Manufacturing Militarism
“Government propaganda is a direct threat to freedom and liberty because it empowers a small political elite who wields awesome discretionary powers to shape policies while keeping citizens in the dark about the underlying realities and the array of alternative options available.” — Manufacturing Militarism
I was excited to welcome Abigail Hall to the program to discuss her work on the U.S. government’s propaganda in the War on Terror. Her new book with Christopher Coyne, Manufacturing Militarism, reveals a disturbing influence exercised by the Department of Defense over public opinion, through subtle and not-so-subtle propaganda techniques. We learn that military propaganda has been a fixture since at least the world wars, but has gotten more advanced since 9/11.
It turns out that the lies about Saddam’s WMDs were just the tip of a much larger iceberg. Hall and Coyne frame the problem in terms of incentives by bureaucrats to gain public support for a bloated military and endless wars, when the public’s inclination would otherwise be to oppose war if they had full information.
Highlights:
There was an episode of Lassie, where our canine heroin was going to be solving a mystery regarding a military aircraft. The military aircraft was supposed to crash, and Lassie, through her work, was going to figure out that a design flaw in this military aircraft had caused the plane to crash.
However, this script of Lassie was sent to me powers that be at the Department of Defense, because they were requesting support for the show. In response, the folks at the DoD said, “We don’t like the way it’s being portrayed with a design flaw in the aircraft.”
They insisted on having the script changed, or wouldn’t offer their support. Instead of the plane being brought down by a design flaw, instead it was uncontrollable icing on the wing of the aircraft. They changed the storyline completely so it wasn’t anything that a military had done, but rather was something that was beyond their control.
This dynamic of sending scripts to the Department of Defense for commentary, and then changing scripts to reflect the DoD preferences is something that not only happens, but if you want to make a film today in the United States that has any kind of military hardware involved, you’re going to essentially need the DoD support if you want to be profitable.
What is propaganda:
So first, it is purposefully biased, misleading, or false information. Second, it is used to promote some sort of political cause. And third, it’s bad from the perspective of the recipient, because it inhibits them from engaging in rational decision making.
There was this large push back this discussion that there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction prior to the US invasion of Iraq, we spend some time talking about maybe what the incentives were facing some of the actors who were responsible for or interested in making that particular decision. And so in terms of thinking things like a good faith effort, because the example, people would put back on me and say, well, assume that it’s, you know, people are genuine, and they thought he had weapons of mass destruction with it, does that make a difference? You provide the information. And that information turns out to be correct, and you do the right thing. You made me elected official, you’re rewarded for that. And if you don’t, then then you’re punished. But what the obfuscation does, or what the propaganda does is effectively prevents that information from being shared in the first place, and then prevents people from making informed decisions.
Links:
- AbigailRHall.com
- Twitter — @Abigail_R_Hall
