A while back, someone accused me of advocating the use of propaganda. Well, yeah, in this sense …
Propaganda. The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause … (American Heritage Dictionary)
(Propagation: Think of a gardener propagating plants, creating more of a good thing.)
When you use words and images to spread an idea, change attitudes, or influence people toward a cause or position … that’s propaganda. Especially if you present facts selected to encourage a particular conclusion, or messages that produce an emotional response.
Of course, propaganda has some ugly associations: mind control, manipulation … outright lies. Nazi propaganda. Right-wing propaganda. War-mongering propaganda. (Weapons of mass destruction, anyone?)
That kind of propaganda repels progressively-minded folks like you and me. (Thank goodness!)
We want to treat people with respect. Educate and enlighten them. Tell them the truth, so they can make their own rational decisions. Give them the facts, so they can understand what’s going on in the world.
We sure don’t want to lie or manipulate people to achieve our ends. So many folks take what seems like the safe, respectful approach: stick to “objective facts” and avoid emotional appeals.
Alas, that doesn’t work. It takes more than facts to get people interested and move them to action. (I’m not the first to point this out. But it’s so important that it bears repeating — and I’ll be saying it again.)
So it’s time to dig into the messy world of propaganda, learn what works and why — and then apply those lessons in ways that fit with how we want to treat people.
More on this to come. In the meantime, how about this thought: When you propagate (or propagandize) an idea that benefits the world — advances the human race, improves the health of the planet, makes people’s lives better — that’s something to be proud of. (And with so much at stake, it’s worth learning how to do it really, really well.)
(Props to Kathy Sierra for her piece “You ARE a marketer. Deal with it.” … from which I gratefully borrowed the headline, not to mention the idea for this piece.)
