During a 2012 US election debate, a moderator challenged Newt Gingrich over the presidential hopeful’s past remarks that “black Americans should demand jobs, not food stamps”, and that “poor kids lack a strong work ethic” and could benefit by working as “janitors in their schools”.
“Can’t you see,” the moderator asked Gingrich, “that this is viewed, at a minimum, as insulting to all Americans, but particularly to black Americans?”
When Gingrich said “No”, the audience applauded. When Gingrich proceeded to preach on the “value of hard work”, the audience cheered. But when the moderator suggested Gingrich was being “disingenuous” in denying that the phrase “lacking work ethic” had racist undertones, the audience booed the moderator.
This anecdote, in Yale University philosophy professor Jason Stanley's valuable new book How Propaganda Works, illustrates well one of the book's central claims: the propaganda that harms democracy is inseparable from the dulling and crippling of human empathy.
Stanley spends little time on pictures of rotting lungs pasted over cigarette packages, on human-rights demonstrations, advertising or extremists’ cyber chat-rooms. As for dystopian re-education camps or North Korea’s rockets, totalitarian propaganda is too obvious to much worry about, Stanley says. It is the unacknowledged and unnoticed propaganda in putative liberal democracies that concerns Stanley.
Why, for example, in the US – a country that considers itself to be a liberal democracy – are black men so disproportionately locked-up in prisons, serving disproportionately long sentences? This is the type of question that, for Stanley, goes to the heart of what propaganda is and does.
“By the end of the 1990s, it was apparent that somehow, despite the rhetoric of and indeed sincere belief in a recently achieved democratic equality, there was drastic racial and economic injustice, evident to those suffering it, but somehow invisible to most of the rest of us,” Stanley writes.
What prevents us from seeing how much distance separates our ideals and life as it really is? Our words. “The most basic problem for democracy raided by propaganda is the possibility that the vocabulary of liberal democracy is used to mask an undemocratic reality,” Stanley writes.
“Anti-racist ideals” may serve to “mask” a racist reality. Ideals of meritocracy can cover-up a social structure of unjust advantages. Liberal ideals may veil how vested-interests operate in an unfree market. Propaganda, Stanley argues, consists of ideals turned back against themselves.
Propagandists need not be liars, nor insincere. The problem is not bad faith, but what Stanley calls “flawed ideologies” – habits of thought which serve to justify elite privilege, advantage and status as “legitimate” and “deserved”, and judge those on the have-not side of these gaps as there by their own “fault”.
Prisons provide a flesh and concrete illustration of both the mechanisms and consequences of propaganda.
Appealing to common values like justice, law and order, politicians use fear – in this case, of crime – to create a demand for policy. The politicians present themselves as the answers to voters’ demands for action. “Objective science” – such as the “super-predator” criminal profile theory – is enlisted to boost the rationale for more imprisonments.
On top of that, the jobs, public money and free labour that prisons provide create incentives to increase incarceration. Citizens feel totally reasonable in demanding more jails and that convicts be locked up longer; importantly, they don’t feel racist. But now a whole segment of society is dehumanised, sequestered out of sight, and deemed unworthy of political representation (prisoners in the United States do not have the right to vote). By this very process, the values used to such ends, those of justice, law, order, objective science and racial equality themselves get degraded. Empathy is reduced, inequality is reinforced, democratic deliberation is constrained, and human potential, especially of prisoners, is squandered.
Understanding how such a system works, Stanley suggests, would enhance our ability to keep prisons real sites of justice, law, and order, not a means by which our values are debased.
Stanley introduces his book with the story of Victor Klemperer, the Jewish-German philologist who survived Nazi rule and wrote in 1947 The Language of the Third Reich. Klemperer describes how the Nazis' use of images – namely, of three uniforms, that of the Storm Trooper, the masked racing car driver, and tank driver – came to define the concept of "heroism", and how just uttering the term could hijack rational dialogue. "As soon as this concept was even touched upon, everything became blurred, and we were adrift once again in the fog of Nazism."
In How Propaganda Works, Stanley describes how such a dynamic remains in operation today, no longer a function of crude totalitarianism, but of arguably more sophisticated democratic partisan politics.
“Politics involves a constant search for words that do not appear to be slurs,” Stanley writes. The anti-racist ideal, to which essentially all American politicians and their constituents subscribe, makes outright racism unacceptable. Other words, therefore, must be made to function like slurs – and are often more effective at “priming racial bias”.
When Newt Gingrich speaks of a “work ethic” or “food stamps”, or when others speak of “culture” problems in the “inner city”, or of “entitlement” they can plausibly claim to be impartial, reasonable and talking about something true.
However, Stanley argues, as a result of deliberate, repeated matchings of images of black urban poverty with such words, the “common ground” necessary for deliberating an issue such as “welfare” becomes distorted and shrunk with prejudice, irrationality and falsehood, crowding out any hope of empathy with connotations of lazy, criminal, undeserving blacks with character problems.
Gingrich can claim to be using objective language. But because explicitly broaching race disturbs Americans’ anti-racist ideals, the moderator who challenges Gingrich draws the audience’s ire. Propaganda, again, is the ideal turned against itself, and sets us adrift in the fog.
How Propaganda Works deserves huge praise and should be read by anyone who cares about politics and language. Its trove of tools and insights is impossible to completely summarise here.
As a book, however, How Propaganda Works suffers serious flaws, which, given the book's importance, is hugely frustrating. The writing, although usually clear, can be exasperatingly redundant. Similar sentences, making essentially the same point, can be found in paragraph after paragraph, and then again in later paragraphs. At times the book reads like tyres on ice.
