on the other hand tried to portray Hannibal as a person devoid of humanity and would soon lose the favour of gods. At the same time, led by Q.Fabius Maximus , they organized elaborate religious rituals to protect Roman morale. In

7448-699: The Internet and slaves controlled by electronic devices implanted in their spines, or Keith Roberts Pavane in which 20th Century Britain is ruled by a Catholic theocracy and the Inquisition is actively torturing and burning "heretics". In When the Sleeper Wakes , H. G. Wells depicted the governing class as hedonistic and shallow. George Orwell contrasted Wells's world to that depicted in Jack London's The Iron Heel , where

7581-519: The Second World War, the propaganda designed to encourage civilians was controlled by Stalin, who insisted on a heavy-handed style that educated audiences easily saw was inauthentic. On the other hand, the unofficial rumors about German atrocities were well founded and convincing. Stalin was a Georgian who spoke Russian with a heavy accent. That would not do for a national hero so starting in the 1930s all new visual portraits of Stalin were retouched to erase his Georgian facial characteristics and make him

7714-536: The Sower , Darkness at Noon , Nineteen Eighty-Four , Brave New World , The Handmaid's Tale , The Hunger Games , Divergent and Fahrenheit 451 and such films as Metropolis , Brazil (1985), Battle Royale , FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions , Soylent Green , The Purge: Election Year , Logan's Run , and The Running Man (1987). . An earlier example is Jules Verne 's The Begum's Millions with its depiction of Stahlstadt (Steel City),

7847-551: The United States in 2016 to aid Donald Trump by the firm Cambridge Analytica . The company initially denied breaking laws but later admitted breaking UK law, the scandal provoking a worldwide debate on acceptable use of data for propaganda and influence. The field of social psychology includes the study of persuasion . Social psychologists can be sociologists or psychologists . The field includes many theories and approaches to understanding persuasion. For example, communication theory points out that people can be persuaded by

7980-463: The appearance of greater media fluidity, propaganda institutions, practices and legal frameworks have been evolving in the US and Britain. Briant shows how this included expansion and integration of the apparatus cross-government and details attempts to coordinate the forms of propaganda for foreign and domestic audiences, with new efforts in strategic communication . These were subject to contestation within

8113-622: The appearance of objective information rather than the appearance of propaganda, which is misleading. Federal law specifically mandates that any advertisement appearing in the format of a news item must state that the item is in fact a paid advertisement. Edmund McGarry illustrates that advertising is more than selling to an audience but a type of propaganda that is trying to persuade the public and not to be balanced in judgement. Propaganda has become more common in political contexts, in particular, to refer to certain efforts sponsored by governments, political groups, but also often covert interests. In

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8246-481: The author does not believe typically arise in fantasy. In a 1999 interview regarding the novel, Stover describes it as follows: "It's a piece of violent entertainment that's a meditation on violent entertainment- as a concept in itself, as a cultural obsession. It's a love story: romantic love, paternal love, repressed homoerotic love, love of money, of power, of country, love betrayed and employed as both carrot and stick. It's about all different kinds of heroes and all

8379-533: The bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country. Simply enough the covenant specifically is not defining the content of propaganda. In simplest terms, an act of propaganda if used in a reply to a wartime act is not prohibited. Propaganda shares techniques with advertising and public relations , each of which can be thought of as propaganda that promotes

8512-412: The book The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as the source of Pallas Rill's pseudonym, Simon Jester. Dystopia A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ ( dus )  'bad' and τόπος ( tópos )  'place'), also called a cacotopia or anti-utopia , is a community or society that is extremely bad or frightening. It is often treated as an antonym of utopia ,

8645-669: The case of the United States, there is also an important legal (imposed by law) distinction between advertising (a type of overt propaganda) and what the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an arm of the United States Congress, refers to as "covert propaganda." Propaganda is divided into two in political situations, they are preparation, meaning to create a new frame of mind or view of things, and operational, meaning they instigate actions. Roderick Hindery argues that propaganda exists on

