I wrote this paper for an English class I took at City College of San Francisco in May, 2004. It rings far too true today, as I see white men walk through a town in the US carrying torches and Nazi flags, shouting, "The Jews will not replace us"
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Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World Revisited in 1958
after witnessing the power of using modern technology to spread propaganda. He
quotes Albert Speer: “Hitler’s dictatorship . . . was the first dictatorship in
the present period of modern technical development, a dictatorship which made
complete use of all technical means for the domination of its own country”(37).
Marshall McLuhan published The Medium is the Massage in 1967 when the
boom of the technology age was on the horizon. He saw how the images and the
processes of the media could influence society in a subconscious manner—“Media,
by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perceptions.
The extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act—the way we
perceive the world. When these things change, men change”(41). Although both
these men died before the World Wide Web came into existence, they have much to
teach us about the dangers this new technology can bring.
There are many examples of the positive influence
of World Wide Web as a resource for information and communication. Access to
medical databases and the most up-to-date information available gives health
care providers the ability to better serve their patients (NorthWest Net).
Non-profit organizations can use websites to recruit volunteers without having
to spend much money (Ellis). Families of soldiers stationed in Iraq can connect
with their loved ones through video conferencing (Clarke). But we cannot ignore
the dark side of the use of this technology. The same aspects of the World Wide
Web that serve to unite civilization are being used by hate groups to divide
society. We need to give students an education in media literacy to counteract
the ability for a dangerous few to greatly influence a generation with their
hate propaganda.
In Brave New World Revisited Aldous Huxley defines two types of
propaganda: rational propaganda and non-rational propaganda. Rational
propaganda encourages actions that correspond with “the enlightened
self-interest of those who make it and those to whom it is addressed”(31). The
Declaration of Independence is an example of rational propaganda, written by
Thomas Jefferson to clarify the position of the American Revolutionists (MSN
Encarta). Non-rational propaganda “is dictated by, and appeals to,
passion”(Huxley 31). Advertising is a prime example of the power of
non-rational propaganda, appealing to desires rather than facts (Russell).
According to Huxley, this type of propaganda “. . . avoids logical argument and
seeks to influence its victims by the mere repetition of catchwords, by the
furious denunciation of foreign or domestic scapegoats, and by cunningly
associating the lowest passions with the highest ideals”(32)
Huxley identified the tools of propaganda and
noted the advancement in technology since Hitler’s reign. Broadcast television
and the ability to distribute both sound and images on magnetic tape had the
ability to increase a propagandist’s sphere of influence. The cost of running
the mass communication industry put its power in the hands into an elite few,
dictated by politics or economics (Huxley 34). This cadre of the powerful could
use the force of mass communication to distract the populous from seeing a
threat to their freedom. Huxley stated: “A society, most of whose members spend
a great part of their time, not on the spot, not here and now and in the
calculable future, but somewhere else, in the irrelevant other worlds of sport
and soap opera, of mythology and metaphysical fantasy, will find it hard to
resist the encroachments of those who would manipulate and control it”(36).
Huxley also addressed the susceptibility of
children to messages of propaganda. Instead of children reciting nursery rhymes
and hymns taught in his childhood, Huxley heard commercial jingles from the
mouths of babes (54). This conditioned them for the next step, where “. . .
hundreds of millions of children are in the process of growing up to buy the
local despot’s ideological product and, like well-trained soldiers, to respond
with appropriate behavior to the trigger words planted in those young minds by
the despot’s propagandists”(55).
In The Medium is the Massage, Marshall
McLuhan showed us that the modern propagandists’ tools go beyond just the
words. The graphic format of The Medium is the Massage is designed to
illustrate how the medium influences the message. In McLuhan’s words, “[The
Medium is the Massage] is a collide-oscope of interfaced situations”(10).
