Professor David Peimer
The History of Propaganda and the Arts

Professor David Peimer - The History of Propaganda and the Arts

- Hi, everybody, everywhere, and hope everyone is well, from the beginnings of spring in little Liverpool land. So today we’re going to dive straight into this topic. As you know, we are beginning to move towards, we’re working in the Middle East and starting, going way back to ancient times. And this particular talk today is our history of propaganda. And looking at, obviously it’s a huge topic. So what I’ve done is just identified a couple of aspects, which I think are fascinating to explore. Just a couple of things. I’m going to give a few ideas on what is propaganda actually, and how it relates to us today, obviously with a massive advance of technology. But even within that, there are subtle shifts in approaches to propaganda compared to even 50 years ago, 40 years ago and obviously going way back, obviously Second World War, and First World War, way back.

Visuals are displayed throughout the presentation.

And what I’m also going to do, just to give us a little taste of propaganda that was used going back a couple of thousand years ago, because as we know, it’s as old as human society itself. So we can have a bit of perspective on some ancient examples, just a few. And then dive into, you know, moving along into more of the last century or so, a little bit longer. So a couple of ideas. One other thing is I chose to focus more on posters and images because obviously there’s so much in film, there’s so much on the internet, so much on, it’s so many forms of mass media and cultural expression in propaganda. It’s just, it’s huge with full libraries. So one has to be, one has to choose. So I’m not going to look at film, I’m going to focus on posters in particular, cartoons, posters, those visual images, which can be so striking and powerful, sometimes even more so than, it’s the one image, even more than films or TV programmes and other things. So the story of propaganda, for me, the key is what worldview does propaganda present? And the essence is that it always reverts to a binary, the cowboy, the Indian, the goodie, the baddie, the coloniser, the colonist, the oppressor, the oppressed.

There’s never a nuance or a more in-depth understanding of the dynamic dynamics of history, complex of relationships, between economics, sociology, society, exploration, colonisation, expansion, taxes or money aspects, financial, all these other aspects which really form, you know, which would ground it in a much more complex, and I believe realistic understanding of propaganda. So it reverts to the binaries. Who’s the goodie, who’s the baddie, who’s the superior, who’s the inferior, who’s right, who’s wrong? Quick, easy, moral and binary definitions and categories which enable huge numbers of people to assimilate and say, well, you know, buy into. Of course from that we get the stereotypes and prejudice one way or the other, and hate, if it goes that far. ‘Cause stereotypes need binaries. They can’t have nuanced complexity. They fall down under that. The binaries are set up to stimulate an emotional response in the viewer or the reader, which bypasses any hint of rationality or the establishing of the facts. Why?

Obviously, in a way, to shape attitudes and of course, control the people. And in the old ancient phrase from the Romans, who controls the streets, controls the world. So, you know, control the streets, control which means control the mind, of course. And this is as old as I said, as human nature itself. But I think in our times, has become so much more sophisticated and so much more all-encompassing in so many ways that I think many people are not even aware what they’re watching maybe a sophisticated, subtle evocation of propaganda. The battle for the human mind is ancient. The word came into real common use in 1914 around the time of the beginning of the First World War, that’s when it became really central in western thought and in mainstream culture. The Greeks going way back, 'cause we have records written, you know, and so on. Of course they had their citizens always balancing the group interest and the group problems, the affairs of the city state with the rights of the individual which you see in all the Greek plays and the Greek philosophy and Greek thought, that tension between the group and the individual, the rights, the interest, and that complex relationship.

Of course, the Greeks had games, they had theatre, they had assemblies, they had courts, religious festivals, or an opportunity to not only discuss and debate things, but to propagandise specific ideas and beliefs in this binary way. And of course, they excelled in the art of oratory and rhetoric with oratory, which of course, the Romans and many others picked up on. And they wrote books. You know, they wrote and things were passed around, ideas. So they were very concerned with, you know, the role of what we would call propaganda today and the mind. Just one example, in the 16th century, one tiny little, you know, fun historical example, after the Spanish Armada, the Sir Walter Raleigh, this is after the English have beaten the Spanish in the Armada. Sir Walter Raleigh complained about the Spanish propaganda, 'cause he was going on and on about how the Spanish were still destroying English ships and got angry, but one report of a big sea battle between the English and the Spanish.

And he wrote in the 16th century, “The Spaniard seeks by false and slanderous pamphlets to cover their own loss and to derogate from others their honour.” I just love that way of putting the language, you know, complaining essentially about, you know, fake news, lies and propaganda. The other interesting thing is that the term propaganda, the actual word was first really used in Europe. And by the Catholic church is where it really came into what we might call mainstream thinking and culture and politics. In 1622, Pope Gregory the 15th creates in Rome the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. It was a group of cardinals who were charged with spreading the faith and regulating church affairs in the so-called heathen lands. And a college of propaganda was called, that was set up under Pope Urban the eight to train priests for their missions. So on the one hand, train priests for their missions, on the other hand, Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 1622, Pope Gregory the 15th.

That’s where it begins. Fascinating. The actual word and the codification of it begins with the church in that way. Okay, if we can go onto the next slide. Oh, just one point here is this quote from Paul Gilroy. He’s a brilliant contemporary British post-colonial theorist. And I went to a talk of his some time ago and he spoke about education today. And he said that the danger in the West is that there is a groomed ignorance that education systems are grooming a kind of an ignorance in the West. And it’s a beautiful and subtle and sophisticated way of putting it, linking education, what we know is going on in so many parts of the world. But it’s not a naive thing, that it’s actually about grooming ignorance, whether out of naivety or incompetence or stupidity or intention, you know, what is actually happening? And it’s this word grooming, you know, that is provocative and I think very thoughtful for us today. And it’s our challenge, I believe, to take on what Gilroy has phrased in this way, and rank it open to show what is propaganda and what is truth. Okay, if we can go on to the next slide, please.

So we obviously go to Mr. Goebbels and his very thick set of diaries, if you like. “The greater the lie, the more people will believe it.” Only too true. You repeat it again and again and again, people start to believe it. The masses or the educated or both. Hitlers’ greatest insight was that people want a strong leader. Joseph Goebbels, it’s all in his diaries. I’m just taking a few things from, I suppose, the most evil architect of propaganda, possibly in human history. “Conscience is a Jewish invention. I have liberated humanity from morality and conscience.” This is Hitler, you know, and however much we feel the sheer evil in this despicable human being, if we can call him that, understood what the society thought and how to use it for propaganda. To jump away from more recent historical memory to ancient times, Julius Caesar. It’s wonderful to read Caesar’s diaries. Yeah, fantastic. He writes some, he was fascinated with cultures, philosophies, their food, their military thing, everything he wrote about or he dictated to his scribes who travelled with him wherever he went.