8778-438: The citizens of Ankhana and even his friends in order to save his wife. Hari's father is a former libertarian academic who provides a counterpoint to the violence and despair of Earth. As with its sequel , Heroes Die utilizes multiple point of view; a number of characters including Hari, Shanna, and Berne are used as third-person narrators for various parts of the story. However, for the scenes from Hari's perspective when he

8911-678: The cognate began taking a pejorative or negative connotation in the mid-19th century, when it was used in the political sphere. Non-English cognates of propaganda as well as some similar non-English terms retain neutral or positive connotations. For example, in official party discourse, xuanchuan is treated as a more neutral or positive term, though it can be used pejoratively through protest or other informal settings within China. Historian Arthur Aspinall observed that newspapers were not expected to be independent organs of information when they began to play an important part in political life in

9044-563: The common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. The people can always be brought to

9177-502: The communicative process involved – or more precisely, on the purpose of the process, and allow "propaganda" to be interpreted as positive or negative behavior depending on the perspective of the viewer or listener. Propaganda can often be recognized by the rhetorical strategies used in its design. In the 1930s, the Institute for Propaganda Analysis identified a variety of propaganda techniques that were commonly used in newspapers and on

9310-527: The communicator's credibility, expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. The elaboration likelihood model, as well as heuristic models of persuasion, suggest that a number of factors (e.g., the degree of interest of the recipient of the communication), influence the degree to which people allow superficial factors to persuade them. Nobel Prize–winning psychologist Herbert A. Simon won the Nobel prize for his theory that people are cognitive misers . That is, in

9443-456: The concepts of "mother" and "father" are considered obscene . In some novels, such as We , the state is hostile to motherhood, as a pregnant woman from One State is in revolt. In dystopias, religious groups may play the role of oppressed or oppressor. One of the earliest examples is Robert Hugh Benson 's Lord of the World , about a futuristic world where Marxists and Freemasons led by

9576-415: The concerns and fears of their creators' contemporaneous culture. Due to this, they can be considered a subject of social studies . In dystopias, citizens may live in a dehumanized state, be under constant surveillance, or have a fear of the outside world. In the film What Happened to Monday the protagonists (identical septuplet sisters) risk their lives by taking turns onto the outside world because of

9709-470: The conventional way but which the World Government describes as "savages". In George Orwell 's Nineteen Eighty-Four , the dystopian society described within has a tiered class structure with the ruling elite "Inner Party" at the top, the "Outer Party" below them functioning as a type of middle-class with minor privileges, and the working-class "Proles" (short for proletariat ) at the bottom of

9842-521: The different ways they die." Earth is overcrowded and oppressed, with a caste -based dystopian government; the masses turning to the adventures of the Actors such as Caine for entertainment and distraction. The violence within the Acts of Caine is often portrayed in graphic detail because that is what the viewers on Earth are seeking. Michaelson, in the character of Caine, exhibits willingness to sacrifice

9975-453: The digital age has given rise to new ways of disseminating propaganda, for example, bots and algorithms are currently being used to create computational propaganda and fake or biased news and spread it on social media. Propaganda is a modern Latin word, the neuter plural gerundive form of propagare , meaning 'to spread' or 'to propagate', thus propaganda means the things which are to be propagated . Originally this word derived from

10108-430: The dissemination of information in favor of any given cause. During the 20th century, however, the term acquired a thoroughly negative meaning in western countries, representing the intentional dissemination of often false, but certainly "compelling" claims to support or justify political actions or ideologies. According to Harold Lasswell , the term began to fall out of favor due to growing public suspicion of propaganda in

10241-530: The dystopian rulers are brutal and dedicated to the point of fanaticism, which Orwell considered more plausible. The political principles at the root of fictional utopias (or "perfect worlds") are idealistic in principle and result in positive consequences for the inhabitants; the political principles on which fictional dystopias are based, while often based on utopian ideals, result in negative consequences for inhabitants because of at least one fatal flaw . Dystopias are often filled with pessimistic views of

