Der Filme Als Waffe, Mindwar, And Cognitive Warfare

[Bodie]

Though Nazi propagandist Fritz Hippler was not the first or last to understand the power of propaganda and it's potential effects on human behaviour his understandings though limited to the technology of his time were pretty good as this short essay shows:
excerpt from "Der Filme als Waffe"
"If one compares the directness and intensity of the effect that the various means of propaganda have on the great masses, film is without question the most powerful. The written and spoken word depend entirely on the content or on the emotional appeal of the speaker, but film uses pictures, pictures that for almost a decade have been accompanied by sound. We know that the impact of a message is greater if it is less abstract, more visual. That makes it clear why film, with its series of continually moving images, must have particular persuasive force."

source: Film as a Weapon

Then we had Michael A. Aquino's "Mindwar" whose purpose and vision was to use propaganda and mind control as a better alternative to physical war which is a actually seems a noble idea.

Now we have cognitive warfare, not a new term by any means and my experience tells me that anything you hear from governments about "special projects" you can be guaranteed that whatever it is they have been working on or doing it already for years, even decades. Here is a site that touches on cognitive warfare.

"In cognitive warfare, the human mind becomes the battlefield. The aim is to change not only what people think, but how they think and act. Waged successfully, it shapes and influences individual and group beliefs and behaviours to favour an aggressor’s tactical or strategic objectives. In its extreme form, it has the potential to fracture and fragment an entire society, so that it no longer has the collective will to resist an adversary’s intentions. An opponent could conceivably subdue a society without resorting to outright force or coercion."

source:
NATO Review - Countering cognitive warfare: awareness and resilience

Of course this is a "short list" of related materiel but I figured the 10,000 mile overview would be the best fit for this forum for general discussion/interest.

 

[exchemist]

Though Nazi propagandist Fritz Hippler was not the first or last to understand the power of propaganda and it's potential effects on human behaviour his understandings though limited to the technology of his time were pretty good as this short essay shows:
excerpt from "Der Filme als Waffe"
"If one compares the directness and intensity of the effect that the various means of propaganda have on the great masses, film is without question the most powerful. The written and spoken word depend entirely on the content or on the emotional appeal of the speaker, but film uses pictures, pictures that for almost a decade have been accompanied by sound. We know that the impact of a message is greater if it is less abstract, more visual. That makes it clear why film, with its series of continually moving images, must have particular persuasive force."

source: Film as a Weapon

Then we had Michael A. Aquino's "Mindwar" whose purpose and vision was to use propaganda and mind control as a better alternative to physical war which is a actually seems a noble idea.

Now we have cognitive warfare, not a new term by any means and my experience tells me that anything you hear from governments about "special projects" you can be guaranteed that whatever it is they have been working on or doing it already for years, even decades. Here is a site that touches on cognitive warfare.

"In cognitive warfare, the human mind becomes the battlefield. The aim is to change not only what people think, but how they think and act. Waged successfully, it shapes and influences individual and group beliefs and behaviours to favour an aggressor’s tactical or strategic objectives. In its extreme form, it has the potential to fracture and fragment an entire society, so that it no longer has the collective will to resist an adversary’s intentions. An opponent could conceivably subdue a society without resorting to outright force or coercion."

source:
NATO Review - Countering cognitive warfare: awareness and resilience

Of course this is a "short list" of related materiel but I figured the 10,000 mile overview would be the best fit for this forum for general discussion/interest.

OK, but is there something about this you wish to discuss? Have you been made aware of any "special project" in this area, for example?

 

[Bodie]

OK, but is there something about this you wish to discuss? Have you been made aware of any "special project" in this area, for example?

I put it out here for general interest and left it open for thoughts and opinions as I did not want to pigeonhole since it is a very broad subject with far reaching implications and others may come up with better discussion ideas than I could come up with. To the second part of your post , no, I make no claims to that.

 

[Stevicus]

Though Nazi propagandist Fritz Hippler was not the first or last to understand the power of propaganda and it's potential effects on human behaviour his understandings though limited to the technology of his time were pretty good as this short essay shows:
excerpt from "Der Filme als Waffe"
"If one compares the directness and intensity of the effect that the various means of propaganda have on the great masses, film is without question the most powerful. The written and spoken word depend entirely on the content or on the emotional appeal of the speaker, but film uses pictures, pictures that for almost a decade have been accompanied by sound. We know that the impact of a message is greater if it is less abstract, more visual. That makes it clear why film, with its series of continually moving images, must have particular persuasive force."

source: Film as a Weapon

Then we had Michael A. Aquino's "Mindwar" whose purpose and vision was to use propaganda and mind control as a better alternative to physical war which is a actually seems a noble idea.

