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Summary: Provocative Examination Of Selling Of Iraq War To Public!
Review: In French academic Jacques Ellul's classic tome on the nature and uses of propaganda, Ellul warns against the arrogant and misguided assumption in most social democracies to discount the use of such unobtrusive means of political persuasion in their societies. According to Ellul, all of the Western democracies are every bit as vulnerable to propaganda's sinister anti-democratic effects as any other sort of 'less sophisticated' (read "totalitarian" here) culture. As Ellul persuasively argues, no such invulnerability pertains. Indeed, in a modern society characterized by a powerful, affluent, and resourceful central government, one that is highly influenced by the predominant voices of industry and the economically powerful, the means of such 'friendly persuasion' are both more prevalent and more dangerous than anywhere else. In this book, "Weapons Of Mass Deception", we have a literal case study of how the authors, Sheldon Rampton and John C. Stauber, have observed the current Bush administration blatantly attempt to subvert the democratic process by foisting such a propaganda campaign in support of a war of aggression against the Iraqis. Indeed, shortly after the events of September 11, 2001, members of the current administration hired advertising executives to direct a media campaign to convince the populace of the need to conduct a preemptive attack of Iraq in pursuit of eventual security against perceived potential terrorist threats. President Bush's National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice was quoted as pointedly requesting position papers from her White House staffers as to how the administration could immediately begin using the events of 911 to further the administration's domestic and foreign policy goals. Other public relation advisors were brought in to help construct the Bush administration's on-point approach toward justifying and selling the idea of the preemptive strike to a public both disoriented and frightened by the terrorist attack on 911. A variety of different attempts to forward this action were taken and 'floated' in various ploys to judge what specific combinations of reasons and justifications would best 'play' to sell the war to the aggravated and anxious populace. Thus we had an initial attempt by the organs of government to use the realtively straightforward idea of simple 'regime change' as a justification for moving against Iraq, which clearly failed to elicit the desired positive effect on public opinion. Next on the sheet of potential arguments that the Bush administration was auditioning was a rather tortured attempt to use the United Nations as a forum to drag out old unresolved charges against Iraq involving international inspections, an issue which had both they and the Clinton administration hasd allowed to lay fallow for the previous four years. When this argument also failed as the rest of the civilized world reacted in horror to the procoative notion of immedaitely attacking Iraq, the Bush administration began to thread together a more independent and more substantive (though circumstantial) set of 'smoking gun' notions linking Iraq to terrorist groups like Osama Bin Laden's Al Quaida on the one hand, and suggesting renewed attempts to gain a significant new capability to develop and deploy weapons of mass destruction (WMD) on the part of Saddam Hussein's government, on the other. Evidently the Bush White House staffers and the analysts with both the Defense Department and intelligence agencies didn't allow themselves to be unduly hamstrung by the available evidence. Instead, they exaggerated, misinterpreted, and even prevaricated about both the nature of and the validity of such "evidence" in constructing their arguments suporting intervention to the public. This is obviously a book that will be seen as exteremly controversial and politically provocative, one that the various pundits on either side of the political aisle will rush to either endorse or assail in order to gain immediate advantage, and to attempt to put the best 'spin' on long before the public has a chance to evaluate it on their own. In this way, even the argument about the way this administration has used a cynical, subversive and anti-democratic propagandist approach to explain and justify the war against Iraq may become yet another weapon in the ongoing media effort to persuade and describe the public perceptions of and interpretation of, events the powers that be want to manipulate for public consumption. This is a wonderful book, and one that is sure to soon be the talk of the pundits. Move over, Ann Coulter, your fifteen minutes in the spotlight's glare is over. Enjoy!
