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An Essay On “Framing” And Fanaticism: Propaganda Strategies For Linguistic Manipulation, David Barnhizer
An Essay On “Framing” And Fanaticism: Propaganda Strategies For Linguistic Manipulation, David Barnhizer
David Barnhizer
In his brilliant classic, Propaganda, French philosopher Jacques Ellul explains that the stereotype—a key tool of propagandists--“helps [humans] to avoid thinking, to take a personal position, to form [their] own opinion.” The problem for a political system is that stereotypes do not require thought. They are “acquired by belonging to a group, without any intellectual labor.” Deborah Tannen describes what has occurred as the “Argument Culture”. In the “argument culture” we are fanatics, unable and unwilling to engage in the kinds of fact-based reasoned discourse that we always were told was at the core of the democratic system. Tannen observed …
"Linguistic Cleansing": Strategies For Redesigning Human Perception And Behavior, David Barnhizer
"Linguistic Cleansing": Strategies For Redesigning Human Perception And Behavior, David Barnhizer
David Barnhizer
James Madison recognized the need to balance competing interests in his analysis of factious groups. In Federalist No. 10, Madison sets out the idea of faction in the following words. “By a faction I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” Madison goes on to describe two “cures” for faction. One is to “destroy the liberty” that allows it to bloom, …
Assimilation Anxiety: Islamic Migration As A Perceived Threat To Western Cultures, David Barnhizer
Assimilation Anxiety: Islamic Migration As A Perceived Threat To Western Cultures, David Barnhizer
David Barnhizer
In this cynical age it is common to smirk at claims about what is sometimes called American Exceptionalism, a term standing for the conclusion that America is an historically distinct (and better) system. To some degree it does represent cultural arrogance founded on assumption rather than fact. It also ignores “exceptionally” dark chapters in American history, including slavery, seizing of lands from Native Americans and imprisoning of US citizens of Japanese descent. Nonetheless it seems that given the diversity of the population and the sheer enormity of the nation that, as stated by an Asian Indian friend who is a …