There’s a huge amount of fantastic writing of Caesar’s. You know, this guy wasn’t just a military brilliant mastermind, but a cultural, what we call today, I suppose a cultural thinker. “These barbari,” these barbarians, “Go about naked with blue paint on their faces.” He’s talking about the Britons, of course, when he invades Britain for the first time. Stunned to see, they’re naked, blue paint, you know, how barbaric? Because interesting for the Romans, everybody else was barbarian. They didn’t distinguish on really, they didn’t distinguish on race, on race, religion, cult. Everybody else other than the Romans was an inferior barbarian, just levels of different barbarians, basically. Fascinating, you know, their distinction. Basically, you were civilised or you were a barbarian. Okay, if we can go onto the next one, please. This is from the arch. I’m going to show quite a few slides today. A lot. This is from the Arch of Titus. Now Titus, of course, was the son of Vespasian, and Vespasian was the Roman general, as we all know around AD 69, AD 70, who is responsible for the destruction of the temple and the utter destruction of Jerusalem in that war. And then of course, the dispersal of Jewish people throughout. I’m not going to go into the detail of the war.

But this Vespasian then comes back and he brings thousands of Jewish slaves, together with his son, Titus, who was obviously the general, he’s second in command. They bring thousands of Jewish slaves back to Rome and they bring all whatever gold, silver or whatever materially they could bring, and thousands of Jewish slaves. And it’s the Jewish slaves and whatever money they’ve stolen from them that actually builds the Colosseum, which I’m going to talk about, you know, in about a week’s time. The actual Colosseum in forging Roman identity. And this is on the Arch of Titus, you know, in Rome. And we see here, of course, you see the Romans, et cetera, and then of course, much shorter are the Jewish slaves, you know, bound and having to walk. This is actually on it. And you can see, and in more detail with some of the other images on the Arch of Titus, you see, they’re carrying whatever material things, which of course, are going to go to the Romans, gold, silver, pottery, whatever else. Slaves are absolutely uniform.

The Romans are superior, taller, bigger, you know, in charge, organising and so on. For me, this is an example of ancient Roman propaganda. You know, ‘cause these are all uniform barbarians from the Roman perspective. Okay, if we go to the next slide, please. Emperor Augustus Caesar, look at that image. He’s the one, he’s the grand nephew of Julius Caesar. And we know that Julius Caesar, the one who really confronts the idea of republic, which is really run by the aristocrats and the elite families of Rome, but it’s a republic in the Senate. And he’s the one who begins establishing the idea of dictatorship. Although Sulla and others had done it before in ancient Rome. But he takes it on, crosses the Rubicon and that’s going to lead to dictatorship. His grand nephew, Augustus, is the one who really establishes the emperor, the dictator, in his case, a relatively benevolent dictator who really organised the finances, the politics, much of the culture of Roman identity and establishes, entrenches notion of empire and emperor.

One man, one strong man to lead the lot. Look at this image of one of the statues of Augustus that we still have, you know, this young, proud, you know, looking forward, visionary, forceful, strong in every way. You know, no matter who, there’s the empire at the bottom, you know, symbolised by the little baby, and everybody else follow the one great leader of this huge remarkable empire and the young youthful vigour and strength. You can see all of it. I don’t have to tell you, there’s the binary and the image. It’s all the image as much as today, you know? It doesn’t differ so much. Okay, on to the next one, please. So this is interesting from ancient India, 250 BC, 350 BC. This is going back, you know, 2,300 years or so. And the idea of using female, what they call, what today we would call fem vital, but female spies as agents. And this is written by this guy who wrote this treatise on war and diplomacy in ancient India.

“To undermine a ruler, make chiefs of the enemy infatuated with women possessed of great beauty and youth.” It’s as contemporary and ancient as ever. The honey trap. “When passion is roused in them, they should start quarrels by creating belief about their love in one and by going to another.” So it’s thought through how to use female spies, you know, in the honey trap, classic example, of special agents going way back, ancient India. One little example around the world. Can go on to the next slide, please? This is fascinating. The pope as the antichrist. This is 1545. Martin Luther, as we all know, begins the Reformation, Protestantism against Catholicism in Germany. And then it spreads to Europe and all over the West. And he was, as you know, as we all know, he was virulently anti-the-Catholic, anti-the-Pope, see it as corruption, as leadership, as corruption, just all about money and wealth and everybody else treated like a servant or a peasant, you know? And he thought he wanted to purify, of course, being very, very minimalist here. Purify Christianity from it. So what’s interesting is that this is about 50 years more, 70 years after the invention of the Gutenberg Printing Press.

So the Bible is being translated into German. The Bible is getting out. Those who are able to read and write, very few. But word can get out. So pamphlets, images, cartoons are extremely popular in furthering propaganda. And this one here, we can imagine in its time how radical this was. And Luther’s commissioned some of these cartoonists to do this work. And this here you can see there, that’s a picture of the pope that’s meant to be. And the nobility, you know, on the right hand side of the picture. And then this on the left hand side are meant to be the Christian or peasants showing their bottoms to the pope and to the rulers of their times. And the quotation at the top is German peasants responding to Pope Paul III. And the caption means, don’t frighten us Pope with your ban. And don’t be such a furious man, otherwise we shall turn away and show you our rears. This is 1545. Martin Luther is taking on the whole power and wealth of the church and the Vatican and the Pope and everything.

You know, this is propaganda, which is so subversive, we can imagine, for the times, you know, and how powerful. Imagine this today. Would this be allowed today, wouldn’t it? Different religions? Debatable. Okay, bring on to the next slide, please. So this is a fascinating one I want to mention today to share with you is, this is the first known picture and it comes from Ravenna, of course, in Italy, which is about the trial of Jesus by Pontius Pilate. You know, there’s Pontius Pilate in the middle and on the left hand side is meant to be Jesus. It’s the first mosaic that has been found in all archaeological digs and work. Because what is really interesting is, and is very new research written by some very interesting contemporary researchers around what happened actually in the trial. And most importantly then 300 years later, approximately Constantine takes over and of course, becomes the first Christian emperor and establishes Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire. But when Constantine does it over 300 odd years more from the birth of Christ, the number of Romans who are Christians in the empire is about 10%. That’s it. Only one out of 10 is a Christian.