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Summary: Don't Believe the Hype
Review: Since the earliest civilizations on Earth, leaders have utilized the strategy of war against a demonized outside enemy to distract the population from domestic issues. But in this new age of instant communications and saturation infotainment, a ruler really has to be on the ball to hoodwink a whole society. This book details the Bush administration's extensive use of public relations, propaganda, and misinformation to get the American public behind the "war" in Iraq. Experts in the art of PR may just see this endeavor by the administration as a brilliant masterpiece of advertising, false patriotism, and empty jingoism. That's one way of looking at it if you choose not to think about the hundreds of billions of dollars squandered, the deaths of untold civilians, the fat profits for Bush and Cheney's old boys network, and the failure to make any actual headway in reducing terrorism around the world. Here Rampton and Stauber have made deft use of real news accounts and statements from the administration to uncover the trickery and lies that have become second nature from our leaders. Regardless of your political stance toward Saddam Hussein or the real necessity of war, you will probably be dismayed by how dumb your government has assumed you to be, and how they have been proven right by the behavior of many average Americans. The only problem with this book is that it is quite short and ends abruptly, with no comprehensive conclusions regarding some of the serious issues it raises. I suggest that a second edition of this book be released when the current situation in Iraq (apparently it's not a "war" anymore) really ends, if it ever does, because Rampton and Stauber may be able to provide insight into how more propaganda probably won't get us out of a situation that propaganda got us into. [~doomsdayer520~]
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Summary: Needs more scientific support but a good start
Review: Deception has become a popular practice in modern society, but it is not all pervasive, since if it were there would be no change and no criticism. Without a doubt there would not be the plethora of ideas that now exists if everyone was convinced that the practice of deception is a moral or practical imperative. However, it is the modus operandi of government officials and advertising executives, who believe that without it no products could be sold and no wars could be fought. Their belief in deception has its roots in their own insecurities: they simply do not believe that they can give convincing arguments or rationales behind the products they manufacture or the ideologies they believe. Government officials have another belief that puts them to some extent in the same camp as academicians and educated intellectuals: they believe that "the public is dumb" and therefore needs to be deceived. To not deceive the public is to let them lead themselves astray and pursue irrational or destructive tendencies. The belief that "the public is dumb" is not unique to any political or partisan cause, and it is accepted as "commonsense" by most individuals in government and those in its supporting infrastructure.
This book discusses the techniques and modern history of propaganda and advertising as it was applied to justify the current conflict in Iraq. It does so however from a general non-scientific viewpoint, and thus does not attempt to give a scientific understanding of why populations are sometimes taken by sloganeering, propaganda, and other forms of media hype. If the book made connections with current research in neuroscience, it would have been a lot more interesting. As it stands it should be thought of as a "first approximation" to a full understanding of the efficacy of advertising and propaganda techniques. Such an understanding would be very helpful to those who are not only curious about the effects of the media on the human brain, but also want to discover countermeasures to these effects.
Some of the virtues of the book include its description of the extent to which the horror of the 9/11 attacks was exploited by many different groups, and not just those in government. The current administration of course was the worse culprit and took full advantage of the anxiety felt by most everyone after 9/11 in order to launch a brutal, illegal, and immoral war in Iraq. The authors give many more examples of political and interest groups who squeezed every drop they could out of the 9/11 disaster. The tactics of deception used were independent of the beliefs and ideologies of the respective groups. Both Democrats and Republicans had absolutely no qualms about using the 9/11 nightmare to propagate with gusto their political memes.
When reading the book, it is amazing to see the amount of money that was spent by public relations and advertising firms hired specifically to take advantage of the fears of the "general public." The authors correctly advise against letting fear rule our lives, and this book actually assists in encouraging a strong sense of skepticism toward the media and the government. In every waking hour of our lives we must critically examine all news stories, speeches, and political and commercial advertisements so as not to be inadvertently influenced by their content. Neuroscience teaches us that the human brain is susceptible to deceptive information if conscious effort is not made to examine it carefully and deliberately, but it is also able to differentiate between what is plausible and what is implausible. A focused, skeptical public can definitely serve as countervailing power to the lies and rubbish that proceed from cynical and amoral advertising agencies and government institutions.
