A review of Yves Engler’s latest book, A Propaganda System: How Canada’s Government, Corporations, Media and Academia Sell War
Propaganda is only as good as the processes through which it is concealed. Traditional examples of propaganda — the cult of personality, the political commissar, and the threat of the work camp (or worse) — were blunt and easy. They reflected a political climate where the threat of violent repression allowed for a less sophisticated regime of mass persuasion.
In current Neoliberal Democracies, propaganda needs to be sophisticated and ingrained. Propaganda, in any nation state, is the “acceptable” narrative of the historical past and the political future. Narratives constructed long ago are reformed and rechurned in an effort to justify policy and to obfuscate state discretions.
Yves Engler’s new book, A Propaganda System: How Canada’s Government, Corporations, Media and Academia Sell War, chronicles the nexus of media, academia, the military, and government in promulgating these narratives to the Canadian public, and beyond.
Engler’s ninth book encompasses many of his previous research interests. The end product is a who’s-who catalogue, outlining the largest players in constructing a benevolent canon of Canadian foreign policy. Disseminating disinformation is not only a lucrative business for many of those involved, but it is necessary to ensure a stable status quo for the future of the business class, the peddlers of…