From the White-PillBox: Part 31
Propaganda ain't what it used to be.
Propaganda is arguably the most important tool in the State’s arsenal. So when the State cannot rely on propaganda - when that tool doesn’t do its job - the State has reason to be concerned.
Isn’t brute force the most important tool in the box?
We generally think of the State as an overwhelming force. We see its guns and its enforcers. We see its wars and weapons of mass destruction. We see the actual pain and suffering it causes.
The State’s raw power is easy enough to see.
But as anarchists we also understand what makes the State possible in the first place: the generally held belief in its legitimacy.
This is critically important to the State. The public must willingly go along with its existence - it must believe the State is legitimate and necessary. Only this achieves mass compliance with State laws, especially the sense of obligation to pay taxes to fund the State.
The State could not possibly exist without near universal self-compliance: this is quite simply because State enforcers are utterly outnumbered by the general public.
The proof of self-compliance is right in front of us. Observe that the vast majority of State interactions with us do not involve brute force. Overwhelmingly, they need not be violent because people self-comply.
The sobering conclusion should therefore be obvious: the State’s raw strength is basically irrelevant. What is most important is compliance.
Propaganda
The State insures compliance by means of propaganda. What people hear and believe about the State, from cradle to grave, convinces them to support it 1.
We should appreciate the value of this tool to the State. It is the reason the public tolerates a State. No other tool can achieve mass compliance. And without it, no other tool could come close to achieving it.
Propaganda - all about information
Propaganda is necessarily as old as the State. It has worked almost flawlessly through the ages. It has managed to leverage man’s means of acquiring information to its advantage.
In primitive times, it was sufficient to propagandize with physical actions and speech. After the appearance of the printing press, the State used monopoly privileges to limit the written information to which the public was exposed. The State used a similar strategy with the inventions of radio and television.
The common strategy is always to limit and control information. The State does not (necessarily) need direct control over information; it is enough to use its influence to manage information to its advantage.
Propaganda - virtually limited
But propaganda only works within boundaries - within constraints the State can control. If information is shared through paper (books, etc.), the State can control physical presses and even physical paper. If information is communicated over airwaves (radio and TV), the State can license frequencies. Or it can limit cable service with monopoly grants.
These are examples of how the State can exercise physical control…control over limited physical resources, and control within bounded territorial areas.
But information technology has progressed. Information is not physical - it is virtual. That makes it (for practical purposes) effectively infinite. With Internet technology, its speed is instantaneous; its reach is the entire world; and territorial borders are increasingly irrelevant.
The State’s ability to keep up with evolving technology has ended. We are at the stage where propaganda cannot compete with all the information out there. This is a major (and unprecedented) shift in human progress.
Before: propaganda utterly dominated.
Today: it is forced to compete.
Tomorrow: far fewer will be listening. And that means people will be far less propagandized.
Growing up
Propaganda treats people like children, limiting what they think about. But there is a difference.
Information given to a child is limited to what their developing mind can process. The child cannot (yet) handle more.
Propaganda limits the public to information that serves the State. People can of course handle information that does not serve the State. But the State does not want them exposed to it. It is better for the State that people are treated as children.
But they are growing up due to the explosion in our information technology. They are exposed to all available information out there; with more total information to consume, the State’s propaganda is less and less a part of that.
Propaganda competes poorly
Traditionally (and until very recently), propaganda succeeded by being subtle and beneath the surface. It had to at least sound plausible. It had to sneak past our common sense. In short, it had to deceive us sufficiently to suspend our critical judgment.
But the tool is failing, and the State senses it is losing the propaganda game. This is why its messages are increasingly harsh and frightening. Propaganda is coming off as desperate. And desperation is not subtle.
That means propaganda is more and more obvious. And this goes completely against how propaganda works.
The White Pill
The State’s most important tool - propaganda - is failing. But it is not some intellectual advancement among humans that is accomplishing this. It is modern technology making the State’s only meaningful tool obsolete. And it is doing it by giving people the tools they need to start growing up.
We are finally getting too old for Santa Claus.
That support need not be enthusiastic. A person may comply passively and indifferently; they may comply with a feeling of resignation; they may even comply resentfully. All of these reactions are acceptable to the State, so long as they believe the State has the moral authority to exist.