Dialogues with Greco,

"On The Institute for Propaganda Analysis"

...and the absurdity of the notion...

Greco: Suvian, if I were to ask you to define propaganda, how would you do so?

Suvian: Hmm...propaganda is something like the intentional manipulation of information so that events, or a group of people, are cast in a certain light...usually to the advantage of the group doing the manipulating and to the disadvantage of who or what is being portrayed.

Greco: Nice...there is another definition of propaganda which I have come across that I particularly like. Propaganda is "any attempt to win acceptance for a cause, system, or state, either by praise of the thing itself, or by vilification of its known and unknown alternatives." ⁽¹⁾ The word has picked up negative connotations over the years (particularly since WWII), so in modern times, you won't see governments actively acknowledging the fact that they use it, even though they do.

Suvian: Why not?

Greco: Well, if you think about it, it is ultimately self-defeating to do so. Giving people the awareness that the information they receive about the government and its purported enemies has been actively manipulated and created to portray the relationship as such involves a certain amount of cognitive dissonance that may lead people to question the intentions of their government, which defeats the purpose of propaganda in the first place.

Suvian: I see. Then how does propaganda work?

Greco: Propaganda works on the principles of negative and positive association. When our country takes action against a perceived enemy or threat, we believe that it is natural for us to do so, because we are the ones who are doing good, and are protecting our way of life (positive association), just as it is natural for the recipients of our actions to be in the wrong because they threaten what we stand for (negative association). This is achieved through the manipulation of the societal norms which are inculcated into all of us from a very early age (e.g. through parenting, education, exposure to the mass media, etc.).

Suvian: I see. And how does this relate to cognitive dissonance?

Greco: Let me provide an analogy. When you feel dizzy, what is your natural reaction?

Suvian: To try and shake it off, I suppose.

Greco: Yes. Cognitive dissonance is like that dizziness. When we are presented with information which contradicts what seems for us to be "the natural order of things", we may begin to feel that something is not right. Cognitive dissonance sets in, and we try to shake it off as quickly as possible so that things will go back to being "normal".

Suvian: So in a sense, cognitive dissonance is an almost physiological reaction to having those negative and positive associations somehow shaken from their "correct" places.

Greco: Yes. And it is also a sign that something is somehow wrong in the information that we have received, and we should investigate why it came about. But such investigations are not encouraged by those who uphold the norms of the status quo. Such an act could even be perceived as a threat in itself...

Suvian: Earlier, you said that in modern times, governments don't openly acknowledge the use of propaganda. Was there a time when they did?

Greco: Oddly enough, there was. Before WWII, there was a government institution whose purpose was to study and analyze how propaganda works. It was named The Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA), and it was established in 1937.

Suvian: How did it come about?

Greco: At that time, there was a widespread interest, particularly among intellectuals, in the uses of propaganda, especially in light of the fanfare of Nazi propaganda, and the IPA was created largely in response to those interests. A major goal of the IPA was to give people the intellectual tools necessary to understand the workings of propaganda, and in the process develop their critical thinking skills so that they would not be subject to it.

Suvian: How did it go about doing that?

Greco: The IPA produced several books, such as The Fine Art of Propaganda, and Propaganda: How to Recognize and Deal with it. The IPA created many educational programs, and texts were made to be used in high schools and universities across the country. ⁽²⁾ Initially, the IPA's efforts met with success, but that success was to be short-lived.

Suvian: Reason being?

Greco: Well, the IPA began to receive criticism that its efforts were creating skeptics, not critical thinkers, skeptics who may begin to analyze with too much scrutiny other areas of society, such as education, military authority, the church, and advertising, for example. Furthermore, there was the impending approach of WWII, which began to cast the IPA in a new light.

Suvian: How so?

Greco: It is no surprise that the use of propaganda peaks during times of war, and faced with the realization that America too would necessarily use propaganda to boost its own war effort, the IPA began to represent an increasing dilemma for U.S. interests. Left intact, the IPA could ostensibly bring about cognitive dissonance among the segments of the population it had influenced (i.e. the up-and-coming "secular priesthood"), thus undermining the U.S. war effort. It is for these reasons, I believe, that the IPA was forced to shut its doors.

Suvian: And when was that?

Greco: 1941. The offical reason was lack of funds, not the impending war. It seems more likely that the very notion of the IPA became increasingly counter-productive to those spearheading U.S. interests, and as a result, was shut down.

Suvian: In retrospect, it's amazing that the IPA existed at all.

Greco: Yes it is. In sum, this case reveals, yet again, cognitive dissonance in action. When people are given the methods to analyze and understand how propaganda is used in other countries, it is ok. But when those same methods are used to analyze our actions, it becomes inadmissible, off-limits, out-of-bounds. Thus, the absurdity of the notion of the IPA, which is a double-edged sword best left unforged.


(1) Roger Scruton, A Dictionary of Political Thought, p.381
(2) Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited, p.106