A few diaries have been posted on the recent McCain/Palin rallies but I feel it is time to take a closer look at where this may be headed and what we can do about it.
Seeing clips of recent Palin rallies and hearing of hate filled shouts as she speaks, is starting to become extremely unsettling. Through the years we have heard rantings against specific groups but the speeches by Palin and McCain are unique in that the subject of their talk is directed at a specific person.
Let's be frank and call this what it is: the use of propaganda. The defintion of propaganda is the use of a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions of large numbers of people. Propaganda, in a narrower use of the term, connotes deliberately false or misleading information that supports or furthers a political cause. The propagandist seeks to change the way people understand an issue for the purpose of changing their actions and expectations in ways that are desirable to the interest group. What sets propaganda apart from other forms of advocacy 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. The desired result then becomes a change of the narrative of the subject to the audience to further a political agenda. What is most troubling about the type of political propaganda we are seeing is it appeals to the emotions of the crowd rather than the intellect.
So now we have what is being done to the crowd. What is the crowd now doing.
What we may be seeing are aspects of Convergence theory. This theory holds that crowd behavior is not a product of the crowd itself, but is carried into the crowd by particular individuals. Thus, crowds amount to a convergence of like-minded individuals. In other words, convergence theory says that people who wish to act in a certain way come together to form crowds. This type of crowd behavior is not irrational; rather, people in these crowds are expressing existing beliefs so that the mob reaction is the rational product of widespread popular feeling.
Let's add this up: We have (1) particular individuals: McCain and Palin (2) the distribution of propaganda: lies about Obama and (3) attending at the rallies are people who already want to believe the negative and have like minded political beliefs.
This is a combination that can become extremely dangerous.
In Sociology the definition of mob mentality is a group of persons stimulating one another to excitement and losing ordinary rational control over their activity.
In Psychology, the main idea of Sigmund Freud's crowd behavior theory is that people who are in a crowd act differently towards people than those who are thinking individually. The minds of the group would merge together to form a way of thinking. Each member's enthusiasm would be increased as a result, and one becomes less aware of the true nature of one's actions.
As an aside but not to sound fanatical, there is a type of propaganda used to achieve the goal of creating external enemies and internal enemies. In the propaganda we are seeing by McCain and Palin the external enemies are Iran and terrorists and the internal enemy is Senator Obama. This type of propaganda is called "Nazi propaganda". External enemies were the countries imposing the Treaty of Versailles on them and the internal were the Jewish people.
What are examples of what mob mentality does? It can be as simple as (1)people trambling over a person in a store as they all rush for sale items(2) increase to people standing on the street yelling for a person on a building's ledge to jump and (3) develop into the horrific act of a group lynching. In view of today's economy, some analysts attribute mob mentality to the increase of the average person investing in the stock market in the late 1990s to the increase of people taking out home mortgages in the early 2000s.
These examples illustrate what can occur due to the use of propaganda and its aftermath of mob mentality. Are we now seeing through the words and actions illustrated at the recent McCain/Palin rallies the forefront of more divisive or violent acts in the future? Can we ignore the fact that both McCain and Palin most be aware of the consequences of what they are doing and to date, neither has spoken out against it?
No one knows. Nor do we want to see. But what can we do. Not that much but we can start to bring awareness to what is occuring, that it is unacceptable, that we do not believe that any form of violence, physical or verbal, is an accepted act, and that the solution for a campaign to destroy the character and reputation of another person is despicable.
So begin here. Below are links to emails for the media, all US Senators and House Reps. Email them, email them daily until this stops. And if you have even more time, email those companies that air the destructive right wing talk radio and email someone about the airtime being given to the racist, Sean Hannity.
Thanks!
http://www.mapinc.org/...
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/...
http://www.senate.gov/...
http://clerk.house.gov/...
The survival of democracy depends on the renunciation of violence and the development of nonviolent means to combat evil and advance the good.