User:Roderick Hindery/sandbox

Propaganda and Terrorism

Winds of propaganda and terrorism blow from three directions. First, propaganda is currently touted by Vladimir Putin and other Russians as their pivotal weapon in a war to control the West, if not the world. Explicitly they propose that propaganda and indoctrination are the most effective means for crushing those whom they perceive as adversaries. They seek to control opponents sometimes by physical violence, as in Crimea, but mainly psychologically, through threats, terror, and fear. In a gale which blows from a second direction, ultra-conservative ideologists are twice as likely to visit sources which are already ideologically congenial to them, like Fox News. Chances for expanding thought are minimized. The seeming comfort found in unchanging views spreads with viral speed.

From a third direction, terrorists in the Middle East and elsewhere robotize the thinking of their victims. Ingeniously, terrorists welcome profit-seeking global media into spreading their messages for them. With maximal efficiency they co-opt the media into inseminating fear and distrust among the masses. Propaganda, they boast explicitly, is the major tool through which they intend to win their battles for global control. In their view future wars will be fought mainly through websites and blogs on the internet and other media.

Even specialists in the scientific community seduce themselves and others by repetition and appeal to "authorities" in lieu of critical thought. Captured by the mathematical perfection of string theory, some theorists propose as fact what can be neither verified nor falsified. In Peter Woit's phrase, they are "not even wrong." Although, unlike string theory, big bang theory is convincingly inferred from the current expansion of the universe, it functions less as a tested theory than a model in process.

Internationally, politically, religiously, and even scientifically propaganda, indoctrination, and self-deception exist everywhere, the halls of intellectuals included. It thrives among extreme and moderate liberals and conservatives, as well as within mainstream thinking, entertainment, and music which is intended not simply to move but to manipulate feelings.

Fresh insights about controversial issues like abortion, contraception, divorce, euthanasia, economics, etc. can be discovered, if these issues are revisited through the filter of propaganda as opposed to critical thinking.

In the order of necessity as well as importance the symbiosis between propaganda and terrorism stands at the top of the list for reconsideration. Terrorism can be much better understood and combated if it is viewed through the lens of propaganda as opposed to free and critical thought.

2. Ellul, Jaques, Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (New York: Knopf, 1965). 3. Hindery, Roderick, Indoctrination and Self-deception or Free and Critical Thought? (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2001). 4. Hindery, Roderick, Comparative Ethics, Ideologies, and Critical Thought, Journal of Religious Ethics, 36.2, June 2008, 215-231. 5. Hindery, Roderick, "The Anatomy of Propaganda within Religious          Terrorism," The Humanist 63.2 16-19.

I can't figure out how to add my several references and make them stick. Please help.