The rest are 90%, aside from obviously, you know, we have Jewish people, obviously, you know others, et cetera, et cetera. But approximately 90% express their allegiance to the pagan gods, to paganism, of about 800 to a thousand Roman gods, the ancient Greeks had over 2000 gods. And the Romans took gods from everywhere. And they were of course, always in statues and you know, all the rest of it, as we know, God of war, God, of you know, everything as we can imagine. Now we have to get into the, we have to imagine the mindset of believing in a thousand gods compared to one unseen God, you know, coming along and the power of what is the message, what is the thought, et cetera. And when we go back and do the research, you know, in the late third century, so the late two hundreds into the early three hundreds, going way up to the middle of the three hundreds, AD, after Christ, you read an enormous amount of what we could call, I think today, spin doctors, propaganda, those who are still pro-pagan, those who are pro-Christian. And there’s a conflict, huge, in the Roman Empire, which is going to win. The spin doctors pushing the pro-pagan and key paganism and ditched Christianity, which is the emerging, small but emerging challenge to the real, to their religious beliefs, the gods, versus the spin doctors are going to push Christianity.

And it’s centred around the writings or centred around the trial of Christ by the Roman governor of a small backward province called Judea of Pontius Pilate. We got to see from the Roman perspective what’s going on. We go on to the next slide, please. On the left hand side we see Maximinus Daza, who was a Roman emperor briefly since 310. And he was very much pro-pagan and anti-Christian. He wanted to keep the old religions. And he wrote, and he commissioned propagandists to write the stuff. This guy, Hierocles, was one of his propagandists spin doctors today, you know, and et cetera. On the right hand side, Firmianus Lactantius, and another guy, Eusebius. Anyway, we think that’s a mural of him on the right. These are two of the main spin doctors of their times.

The left hand side, the guy pushing to keep paganism and destroy Christianity and the threat it poses to the empire. On the right hand side, the guy pushing Christianity to become the religion of the massive, powerful Roman Empire. And what’s interesting is that most of their writings are around the trial of Pilate by the trial of Jesus, by Pontius Pilate. And they write it from the Roman perspective. He’s the governor. He’s got to carry out Roman law. But most importantly, cannot go against his own Emperor, Pilate, Pontus Pilate. And he has to carry out Roman law and be seen to do that. So what’s the interpretation? And the essence I want to share with you is that the pro-paganists say, well, Pontius Pilate, he was right. He had to carry out Roman law and the biggest accusation against Jesus, he’s the king of the Jews. Well, you can’t have a king of the Jews under Roman law. You can have religious leaders, you can have all other things, et cetera, et cetera. You can have chiefs, you know, et cetera, et cetera, local dudes or whatever. But you can’t have another king.

That’s not right. That’s not accepted under Roman law 'cause the emperor is at the top and the emperor mediates between the gods and the Romans, you know, and the masses. So you can’t have another some king. So so Maximus Daza is not anti-Jewish at all. He doesn’t, he barely mentions, it’s much more that Pilate is right. He has to carry out Roman law. And that’s why Christ had to be crucified, you know, because he couldn’t say, you can’t have a king. The other guy, Lactantius, and those propagandists are pushing, no, it was the Jews’ fault because he had to carry out Roman law. Yes, he’s just a governor of a small province, but he’s persuaded, he’s manipulated by the Pharisees, the Jewish high priest, et cetera, et cetera, all the rest of them. And the blaming of the Jews begins. When you read these two writers, and it’s all taken up of course, much later. But nothing was consolidated until, these are two of the main writers, of course, there were others. To me, the way it’s expressed when you look at it, it’s fascinating ‘cause I wouldn’t say it’s very far from what today we’d call propagandists or spin doctors. Okay, I wanted to share that little bit of information because I think it’s just so profound and interesting, you know, this idea of the blaming of the Jews, the Daza side, et cetera, you know, which goes way back in antisemitism.

It wasn’t always there. It developed through people like this propaganda. Okay, next slide, please. So this we go on to, this is called the “Devil with the Bagpipes,” 1535, back to Martin Luther and his time. And this is in one of the Bibles that Luther had commissioned. Cartoons, again, very powerful because we’ve got to remember that, you know, probably 98% of the populations of Europe and wherever could not read or write. So images and cartoons come so powerful. You know, this is what people remember. Now we’re going to Sicily, I just went over a year ago with my two sisters and my brother-in-law. We had a fantastic time. But what struck me is when you travel all around Sicily that I’m sure many people know who have been there, it’s so many churches and cathedrals, and they dominate utterly. And what’s interesting is that in them, you see almost like a series of cartoons in a children’s book, the story, you know, that we know from the gospels of the New Testament. It’s the story there in pictures.

So people who can’t read or write are going to listen to the sermons and the services, but they’re also going to see the pictures all the time. And pictures, as we know, burn into the mind as powerfully, if not more than words. Here the devil is on top of a priest, a Catholic priest, and the devil is playing the priest as if he’s playing bagpipes. Who dominates? So this is a woodcut criticism of the Catholic clergy, monstrous devil on the shoulders of a friar playing his head like a bagpipe. And meaning of course, that the clergy, the friar speaks the language of the devil because the devil is playing the music into his ear to speak the language. This is in 1535. Would it be allowed today? I’m not sure. Okay, but powerful propagandas for Protestantism versus Catholicism, the binaries again. Okay, if we can go to the next slide, please. This is another one called the Dragon of Revelation, wearing the papal tiara.

This is from the very first edition of Gutenberg’s Printing Press of his first German New Testament printed in 1522. And we can see on that the papacy is represented by the crowns and they represent the kings and nobility. And then you have the dragon underneath, you know, he’s breathing fire and coming up and you know, these are the ones that need to be destroyed, the nobility and the papacy, the Catholic elite, you know. This is 1522, almost the first version of the ever printed New New Testament of Luther. It’s estimated that a quarter of all the additions of Luther’s Bible visually identified the Pope with the antichrist. And that’s the key. The pope is identified in the papacy with the antichrist now. So these are the very devils as seen in the Pope. And it’s all done to propaganda because of course, everyone’s illiterate, yeah, can’t read or write. Pictures are so powerful. Okay, if we go on to the next slide, please. This is an example from the English Civil War, 1643, the cartoon, “The Cruel Practises of Prince Rupert.”

You know, this is one example where he was meant to show him as the cruel prince in England as part of the Civil War, et cetera. Cartoons again, but so evocative 'cause of course, again, they can’t read or write. Okay, let’s go into the next slide, please. Okay, now just before I go into this, I just, you know, we have other examples coming into the more modern era now of, obviously we all know Tom Payne and how he rouses public opinion in America, War of Independence. And, you know, his famous pamphlet, common sense and no taxation of representation. We all know these phrases which I would classify as part propaganda, at least, the American Revolution, the independence and freedom of the American colonies against, you know, the rule of the British crown and the empire. French Revolution, Voltaire and Rousseau were two of the main writers, as we know, to propagate ideas of, as we know, liberty, equality, et cetera. To inflame opposition to the rule of the bourbon French King. And during the revolution, Danton and others, all of these would write pamphlets, would have cartoons, pictures drawn, et cetera, for the masses to understand, get the point quickly.

