Psychological WarfareLinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
Psychological Warfare
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Psychological warfare
To this add what the enemy propaganda is trying to do to its Propaganda
Man. That is, size up the domestic propaganda of the enemy in terms of
the concrete individuals at whom it is aimed. This may reveal the
enemy's vital necessities and his concealed weaknesses. What _are_ the
leaders trying to do? Are they trying to make the Propaganda Man get to
work on time? Are they trying to make him give up holidays willingly?
Are they trying to make him think that your side will kill him if you
win? Are they trying to keep him from being worried about his city going
up in an incandescent haze? Are they trying to make him believe that the
concrete shelters are good? Why are they harping so on the safety of the
shelters? Has the Propaganda Man been muttering back about the
flimsiness of the shelters? Does he want to be evacuated from target
cities? Are the police being praised for their fairness and speed in
issuing leave-the-city permits? Are illegal évacués being treated as
scum and traitors and cowards?
Then go after the Propaganda Man yourself. He is your friend. You are
his friend. The only enemy is the enemy Leader (or generals, or emperor,
or capitalists, or "They"). How is the Propaganda Man going to hear from
you? Leaflets? Short-wave--and if so, why is he listening to the enemy
in the first place? Standard-wave? Speaker planes? Rumors? Get things to
him that you know he will repeat, things which will interest him. Make
up a list of the things he worries about each month, a list of the
things which the enemy propaganda is trying to do to him currently, a
list of the things your propaganda is trying to do. Do the three lists
fit? Would they work on an actual living breathing thinking human being,
with the prejudices, frailty, nobility, greed, lubricity, and other
motives of the ordinary human being? If your list fits his real life, if
your list spoils the enemy propaganda list, if your list builds up a
psychological effect of confusion, gloom, willingness-to-surrender which
accumulates month after month, the terrain is favorable. It is in your
Propaganda Man's head.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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