PROPAGANDA
VS
CRITICAL THOUGHT
How to recognize propaganda,
indoctrination, self-deception, and ideology
— with lack of critical thought —
as driving forces within terrorism, warfare, corporate greed,
and political and religious
fundamentalism
Two styles of thinking face each other across a growing chasm.
- Authoritarians and ideologists, both conservative and liberal, function more emotionally than they realize. Authoritarians work from unexamined assumptions and sources more than from reason or direct evidence. They include well meaning fundamentalists or literalists who prefer “orderly error to complex truth." They do not perceive how indoctrinated they have become.
- Critical thinkers, by contrast, question and test the certitude
of their assumptions. They engage in competent reflection and unmanipulative appeals
to emotion. They examine opposing positions fairly. Integrating their heads with
their hearts, they have the courage to think for themselves and challenge the paradigms
of those who control different fields and movements. They strive to distinguish
reflections whose logic and evidence are critical from those which derive from
ideology, indoctrination, and self-deception.
Roderick Hindery, Adjunct Professor at Arizona State University, invites you to join the dialogue on which style of thinking you prefer and what kind of world you want to live in.
Visit my blog for further dialogue on these and related topics.
My most recent paper, May 12, 2006, “Skepticism and Agnosticism as Ideology”, is added after the fifth paper below.
The first two papers, "Viruses in Academe: Indoctrination and Intellectuals", (November 2001) and "Facing Up to Indoctrination and Self-deception in Religious Groups, New and Traditional" elaborate on ideas and counter-positions set forth in my recently published book "Indoctrination and Self-deception or Free and Critical Thought?" (Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press: 2001).*
The third paper, Denial in Private and Public Life: Emotional Anemia in Ethical Though" illustrates propaganda's counterpart within the self: self-deception and denial. It focuses on war against Iraq as an example of denial on several scores.
A fourth paper, "Advocacy in Academe: Academic versus Confessional Theology" touches on distinctions between propaganda and advocacy in academe — in religious studies, theology, and other disciplines.
A fifth paper, "Identifying Religious Terrorism through Profiles of Propaganda", analyzes ways to identify religious terrorists before they act physically.
All these papers imply that many other social and ethical issues can be fruitfully revisited in the context of what distinguishes propaganda and self-deception from critical thought. These papers are shared to invite scholarly exchanges about issues seen anew in the context of propaganda and self-deception as opposed to thinking critically for one's self.
The first paper was delivered to faculty and students of Arizona State University, Dept. of Religious Studies, in November, 2001. Some of the second paper was presented at the SCE, Western Region Meeting at Loyola Marymount University, February, 2002. The third paper was delivered at the SCE meeting on February 7, 2003. The fourth paper was published in the CSSR Bulletin in March/April 2003.
The fifth paper summarizes my article in The Humanist (April 2003, 16-19) about how to identify religious terrorists through their profiles of propaganda.
*SPECIAL DISCOUNT
With prepaid college bookstore orders for either graduate or undergraduate courses, books can be obtained at discounts for only $30. Inquire about details at Customer Service, Mellen Press, cs@wzrd.com.
"Propaganda Vs Critical Thought" is the web site of Roderick Hindery, Adjunct Professor, Arizona State University.
Web site of Roderick Hindery
Adjunct Professor
Arizona State University
Updated May, 2006