Going back, binaries, who’s superior, who’s inferior, stimulate an emotive response as much as possible. Here, one of the great, great icons of propaganda of all time. And I’m not saying whether it’s good or bad. Of course, yeah, a lot of these things are needed. I’m just understanding and analysing, you know, the notion of propaganda. Britons, Lord Kitchener wants you. Join your country’s army, look at that stern, strong leader, general face. The great, you know, one of the great or one of the most famous, notorious and great British generals, heads of the British Army during empire, you know, also partly responsible for setting up concentration camps in South Africa, as we know, which leads to 28,000 women and children mostly dying of disease and other things. But here’s Kitchener, Britons, Lord Kitchener wants you, 1914.

First World War is when, as I said earlier, ministries of propaganda, it all starts to be set up and institutionalised much more formally. This is such a powerful, red and black. Never forget, it’s not only the Nazis that had red and black. Red and black are so powerful so often, especially going to this part of the century in visual imagery, you know. And we get the stern, you know, authority, father figure, et cetera. We can get the binary. Okay, go on to the next slide, please. Edward Bernays, Freud’s nephew, wrote this book, goes to America, wrote a book called “Propaganda,” 1928. The two key phrases, “The intelligent manipulation of the opinions of the masses is important in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government, which is the true ruling power of our country.” Bernays understands it completely. Manipulation of masses, democracies, the unseen mechanism of society. How do you manipulate and manufacture consent inside or engineer consent, as he called it.

We are governed, our minds are moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men who we’ve never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which democratic society is organised. Vast numbers of human beings must operate in this manner if they’re to live together as a functioning society. We have to buy into the same belief systems and values. And would say the same collective fictions. We have to buy into it. But these are unseen, these are stories to mould and shape our minds into belief systems. And again, the simpler we can do it through the binaries and the other things, the more evocative emotionally and the more powerful the ruling of our minds. Propaganda. Now on to the next slide, please. I want you for the US Army, similar to the Kitchener one. This is probably the most famous of all propagandistic images ever made, absolutely brilliant in the way it’s constructed, Uncle Sam. But that stern look, you know, with a top hat, you know, he’s not in military uniform, you know.

He could be grandfather, he could be, you know, going back to the forefathers, et cetera. And the finger pointing, that sternness, “I want you,” it’s the you, for the US Army. Can one resist? Very hard. Okay, we see this again, the binaries, you know, big daddy needs you, Uncle Sam, but he’s an uncle, but he needs you and very stern and very strict and strong. Stern headmaster type in the democratic societies doesn’t need the military uniform. Interesting. And the patriotism of course, stars and stripes, you know, and the colours of blue and red. Okay, it’s so evocative and powerful, this one. It’s been studied. So many books written about it as an example of brilliant propaganda. We go onto the next one, please. “We Can Do It.” Ah, this is a fascinating one. Now… This was set up by the Westinghouse Company, which was to encourage women to believe, to work, work well and get on and work together internally in the company. It was never meant for external publication, you know. We can do it and we will do it. And it’s a sense of pride and power and used much later to recruiting women to the workforce for the war. But it was actually for the Westinghouse company to encourage women to believe, come on, work, and you can do it, et cetera. Pay them lower wages, of course, you know, and so on. But look at the images, the colours that are used, bright, cheerful, light.

We can do it, you know? And be as strong as anybody else, male, female, animal, whatever. And we can all do it. We’re all together. It’s a simple message, right and wrong, good and bad. We’re all strong and we’re all in it together. Four words. Okay, if we go on to the next slide, please. So propaganda in the modern times starts to take on a sense of promotion, of image and the idea and persuasion. It’s not just a statement like the Arch of Titus or the image of Augustus. It’s promotion, persuasion in democratic societies. It’s an necessary part of political campaigns. It’s a necessary part of daily politics, as we all know. This is here, volunteering for the Submarine Service. If you volunteer for the submarines, you know, look what you get as a reward. You’ll get the girl as reward. You’ll have fun, looks fun, laughing and smiling. You know, you’ll travel and it’s exciting! Nothing is said that you might be blown up and killed and end up at the bottom of the ocean, et cetera, et cetera, whatever.

Again, I’m not saying they’re right or wrong, it’s just the effectiveness of how the propaganda actually works. And it’s set up, you know, with, of course, with the girl. And he’s the strong, young strapping guy, you know, almost a version of a soldier we can imagine under Augustus in ancient Rome. And he’s in the uniform, proud, and she’s proud of the uniform and proud of the badges and the medals on the uniform. You know, make me proud kind of thing. Go off and fight and come back, et cetera, okay? But very different to the darker colours of the fascist regimes, the blacks, the reds and other things. It’s a lighter, brighter future that’s offered. And it’s the volunteering. Okay, go on to the next slide, please. This is a great one from the British Army for the wall. And the word at the bottom is together. It’s all just one word. Together. There’s the union jack. And we see a soldier from Africa, from Asia, or India, from Australia, from the Navy represented, the Air Force in Blue, Canada. In other words, you are all part of the colony.

You are part of our empire, but we are all in this great fight for freedom and democracy together. Whether you’re a colony under us, doesn’t matter. Whether you pay your taxes, partly, at least to us, it doesn’t matter. We’re all engaged in this great fight together, whether you’re slaves or ex-slaves or servants, whatever. So we’re all together. It’s very evocative and powerful and we all can walk together and march together and fight together for the flag, for freedom, for democracy, you know? And I think it was such a powerful one made during the war to encourage soldiers 'cause of course, they needed manpower from all parts of the colony and the British empire. It’s a stunningly powerful piece of propaganda, you know? And this idea of togetherness is I think the key. You know, and it’s not that they’re all conformist uniformity, like we would have more in the fascist propaganda, but you know, the individualism is here.

You know, you can see the colours of skin and the shadows and the hats, you know, of course, and the uniforms. Okay, if we go onto to the next one, please. It’s our flag. Fight for it. Work for it. So the flag is fragile. It’s under threat. It can be destroyed. It’s just a piece of cloth. Fight for it. And what are you fighting for? Everything that flag symbolises, freedom, democracy, rights, et cetera, justice. Don’t need to say all those words. It’s symbolised in the image of the fragile flag. Fight for it. Work for it. So go to work in the factories and fight. Again, I’m not being moral here and saying this is right or wrong, or judging it, just analysing the propagandistic effectiveness of it. So we see in the era of mass production and mass consumption, techniques of propaganda become more about how to sell an idea, how to sell, promote, persuade in the democracies. And I think that is what is so, so important. It starts to shift because it’s encouraging recruitment, it’s encouraging voluntary recruitment. You can volunteer for this. It’s not forced, like in the fascist type of propaganda. It’s a form of advertising, obviously.

