Post-Class Blog 11/9

Although I was not in class on Wednesday, I have been thinking a lot about propaganda over the course of the week. I have noticed it mostly in advertisements and the news lately. However, whenever I think about propaganda, the US government always comes to my mind for some reason. A lot of propaganda in the United States is spread by our government. Propaganda is not only in advertising; it is also in radio, newspaper, posters, books, and anything else that might be sent out to the widespread public which many people forget. I think that a great example of the propaganda that Herman and Chomsky talk about it in their piece and outline would be war propaganda. The first large-scale use of propaganda by the U.S. government came during World War I. The government was able to enlist the help of citizens and children to help promote war bonds and stamps to help stimulate the economy. To keep the prices of war supplies down, the U.S. government decided to create posters that encouraged people to reduce waste and grow their own vegetables in "victory gardens." The public skepticism that was generated by the heavy tactics and strategies of the Committee on Public Information ended up leading to the post war government to officially abandon the use of propaganda. During World War II the U.S. "officially" had no propaganda, but obviously the government found ways around that. One tool that Roosevelt used was the publicly owned but government funded Writers' War Board. The activities of the WWB were so extensive that it has been argues that it was the "greatest propaganda machine in history". Why We Fight is a famous series of US government propaganda films made to justify US involvement in World War II. Clearly those in power were able to defy the system and still find a way to control the middle and lower classes as Herman and Chomsky argued the importance of power when it comes to carrying out propaganda and manipulating people's ideologies.