Check It Out: Tactics used throughout history to sway public opinion

By Joan Janzen
joanjanzen@yahoo.com

A man became frightened when he realized his talking parrot had escaped. He immediately reported the disappearance to the secret police and said, “My talking parrot disappeared, but in case you find him, I just want to let you know that I disagree with whatever my parrot says.”

Author and historian, William Federer has written about tactics used throughout history to sway public opinion. He uses documented history to illustrate his point, rather than his own personal opinions.

In the 1800’s Sears catalogue would market items such as the sewing machine by listing every feature of the item. A few years later magazine ads would advertise an item such as Crisco, however no one knew what was in it. Nevertheless the public bought the product because everyone else was buying it. Crisco contained cotton seed oil, which was originally used in machinery and factories.

Federer revealed the impact of sensationalism throughout history. In 1938 radio, Orsen Wells would interrupt programs with false panic. Newspaper headlines read, “Panic sweeps US as radio stages Mars raid”. Today we are fed sensationalism on a daily basis.

The historian illustrated how one man influenced the behaviour of thousands of people at a time. Joseph Girbel would orchestrate an event which included 100,000 people. The people at the front of the crowd would give the Hitler salute until it worked its way to the back of the crowd. He used fear mongering and public peer pressure to get people to salute.

In a similar fashion the Air Force Motion Picture Service was used to mobilize the country and get people to sign up and join the Air Force. Centuries earlier Greeks used entertaining plays to praise or ridicule certain points of view. This is still happening today when some characters are portrayed as noble and others are ridiculed.

Federer recalled “Operation Mockingbird” when the CIA fed stories to the press to influence public opinion. Today big tech is feeding stories to social media, where everyone wants to be followed and friended and approved online. However, Federer noted that public approval is an ever moving goal post, continually manipulated by those who move public opinion.

An Italian socialist once said, “Any country grounded in Judeo Christian values cannot be overthrown until those roots are cut.” He knew in order to do so it was necessary to infiltrate universities, schools, media and churches.

Federer mentioned Machiavelli who lived in Italy in 1498. Machiavelli realized if a prince takes money and hires people to riot, people will panic as a result, and the prince will then solve the problem and people will praise him for it. The prince wants power, and how does he obtain power? He promotes fear so people will trade freedom for security. Or the prince will give out free handouts and the people will trade freedom for dependency.

In the 1970’s the Asch Conformity Experiment was conducted, showing that people will self-censor their views if they think they are in the minority, creating a spiral of silence.

While Federer is listing all these historical instances, history is being erased, which is not anything new. Federer gives many examples such as statues being torn down during the French Revolution, or the actions of Poll Pot in communist Cambodia, who decided 1975 was the new year zero and anything prior to that was irrelevant.

Whether we realize it or not, we are continually being influenced and intimidated by what we see and hear. So much so, that you could become apprehensive if you had a talking parrot that escaped.

You can contact me at joanjanzen@yahoo.com