Buzzwords, new history, and the spread of propaganda

Regardless of where it comes from, when buzzwords are used (tested phrases that have been studied to evoke an emotional response in others), I recognize it as some plate of propaganda currently being served up hot and steamy.

Prejudice will mostly always sound the same for a few reasons:

1. no real independent critical thought put into the reasons for being anti-anything (people are against it.. for the simple reason of being against it, or anti- the person being propagandized)


2. you shouldn't be surprised to find out that what you are witnessing is an organized effort of several different groups that want to taint the waters. This is how legends are written. Remember this: "Publish a legend .. to cause it to become fact."

Case in point. There were a few riders that warned that the British were coming. One had a well popular author on his side .. (about 40 years after Paul Revere's death) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (HWL) with a poem that started something like this:

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

... back then... the way to spread news was just a couple different ways. Newspaper (which only had an audience of the local town for the most part), town crier (still local town), and books. Books, was the only way for news to really get spread outside of a town's boundaries. Newspapers and the town crier just didn't have the pull like they do today. Not to mention Al Gore hadn't invented the internet as of yet mainly because.. he hadn't been born yet... heh, heh, heh. The authors, for the most part were the rock stars of the widespread news of the day. People took what they wrote and took it to heart.

Paul Revere.. rode 19 miles... from Boston to Cambridge.. and likely never yelled the phrase "the British are coming" but more than likely shouted "the regulars are out". Revere's ride, likely didn't last much into the next day as it only covered 19 miles. And he was done. Timely, but not an extraordinary event of going beyond the call of duty. Revere was, however, very well known and was the fellow that devised this early warning system to spread the word.

One of the other fellows, a man named Israel Bissel, rode from Watertown Massachusetts to Philadelphia .. 345 miles ... over 4 days and 6 hours to deliver the message to the colonists that there was an attack of the British coming. This guys buttocks were likely falling off after riding a horse(s) for 4 days and 6 hours time.. covering 17x more distance than Revere did. But you never hear about him. Clearly, he warned more along his route than Revere's much shorter ride.

What happened? Why don't we hear about Israel Bissel? Well... HWL decided that America needed a patriotic hero of that particular era. He was an author and authors like to sell books. Just like media groups like to sell commercials when eyes are glued to the televisions. In HWL's day (1860 right before the US Civil War) he wanted to re-unite the states and try and prevent a civil war by hyping up someone to be a hero of the American Revolution. His wife was a relative of Paul Revere. The name "Paul Revere" also had a certain ring to it... much more so than the ring of Israel Bissel .. and not much of a ring of a name by the third fellow William Dawes... and a fourth Prescott ... so Revere was chosen.

Revere's greatest contribution to the American Revolution was the alarm and messenger system that he designed and implemented before the battles of Lexington and Concord. He used his numerous contacts in eastern Massachusetts to devise a system for the rapid call up of the militias to oppose the British. Although several messengers rode longer and alerted more soldiers than Revere that night, they were part of the organization that Revere created and implemented in eastern New England.

HWL took many liberties with the events of the evening, most especially giving credit to Revere for the collective achievements of the riders. As a result, historians in the 20th century sometimes considered Revere's role in American history to have been exaggerated, becoming a national myth.

Revere's effort, though important.. was not super human as other riders of that time. But, because of HWL's desire to make an American Patriot Hero for the time, Revere's heroic ride has become "fact" in the minds of many ...

Now... I said all that because .. it was the *publication* of the legend that caused the "fact" to occur in the minds of people. Prior to this being published, the Paul Revere event was regarded as a very unspecial thing. After the publications wide spread words, Paul Revere (possibly the least effective of the riders that night) was the became the big studly hero.

The same thing is happening with any recognizable one-sided argument. People that engage in this activity, are heck-bent to "force their point-of-view" to become "fact" ... and they'll stop at nothing to cause this to be. They realize that if this message gets out to enough people... then it will become *fact* in the minds of others.. and the truth will pale and be unbelievable next to the fictitious legend now regarded as undeniable truth to those that willfully ate the plate of steaming propoganda.

This is the power of a press/media group that doesn't have the best interest of spreading truth at heart. Ever look up the biblican root meaning of the word 'truth'. NO? Well, if you searched out it's roots way deep in it's use, you don't find it describing facts. You discover that truth is something previously hidden that is now brought out into the open. Like the beauty of a flower that is yet to bloom closed up tightly. That closed up bloom, is beautiful (in truth) because it's something that's not yet been made manifest to the eyes and shown largely to all.

A press/media group that doesn't willfully give you both sides .. actively serves propaganda.

All because they hide the *other side* of the argument.