1 people have the opportunity to get the news of human events, un colored by the machinations of blind interests? i A Parable of Earth Worms ONCE UPON A time a scholastic philosopher was set to teach logic to the Crown Prince. The Prince did not receive the teaching kindly, and when he came to the throne, took his revenge. He sent for a pot full of earth worms, and before his assembled court ordered the philosopher to lay the worms end to end on the pavement to make an exactly straight line. In fear of dire punishment, the philosopher tried to do so. When the worms wriggled and squirmed, he tried to pin them down, but with poor success. Then he killed them in boiling water and tried again, but in the sun they began to shrivel and warp and curl, and his task was no easier. When the king saw that the philosopher was in utter despair he said to him: "This is a picture of what you have been trying to make me do while I was your pupil. You would make me lay words end to end in a straight line of inexor Arthur E. Morgan able logic. But so long as the words are alive they constantly move. They do not mean the same in the evening as they did in the morning; they do not mean the same when I am ill as when I am well, when I am drunk as when I am sober. They have one meaning to the man on my left, and another meaning to the man on my right. They have one color to the rich and another to the poor. When you kill them and they no longer live and move, but become philosophical terms and formulae, then they shrivel and stink, and still defy your purpose. "By fixing my eyes on yonder mountain peak I can walk a straighter course than you can lay with earthworms. So, by fixing my attention on the mountain peaks of human experience and aspiration my mind can follow a straighter course than yours can by laying down a meticulous sequence of logical terms." Word Mongers NATIONS HAVE risen and fallen by the mighty power of words, used or misused by orators capable of inflaming the emotions of great masses of people. Today we are infinitely more familiar than our forbears with the elements of hypocrisy and guile which often so regrettably tincture eloquence. But we are by no means immune from the dangers of mob reaction, and our very freedom depends upon our ability to distingish promptly between the true and the false, between sincere invocation right or wrong, and false propaganda. Having recently been almost drowned under a vast tidal wave of political palaver, most of us will probably appreciate the following quotation from George Santayana: "Language is the great instrument of fanaticism. A critic of politics finds himself driven to deprecate the power of words, whilst using them copiously in the warning against their influence. It is indeed in politics that their influence is most dangerous, so that one is almost tempted to wish that they did not exist, and that society might be managed silently, by instinct, habit and ocular perception, without this supervening Babel of reports, invectives, laws, arguments and slogans." Albert Croissant Words are mysterious and manysided. They may have magical beauty and power to inspire and transform, or they may be crass and poisonous. They may illuminate or befuddle, evoke splendor of imagination and action, or paralyze with fear and despair. In spite of lengthy analysis by psychologists and literary critics, we still cannot say why certain seemingly simple combinations of words can move us profoundly, whereas the same idea uttered in slightly different words leaves us unmoved. The Oriental sage held there was strange power in his Mantram. Like the "open sesame" in the Arabian Nights, certain sounds and cadences set up a vibration that releases secret springs. No merely intellectual analysis of poetry can fathom the natural laws involved. many As C. E. Montague once said, a line like Shakespeare's "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower same" has inexplicably haunted readers; and, of course, every lover of poetry can immediately think of scores of other lines that ignite the mind and open mysterious doors, even though the lines be bare of ornament. On the other hand, there are users of dull, lifeless words, and NEW OUTLOOK framers of willful distortions of truth. Since our day has seen the development of mass-media like newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and advertising, we are especially afflicted with guileful purveyors of "weasel words" uttered with intent to deceive. Religious, political and journalistic demagogues, slick advertisers, try subtly and incessantly to seduce us. In 1937, at the suggestion of the late Edward A. Filene, the Institute for Propaganda Analysis was established to study the methods and effects of propaganda. Until October 1941 the Institute published a regular monthly bulletin, Propaganda Analysis, wherein were examined samples of current propaganda. When the United States entered the war it was discontinued. The first or second bulletins on How to Detect Propaganda have been widely reprinted, and have helped in making people conscious of the ways whereby they were being misled. To summarize briefly, propaganda is defined as expression deliberately designed to "put something across" without arousing careful scrutiny, and seven common "devices" are