Today, we’ll start with unpacking the concept of “glittering generalities” and a few visuals. Remember how we talked about those “one liners” that we see in propaganda posters? The reason that one word is being used is a technique to get the masses to associate an idea with an image.
In advertising, if you think about slogans, one of the most famous ones was used by Nike for many years. They used to use the phrase “Just do it” when they showed a picture of someone running or playing basketball and so forth. The graphic they used was a slash, and it is found on all their products. Over time, “Just do it” became associated with exercise and their products until now, you don’t even have to remember the original phrase. If you see the logo, it has become associated with sports, and gear. And just doing it…
In political propaganda a slogan is a little different. Leaders of different political regimes in the past used slogans to attach “concepts” to themselves. In this campaign, when you think about it, what words immediately come to mind for the various candidates?
When a word like “HOPE” gets used in a campaign, that is a “glittering generality.”
What is hope? Is hope a thing that can be attached to a human being? Or is it an emotional state? The state of hoping for something to happen? If a word like “Progress” gets used, what is meant by progress? Can progress be attached to an image of a human being? Or is it something else?
Glittering generalities are ideas. Here is a whole article from Sourcewatch on Propaganda, and here is what they said about “glittering generalities:”
Glittering generalities
From SourceWatch
Glittering generalities “was one of the seven main propaganda techniques identified by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in 1938. It also occurs very often in politics and political propaganda. Glittering generalities are words that have different positive meaning for individual subjects, but are linked to highly valued concepts. When these words are used, they demand approval without thinking, simply because such an important concept is involved. For example, when a person is asked to do something in ‘defense of democracy’ they are more likely to agree. The concept of democracy has a positive connotation to them because it is linked to a concept that they value. Words often used as glittering generalities are honor, glory, love of country, and especially in the United States, freedom. When coming across with glittering generalities, we should especially consider the merits of the idea itself when separated from specific words.” –ThinkQuest Library.
Let’s look at an example of that, using a Russian poster of Lenin…
At the bottom of the poster, it says: “Look Forward” — again we see the classic “Captain of the Ship” imagery, that hammer and sickle motif, and the star we looked at yesterday. Plus all those flags, no? This is how propaganda works with those “glittering generality” style statements.
“Look Forward” is a lot like the statement “Progress” isn’t it? In the case of this Lenin Poster what did that mean to the viewer? Look forward to Communism? You think about what the artist was trying to convey with a message like that. A glittering generality statement is intangible, meaning “projectible” you can “project” anything you want onto it.
Some people see parallels from the past being used in the present over at American Thinker.com
It’s the read of the day, because you will see the exact techniques used is a poster for Obama, as contrasted with Lenin over there too. Here is a taste of that article…(to be continued…)
Obama’s Posters: Message in the Image
There is something unsettling and very familiar in the Obama poster campaign which has plastered his image over the country. The posters depict the same graphic closeup of the candidate with one block word either “Hope,” “Change” or “Progress” at the bottom. I knew that I had seen this before, and then it came to me that this image appropriates the graphic style of totalitarian Soviet propaganda. It recalls the idealzed portraits and personality cult of the “Beloved Leader” such as Stalin and Lenin. The leader, face illuminated by a “holy” light, looks off to the horizon and sees the truth that is not available to his mere mortal followers, who must look up to his image.
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