And it requires a perpetuation of stereotypes, you know, but we could all still be in it together. Nevertheless, we can transcend these stereotypes of superior, inferior, right, et cetera because we’ve got a much bigger fight to take on. It’s so beautifully clever and the colours are brighter. They’re not the darker colours of the fascist type of propaganda. Okay, I’m purposely holding back from a lot of the Nazi propaganda here and the German because I think we all know that quite a lot. So I’m looking at, you know, interestingly, you know, almost for today how this might relate. Okay, if we can go to the next line, please. This is a great one. Comes from America. Don’t let that shadow touch them. See the shadow of the Nazi symbol of the swastika? It’s on the ground. You can see the shadow, almost like a plane above them. Okay, buy war bonds. So in America, the emphasis was recruitment and financially support. Because if you don’t financially support or we can’t recruit you, our children might be in harm under the shadow of the knights of the swastika.

You know, there’s a great speech that Churchill gave just before he becomes prime minister in 1940. Can you imagine the swastika on top of the House of Parliament in Westminster? Can you imagine the swastika flying above Buckingham Palace above where the king and queen are, you know, of the king and queen of England, the swastika on every street almost? And when he makes it so concrete in his speech, Churchill, he starts to turn his party against appeasement towards its fight. Here again, this is more colourful, but the danger, the threat to the kids, you know, under the swastika. Very effective to buy war bonds. That’s the key. So not only are we going to support through recruitment, but we’re going to financially give our money. This is very different to classic fascist propaganda. Let’s go on, please. Ah, this was one from Nazi Germany. And here we see this was Nazi Germany propaganda against America, once America had entered the war.

What do we see? Jazz with a record up there. Ku Klux Klan, the flag, the American flag there. Many, of course, the dollar sign, bags, et cetera. And what’s between his loins? Inevitably, the star of David, trampling all of these things, Americans are trampling your life, is what this Nazi propaganda. Right at the bottom left is a statue of liberty, which is irrelevant. And this is this dark shadowy, post-apocalyptic robot image like, you know, it’s almost like from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. A robot image like of you know, of this is what’s destroying you, America. We, Nazis will come and liberate from this. You know, this is what the Nazis try to push through into American society to change minds. Interestingly, around this time of the war, Germany, the First World War, the emphasis was on using the mythological martial nature of the German fault, in propaganda. In Britain, 1914, the British government got 25 of the leading British authors, including Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy, Kipling, H.G. Wells, got all of them together to say, help us write propaganda, write pamphlets to mobilise the people, to encourage voluntary recruitment, and what are we actually fighting for?

Let’s get the propaganda machine going. Fascinating contrast what they used and how they did it. Recruitment is a central theme using patriotism. In America, it’s Woodrow Wilson. His administration employed Walter Lipman, propaganda expert, Edward Bernays, the one I mentioned before, the nephew of Freud. And the Committee on Public Information was set up to sway popular opinion, to encourage enlistment and war bond sales. And he wrote a book, Edward Bernays, 1920. The committee brought it up. We advertised America, that we carry the gospel of Americanism to every corner of the globe. Brilliant. And Bernays came up with the idea taking from Freud, the group mind. And how do you engineer consent? That’s Bernays’ phrase in propaganda work. So it’s a professionalism, professionalising and institutionalising of propaganda itself. Not only a ministry of propaganda, but it becomes profession, it becomes institutionalised in a far more official way, if you like, the centre of government in the early part of the 20th century.

Hitler actually said, going back to the Second World War, Hitler said to his generals once, he said, I will provide a propagandist call, propagandistic cause. Its credibility doesn’t matter. The victor will not be asked whether he told the truth or lied. That’s Hitler. France in 1930s, it’s interesting. Five main national newspapers and over 250 local newspapers in France, people often kept in dark when you look at them about the policy of appeasement and what to do about the threat of the Nazi attack, 1930s. The government controlled media, but in cahoots with the newspapers of the times. And they all supported appeasement. The five national newspapers, the biggest ones, the 250 local, almost all of them supported appeasement policy. Of course, it’s a reaction to the First World War where the tragedy of so many millions of young men dying was still so fresh in the memory and the horror, so one understands it. But how they underestimated the threat to propagate appeasement. Less propaganda. 1955, Fidel Castro.

Propaganda is at the heart of our struggle. Never, ever abandon propaganda. Okay, go on to the next slide, please. This is one from the, this is still from the thirties, before you know, all things really happen in Germany. This is showing the ordinary folk of Germany who are downtrodden, exhausted, no hope, homeless, desperate. And just the word, Hitler. So here’s your God who will save you, will bring salvation, will take you, make you great again, and take you into the next, you know, whatever, save your lives, basically. You poor, downtrodden, destroyed, ordinary German folk. Very effective use of cartoon. And this kind of drawing in this poster, you know, and it evokes so much feeling using that simple binary again. Stimulates, it’s just an emotional reaction. We can’t help but bypass the rational, as Bernays said. Go on to the next. What else I want to mention? Post-911, al-Zawahiri, you know, I think number two or number three in Al-Qaeda.

He said, I’m quoting, We are in a media battle for the hearts and minds of Muslim. We and Al-Qaeda will do it.“ It’s what he says, post-911. We’re in a battle for the hearts and minds of Muslims. Not only the West, it’s the Muslims also, understanding the crucial role of propaganda in contemporary society. Fake news in our times, it disseminates lies, obviously. But the way it uses social media is as a megaphone. Social media doesn’t invent the lies. It’s the megaphone. And the importance is twofold. The one is to amplify the effect of propaganda, to make it as loud and as mass-produced as possible. And the second is, grab your attention ‘cause we live in, to me, an attention economy era or attention technology era. Who can get my attention for 10 seconds, five, three seconds as I flip through the phone, flip through the internet? Who grabs my attention? It’s the propaganda posted like this, a word, a phrase, an image. The news! I can show 10 seconds. That’s the truth. Not fake. I can show this, I can show whatever, I can say whatever. I grab the attention and I control the mind, going way back to the ancient Romans.

Can we go on, please? Next slide. This is one from the early part of 20th century in Britain where they still felt the fear, of course, of socialism. Socialism, throttling the country. It’s a fantastic propaganda. There’s the devil throttling, of course, a naive, innocent white woman, of course. You know, with the Roman, interestingly, the Roman helmet of the Roman legions, you know, and holding the fork, you know, but socialism is going to straddle your prosperity and your white woman, young, as well. So evocative and powerful. And of course, the devil is standing on the British flag, which is a cushion. Okay, next slide, please. Ah, one of the greats. Of course, we all know this image, Napoleon, and back to Augustus. Look how the Romans did it. Look how Napoleon does it. Of course, the great painting of Napoleon. I mean, you cannot help but be emotionally seduced by this so quickly. It bypasses rationality. It’s simple, binary. This is the great, strong, heroic leader against the stormy seas, stormy skies. So history is stormy, life is stormy and difficult and sways this way and that. But here comes the great young, virile, powerful young man leader who will take us and help us.