commonly used to do this-Name Calling, Glittering Generalities, Transfer, Testimonial, Plain Folks, Card Stacking and Band Wagon. These devices all fool us because they appeal to our emotions and not to cool reason. They sway us to be "for" or "against" nations, religions, economic or political policies, brands of automobiles, radios, toothpastes, etc. Name Calling always characterizes the propagandist. It arouses the emotions of hate and fear and prevents us from asking for evidence and from using common sense. Each generation has its special "bad" names: once heretic was a terribly bad one, and men like Galileo, Copernicus and Bruno suffered for it. Today such tags as Red, Pinko, Red, Pinko, Fascist, Utopian dreamer, agitator, Commie are flung to smear or dam those we don't approve. Glittering Generalities endeavor to build up favor and acceptance without examining evidence through the use of "virtue" words, like Truth, Honor, Progress, American, Democratic, Liberty, etc. Even Nazis, and Communists have unblushingly applied such words to delude the masses. Most intolerant, totalitarian groups in this country hide behind such highsounding, virtuous generalities. which their actions completely belie. And of course, in every political campaign each party vociferates that it alone stands for justice, freedom, efficiency, prosperity. Transfer endeavors to transfer the prestige and authority of something we respect and revere to what the propagandist wishes to "put over." Thus he tries to dignify himself and his purpose by transferring to himself the cross (the church), the flag (country), etc. The Testimonial is best known in advertising patent medicines, liquor, cigarettes, etc. but is also used in connection with national policies. The Plain Folks device is much employed by politicians, labor and business leaders, and even by ministers and educators, to win our confidence by appearing to be folksy, regular common people like ourselves. They are photographed in the kitchen, at picinics, on the farm, at church, in homely attire, patting babies' heads, washing dishes, etc. Card Staking is the worst, the subtlest and hardest to detect. Here the propagandist omits or twists facts, raises smoke screens, resorts to lies distortions, under-emphasis, misquotation, hypocrisy and other despicable devices to gain his ends. One needs to possess genuine information and intelligence to detect a clever card stacker. The Band Wagon device appeals to us because most people like to follow the crowd, to belong to a winning group, to identify themselves as part of a strong group— racial, national, religious, fraternal, etc. Man is not a very rational animal. We are all rather gullible and prone to be swayed quite unconsciously by emotions and prejudices. We are disposed to trust in "Leaders" of some sort, and to blame some hated "scapegoat"—as Hitler used the Jews-for our difficulties. When we read newspapers and magazines, and when we listen to radio and TV, we should consciously and unflaggingly practice propaganda analysis-i. e. straight thinking and immediately suspect anyone who uses any of the devices listed above. THE COUNTRIES WHICH HAVE INSPIRED men's utmost devotion now urge, will leave us little worth defending. -Zechariah Chafee, Jr., Harvard Law School NEW OUTLOOK The Education of LOVE IN A RECENT article in the NEW OUTLOOK "Why Not Try Love?"—we suggested in the final sentence that Prof. Ashley Montagu (author of On Being Human) should now write a book on The Education of Love. A NEW OUTLOOK editor was moved to propose that perhaps we should try our hand at the job in the meantime, and so this article will be a hesitant and tentative effort to present some ideas on this tremendous theme. To begin with, the attempt is complicated by the fact that in the eyes of the world-at-large love just does not need any education. Love is, in this respect, regarded somewhat as being equivalent to the sex feeling, which without any particular education knows what it is commissioned to do, dictates its own terms, and sweeps through spontaneously to its objectives. Love and sex are indeed closely akin to each other, as integrated aspects of the same great force, and love should be, and in very great measure surely is, the generator of education. Indeed, it probably outranks all other moti Alvin B. Kuhn vations as a force driving humans to educative activities. Love of music, love of adventure, of philosophy, of power, of money, of nature, of humanity; romantic love and Platonic love all inspire or drive us to train, discipline and educate ourselves. With this view goes the common presumption that love is unerring and infallible in its aim and in its wisdom. Love is sure that it can never be wrong; it seems to carry its own justification with it, furnishes its own proof, and ever vindicates its rightness. To this universal opinion it may be necessary, in an ultimate sense, to give assent. One must surely be rightly oriented with life and truth if one's actions love. Yet default of Love is the are generated and inspired by great human shortcoming, the saddest and most tragic human dereliction, the deplorable cause of most of man's gross inhumanity to man. If our answer is correct, if our analysis stands up, love can never be wrong in its motivation, in its 26 |