Propaganda’s Greatest Hits – 2

We tend to think of propaganda as current messages of disinformation. While these do pour down on us to deal with current circumstance, structures of propaganda occupy our cultural landscape influencing us over the years.

W.W.II propaganda meets us in pictures, books, films, games, speeches, schools and tourist attractions. The American Cemetery in France, for example, commemorating the D-day invasion at Omaha Beach, attracts over 1 million visitors a year … to honor the heroic sacrifice of the thousands who died fighting for freedom. Most of those who died however, despite their heroism, were not sacrificed for freedom, but the political interests of a handful of boardroom commanders who were in a great hurry. The Soviets had broken the back of the German war machine and were well on their way to dominating the victory. The Yanks could have established a presence on the mainland of Europe in many ways that didn’t cost so many lives, but the military command was concerned with getting it done quickly regardless of the human costs. It didn’t cost their lives. The soldiers died for the freedom of a money-oriented society to dominate the world and eventually hire the grandchildren of the soldiers to work for wages they couldn’t survive on.

The main type of propaganda about the war against Japan goes under the title of Silence. It’s impossible to silence the sound of A-bombs wiping out a couple of cites, so we are told that it was necessary to save lives. Regardless of top American military officers confirming that the bombings weren’t necessary, the question of the atomic-class racism justifying the nuclear inferno can’t be heard. Why was it necessary to kill a couple of hundred thousand Japanese civilians in order to save a few American soldiers’ lives? Because the civilians were bad-guys and the yank soldiers good-guys? Tell it to Jesus! Or Buddha!

But it’s not this silence I’m referring to. Conventional bombings had already killed more people in Tokyo and other major cities with fire/napalm bombs before the A-bomb attacks. The fire bombings were at least as horrific as Hiroshima and Nagasaki though not nearly as spectacular. We don’t hear about this carnage despite 20 times more bodies than those that littered Omaha Beach. Yet even this silence roars compared to the silent propaganda concealing the nature of the ”heroes” of the war. After the atomic bombs rocked the world with its awesome power and Japan agreed to total capitulation, over 1000 planes bombed targets up and down the coast of Japan slaughtering civilians all along the way. This wholesale butchery occurred after Japan’s verbal surrender, but before its formal surrender. The ”good-guys” murdered 10s of 1000s of people because … because … they could … and they wanted to.

The cold-blooded psychopaths who filled rivers with blood are included in the category of war heroes. They are bricks in the structures of propaganda informing us about of the wonderful character of the troops of the exceptional nation.

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“We are imbedded in the perspectives of the rulers
informing us how exploiting us
promotes our freedoms.”
Dartwill Aquila

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The West Bank is now the Judea-Samaria area.