10374-488: The early 20th century, propaganda was exemplified in the form of party slogans. Propaganda also has much in common with public information campaigns by governments, which are intended to encourage or discourage certain forms of behavior (such as wearing seat belts, not smoking, not littering, and so forth). Again, the emphasis is more political in propaganda. Propaganda can take the form of leaflets , posters, TV, and radio broadcasts and can also extend to any other medium . In

10507-471: The early predecessors of modern newspapers or neue zeitungen – targeting the mass. ) and influence the population of his enemies. Propaganda during the Reformation , helped by the spread of the printing press throughout Europe, and in particular within Germany, caused new ideas, thoughts, and doctrine to be made available to the public in ways that had never been seen before the 16th century. During

10640-459: The early sixteenth century, Maximilian I invented one kind of psychological warfare targeting the enemies. During his war against Venice , he attached pamphlets to balloons that his archers would shoot down. The content spoke of freedom and equality and provoked the populace to rebel against the tyrants (their Signoria). Post–World War II usage of the word "propaganda" more typically refers to political or nationalist uses of these techniques or to

10773-502: The economic system is not the source of the society's flaws, as in Brave New World , the state often controls the economy; a character, reacting with horror to the suggestion of not being part of the social body, cites as a reason that works for everyone else. Other works feature extensive privatization and corporatism ; both consequences of capitalism , where privately owned and unaccountable large corporations have replaced

10906-405: The economy often relates directly to the elements that the writer is depicting as the source of the oppression. There are several archetypes that such societies tend to follow. A theme is the dichotomy of planned economies versus free market economies, a conflict which is found in such works as Ayn Rand 's Anthem and Henry Kuttner 's short story "The Iron Standard". Another example of this

11039-427: The enemy or some organization besides its actual origins (compare with black operation , a type of clandestine operation in which the identity of the sponsoring government is hidden). In scale, these different types of propaganda can also be defined by the potential of true and correct information to compete with the propaganda. For example, opposition to white propaganda is often readily found and may slightly discredit

11172-406: The environment, as well as to eliminate many undomesticated species and to provide psychological and pharmaceutical repellent against human instincts. E. M. Forster 's " The Machine Stops " depicts a highly changed global environment which forces people to live underground due to an atmospheric contamination. As Angel Galdon-Rodriguez points out, this sort of isolation caused by external toxic hazard

11305-648: The era of the American Revolution , the American colonies had a flourishing network of newspapers and printers who specialized in the topic on behalf of the Patriots (and to a lesser extent on behalf of the Loyalists ). Academic Barbara Diggs-Brown conceives that the negative connotations of the term "propaganda" are associated with the earlier social and political transformations that occurred during

11438-571: The film Blade Runner , influenced by and based upon Dick's novel). Dystopian fiction frequently draws stark contrasts between the privileges of the ruling class and the dreary existence of the working class. In the 1931 novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley , a class system is prenatally determined with Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons, with the lower classes having reduced brain function and special conditioning to make them satisfied with their position in life. Outside of this society there also exist several human settlements that exist in

11571-501: The future. Famous examples set in the future included Robert Hugh Benson 's Lord of the World (1907), Yevgeny Zamyatin 's We (1920), Aldous Huxley 's Brave New World (1932), George Orwell 's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), and Ray Bradbury 's Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Dystopian societies appear in many sub-genres of fiction and are often used to draw attention to society, environment , politics, economics, religion, psychology, ethics, science, or technology. Some authors use

11704-587: The government in setting policy and making decisions. They manipulate, infiltrate, control, bribe, are contracted by and function as government. This is seen in the novels Jennifer Government and Oryx and Crake and the movies Alien , Avatar , RoboCop , Visioneers , Idiocracy , Soylent Green , WALL-E and Rollerball . Corporate republics are common in the cyberpunk genre, as in Neal Stephenson 's Snow Crash and Philip K. Dick 's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (as well as