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Summary: EVERY U.S. CITIZEN SHOULD READ THIS!!!
Review: I picked this book up at 12:00 P.M. and finished it by the end of the night! Rampton & Stauber write an unbelievable BI-PARTISAN account of how the Bush administration has totally "window-dressed" and lied about this current War in Iraq.
And to the 2 or 3 out of 49 reviews that down this book - How blind are you? You must be an ultra right wing nutjob that DID NOT read the book to attack it! (Specifically to the person who said even Democrats were all for the war - It SPECIFICALLY mentions an account written by Congressman Henry Waxman of how he was decieved by the Bush Administration! - ONCE AGAIN - Did you read the book??) By the way, is your favorite show the O'Reilly Factor by any chance?????
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Summary: A War for "PEACE AND FREEDOM"..Pres. GW Bush
Review: The above statement by Pres. Bush says it all. Or "How to Use The Media P R Machine to back up your War", which could be this book's subtitle. No doubt P R& Ad Execs and historians of the future will use this "Lovely War" as the outstanding example of market / public manipulation in the early 2000's. This book "Weapons of Mass Deception" will be a classic reference for those future researchers! From the very start ,this war was a mass produced set of distortions and outright lies that, as evidenced by the recent election, were an astounding success! And Colin Powell is still the most admired of the Bush hierarchy, despite a UN speech of incredible incompetence and distortions! How could it be that we were wrong and the Iraqi denials of WMD were actually right!? Congrats to these 2 authors for their unflinching and objective analysis!
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Summary: A must read
Review: This is a well-written, easy to read, scathing expose on how wars are sold to the public.
I recommend this, and Rampton and Stauber's other book (Banana Republicans), to all my friends because it is so jam packed with essential information in a form that is acceptable to even those with an aversion to politics.
Read this book, and then pass it on to a friend!
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Summary: A good, overall view of the Iraq war propoganda
Review: Basically, this book deals with the propoganda efforts to sell the war against Iraq to the American people. And now that Chalabi, (whom I suspected of being a phony right from the start) is in the political doghouse, this book -- written in 2003 -- is even more thought provoking. Because of my predisposition to depression, I don't always follow the news as closely as I could. However, I do listen and read it often, and from the news itself and comments I've heard from others, I had a stinky feeling that something was askew in the way this war had -- and still is -- been promoted. And reading WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION put names and specific events to something I suspected all along. I leave it to the reader to actually read the book and come to his/her own conclusions. I appreciated this book because it doesn't smack of partisan politics. There is an objectivity about it that seems missing in a lot of other works like this one. Some things that stood out for me were the following: 1. The authors question the current administration's methods of promoting the war through advertising and opinion spinning and the use of "evidence" that was questionable at best and false at worst. 2. The book avoided two extremes. First of all, it avoided the conservatives' blind patriotism. Second, it avoided the equally wrong view that some (not all) liberals take: that of blaming the United States for every ill in the world. 3. The book did not try to whitewash the Middle East and give the impression that we were picking on an innocent and sinless society. It pointed out some very real wrongs that happen there, and it didn't try to whitewash Saddam Hussein, either. Instead, I feel that the authors wanted us to see the problem for what it IS and not for what it ISN'T. 4. It pointed out something that we all know has been going on for a long time -- that the United States, in its often misguided effort to protect democracy, frequently aligns itself with countries who have abysmal human rights records. 5. The authors did not present this media deception as a strictly American phenomenon. They looked with realistic eyes at other countries and other times of history to show that this happens in other places and eras, too -- even giving Alexander the Great as an example. In my humble opinion, it's time for the United States to stop trying to police the world and to be its "conscience," especially in light of the Iraqui prisoner abuse scandal. I am an American citizen and am grateful for it, but I don't believe that we as a nation are any more "righteous" or "unrighteous" than any other country. We're a country of human beings with all the human strengths and weaknesses. I think it's time for us to address our own problems right here at home.
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