‘Confessions of an Economic hit man’ and ‘The American War Machine’ are forms of propaganda that use several similar techniques to advance their agenda. One of the most obvious techniques of propaganda that they both have used throughout is emotional appeal.
As noted by Shabo, emotional appeal is a very compelling method as the audience drops the rational thought and focuses on the suffering of the victims. In this case, the victims are the innocent people who die as a result of the wars brought about by the corporateocracy, whose main aim is profit. Both media use emotional appeal to help the audience see the gravity of the issues at hand.
This is especially useful when Perkins talk about the sleepless nights that he spent thinking about the innocent people who died when the United States of America invaded Panama, the children suffering from malnutrition that he met in the cities he visited, and the former financial assassin who had been brutally tortured.
Joe Rogan’s video uses pictures of dead people taken during the Vietnam War and sad music to evoke very powerful emotions from the targeted group.
John Perkins and Joe Rogan also have a similar target audience. They both target the anti-government group that is most likely to criticize and question the actions of the government. The propaganda in both media endorses action that is consistent with their progressive self-interest and interest of the targeted group. They can therefore be classified as rational propaganda.
They are both ‘activism’ types of films because their aim is to provide their audience with information that will inspire them to fight for a change in the operation of government affairs. Perkins and Rogan want people to hold the government accountable.
On Howard Zinn’s chapters on patriotism and nationalism, the author explains that people have lost their understanding of patriotism. He defines patriotism as total compliance with the government and an uncritical acceptance of the will and actions of the government.
Most people are devoted to promotion of the policies of the government which are subject to change and manipulation, instead of promoting the core principles of the country. The policies of the government have been hijacked and are now in favor of the ruling elite.
Joe Rogan talks about the same point, bringing out the fact that the government has been taken over by a group of powerful corporations that compel the government to enforce laws and policies, which benefit their profit interests.
And all these are made at the expense of other poorer nations and at times the American people too. Both Howard and Rogan point out that people in this generation have been deceived into joining the army for the wrong reasons. Young people sacrifice their lives for the selfish interests of the owners of the giant corporations that control the government.
Deluca’s argument in “Thinking amidst the Corporate-ocracy” is that the USA and most of the Western World have moved from democratic states to Corporateocracy where corporations create and define the world we live in. He uses examples such as, the invasion of Iraq despite the global outcry to withhold and the 2008 financial collapse caused by illegal practices in the banking industry and how nobody was held accountable.
The media should also be held accountable for the rise of the Corporateocracy since they have not done their work in calling out these very evident violations of the constitution. Instead, they have chosen to go to bed with those people who are bringing down not only this society, but the rest of the world.