11837-411: The hierarchy with few rights, yet making up the vast majority of the population. In Ypsilon Minus by Herbert W. Franke , people are divided into numerous alphabetically ranked groups. In the film Elysium , the majority of Earth's population on the surface lives in poverty with little access to health care and are subject to worker exploitation and police brutality , while the wealthy live above

11970-436: The history of certain groups or foreign countries may be encouraged or tolerated in the educational system. Since few people actually double-check what they learn at school, such disinformation will be repeated by journalists as well as parents, thus reinforcing the idea that the disinformation item is really a "well-known fact", even though no one repeating the myth is able to point to an authoritative source. The disinformation

12103-466: The hopes, fears, and dreams of a targeted audience; and (4) it attacks opponents. Propaganda is sometimes evaluated based on the intention and goals of the individual or institution who created it. According to historian Zbyněk Zeman , propaganda is defined as either white, grey or black. White propaganda openly discloses its source and intent. Grey propaganda has an ambiguous or non-disclosed source or intent. Black propaganda purports to be published by

12236-457: The ideal society: it is a dystopia, if it is permissible to coin a word. 1962 C. WALSH From Utopia to Nightmare 11 The 'dystopia' or 'inverted utopia'. Ibid. 12 Stories...that seemed in their dystopian way to be saying something important. Ibid. ii. 27 A strand of utopianism or dystopianism. 1967 Listener 5 Jan. 22 The modern classics Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four are dystopias. They describe not

12369-652: The importance of propaganda. Propaganda was used extensively by Communist forces in the Vietnam War as means of controlling people's opinions. During the Yugoslav wars , propaganda was used as a military strategy by governments of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Croatia . Propaganda was used to create fear and hatred, and particularly to incite the Serb population against the other ethnicities ( Bosniaks , Croats , Albanians and other non-Serbs). Serb media made

12502-584: The intention of producing any effect in the audience (e.g. action or inaction; reinforcement or transformation of feelings, ideas, attitudes or behaviours) that is desired by the propagandist." The same author explains the importance of consistent terminology across history, particularly as contemporary euphemistic synonyms are used in governments' continual efforts to rebrand their operations such as 'information support' and strategic communication . Other scholars also see benefits to acknowledging that propaganda can be interpreted as beneficial or harmful, depending on

12635-406: The late 1700s, but were assumed to promote the views of their owners or government sponsors. In the 20th century, the term propaganda emerged along with the rise of mass media, including newspapers and radio. As researchers began studying the effects of media, they used suggestion theory to explain how people could be influenced by emotionally-resonant persuasive messages. Harold Lasswell provided

12768-461: The line between liberal and illiberal policies in communications, and emphasized the dangers of nationalist chauvinism. With Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia active on the radio, its liberal goals were ignored, while free speech advocates warned that the code represented restraints on free speech. Identifying propaganda has always been a problem. The main difficulties have involved differentiating propaganda from other types of persuasion , and avoiding

12901-455: The mass of humanity of meaningful labor; virtually all work is menial, unsatisfying and only a small number of the small group that achieves education is admitted to the elite and its work. In Tanith Lee 's Don't Bite the Sun , there is no want of any kind – only unabashed consumption and hedonism, leading the protagonist to begin looking for a deeper meaning to existence. Even in dystopias where

13034-556: The means by which the propaganda messages are transmitted. That work is important but it is clear that information dissemination strategies become propaganda strategies only when coupled with propagandistic messages . Identifying these messages is a necessary prerequisite to study the methods by which those messages are spread. Propaganda can also be turned on its makers. For example, postage stamps have frequently been tools for government advertising, such as North Korea 's extensive issues. The presence of Stalin on numerous Soviet stamps

13167-563: The message sender, target audience, message, and context. David Goodman argues that the 1936 League of Nations "Convention on the Use of Broadcasting in the Cause of Peace" tried to create the standards for a liberal international public sphere. The Convention encouraged empathetic and neighborly radio broadcasts to other nations. It called for League prohibitions on international broadcast containing hostile speech and false claims. It tried to define