Now we have cognitive warfare, not a new term by any means and my experience tells me that anything you hear from governments about "special projects" you can be guaranteed that whatever it is they have been working on or doing it already for years, even decades. Here is a site that touches on cognitive warfare.

"In cognitive warfare, the human mind becomes the battlefield. The aim is to change not only what people think, but how they think and act. Waged successfully, it shapes and influences individual and group beliefs and behaviours to favour an aggressor’s tactical or strategic objectives. In its extreme form, it has the potential to fracture and fragment an entire society, so that it no longer has the collective will to resist an adversary’s intentions. An opponent could conceivably subdue a society without resorting to outright force or coercion."

source:
NATO Review - Countering cognitive warfare: awareness and resilience

Of course this is a "short list" of related materiel but I figured the 10,000 mile overview would be the best fit for this forum for general discussion/interest.

I think a large part of propaganda is being able to know and understand what the target audience wants and fears, and then manipulating information based on that.

As that NATO argument points out, "fake news" is not required. It just depends on what kind of spin one wants to put on it. Oftentimes, it's a matter of how information is conveyed (via word choice, pejoratives, opinion masked as fact, manipulative phrasing, etc.).

And of course, there's already a strong foundation of propaganda and conditioning we Americans are subjected to almost literally from birth. The whole "land of the free and home of the brave" patriotic shtick. Pledge of Allegiance. America as "shining city on the hill." America as "the greatest nation on Earth," often associated with the idea that "freedom makes America great."

In addition, over the past 50-60 years, there's been a certain degree of "anti-patriotism" combined with cynicism and mistrust of government. After the Warren Commission churned out a bunch of unbelievable BS after the JFK assassination, along with bogus pretexts which escalated America's involvement in Vietnam, mistrust of government was quite widespread. It was a case of the boy who cried wolf, since people stopped believing government even if they were telling the truth. Then there was the Pentagon Papers, revelations about COINTELPRO and other federal agency mischief, and then Watergate.

There was a great deal of left-wing, anti-war, anti-government propaganda which had a brief following in the 70s, but as the economy faltered and people were facing tougher times, even that propaganda started to fail, making the people more vulnerable to the right-wing propaganda offered by the Reaganites.

I would see it more as a matter of people's perceptions and their paychecks. For people who are at the lower end of the scale, all the "America is great" propaganda will have little effect. They would be more vulnerable to "America is going down the tubes" propaganda. They might also believe that America's problems are due to outright malice towards the country, either originating from within the country or without.

The best way to steel the country against propaganda is simply to make life better for the people. Nazi propaganda would never have worked if they didn't have situations where people had to carry wheelbarrows full of money just to buy a loaf of bread. The government of the Weimar Republic and their ruling class at the time is responsible for that.

Likewise, the ruling class of America is responsible for the economic malaise which is making more of the public vulnerable to propaganda. When the ruling class can start a war or an energy with a simple phone call, then they're more than capable of making lives better for the people. If the people are miserable, it's only because the ruling class wants them that way - and that's how they can be so easily attacked and vilified in the eyes of the people.

It would be so easy for the ruling class to snap their fingers and share the wealth with the people, but they stubbornly refuse to do so. It's outright malice, and these elite people have the audacity to blame someone else (or abstractions like "propaganda") for their own mischief.

 

[Laika]

I put it out here for general interest and left it open for thoughts and opinions as I did not want to pigeonhole since it is a very broad subject with far reaching implications and others may come up with better discussion ideas than I could come up with. To the second part of your post , no, I make no claims to that.

For the record, whilst anyone could have a casual interest in Nazi film makers and it would be wrong to assume anything based on that, RF is probably one of the few sites that wouldn't automatically ban someone for holding and expressing far right, fascist or even Nazi sympathies. We have our regular band of Trump supporters, conservatives and libertarians still fighting their corner even if they are hopelessly outnumbered by the liberals and leftists on the site, but there are very few limits on free speech here.

I'm not sure if that's of any interest or consequence, but I am just throwing it out there.

 

[Kooky]

I put it out here for general interest and left it open for thoughts and opinions as I did not want to pigeonhole since it is a very broad subject with far reaching implications and others may come up with better discussion ideas than I could come up with. To the second part of your post , no, I make no claims to that.

Is there a reason why you did not quote one of the many, many academic sources on the subject, but a Nazi propagandist?