:PREPROGRAMMED LESSONS:
Most people view propaganda as something made by certain people for a certain cause and not as it truly is, “social phenomenon” that goes hand in hand with our “technological society”, two sides of the same coin. Technological society can only maintain and further expand through the flow and effects of propaganda. Vast amounts of humanity are “easy prey” as Jacques Ellul states “because of their firm but entirely erroneous conviction that it is composed only of lies and “tall stories” and that, conversely, what is true cannot be propaganda”. Modern propagandists have long distanced themselves from outmoded forms and ridiculous lies previously used. The focus of the operation now is on the many different kinds of truth, half truth, limited truth, truth without context. Another misconception that makes the populace vulnerable is the belief that propaganda is only used to change opinions. The fact is: propaganda’s main use is to intensify existing “trends”, to sharpen and focus them. There are two main forms of propaganda, Agitation and Integration. The former leads people from mere resentment to rebellion, while the latter aims to make them adjust to desired patterns. While both exist all over the world, it is integration propaganda that is of the utmost importance for the technological society to flourish and cannot work without “education”; dispelling the widespread notion that “education” is the best defense against propaganda. Instead “education” is largely identical to what Ellul refers to as “pre-propaganda” or the conditioning of minds with vast amounts of incoherent information already dispensed for ulterior purposes and posing as “facts”. He further goes to state “intellectuals” as virtually the most vulnerable of all to modern propaganda for three reasons: 1: They absorb the largest amount of second hand, unverifiable information. 2: They feel a compelling need to have an opinion on every important question of our time, and thus easily succumb to opinions offered to them by propaganda on all such indigestible pieces of information. 3: They consider themselves capable of “judging for themselves”. They literally need propaganda. It is this need that is one of the most powerful elements of Ellul’s thesis, the casting out of disintegrating micro groups of the past (family, church, community, etc.). Individuals are placed into mass society and thrown back into their own inadequacies, isolation, loneliness, and ineffectuality. Propaganda then comes along and hands them what they need in abundance: personal involvement, participation in “important events”, outlets and excuses for their impulses and righteousness. But before propaganda can offer pseudo-satisfaction it must first create the pseudo-needs and it first begins in some place most of us spent thirteen years of our life in. What is commonly referred to as “public” but what could be described more accurately as “compulsory” or “government” schools. The reason for viewing “public school” as less precise than “compulsory” or “government” schooling is based on that if they were “public” anyone in the public could attend, funding would come from willing customers, we would not be forced to attend. Thirteen years and what are we learning? First and foremost we are learning to obey. “From the primary school till he leaves the university, the young man does nothing but acquire books by heart without his judgment or personal initiative being ever called into play. Education consists for him in reciting by heart and obeying”- Gustave Le Bon. The idea of government school is not to create successful, literate, creative free thinkers, but formulaic human beings with easily controlled predictable behaviors. The lessons that we learn explicitly and implicitly cause us harm. This is to imply that nothing is being taught. Basic reading and writing and arithmetic are taught along with a myriad of other subjects that may or may not have any actual value to a person’s education or comprehension, and this is where the first lesson begins. Lesson 1: Confusion- lessons are taught out of context. From the solar system, the law of numbers, adjectives and sentence structure, history, art and design, gym and choir. Then throw in fire drills, assemblies, computer languages, parents night or a staff day here or there, a guest speaker giving guidance (a stranger you are more than likely to never see again). Lets not forget standardized tests and age- segregation unlike anything in the outside world. What is actually being taught here? The teaching that everything is unrelated, of disconnections. Lesson 2: Class Position- Stay where you belong. The government teachers next job is to teach enjoying being locked together, to be catalogued and numbered and filed away with other like numbers, or at least to “grin and bear it’. To not be able to imagine being somewhere else. To be shown how to envy and fear classes you perceive as “better” and to have utmost contempt for the perceived “dumber” classes. The efficacy of this discipline will cause self-policing, to march to orders. The real point of school ,like any rigged competition, is to learn your place. The priming of public divisions to never question the jurisdiction we toil under, to agree that we must have authority over us. Lesson 3: Indifference- Classes are taught bell to bell. Lessons are planned carefully to produce a show of enthusiasm and to offer experience; and as quickly as the student becomes mentally engaged, the bell rings. Like an on and off switch, it is insisted they drop what they were focused on and proceed to the next class. Education on an installment plan. This will condition the belief that no work is worth finishing in all but the strongest. Conditioned to a world that can no longer offer important work to do. Lesson 4: Emotional Dependency- Teaching students to surrender their will to the predestined chain of command. Through the use of red checks, gold stars, smiles and frowns, prizes, honors and disgraces. Rights may be granted or withheld by any authority without appeal. Rights do not exist inside school, not even free speech, unless an authority says so as ruled by the supreme court. With the use of pluses and minuses, the evaluation of percentages and letter grades, you train students like Pavlov’s dogs to regurgitate a right answer and receive a treat. Do not question master’s information, just swallow and regurgitate. “Learning lessons, knowing by heart a grammar or compendium, repeating well and imitating well- that is a ludicrous form of education whose every effort is an act of faith tacitly admitting the infallibility of the master, whose only results are the belittling of ourselves and rendering of us impotent”- M. Jules Simon, former French Minister of Public Instruction Those deemed “smartest” among us, those whose brain power to memorize and spew back up massive quantities of information, have had the most positive reinforcement. There by having the most incentive to believe what they are told. Whether taught truth or lies, that means nothing toward their GPA. They rise to positions of power and perpetuate the status quo, the system that they most benefited from. Lesson 5: Intellectual Dependency- A good student waits to be told what to do. Let the better trained people make the meanings of our lives, wait for other people ,the “experts”, to make the important decisions. Only the teachers can determine what's studied, only the people who pay the teachers can make those decisions, which the teacher then enforces. This dependency teaches the “best and brightest” as well as the “psychopathic” to aspire to positions of authority. Taught that it is “natural order” to have institutions have authority over us and we must surrender to these institutions to have a prosperous society. Lesson 6: Provisional Self Esteem- Teachers realize how impossible it is to make a self-confident person conform. So students are taught their self respect should depend on expert opinion. By being constantly evaluated and judged, by sending home a monthly report to elicit approval or mark down to the percentage point the level of satisfied or dissatisfied a parent should be. The ecology of schooling depends on perpetuating dissatisfaction. Tests conducted by professors from Cornell and The London Business School to determine the effects of low self-esteem encouraged conspicuous consumption found a strong correlation between low self-esteem and the desire to purchase high-status goods. Low self-esteem is more useful to conformity. Lesson 7: You Can’t Hide- Students are taught they are always watched, under constant surveillance by their teachers and colleagues. No private spaces, timed class changes to keep fraternizing to a low( there’s danger in organizing thoughts). Students are encouraged to rat on fellow students as well as their own household, all while recommending the parents to file reports against their own children. A family trained to snitch are less likely to conceal secrets that may be deemed dangerous. The covert surveillance of extended schooling known as “homework” is a way to allow the effect of surveillance to come into private households. This is designed to make sure the students free time is not used to learn unauthorized information from outside sources be it father, mother, grandparents, books, exploration, or otherwise stop the ability to apprentice with some other wise person. It is through these lessons you’re taught to become a citizen whose behavior can be predicted, controlled, or redirected. Now, class is dismissed. | 