13300-679: The mindsets of people who already believe as the propagandist wishes (e.g., During the First World War, the main purpose of British propaganda was to encourage men to join the army, and women to work in the country's industry. Propaganda posters were used because regular general radio broadcasting was yet to commence and TV technology was still under development). The assumption is that, if people believe something false, they will constantly be assailed by doubts. Since these doubts are unpleasant (see cognitive dissonance ), people will be eager to have them extinguished, and are therefore receptive to

13433-400: The only viable political and economic system, but also that it is now impossible even to imagine a coherent alternative to it"—and used the above quote as the title to the opening chapter of his book, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? . In the book, he also refers to dystopian film such as Children of Men (originally a novel by P. D. James ) to illustrate what he describes as

13566-538: The opinion, emotions, attitudes, or behaviour of any specified group in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly". Primitive forms of propaganda have been a human activity as far back as reliable recorded evidence exists. The Behistun Inscription ( c.  515 BCE ) detailing the rise of Darius I to the Persian throne is viewed by most historians as an early example of propaganda. Another striking example of propaganda during ancient history

13699-502: The organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of." NATO 's 2011 guidance for military public affairs defines propaganda as "information, ideas, doctrines, or special appeals disseminated to influence

13832-511: The point of acting in unison) is also depicted in Madeleine L'Engle 's A Wrinkle in Time . Violence is prevalent in many dystopias, often in the form of war, but also in urban crimes led by (predominately teenage) gangs (e.g. A Clockwork Orange ), or rampant crime met by blood sports (e.g. Battle Royale , The Running Man , The Hunger Games , Divergent , and The Purge ). It

13965-435: The political left, and right, and in mainstream centrist parties. Hindery further argues that debates about most social issues can be productively revisited in the context of asking "what is or is not propaganda?" Not to be overlooked is the link between propaganda, indoctrination, and terrorism/ counterterrorism . He argues that threats to destroy are often as socially disruptive as physical devastation itself. Since 9/11 and

14098-569: The promotion of a set of ideas. Propaganda is a powerful weapon in war; in certain cases, it is used to dehumanize and create hatred toward a supposed enemy, either internal or external, by creating a false image in the mind of soldiers and citizens. This can be done by using derogatory or racist terms (e.g., the racist terms " Jap " and " gook " used during World War II and the Vietnam War, respectively), avoiding some words or language or by making allegations of enemy atrocities. The goal of this

14231-401: The propaganda source. Opposition to grey propaganda, when revealed (often by an inside source), may create some level of public outcry. Opposition to black propaganda is often unavailable and may be dangerous to reveal, because public cognizance of black propaganda tactics and sources would undermine or backfire the very campaign the black propagandist supported. The propagandist seeks to change

14364-437: The public mind the fact that propaganda existed. ... The public's discovery of propaganda has led to a great of lamentation over it. Propaganda has become an epithet of contempt and hate, and the propagandists have sought protective coloration in such names as 'public relations council,' 'specialist in public education,' 'public relations adviser.' " In 1949, political science professor Dayton David McKean wrote, "After World War I

14497-488: The radio, which were the mass media of the time period. Propaganda techniques include "name calling" (using derogatory labels), "bandwagon" (expressing the social appeal of a message), or "glittering generalities" (using positive but imprecise language). With the rise of the internet and social media, Renee Hobbs identified four characteristic design features of many forms of contemporary propaganda: (1) it activates strong emotions; (2) it simplifies information; (3) it appeals to

14630-615: The real or imagined enemy. In the years following the October Revolution of 1917, the Soviet government sponsored the Russian film industry with the purpose of making propaganda films (e.g., the 1925 film The Battleship Potemkin glorifies Communist ideals). In WWII, Nazi filmmakers produced highly emotional films to create popular support for occupying the Sudetenland and attacking Poland. The 1930s and 1940s, which saw

