Prokrustova Lies

How to neutralize aggressive state propaganda. Practical manual

The study of the experience of military propaganda in the wars of the last thirty years convinces me that the avalanche of propaganda information regarding the special operation of the Russian army in Ukraine (the mass campaign began long until February 24), the mechanisms for its distribution, a set of methods of creating and processing news, as well as the audience coverage are unprecedented. There was nothing like that. Electronic media and social networks gained incredible power and became a powerful instrument of state propaganda around the planet. Of course, we are primarily interested in our country.

How to protect consciousness from distorting the picture of the world? How to preserve the ability to adequate evaluation of events?

Each propaganda campaign is perceived by us as something new, we delve into its arguments, not suspecting that the basic principles of such campaigns are unchanged for the past two hundred years. The works of scientists give this convincing evidence. I suppose it is extremely useful to have a short list of rules in which the “narrative of propaganda” is based in my head. We offer them to our readers.

The main theses of excuses take the foundation in the ideology of nationalism, who loves to talk about historical rights in the territory and ethnic kinship (the principle of "land and soil"). They are as follows:

The main theses of excuses

1. If your area has been ours for 500 years, and it has become yours only over the past 50 years - you are an invader.

2. If the territory has been yours for 500 years and ours over the past 50 years, it should belong to us - the boundaries should not be changed.

3. If the region belonged to us 500 years ago, and then never belonged again, it should belong to us as a cradle of the nation.

4. If the majority of our people live there, then the region should belong to us - it should enjoy the right to self -determination.

5. If in some area the minority of our people lives, it should belong to us-because our minority should be protected from oppression.

6. All of the above rules apply only to us, but never to you.

7. Our dream of greatness is a historical necessity. Your dreams of greatness are fascism.

Of course, you learned these arguments, over the past six months you have heard them from officials hundreds of times and read on social networks.

Do you think this is about a special operation in Ukraine? Not at all.

So they are formulated on the basis of studying the experience of propaganda during conflicts in the Balkans at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as a long history of the dispute between France and Germany for Alsace and Lorraine. In this type, the formulas of nationalism were included in the book of Stuart Kaufman , “Modern Hatred: The Symbolic Policy of the Ethnic War,” published in 2001. They are based on the richest experience of the Norwegian Refuge Council (Norwegian Refugees Council), in the documents of which they are repeatedly found.

Studying the experience of propaganda and counter-propaganda of the Entente countries and the Triple Union in the First World War, Lord Arthur Ponnobi (1871–1946) wrote the book “False during the War” (Falsehood in War-Time). He was the first to set out so clearly and exhaustively and illustrated with concrete examples the already wider principles of military propaganda. Inspired by his labor, Anna Morelli, the Belgian historian of Italian origin, systematized them and stated them in modern form.

In the dissertation “Basic Principles of Military Propaganda” (Principes élémentaires de Propagande de Guerrere), Morelli studied the experience of all wars and colonial conflicts of the XX and current centuries.

Get with the principles of Morerel. You will understand everything.

Here is the famous list:

Principles of propaganda (from the work of Anna Morelli)

1. We don't want war

This means that enemies hate us and want to attack the first.

2. The other side is responsible for everything

Even if we were the first to attack, some steps of the enemy led to this.

3. The leader of the warring country is a real devil

The personification of the image of the enemy in the eyes of citizens is the most important task.

4. We fight for noble goals, and not pursue our interests

That is, we do not act out of self -interest.

5. The enemy deliberately commits atrocities, we are only by chance

Stories about crippled children, concentration camps, the destruction of art objects, encouraging enemy enemy violence in the defenseless army prove his barbarism as a result of innate inclinations.

6. The enemy uses prohibited weapons

7. Our losses are insignificant, enemy losses are huge

The real losses of the parties are set by the painstaking work of historians, journalists and civil society at the end of the conflict.

8. Representatives of culture, art and intellectuals support our business

9. Our mission is sacred

10. The traitor is anyone who will question the message of our media

Propaganda should not cause any doubt. For this, any measures are good, up to blocking social networks, the ban on television channels.