“The medium is the message” is a phrase penned by
McLuhan which he used as the title of the first chapter in his 1964 book Understanding
Media: The Extensions of Man. McLuhan meant that phrase to be the title of
his 1967 compilation of observations, photos, and graphics, but the typesetter
made a mistake. According to McLuhan’s son Eric, “When Marshall McLuhan saw the
type he exclaimed, ‘Leave it alone! It’s great, and right on target!’ Now there
are four possible readings for the last word of the title, all of the accurate:
‘Message’ and Mess Age,’ ‘Massage’ and ‘Mass Age’”(Goux).
McLuhan died in 1980 before the age of the
Internet, but The Medium is the Message certainly foreshadows the format
of that technology. The book is not only words, photos, and drawings artfully
arranged in pages, it is also non-linear. You can open to any place for your
start point, and work forward, backward, or in a random order. The message, or
“massage,” will still be evident. The type is black on white then white on
black; there is small print then large print then no print at all; two pages
have the words in mirror image, the next two pages have the words upside down.
These techniques force the reader into a relationship with medium, illustrating
McLuhan’s point by becoming part the message not simply the messenger.
Like Huxley, McLuhan saw television as the new age
for mass communication. He saw the way it changed the political environment:
“The living room has become a voting booth. Participation via television in
Freedom Marshes, in war, revolution, pollution, and other events is changing everything.”
(McLuhan 22). He believed that electronic circuitry would influence the
transmission of information with instantaneous acquisition to all corners of
the globe, shrinking the boundaries of the world around us. Over a photo of an
African tribesman addressing villagers gathered around him, McLuhan writes:
“The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a
global village”(67).
Although the technology of the World Wide Web is
more digital than electronic, it is the fulfillment of Marshall McLuhan’s
vision of making the world a global village. Unlike Aldous Huxley’s view of the
mass communications industry controlled by few, the World Wide Web is an
anarchistic medium, virtually unregulated and uncontrolled. However, its use as
an agent to spread non-rational propaganda fits perfectly with Huxley’s
paradigm. This is evident when looking at the spread of racist propaganda on
the World Wide Web.
In 1958, Huxley saw broadcast television as a
major step in the wide scale distribution of propaganda. The reach of the World
Wide Web makes television distribution limited in comparison. On a page giving
the communication conditions in Tibet, TravelChina.com boasts, “There are
dozens of internet cafes in Lhasa”; and the grandson of Sherpa Tensing is planning
to open an Internet café at Mount Everest (Burubacharya). While I don’t think
anyone planning to climb Mount Everest will be spending time looking at a
racist website, this shows the far reach of the medium, increasing its
potential for global influence.
Websites can be produced inexpensively without any
technical knowledge. With easy-to-use software available for website creation,
there is no longer any need to learn HTML, the coding language of the World
Wide Web; server space and domain name registration are obtainable at a low
cost (Rajagopal and Bojin). The ease of producing and publishing websites
enables hate groups to create different sites to target specific demographics.
The World Church of the Creator, a white supremacist group, has become an umbrella
for many sites including World Church of the Creator Kids! which entices
young users with activities such as coloring pages and puzzles (ADL). Hammerskin
Nation and Aryan Nations Youth Corps are websites created to appeal
to teens (Ray and Marsh). “Those directed at teenagers may offer free plug-ins
to popular video adventure games, using persons of various religions, races, or
sexual orientations as prey. Some offer "hatecore" and "white
power" music featuring a contemporary sound and invective-laden
lyrics”(Lamberg).
There are no regulations or restrictions governing
information on the World Wide Web. While private Internet Service Providers
(ISP) can prohibit users of their servers from creating hate websites, there
are always other ISP’s that will host those sites (Rajagopal). An example of
hate groups taking advantage of this lack of regulations and restrictions can
be seen in a recent controversy involving the search engine Google. When
you enter in “jew” as your keyword, the third website that appears on the list
is JewWatch.com, an anti-semitic website. A complaint was lodged, but Google
would not change the results, which are automatically determined by computer
algorithms (Google). Alexander Linden, a research vice president at Gartner
Research, noted: “Through the use of clever website-farming and self
referencing (techniques), and also through purchased cross-referencing, one can
build up a considerable page rank. . . . This problem is more about ethics, and
sometimes even about compliance to certain national laws.” (qtd. in Brandon)
The ease in which one of these sites can be discovered by casual web surfing
and the ability to disguise their message when catering to children is a
dangerous combination, increasing their potential to influence young minds.
