What kind of impact did “Common Sense” have during it’s time
and how does it compare to propaganda throughout history?
“Common
Sense” made a huge impact in the starting of the Revolutionary War. The
Continental Congress had tried negotiating with the British Parliament to no
avail. The colonists were not sure if they wanted to go to war. “Common Sense”
is what pushed them over the edge to declare independence and even told the colonists the proper way to make
the changes that they wanted to see. Without the influence of Thomas Paine,
America would still just be an extension of England today, and democracy would
have never existed(http://www.revolutionarywararchives.org/commonsense.html).
“Common
Sense” is propaganda. Propaganda is a form of advertisement that tries to
convince one of something and to take action on it. Characteristics of
propaganda include exaggerating the enemy, using strong emotion such as fear, often
has a slogan, and often forces a choice between two extreme alternatives (http://www.historians.org/projects/GIRoundtable/propaganda/Propaganda_Intro.htm).
“Common
Sense” uses these devices in the following examples: “Even brutes do not devour
their young, nor savages make war upon their families” and “Men of passive
tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of Great Britain, and, still
hoping for the best, are apt to call out, ‘Come, come, we shall be friends
again for all this” (American Literature, 631). In the first quotes Paine uses
sensational imagery to claim that the British are savages who have turned on
their families and have no conscious. In the second quote Paine claims that one
is a fool if he does believe in going to war and tries to embarrass those
people.
Other
forms of propaganda have been used throughout history to sway people’s
opinions.
Consider this image of a Cold War poster:
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnsb&tbnid=YgqM6Q0ew9IhLM:&imgrefurl=http://www.designer-daily.com/examples-of-american-cold-war-propaganda
The
soldiers have evil faces and are strangling a woman as they set the American
flag on fire, symbolizing the destruction of our country. This poster is
designed to make one fear the Soviets. Believing they are the enemy, one will be
more patriotic and support the American precautions and even attacks against
the Soviets. It also serves to reject communism, which led to a fear that
everyone that one knew was a communist. People would often turn in their neighbors
to the police because they thought the neighbors were Communists.
Hitler
was so popular, even though his ideas were absurd, because he was a talented speaker.
He also maliciously exaggerates his enemies. He says in a speech made to
thousands of people, “The German nation had hoped to
gain, in turn, the goodwill of others, but it met only the naked egotism of the
cruelest and meanest vested interests, which began to loot everything there was
to loot.” He claimed that he tried to
negotiate with the allies and says that they were determined to take everything
from Germany that they could for no reason. This is a blatant lie because it
was Germany that was antagonizing the other countries. As everyone knows,
Hitler believed that Jews were an inferior race. He says, “ I do not want to miss pointing out
what I pointed out on 3rd of September [1940] in the German Reichstag, that if
Jewry were to plunge the world into war, the role of Jewry would be finished in
Europe.” Hitler is using fear and hyperbole by saying that Jews will
lead to the destruction of the world. (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitler013041.html).
Propaganda
is a very influential tool used by many speakers and activists, but it is
always biased and cannot be used to form a competent opinion. Both sides of the
situation must be looked at. It is a fantastic tool in the right hands and a
horror in the wrong hands.
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