Propaganda and psychological subversion

Columnist Lt Col (Retd) ZAMAN MALIK looks at how perceptions are changed by every subterfuge.

The word propaganda means 'sow' in Latin and a historian will not have to search deep to find out that it was used by Vatican Cardinals in charge of foreign missions to propagate the faith in the seventeenth century. Propaganda achieves its planned impact effectively and quickly when it is disseminated with a facade of scholarship and through such print or electronic media organs, which have acquired an image of credibility among the public. Perhaps it was because of this realization that Hans Sachs had said: "Rest assured that for a long time mankind will renounce poetry. The battle will be waged with weapons other than songs, with reason and with philosophy against stupidity and superstition". Abusive and highly offensive propaganda as indulged in by India, is generally indicative of trouble at home, probably, to browbeat the rebellious states of its Union, with a view to keeping them submissive, by way of threatening the neighbouring countries, with dire consequences.
A quiet tone in propaganda, without creating a paranoia within own country, shows the confidence of a government, while discontinuance of hostile propaganda may mean that some sort of agreement is in the offing, between the two countries. Propaganda or psychological-intellectual manipulation that is also known as psychological warfare, can wreak much more havoc than acts of terrorism. It is greater force than military weapons or other material movers of things. When false ideas are crafted and presented as facts and are focused on public mind, from different sources and in a variety of forms, they are accepted even by intelligentsia. Given this reality about a successful propaganda, Mr. Crossman, one of the brilliant propagandists of the Second World War had the following to say about propaganda "It is a complete delusion to think of the brilliant propagandist as being professional liar. The brilliant propagandist is the one who tells the truth, or that selection of the truth which is requisite for his purpose."
Every nation followed a set pattern of propaganda. However, the techniques of confounding and crippling psychological warfare most ruthlessly were used by Imperialist powers or new colonialists against their opponents and targets in pursuit of their various aims, have no parallels in history. A Famous follower of the craft was Adolf Hitler's Propaganda Minister, Joseph P. Geobbles, a Jew like other characters of the Third Reich. Germans never boasted of anything till they were reasonably sure and had a good chance of achieving the same. They boasted of a secret weapon when they were about to have V-1 rocket. They kept silent after the Raf had destroyed their ramps. Again they began to talk about them when they had repaired the ramps. During the Sino-Indian border conflict, when the Indians realized that their position at Se La in NEFA area was likely to be overrun by Chinese then they started talking about the uselessness of the Se La area to the Indians. In 1984, when the Siachen Glacier was thinly held by Pakistani force, as most of it had been withdrawn to fight against the former Soviets in Afghanistan, on US assurances that Pakistan had need not worry about India's threat from the backyard, India captured this glacier. At that time President General Zia ul Haq, belittled the significance of this strategic loss by saying that it was just an ice-desert, where not even a blade of grass grew ever.
In the contempory world of power politics, psychological warfare, fuelled by revolutionary information technology, has become the most effective and foremost weapon for projection and exercise of power, and for securing political, economic, and military gains. At the moment, US while supporting Israel and India, is engaged intensely, to derive its desired and set gains, for itself through them. In the US, in major Western powers, and Russia, and both in Israel and India, there are, apart from legions of media persons, regular contingents of academic writers and scholars studiously engaged in propagating concocted stories, cooked-up hypotheses, fabricated theories, and disinformation, in variety of other forms. Hollywood and Bollywood experiences, of both the states are being utilized by both in close cooperation to plant abstractions and fabrications, to hoodwink the world, in order to achieve common goals against Muslims, in the Middle East and the Sub-Continent.
In the US, Alvin and Heidi Toffler, the best selling authors of "Future Shock" - The Third Wave; The Culture Consumers and other works; War and anti-War; Survival at the Dawn of 21st Century, drew some unusual conclusions, about the future war in our time. They perceived that: "Violent Conflict has always played a part in human history. From the earliest days, disputes have been both resolved and exacerbated by a call to arms, often causing great human sufferings, in the process". War and Anti-War addressed the nature of war in the 21st Century, while drawing the provocative analyses of wars in the past, focused on the intriguing insights into today's military conflicts. But it is not so much the book's view of what war in 21st Century is going to be like that concerns here as its thesis regarding what the authors call "The End of Equilibrium (Not History)". The reference of course is to the "End of History" thesis posited by American scholars and former US State Department official Frances Fukuyama, in a magazine article, over a decade ago.
The authors argue that the world system is more like the physical, chemical, and social systems, described by Llya Prigogine, The Nobel prize winning scientist who first identified what he called "dissipative structures". In these, all parts of systems, are in constant fluctuations. Parts of each system become extremely vulnerable to external influences - a change in oil prices, a sudden surge in religious fanatism, a change in balance of weapons etc. "Ethnic vendetta" say the authors, "generate ethnic battles that generate ethnic wars, larger than a given region can contain".
Huntington became prominent after writing "The Clash of Civilizations" and "the remaking of World Order", which grew out of his lecture, and later, an article on the same subject was published in 1993. It is, however, not the outstanding merit of their books but the extensive media coverage, which shot them into prominence. And reason why the Western Media has granted a popular place and ample space to those two American academics is because the theories being proclaimed by them neatly fit in with the grandiose but malafide strategic aims that the US and its NATO allies were already pursuing aggressively, though overly, even before the September 11 terror strikes, in the US. Both academics have close links with their government and have served in the State Department.
The propagandistic nature, and the value of their contrived theories is much too obvious. These theories continue to be given new shape and twists to abet the US global terror war, and engineer conditions that should justify the war and facilitate its aims. The real dimensions of this war and its aims, diabolical and global in nature, and the targeting of the US also are too very well-known to the world by now, to need any further mention.
The Clash, in Huntington's words is between "Islam and West". The accusation for that is flung at Muslims. Fukuyama, after referring war to September 11 and America's war on Afghanistan, remarks, "large numbers of Muslims are now mobilized in opposition to the United States, and countries around the world, are being asked to choose sides in struggle". US President G W Bush had used more or less the same words, when he addressed Pakistan and other Muslim countries in September 2001. "If you are not with us you are against us." Today, the propaganda/psychological subversion is being led by the highly biased Jewish led scientists, philosophers, scholars, and academics, completely forgetting Mr. Crossman's aforementioned advice. It seems that soon shall these propagandists be running out of steam and everyone will be questioning their fabrications, that are leading the mankind of grave consequences!