We are now over forty years forward from Huxley’s Brave
New World Revisited, over thirty years forward from McLuhan’s The Medium
is the Massage. Huxley’s warnings about the potential for the use of mass
communication and modern technological advancements in the spread of propaganda
coupled with McLuhan’s understanding of the power in the form of the media have
been realized in the racist websites created on the World Wide Web. How can we
combat the inevitability of the influence of these sites on the present and
future generations? Huxley brings us an important starting point: “Education
for freedom must begin by stating facts and enunciating values, and must go on
to develop appropriate techniques for realizing the values” (101).
It is essential to teach students how to think and
train them to evaluate the knowledge they gain (Friedrich 199). There is also
the need to show students how to separate the content from the packaging. The
pervasiveness of computer technology into the fabric of modern life has
influenced how information is received. Perceptions of what is true have become
more important than the truth itself (Reeves/Nass, 253). Giving students media
literacy skills will allow them to analyze the information they receive and
teach them to maintain control of their thoughts rather than relinquishing that
power to someone else.
The same World Wide Web that hosts the racist
websites contains the tools for teaching media literacy which are crucial in
the fight against the spread of racist propaganda. The Center for Media
Literacy offers a wide range of information and materials for teachers to
use in their curriculum and parents to use when in the home environment. The
Community Learning Network is a curriculum site “designed to help K-12 teachers
integrate technology into the classroom”(CLN homepage). Here teachers can find
lesson plans for teaching media literacy as well as links to resources for
topics such as the influence of television and advertising on kids today. The
Media Awareness Network houses a “comprehensive collection of media
education and Internet literacy resources”(Media Awareness Network About Us).
Aldous Huxley realized the need for education to
combat the spread of propaganda—“The effects of false and pernicious propaganda
cannot be neutralized except by a thorough training in the art of analyzing its
techniques and seeing through its sophistries” (Huxley 109). Marshall McLuhan
saw the importance of teaching students to recognize the form of the new media
as well as its informational content—“The classroom is now in a vital struggle
for survival with the immensely persuasive ‘outside’ world created by new
informational media. Education must shift from instruction, from imposing of
stencils, to discover—to probing and exploration and to the recognition of the
language of forms” (McLuhan 100). Education in media literacy is critical to
counteract the use of the World Wide Web to spread racist propaganda. We need
to heed the voices from the past and use the resources of the present in order
to ensure that the future will not be controlled by those who preach hatred.
Works
Cited
Center for Media Literacy.
©2002 – 2004
Clarke, Dave. “New video conferencing center for
troops, families now operational at Galva Armory.” Kewanee Star Courier
Online. May 19, 2004
The Community Learning Network. Open
School BC
Ellis, Susan J. “Turning a Gift into a Powerful
Tool: The Internet’s Impact on the Volunteer Field” Energize Inc. July
2003.
Friedrich, Otto. “Five Ways to Wisdom.” The Borzoi College Reader. 7th
ed. Eds. Charles Muscatine and Marlene Griffith. New York:McGraw-Hill, 1992.
195 -205
“Google:
An explanation of our search results”
Google. 2004
Goux,
Melanie. “McLuhan” brushstroke.tv.
October 13, 2003
“Health Care Providers Discover Advantages of
Internet Access.” NorthWestNet Node News. Vol.3, No. 1 May 1994.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World Revisited.
New York:Perennial Classics,HarperCollins, 2001. ©1958 Aldous Huxley
McLuhan,
Marshall and Fiore, Quentin. The Medium is the Massage. Corte
Madera, CA:Gingko Press, 2001. ©1967 Jerome Agel
“Propaganda” Microsoft® Encarta® Online
Encyclopedia 2004
<http://encarta.msm.com ©1997-2004
Microsoft Corporation>
Reeves, Byron and Nass, Clifford. The Media Equation:How
People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places.
Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1996
