The Anti-Manichaeist

The ‘prop-agenda’ war

The above article goes into the forms of propaganda used by the BushAdmin to build support in the US for immediate regime-change in Iraq.

Propaganda typically is judged negatively, but “facts” rarely speak for themselves as far as their normative significance and since action requires solidarity or the formation of a majority-opinion, there is always spin going on.

This could be seen as assessment of the meaning of factual anaylysis in light of normative ideals, but it usually isn’t so clear-cut.

Anyways, I think the NAE’s civic-responsibility paper would be enriched if it struggled with some of the darker-parts of how propaganda is prevalent in public life, perhaps as is found in much of Vilfredo Pareto’s sociology. Something that I must confess I have but a rudimentary understanding of.

dlw