Of course, I still love Napoleon. I admire Napoleon as a personal human being. I’m just looking at the image, a painting as a brilliant piece of propaganda, as well. Look at that horse, muscular and strong. But the young man is quite calm. But he will lead us and the horse even, he will guide the horse and the power of the horse through our stormy times of our own history. We go on to the next slide, please. Okay, so before coming some of these, what we have, just one or two comments I want to make is President Bush in 2004, interestingly, he gave a talk and he said, in my, I’m quoting, "In my line of work, you have to keep repeating things over and over again for the truth to sink in, to catapult the propaganda.” That’s President George W. Bush, 2005, to catapult the propaganda. Interestingly today, Russians and others use online propaganda not to convince or persuade anymore even, but to cause distraction and paranoia. And that goes back to the idea I mentioned of the attention economy or the attention technology era that we live in. Who will grab and distract my attention, push it this way or that?

Five seconds, three seconds, all it needs and I got it. So it’s not only about convincing or persuading, which was much more going back to earlier parts of the 20th century to the middle, even through the Cold War. Now with social media and technology and the internet and everything in the phones, it caused distraction and paranoia. That’s enough. Because if I can distract the mind from other things, then I’ve succeeded with my propaganda. Okay, going on to some, so it’s fascinating how sophisticated it’s evolved and developed in our very contemporary times from the classic functions of propaganda techniques. This is of course, one from the early parts in Germany. You know, we have a classic image of the Jew. I’m going to go into a few about Jewish people, Der Jude. Of course, look at the money, the chain, the star of David. And whether you’re a capitalist, American and Britain, or you’re a communist, there’s the Soviet Union hammer and the sickle.

It’s the Jew who controls all, not only controls, but finances, everything. And look at that evil Jew, the picture, et cetera. The binary is so strong. Hasn’t changed that much today. It doesn’t matter if you’re a capitalist or a communist, the Jew finances and controls all. We can go to the next slide, please. “Der ewige Jude”, this is one of the, this is the 1940 film under the auspice, under the instructions of Goebbels made in Germany, the “Eternal Jew,” what it means. The image says everything. And again, the link with the devil pictures of Martin Luther, I showed, you know, and all the others, the Bible, the Martin Luther, et cetera, it’s showing the tradition that it all comes from. Who is the devil? Who is to blame for all the evil in our lives? The scapegoat, which I believe in, the scapegoat theory. Who’s to blame? The Jew, the Eternal Jew. Not just the Jew for now, but eternal. It’s the devil. Look at that image. Look at the images of the devil I’ve shown, not so far away.

It’s not just the nose, it’s the eyes, It’s everything, as the devil is coming for you, you know? So it’s consciously using all of these techniques and again, these colours. Okay, we can go on to the next slide, please. This is one, a very classic, fairly contemporary one. The octopus has often been used as an anti-Semitic image in propaganda, you know, of how the Jewish octopus is controlling financing, enveloping the whole world, you know, 16 million Jews in the entire world. But, you know, control and everything. Look on the left. There’s a picture of Obama, there’s a picture, it doesn’t matter who it is. There’s the White House, AIPAC, and it’s the octopus. Look at all these different organisations, and of course, it’s the star of David. The octopus has been used going way back to ancient times as a terrifying image in propaganda, who’s got power and control, and who is creepily, thoughtfully, disturbingly coming to really control your society, you know?

Okay, on the next slide, please. Again, on the left hand side, going way back before, you know, a more black and white thing, the octopus, the snake were two of the images used, linking, of course, with the animals. Very simple binary, again, against the Jew. The right hand side, more sophisticated contemporary image. Do you want to survive America? Kill the Jew snake. Look at that. America, there’s the Jew. It’s always a snake, or it’s the devil or it’s an octopus. It’s all these, you know, going way back in ancient times of fear and strike terror in people, these animals, okay? And we see the binary, we see the stimulating motive response immediately bypass rational or nuanced thought. And immediately set up America, not only survive, but you want to live? This is what you got to do. The scapegoat, you’ve got to kill it, destroy it all the time. Let’s go on to the next one, please.

This is the Jewish, of course, the baby killing. This is going way back to almost post-medieval times. This idea of the Jewish people, of course, killing babies, Christian babies. And he has a much more contemporary one. Look on the left, very contemporary, sophisticated use of colours. There’s the Jew gleefully going to kill the innocent baby, of course, you know, in western society. I mean, how powerful and evocative and yet contemporary, but how it’s linked to going back hundreds and hundreds of years in society. Go to the next slide, please. On the left hand side was one from Nazi Germany. Here is the Jewish guy, you know, of course, he’s the rich, the banker, the fat, you know, the face, distorted, grotesque, taking the poor little innocent German, you know, village girl, you know, who’s looking away, but he’s going to grab your girl, going to grab your woman and you know, grabby paws and take her. On the right, Jews explain why they bring millions of Muslims and Africans to Europe.

Look at this, the picture of it. You know, the Jews are, for everything. To control everything, t dominate everything and destroy your lives as you know it. Scapegoat screaming through these horrific images. Go on to the next slide, please. “Jews did this.” Okay, the attack on the USS Liberty. There it is, going all the way back. On the right, successfully blamed it on Arabs. The question of blame comes way back. Let’s go back to Pontius Pilate and the trial. Who is to blame for the killing of Christ? Is it the Jews? Is it the Romans? Roman law? Is it Pilate? Who is to blame? The idea of blame is so powerful in human history and society, you know, because in the scapegoat, then you can put everything that is bad in your world and your life, you’ve got somebody to blame and exterminate because of it. You know, and Jews did everything. It doesn’t matter. We’re responsible. Let’s go to the next slide, please.

This is one which was used very much in recently. Jeremy Corbin, head of, he was, the previous leader of the Labour Party in England, you know, said, oh, he didn’t recognise as anything to do with antisemitism, you know, 'cause he put this on his social media page. The leader, the previous leader of the Labour Party. You know, of course, who’s around? It’s all the bankers, it’s all the rich it, all that, et cetera. The new world order is the enemy of humanity. Look at all this. You know, the bankers, there’s the evil eye up in the middle, of course, you know their classic trope. Look underneath. All the hunts, starving, terrified. It almost destroyed ordinary masses of the people underneath the power of these Jewish bankers, almost playing a game, you know, who control every aspect of life. Transporter, everything, trade, just everything you can imagine. Okay, can we gone to the next slide, please?

