Language of Destruction: Modern Propaganda & Semiotic Ethics

Abstract

Language has always played a major role in both the spreading of totalitarian ideology, according to many historians who have studied totalitarian regimes. However, language might play an even more significant role now than it did in the times which we usually connote to totalitarian (fascist) propaganda, such as the first half of the 20th-century. One can observe that modern discussions surrounding harmful, propagandistic stereotypes often carry with them a connotative suggestion of visual category. However, in this paper, I attempt to shine light on linguistic forms of modern propaganda in the form of symbols, analysing when we could reasonably call a linguistic symbol ‘propagandistic’ and what primary characteristics such symbols might share with each other and (visual) propagandistic icons. Throughout this paper, I assume an Arendtian understanding of ‘ideology’ and ’common sense’, as well as analyse her notion of ‘historical crisis’ to argue for the contemporary necessity for a novel, simple framework to actively recognise dangerously reductive language as propagandistic. In addition to formulating a potential candidate for such a framework, I analyse what some of the potential dangers might be of the absence of culturally recognising such language for what it is. I argue that obliviousness to such language might exacerbate political rifts by hampering our ability for communication through the alteration of Arendtian common sense, as well as potentially influence the ways in which we culturally remember.