Too often How Propaganda Works seems a catalogue of preliminary statements rather than an unfolding argument. This is not due to the rigours of philosophical exposition – it's just poorly edited. Rather than a 300-page book organised around seven chapters, How Propaganda Works could have been edited down into a more rigorous, 200-page gem, organised around twice as many chapters.
Though the concrete details and anecdotes Stanley provides are often fascinating, I had a desk-hits-head moment of desperation when, already well into a run-on chapter, I encountered the sentence “Here is a seventh example”.
Stanley, in quoting and discussing racist slurs, uses the “N-word” rather than the term itself. His no doubt reasoned and well-intentioned censorship unfortunately gives off an air of childish delicacy. Sanitising hate speech can be appropriate, but I find it immoral to do so in the pages of a university press work of philosophy. I doubt such consideration will age well.
I found myself wishing Stanley analysed the merits of, and contradictions between, liberal democratic values themselves more. I look forward to seeing Stanley’s thoughts adapted to critiquing the propaganda of international diplomacy.
Not least, How Propaganda Works contains a valuable message for journalists and social scientists: keep from reproducing propaganda by seeking to understand and communicate that which enhances our collective capacity for empathy.
Caleb Lauer is freelance print and radio journalist based in Istanbul.
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Neo%20Mobility%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20February%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECo-founders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abhishek%20Shah%20and%20Anish%20Garg%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Logistics%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Delta%20Corp%2C%20Pyse%20Sustainability%20Fund%2C%20angel%20investors%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More by Adrian Harte
Jawbone Press
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
UNpaid bills:
Countries with largest unpaid bill for UN budget in 2019
USA – $1.055 billion
Brazil – $143 million
Argentina – $52 million
Mexico – $36 million
Iran – $27 million
Israel – $18 million
Venezuela – $17 million
Korea – $10 million
Countries with largest unpaid bill for UN peacekeeping operations in 2019
USA – $2.38 billion
Brazil – $287 million
Spain – $110 million
France – $103 million
Ukraine – $100 million
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Five%20calorie-packed%20Ramadan%20drinks
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Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The%20specs
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The%20specs
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No more lice
Defining head lice
Pediculus humanus capitis are tiny wingless insects that feed on blood from the human scalp. The adult head louse is up to 3mm long, has six legs, and is tan to greyish-white in colour. The female lives up to four weeks and, once mature, can lay up to 10 eggs per day. These tiny nits firmly attach to the base of the hair shaft, get incubated by body heat and hatch in eight days or so.
Identifying lice
Lice can be identified by itching or a tickling sensation of something moving within the hair. One can confirm that a person has lice by looking closely through the hair and scalp for nits, nymphs or lice. Head lice are most frequently located behind the ears and near the neckline.
Treating lice at home
Head lice must be treated as soon as they are spotted. Start by checking everyone in the family for them, then follow these steps. Remove and wash all clothing and bedding with hot water. Apply medicine according to the label instructions. If some live lice are still found eight to 12 hours after treatment, but are moving more slowly than before, do not re-treat. Comb dead and remaining live lice out of the hair using a fine-toothed comb.
After the initial treatment, check for, comb and remove nits and lice from hair every two to three days. Soak combs and brushes in hot water for 10 minutes.Vacuum the floor and furniture, particularly where the infested person sat or lay.
Courtesy Dr Vishal Rajmal Mehta, specialist paediatrics, RAK Hospital
A German university was a good fit for the family budget
Annual fees for the Technical University of Munich - £600
Shared rental accommodation per month depending on the location ranges between £200-600
The family had budgeted for food, books, travel, living expenses - £20,000 annually
Overall costs in Germany are lower than the family estimated
As proof that the student has the ability to take care of expenses, international students must open a blocked account with about £8,640
Students are permitted to withdraw £720 per month
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Diriyah%20project%20at%20a%20glance
%3Cp%3E-%20Diriyah%E2%80%99s%201.9km%20King%20Salman%20Boulevard%2C%20a%20Parisian%20Champs-Elysees-inspired%20avenue%2C%20is%20scheduled%20for%20completion%20in%202028%0D%3Cbr%3E-%20The%20Royal%20Diriyah%20Opera%20House%20is%20expected%20to%20be%20completed%20in%20four%20years%0D%3Cbr%3E-%20Diriyah%E2%80%99s%20first%20of%2042%20hotels%2C%20the%20Bab%20Samhan%20hotel%2C%20will%20open%20in%20the%20first%20quarter%20of%202024%0D%3Cbr%3E-%20On%20completion%20in%202030%2C%20the%20Diriyah%20project%20is%20forecast%20to%20accommodate%20more%20than%20100%2C000%20people%0D%3Cbr%3E-%20The%20%2463.2%20billion%20Diriyah%20project%20will%20contribute%20%247.2%20billion%20to%20the%20kingdom%E2%80%99s%20GDP%0D%3Cbr%3E-%20It%20will%20create%20more%20than%20178%2C000%20jobs%20and%20aims%20to%20attract%20more%20than%2050%20million%20visits%20a%20year%0D%3Cbr%3E-%20About%202%2C000%20people%20work%20for%20the%20Diriyah%20Company%2C%20with%20more%20than%2086%20per%20cent%20being%20Saudi%20citizens%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The%20specs%3A%202024%20Mercedes%20E200
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Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The specs
Engine: 3-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 400hp
Torque: 475Nm
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Price: From Dh215,900
On sale: Now
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders
Stuart Kells, Counterpoint Press
Museum of the Future in numbers
- 78 metres is the height of the museum
- 30,000 square metres is its total area
- 17,000 square metres is the length of the stainless steel facade
- 14 kilometres is the length of LED lights used on the facade
- 1,024 individual pieces make up the exterior
- 7 floors in all, with one for administrative offices
- 2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members frame the torus shape
- 100 species of trees and plants dot the gardens
- Dh145 is the price of a ticket
