The Need for A Love Propaganda Machine

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Ollin Morales of Courage 2 Create.

Recently, I read an article in The Rolling Stone about the chairman of The Fox News Network, Mr. Roger Ailes.

Once I finished reading the article, I became very upset and incredibly bothered that a single man could get away with creating such a deceitful, hateful propaganda machine hidden cleverly behind a fake news network.

If you didn’t know—and have been living underneath a rock—Roger Ailes, a previous top aide to President Nixon, runs the Fox Cable News Network, a network that many believe spreads lies, fear, and hatred, and is largely motivated by greed and the need to secure enormous political power.

Fox is a news network that breeds division, hatred, confusion, misunderstanding, lack of reason, lies, deceit, prejudice and has very much deteriorated the level of discourse and respectable, civil debate in Washington D.C.—and in the entire country.

It’s hard to believe that one man at the head of a fake news network could cause so much destruction, pain and could completely throw the country off the right track at the exact moment when the country needs to be united.

It is so crucial that, today, American citizens become mutually compassionate, understanding, loving, caring, trusting, and incredibly reasonable and pragmatic as we face what I believe is the MOST challenging time in U.S. history.

Why The Honest, Love Propaganda Machine Already Exists

As Lynn consistently advocates on this blog, we must do more and more to bring social justice to this country, to curb the climate crisis, and to creative positive progressive change to the world.

As a fiction writer, over at my blog, Courage 2 Create, I consistently send the message of love, self-acceptance, patience, peace, understanding and hope to my readers who are struggling to bring their respective artistic creations to the world, and live the life they always wanted to live.

Now, Lynn and I may seem at the complete opposite ends of a spectrum when it comes to the kinds of roles we take on in the blogosphere, but I think we both share a common purpose because we both believe in the power of individuals to change their lives—and the world—for the better.

Lynn is an environmentalist.

I’m a fiction writer.

But it doesn’t matter what roles the both of us take on, what matters is that we each do what we can in our respective spheres of influence to spread the message of love and positive, progressive change.

In a lot of ways, we both have created our own “propaganda” machines. But unlike Roger Ailes, our propaganda machines spread the message of love, reason, thoughtfulness, community, acceptance, open-mindedness and positive growth.

Why “Propaganda” Is A Word That Has Lost Its Way

As you saw in the video at the beginning of this post, the word “propaganda” did not always carry the negative connotation that it currently carries. Only recently, when Hitler used propaganda to gain power over Europe and spread his message of hatred for the Jews, did the word “propaganda” gain a negative reputation.

Although propaganda has been used in the past for negative purposes, propaganda can be used to spread an honest, loving, hopeful message.

In fact, we already use propaganda as a method to disseminate positive and honest ideas: like the idea that women should be treated equal to men; or the idea that we should not lay the environment to waste; or the idea that gay men and women should have the right to marry the person they love—all of these are positive, honest messages that have been spread far and wide throughout the country, and they are examples of honest-to-goodness, “love” propaganda.

So if we already utilize honest propaganda to spread the message of love and equality, then why not become the foil to those like Roger Ailes who choose to use propaganda for evil purposes?

The Need For An Honest, Love Propaganda Machine

It is clear to me after reading that article in The Rolling Stone that there is a great need for an Honest, Love Propaganda Machine:  a machine that would be oiled and powered by a great, beating heart at its center.

I would hate to think that some progressives might shy away from spreading their message of love and positive change because they fear that they may be perceived as being similar to Ailes and Fox News, who utilize propaganda to achieve evil ends.

But I strongly believe that if you are an individual who has the message of love, peace, acceptance, understanding, and reason, then please, by all means, don’t shy away from spreading that message far and wide. We need you to serve as counterweight to all the negative, deceitful, and increasingly cynical propaganda being spread in today’s news media.

We need you to help change the world for the better and thwart the evil Roger Ailes’ of this world who seek to stymie progress for their own personal gains.

The country—the world—needs you to speak up, speak louder, speak clearer, speak wider, and speak farther so that the Honest, Love Propaganda Machine can finally overpower the Deceitful, Hate Propaganda Machine.

Your Talking Points

Now, if you are going to go out and continue to extend your honest, love propaganda machine, you’re going to need several “talking points.”  These talking points are very simple but are incredibly powerful. Here they are:

• union over division
• mutual understanding over confusion
• reason over stubborn, unchanging ideology
• community over self-centeredness
• renewable energy over wasteful energy
• forgiveness over long-held, historically-rooted resentment
• foresight over short-sightedness
• acceptance over rejection, or judgment
• equality over inequality
• doing what’s right over doing what’s convenient for you
• peace over war
• action over apathy
• wisdom over superficiality
• courage over fear
• hope and inspiration over negativity and cynicism
• patience and trust over despair and suspicion
• win-win cooperation over win-lose, cutthroat competition
• respectful disagreement over disrespectful undermining of another’s viewpoint
• measuring your worth by all the good you do in this world over measuring your success by your bank account, awards and titles, or how many “things” you acquire
• being fully present over being stuck in the past or in the future
• finally, the last and most important talking point, in which all the above talking points fall under:

LOVE OVER HATE

Now Go Out And Change The World

Now that you got all your talking points, go out, and, in your respective spheres of influence, start spreading this Honest, Love Propaganda far and wide.

Because Roger Ailes may have proved to the world that lies are very powerful and effective, but what Mr. Ailes does not yet realize is that when the truth and love is spread far and wide, its one-hundred times more powerful and transformative than any lie the most clever Nixonian strategist could ever cook up.

much love,

Ollin

Ollin Morales is a writer. Courage 2 Create chronicles the author’s journey as he writes his first novel. This blog offers writing advice as well as strategies to deal with life’s toughest challenges. After all, as Ollin’s story unfolds, it becomes more and more clear to him that in order to write a great novel, he must first learn how to live a great life. You can also follow him on Twitter @ollinmorales.

Photo by astragony