Propaganda and the People

[thechurchofsatan]

Propaganda and the People
By Kazmr At this event last year, the eminent journalist Sir Paul presented a lecture which culminated in his experience as a propagandist for Pacifica.¹ In it he explained that: "the secret is ridicule, and truth, and absurdity and the destruction of reality." According to Paul, propaganda is at its most effective when it creates perception through public shame and the blending of truth and absurdity. By this line of thinking, it appears that his view of propaganda within the context of Gameplay and inter-regional politics is a tool to be wielded against one's foes, silencing their arguments by shaping the narrative and muddling the facts. I disagree. My long held belief, formed during my early days as Governor of Information for the newly formed People's Republic of Lazarus, is that propaganda is not an offensive weapon. Rather, propaganda and rhetoric is most effective on NationStates when targeted, however loosely, towards one's own people.²

Before addressing my own view, let me explain my thoughts on why, exactly, Sir Paul's version of propaganda does not hold up, at least in the modern reality of the game. Various forms of prepared propaganda have four primary outlets, these being the gameplay forum, regional embassies, dedicated sub-forums (usually dedicated to local broadcast, but some regions also host foreign publications), and mass telegram campaigns.³ To a lesser extent, dispatches and the WFE also play a role, though are either not as widely viewed or are not as organized in their use.⁴

In order to be effective as an offensive tool, propaganda needs to have some narrative shaping effect, turning a group's members away by making them question their commitment or lowering their morale, or by making an enemy unattractive to those in the middle. In NationStates, at least in the modern gameplay landscape, this rarely happens. The various news organizations, many of not most of which have at least some propagandistic element to their content, are quite unlikely to be seen by the few true unaligned members of the NationStates community, those being new players who have yet to form opinions on various regions and organizations. In order to read the message of, say, The Lazarene Gazette, they would have to have already joined the Lazarus forum, or else have spent some time in the Gameplay forum. Recruitment or welcome telegrams may do an effective job of forming opinions, but tend to be purely self-promoting advertising rather than propaganda in the vein of Sir Paul's work.

Meanwhile, as a way of encouraging a region's citizens to question their loyalty and commitment, the game's present environment causes propaganda to fall short. Very few people enter the gameplay discussion without an agenda already in hand, and one only needs to view the endless back and forth between sides to know that hardly a soul, if any, has ever been 'convinced' that their key values are wrong. This is largely because, as a game, most people's values are to some extent roleplayed; held for the sake of fun. Those who have a deeper connection on either side are unlikely to be swayed by being told they are wrong, and in fact a fair bit of real world research indicates that in politics, this may drive them to hold their views more deeply.⁵

On the other side of the coin, however, propaganda can be a tremendous tool for the morale of one's own people, both in engaging them in a region and in producing a sort of 'rally round the flag' effect.

A certain-to-be-controversial example of this would be the infamous 'Harmonious Truths', the most well-known and enduring of the propaganda campaigns from Milograd's failed South Pacific coup.⁶ Few would argue that the pieces, which ranged from a statistical 'proof' that the nations in The South Pacific had been oppressed before the coup to a fanciful story of Milograd's 'birth', did much to win supporters from the ranks of the South Pacific citizenry or the vast majority of the greater Gameplay community. Disseminated widely the regional message board and inspiring numerous comments on its thread, most gameplay regulars who said anything beyond them being humorous in fact had a profound negative reaction.⁷

Where 'Harmonious Truths', and other Milogradian propaganda, succeeded was in its ability to increase the fervor of outside supporters, those members of the roleplaying community who eagerly supported the regime. 'Harmonious Truths' and other tracts provided inspiration for, and often derived content from, a variety of memes, sayings, and arguments by which these individuals found their fun. The primarily fictional, and intentionally comical, narrative proved to be attractive to a community whose main source of enjoyment from the game came from creative writing, sometimes with a bit of trolling on the side.

An ongoing source of this sort of internally focused propaganda, from an entirely different sphere of gameplay, comes from The Black Riders.⁸ It is a fairly regular occurrence throughout the region's threads to see outsiders pop in and question the value of the daily (often twice-daily) tag reports that have been distributed for some years. Indeed, as an offensive weapon these reports likely have little value, and they and other raider propaganda tactics may even serve to further inflame native populations. When it comes to internal morale, though, they seem to work wonders.

Such frequent reports give a raiding group's members something to rally around, a regular reward like a badge or gold star. Their success is further evidenced by other organizations' use of similar materials, ranging from TCE's nearly identical reports, to the more elaborate pieces that were once put out by Sicarius.⁹ Reports serve as a constant reminder of successes, sometimes big, more often small.

My personal experience with this form of internal propaganda comes from Lazarus, starting during my post as Governor of Information during the first days of the People's Republic. With a reduced community and a number of hostile outsiders, optimism for the future was certainly mixed with a strong dose of uncertainty. The Lazarene Gazette served a vital role in instilling confidence among the Lazarene citizenry, both new and old.

Every event was cast in a heroic light, from reaching posting milestones, to the appointment of Milograd as second Chairman.¹⁰ Though critics of the new government, from Rach to Cerian, continued to take the various messages in bad taste, often failing (or at least publicly ignoring) the humor mixed with news and regional philosophy, the region itself eagerly accepted the morale boost brought by the frequent articles. I personally see my success with the Gazette as being the primary reason for my later election to the Chairmanship.

While using propaganda as a tool internally may bring up North Korea or even Goebbelsesque connotations of a dystopian state, it truly can have a positive impact on the environment of any community on the site. Defenders, perhaps, could actually be better served by publicizing their exploits, if not to disparage their foes but to create a positive mentality. Many Imperialists already ably wield propaganda to reinforce their own beliefs among their sphere. Propaganda need not always be a weapon; a building block serves as an equally valid metaphor.

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¹ http://w11.zetaboards.com/NS_World_Fair ... 9955323/1/
² Let me say here first, to avoid the inevitable attacks that I am sure this statement will bring, that this is not meant in a sinister, indoctrination sense. The rest of the essay makes this a fair bit clearer.
³ The messages disseminated from the first three primarily take the form of articles, reflecting the text-based nature of NationStates. These may come in long-form broadsheets like The Rejected Times, down to the short blurbs found in The Runes. Telegram campaigns, meanwhile, are only rarely wielded offensively, though it could be argued that they have the strongest effect, as seen in unendorsement campaigns that have had a legitimate impact in fighting a number of regional coups.
⁴ Dispatches and WFE's are typically pinned or utilized to boost one's own region.
⁵ http://psi.sagepub.com/content/13/3/106
⁶ http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic ... 2&t=237507
⁷ See the various posts by Belschaft, Cerian Quilor, Punk Daddy, Southern Bellz, and others who attempted to 'correct' the propaganda or simply discredit it at every turn.
⁸ http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic ... 2&t=306698
⁹ http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic ... #p22408134 ; http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic ... #p22294770
¹⁰ http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic ... #p17525365 ; http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic ... #p17362398