Essay - Propaganda While We May Be Shocked by the U.s. Government's...

Propaganda

***** we may be shocked by the U.S. government's attempt to spread disinformation about the current war on terrorism, we should not be. Governments have always been less than fully forthcoming ***** their citizens, although they rarely admit to lying. Rather they see it as a form of propaganda, and thoroughly patriotic.

*****, while the term "*****" is almost always used in a pejor*****tive sense and ***** citizens of a democracy we are deeply troubled by the idea that our government is not always engaged in being strictly truthful with us, we ***** perhaps before condemning ***** attempts ***** the federal government to sway public opinion reconsider our ideas about the relationship between the government and the people at large.

***** the ***** of a ***** should never lie to its people ********** ***** keep secrets from the popul*****ion at large only under the strictest criteria of national security. However, this is not the same thing as saying ***** the government should ***** attempt ***** citizens to act in a certain way or to believe in ***** precepts.

We can ***** the importance - and the moral rightness - of this policy in a number of c*****es. Looking to contemporary American society, we find nothing at all wrong with the government urging people not ***** smoke around children (or even to smoke at all) or not to drive while ***** the influence of alcohol or ***** give blood.

We underst***** th***** in some ways ***** ***** ***** has the job ***** acting in loco parentis, serv*****g as a wise guardian to guide us in***** acting as m*****ally as we can.

***** while few of ***** (one hopes!) would object to ***** federal government urging us not to drink and drive, quite often the persuasive goals of the government are not clearly so good ***** at least not at ***** time. Few of us (again, one hopes) now believes that it is in the best interests of ***** nation for each one of ***** to report our neighbors because we suspect them of ***** commun*****ts. While that might once have seemed a good policy to many *****, it now seems a dark spot on ***** history to most.

But sometimes government attempts to persuade the American public that seem questi*****able at the time later on seem in fact to ***** ***** ***** ***** judicious. Such is certainly ***** case ***** U.S. ***** use of various ********** of mass media during World War I to ***** Americans that a rigid isolationism was ne*****her politically expedient nor morally acceptable.

***** tendency *************** ***** was indeed strong during the first years of the war, ***** the fact that ***** Americans wanted to get involved in what was seen as a European conflict had ***** ***** relatively little to do with the specifics of World War I itself. *****, ********** stemmed ***** a long isolationist tradition in American politics and culture that can be seen to have its roots in the American Revolution, when