Almost finished now. Soros, and again, the octopus image, controls the world, but it’s not just Soros, it’s the fact that it’s the demonic Jew, the Jewish person demonised. So you have demonised and you have idealised. You have romanticised, and you have again, demonised completely. The binary is set up. The emotion is evoked effectively. And you engineer consent through quick images like these, which are powerful. The next slide, please. Here’s one of the last ones, almost finished. This is the, of course, the Statue of Liberty, we see the same thing. Star of David, the octopus, yet again. I mean, who actually thinks of these things? Who’s coming up with it? But they’re aware going way back, you know, in cultural memory going way back in the West and how to now use the ideas in contemporary terms.

So we have, I mean interestingly in 1939, social scientists, Alfred and Elizabeth Lee, classified propaganda. They came up with seven techniques. They wrote a book called, “The Fine Art of Propaganda” with different kinds. You have testimonial propaganda, the expert who gives, you know, testimony or evidence. Use this toothpaste because these three dentists say it. Bandwagon propaganda. Take this Coca-Cola because everybody’s doing Coca-Cola. Here, bandwagon. Everybody hates the Jews. Everybody knows the Jews are responsible for control of our freedom, liberty, statue of liberty, our lives, you know, get rid of them. Okay, and let’s go onto the last one, please. And of course, here you have it. You know, one of the ultimates, there’s the evil, the Jewish, the star of David, right in the middle of a picture. And look, everything feeding. The British, MI6, Mossad, Al-Qaeda, CIA, Israel, Boka Haram, everything feeding, you know, and the pig of course, used often in anti-Semitic propaganda. So we get all these ideas encapsulated in these very contemporary images of anti-Semitic stuff. It doesn’t matter, left or right, it doesn’t matter whether you’re from, Africa, Asia, wherever.

Of course, it’s the Jews, whether it’s the money, whether it’s the image of whoever. The Jews are the ones responsible for all our problems and all. So it’s that simplifying into binary. It’s provoke emotion as much as possible. Take out rational thought. Get rid of facts, fake news, false. Doesn’t matter whether you rely or not. Okay, get the message as simple and repeat it as often. So this is just a tiny taste into some of the history of propaganda. There were a few examples from ancient times through types. Okay, thank you and thank you, Georgia. Should we go to some questions? This is the other one, as well. Yeah, but we can hold on that one. Thanks. Let’s go on to questions.

Q&A and Comments:

Denise? Hi. Quote from Paul Gilroy, yeah. Well I think it’s an absolutely brilliant quote and I use it so often. You know, he wasn’t only talking about as a post-colonial theorist, which he’s superb at 'cause he really gets the subtlety of the nuance. But that education groomed ignorance, you know, it’s not an unsophisticated educational programme techniques, it’s grooming and groomed. It’s thought through. Yeah, I agree, Denise.

Q: Thelma, did the Romans actually call the Jews barbarians?

A: Yeah, they called everybody they conquered barbarians. Barbari was the Latin. And everybody was barbarians of different kinds. I mean, Judeans, I think they called them more also Judeans and Britain, they were the Britons. But they had came up with all these words. So they used the word Judeans quite often. And in the writings that I mentioned, 300 years after Christ, they used the word Judeans quite a bit because who was to blame for Christ being called the King of the Jews 'cause that’s what’s the ultimate accusation that Pilate brings. And they’re all barbarians from all the provinces, especially from a small outlandish little, you know, semi-desert province as Judea, with these endless stubborn people who revolted so much.

Okay, Myrna. Of the Arch of Titus, one slave is appointed cap. I’d have to go back and look carefully at it. Thanks for that detail. I love it. Thanks, Myrna.

Selwyn. Seems like Romans like Augusta always needing to pull their togas out of their ass. Yeah, exactly, you know. For ease of walking, I guess. And I suppose, you know, sort of senatorial presentation of the self.

Lena, thank you. Thanks so much. How do you pronounce your last name? It’s Peimer, P-E-I-M-E-R. David Peimer. Yeah. My grandfather, Lithuanian Jewish and Litvian, Lithuanian on my mother and father’s sides. But anyway, it probably was something else. But my grandfather came out, he went to South Africa and Zimbabwe, I think he was 15 with his brother. And I’m sure they anglicised the name to get through, as they came into of course, what would’ve been British colony at the time, in the very early 1900s. Thank you, Lena.

Sam. So fundamental, yeah. I agree with you completely. And it is so sophisticated. You know, it’s not just about persuading and promoting and convincing, it’s also about now distracting attention to something else. And it’s enough to provoke paranoia and distraction. That’s a fascinating, very modern use in terms of the attention economy that propaganda’s been used for.

Myrna, doesn’t Burnays’ theory apply communism and fascism? Absolutely. Yep. Absolutely. But there’s, it would be persuade as well as threatened. In the democracies, it’s more persuade and stimulate fear. But you know, it might be a little bit less of the threat.

Sam, thank you, Marilyn, people get swayed by opinions of people around them. Yep! That’s the bandwagon theory of propaganda, come up in 1930, in the thirties with the sociologists, Elizabeth Lee. And is bandwagon idea propaganda where we all believe in it because everybody else believes in it. So we all think Coca-Cola is fantastic because everybody else says it’s fantastic or we all believe that Jews are to blame for everything in the world, all our evils ‘cause everybody does, you know? So it’s the bandwagon idea propaganda.

Karen, the image of “We Can Do It.” This isn’t the one of “Rosie the Riveter.” It’s a great point you’re making, Karen, but I checked this, it’s very similar, but “Rosie the Riveter” was another one. Very, very similar. Helped to build the ships. Yeah. Yeah.

Wonderful, Rosie. Ah, Richmond, the museum. Thanks for that. I really appreciate it. I was going to show the “Rosie the Riveter” one, as well, but just lack of time. I had to choose. Thanks for that, Karen.

Michael, Rosie’s left arm is drawn badly out of proportion. Exactly. Which shows strong she is.

Monty, repeat the lie over and over again. Yep, it’s going on today in so many ways.

Q: Tom, does Ian Mcquien explore the modern day connections, word of art and government?

A: Yeah, I mean, and a lot. I mean, George Orwell said all art is propaganda. But I decided that would be another whole topic to go into, history of propaganda and art. So I decided, to focus much more on this history of propaganda. And we can do another one, another time on art and propaganda 'cause that requires another whole way of looking, as well. But maybe to suggest in essence, I think, propaganda deals with binary, good and bad, right and wrong, superior, inferior. And it deals with generalities and it needs generalisations. You know, all people are this, all Jews are this, all short people are that, all tall people. It needs that. Whereas art is about universal human themes and particular character, particularity, which has gone into in-depth, what is ambition. Look at it from all angles. What is envy? What is jealousy? What is love? Passion? Explored in all the ways through characters and narrative. It’s very particular. It’s not general. And ironically being particular, it tries to talk about universal human nature, art. Propaganda doesn’t, only wants the binary. It’s got to have, you know, who’s right, who’s wrong, who’s the better person, who’s the baddie, you know, that’s what it needs, propaganda. Okay. Rita, thank you.

