Propaganda

[Otto]

David Morris:
>
> http://www.zpub.com/un/chomsky.html
> Propaganda, American-style
> by Noam Chomsky

"That's the kind of thing that Orwell described in 1984 (not a very good
book in my opinion). 1984 is so popular because it's trivial and it attacks
our enemies. If Orwell had dealt with a different problem-- ourselves--his
book wouldn't have been so popular. In fact, it probably wouldn't have been
published."

"In fact, it probably" -- strange way to put it. But it's very good that he
mentions Orwell who did not do what Chomsky is doing right now.

As I've very recently read Orwell's War Commentaries (which are wonderful
propaganda) I don't share Mr. Chomsky's opinion on "1984" and on the current
war..

I consider "1984" a good book, it is not trivial and not only attacking our
enemies. It's not dealing with Russia (that's "Animal Farm") but with the
possible future of East and West. Orwell knew what he was talking about.
He had been working as a propagandist for the "Bluff & Bluster Corporation"
(BBC) to counter German-based Axis-propaganda. He was against the official
British policy on India but worked for it nevertheless until 1943 because he
considered the Axis as the bigger danger for India.

The rest of the Chomsky-article isn't much better. As I share his critical
view of American foreign policy throughout the post WW-2-decades
and especially on Vietnam, I see that he fails to explain how the
Vietnam-war could become so unpopular that it even gave birth to a
counterforce, if the US really had been under that massive
propagandistic influence since 1921 as he asserts in the article generally.

Being critical of US-politics doesn't necessarily mean (or require) to be
anti-American. But to be taken serious requires a differentiated point of
view, not was he's telling right now, taking and promoting OBL's view of the
West. This is what he's been critisised for.

This is a fine one on Orwell's politics:
http://www.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/lsf/bonsignore8.htm

Otto
"You can fool some people some time,
  but you can't fool all people all the time."