14763-431: The reassurances of those in power. For this reason, propaganda is often addressed to people who are already sympathetic to the agenda or views being presented. This process of reinforcement uses an individual's predisposition to self-select "agreeable" information sources as a mechanism for maintaining control over populations. Propaganda may be administered in insidious ways. For instance, disparaging disinformation about

14896-459: The relationship between utopia and dystopia. Andrew Norton-Schwartzbard noted that "written many centuries before the concept "dystopia" existed, Dante 's Inferno in fact includes most of the typical characteristics associated with this genre – even if placed in a religious framework rather than in the future of the mundane world, as modern dystopias tend to be". In the same vein, Vicente Angeloti remarked that " George Orwell 's emblematic phrase,

15029-819: The rise of totalitarian states and the Second World War , are arguably the "Golden Age of Propaganda". Leni Riefenstahl , a filmmaker working in Nazi Germany , created one of the best-known propaganda movies, Triumph of the Will . In 1942, the propaganda song Niet Molotoff was made in Finland during the Continuation War , making fun of the Red Army 's failure in the Winter War , referring

15162-513: The ruling class or a government that is brutal or uncaring, ruling with an "iron fist". Dystopian governments are sometimes ruled by a fascist or communist regime or dictator. These dystopian government establishments often have protagonists or groups that lead a " resistance " to enact change within their society, as is seen in Alan Moore 's V for Vendetta . Dystopian political situations are depicted in novels such as We , Parable of

15295-404: The same community or propaganda intended to keep political power in the hands of a religious elite can incite religious hate on a global or national scale. It could make use of many propaganda mediums. War, terrorism, riots, and other violent acts can result from it. It can also conceal injustices, inequities, exploitation, and atrocities, leading to ignorance-based indifference and alienation. In

15428-507: The society in which the author writes. Some of these are anti-utopias , which criticise attempts to implement various concepts of utopia. In the most comprehensive treatment of the literary and real expressions of the concept, Dystopia: A Natural History , Claeys offers a historical approach to these definitions. Here the tradition is traced from early reactions to the French Revolution . Its commonly anti-collectivist character

15561-508: The song's name to the Soviet's Minister of Foreign Affairs , Vyacheslav Molotov . In the US, animation became popular, especially for winning over youthful audiences and aiding the U.S. war effort, e.g., Der Fuehrer's Face (1942), which ridicules Hitler and advocates the value of freedom. Some American war films in the early 1940s were designed to create a patriotic mindset and convince viewers that sacrifices needed to be made to defeat

15694-469: The span of 15 years, including novels by George Orwell, Albert Camus, Vladimir Nabakov, James Joyce, and Pasternak in an attempt to promote anti-communist sentiment and sympathy of Western values. George Orwell 's contemporaneous novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four portray the use of propaganda in fictional dystopian societies. During the Cuban Revolution , Fidel Castro stressed

15827-687: The split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant churches or during the Crusades . The sociologist Jeffrey K. Hadden has argued that members of the anti-cult movement and Christian counter-cult movement accuse the leaders of what they consider cults of using propaganda extensively to recruit followers and keep them. Hadden argued that ex-members of cults and the anti-cult movement are committed to making these movements look bad. Propaganda against other religions in

15960-528: The term has acquired a strong negative connotation. The connotations of the term "propaganda" can also vary over time. For example, in Portuguese and some Spanish language speaking countries, particularly in the Southern Cone , the word "propaganda" usually refers to the most common manipulative media in business terms – "advertising". In English, propaganda was originally a neutral term for

16093-507: The term to refer to existing societies, many of which are, or have been, totalitarian states or societies in an advanced state of collapse. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, often make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system. "Dustopia", the original spelling of "dystopia", first appeared in Lewis Henry Younge's Utopia: or Apollo's Golden Days in 1747. Additionally, dystopia

16226-529: The twentieth century, the English term propaganda became associated with a manipulative approach, but historically, propaganda had been a neutral descriptive term of any material that promotes certain opinions or ideologies . A wide range of materials and media are used for conveying propaganda messages, which changed as new technologies were invented, including paintings, cartoons, posters, pamphlets, films, radio shows, TV shows, and websites. More recently,