Tom, that’s very kind. Thank you.

Q: How neutral is mainstream news?

A: Well, I don’t think it’s that neutral and depends which channels we go onto. Remember everything has to be edited, filmed, you know, is a piece more than 30 seconds, 20 seconds? And onto the next, the next. It’s again, how can we grab attention and either persuade or promote or distract to something else so we can shape and mould the mind watching by what we set up.

Ron, speaking of flags, the name of the Great World War I poster. Yeah, I wanted to show was was James Flagg. Exactly. Yeah. And a guy called Miller was the one to do that, “We Can Do It,” Westinghouse one.

Madeline, thank you.

Carrie, thank you.

Karen, you’re very kind.

So the art of influence, yeah. Here of the wars.

Thank you. Linda, consider all advertising a form of propaganda. Yes. Because I think it needs some of thing. It’s not, I mean it has financial interests in the end. So you know, it’s not saying all, you know, it’s not about killing and extermination or blaming. It’s trying to sell us something, which I think is a different intention in it. But some of the techniques are the same. And those seven techniques I mentioned from those sociologists, I think still work today. You know, testimonial advertising, you know, because these two doctors say you must use this, we all will use it. You know, the expert giving testimony.

Marilyn, the red clerk in the painting of Napoleon is brilliant. Absolutely. It’s brilliant, that picture. As art as propaganda. Brilliantly done.

Geta, antisemitic images are pretty, I know. They’re terrifying. I thought about whether to show them or not today, but I think, you know, we know the truth of what’s going on and we have to see what’s really going on in society. Not only at universities but in many western societies and others, of course. But western societies need to know what people are being exposed to, through, you know, social media, their phones, through everything.

Hannah. McDonald’s, yeah, I think that was linked to something else there in that image. I’ll go back and check it. Thank you.

Thanks, Denise.

Mitzi, the blood libel. Yeah, I know. Thank you for reminding me, Mitzi.

Hannah, who painted? It was David, the Napoleon painting as I remember.

Ron, hope you’re well, Ron. Jacques-Louis David. Yeah. He did many important politically related paintings. The Death of Marat, Coronation of Napoleon, yeah. Thank you. Thanks, Ron and hope you’re very well.

Angela. Thanks.

Rita, Connick, McDonald’s killing, yeah.

Myrna, a cartoon.

Yeah, I need to go back and double check that before I comment here.

Thanks. Randy, also.

Barbara. Okay, I’m going to duck on this one now because I need to go back and check it very carefully, okay. It’s not the evil eye of the Jews, the painting, it’s the Masonic symbol. The eye of wisdom. Yeah. But they’re playing with it, you know, of maybe the evil of the masons.

Great point, Karen.

Thanks. Denise, it’s on the American dollar bill. No, it is a Masonic origin.

Karen’s absolutely spot on, but I’ll check the origin of that.

Mitzi. Okay. Absolutely. The demonization is so powerful.

Louise. So horrific.

Q: Do you know the authors of the cartoon?

A: Some of them we do, but the ancient ones, we know one or two of them. The Martin Luther, you know, he knew who he was choosing and we know some of them. The contemporary ones we know, well, from the last century.

Q: Louise, who would be the scapegoats?

A: Louise, if we knew the answer, I think we’d answer so much. If it weren’t the Jews, who would be the scapegoats? I love, it’s a great question and if we knew the answer, we’d solve so much.

Nima. Thank you. Nima, thank you. As well, to you. National argument on propaganda because it’s not binary. Yep. That’s it. These have been done on the internet over the last couple of decades. The more recent, the last ones, the last images I showed, you know, which are sophisticated 'cause they’re using things or ideas of surrealism, pictures and images, the use of colour, you know, to be very evocative for us today. As evocative as those engravings and you know, black and white simple drawings would’ve been evocative 500 years ago, you know, or something on the arch or whatever would’ve been evocative 2000 years ago.

Susan, immigrants aren’t human. Yeah, I mean, you know, many political leaders or leaders will talk about immigrants and foreigners in a very derogatory way. Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice,” he uses the word alien and not citizen. So in Shakespeare’s time, 500 years ago, it’s alien, not citizen. And the very word, alien, is all as octopus’ you know, all these other images of animals and outer space and the shadow, you know, the Jungian way, you know. Shakespeare hits it brilliantly, I think. Alien who is a citizen. And we have that word today.

Joseph, the wave of conservative seems to be sweeping. Yeah, I think propaganda hugely. Not only through social media, that’s the megaphone, but I think it’s going through for many reasons in our times and it needs sophisticated propaganda of some of the kinds I’ve mentioned.

Yep, thanks, Karen. Very kind.

Denise. Thank you so much. Yeah, I know those images are terrible. Ah, the Pimas in Salisbury Rhodesia, yeah. Oh, okay. That’s great. Thank you. ‘Cause my father grew up in Zimbabwe in Rhodesia and then he came to Durban much later. Great. Thank you. Great, Denise. Good to hear from you.

Greta, helping one fight. Well I think through education, like what we’re doing, through helping people understand what’s propaganda, what isn’t, you know, more and more so we don’t further grooming ignorance. We groom knowledge.

Cath. Also the book in fine art propaganda, yeah. That was Lee. According to Matthew, Pilate received a message from his wife, dreams, et cetera. Yeah, exactly. Thank you for that.

Meco, Christians saw the Jews as their main opposition. Yeah, well this is part of the debate going on in 300s, you know, these two propagandists from both sides. It wasn’t decided which way. Of course, the battle of Constantine. But you know, we can imagine it’s a huge conflict, you know, which I mean, one is small upstart religion and the other is going back hundreds of years. Judith, those horrendous contemporary ones. They’re all over the internet.

Q: Cecilia, Jews portrayed as blindfolded in art. Is that propaganda?

A: It would depend on the actual picture. I need to see, exactly what the art piece is in terms of what I’ve said today, difference between art and propaganda.

Thanks so much, Denise. Israel, certainly. Yeah, exactly, I agree with you. It’s countering, it’s trying to counter a massive global attack. That’s for sure.

Roda, immigrants are another scapegoat, now as in the past. Exactly. Call them foreigners, call them aliens, whatever.

Okay, so thank you very much, everybody. Really been wonderful. Hope you have a great rest of the weekend.

And Georgia, thanks to you so much.