16359-636: The wake of its use during World War I by the Creel Committee in the United States and the Ministry of Information in Britain: Writing in 1928, Lasswell observed, "In democratic countries the official propaganda bureau was looked upon with genuine alarm, for fear that it might be suborned to party and personal ends. The outcry in the United States against Mr. Creel's famous Bureau of Public Information (or 'Inflammation') helped to din into

16492-539: The wake of this, the internet has become a prolific method of distributing political propaganda, benefiting from an evolution in coding called bots. Software agents or bots can be used for many things, including populating social media with automated messages and posts with a range of sophistication. During the 2016 U.S. election a cyber-strategy was implemented using bots to direct US voters to Russian political news and information sources, and to spread politically motivated rumors and false news stories. At this point it

16625-413: The war is just. In these efforts it was difficult to determine the accuracy of how propaganda truly impacted the war. In NATO doctrine, propaganda is defined as "Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view." Within this perspective, the information provided does not need to be necessarily false but must be instead relevant to specific goals of

16758-480: The war, along with various merchandise items with Hezbollah's logo, flag color (yellow), and images of Nasrallah. T-shirts, baseball caps and other war memorabilia were marketed for all ages. The uniformity of messaging helped define Hezbollah's brand. In the journalistic context, advertisements evolved from the traditional commercial advertisements to include also a new type in the form of paid articles or broadcasts disguised as news. These generally present an issue in

16891-448: The way people understand an issue or situation for the purpose of changing their actions and expectations in ways that are desirable to the interest group. Propaganda, in this sense, serves as a corollary to censorship in which the same purpose is achieved, not by filling people's minds with approved information, but by preventing people from being confronted with opposing points of view. What sets propaganda apart from other forms of advocacy

17024-444: The word came to be applied to 'what you don't like of the other fellow's publicity,' as Edward L. Bernays said...." The term is essentially contested and some have argued for a neutral definition, arguing that ethics depend on intent and context, while others define it as necessarily unethical and negative. Emma Briant defines it as "the deliberate manipulation of representations (including text, pictures, video, speech etc.) with

17157-404: Was a surge of popular dystopian young adult literature and blockbuster films. Some have commented on this trend, saying that "it is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism ". Cultural theorist and critic Mark Fisher identified the phrase as encompassing the theory of capitalist realism —the perceived "widespread sense that not only is capitalism

17290-449: Was from Genghis Khan . The emperor would send some of his men ahead of his army to spread rumors to the enemy. In many cases, his army was actually smaller than his opponents'. Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I was the first ruler to utilize the power of the printing press for propaganda – in order to build his image , stir up patriotic feelings in the population of his empire (he was the first ruler who utilized one-sided battle reports –

17423-457: Was to be true in Germany and backed up with their army making it difficult to allow other propaganda to flow in. Most propaganda in Nazi Germany was produced by the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda under Joseph Goebbels . Goebbels mentions propaganda as a way to see through the masses. Symbols are used towards propaganda such as justice, liberty and one's devotion to one's country. World War II saw continued use of propaganda as

17556-539: Was to demoralize the opponent into thinking what was being projected was actually true. Most propaganda efforts in wartime require the home population to feel the enemy has inflicted an injustice, which may be fictitious or may be based on facts (e.g., the sinking of the passenger ship RMS  Lusitania by the German Navy in World War I). The home population must also believe that the cause of their nation in

17689-509: Was used as an antonym for utopia by John Stuart Mill in one of his 1868 Parliamentary Speeches ( Hansard Commons ) by adding the prefix "dys" ( Ancient Greek : δυσ- "bad") to "topia", reinterpreting the initial "u" as the prefix "eu" ( Ancient Greek : ευ- "good") instead of "ou" ( Ancient Greek : οὐ "not"). It was used to denounce the government's Irish land policy: "It is, perhaps, too complimentary to call them Utopians, they ought rather to be called dys-topians, or caco-topians. What

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