Propaganda in Children’s School Books: The Power to Poison Children’s Mind
Counterfeit History: A Tool for Power Abuse and Mind Control
“‘Who controls the past’, ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’’’ — George Orwell
On June 8, 1949, Eric Arthur Blair or better known by his pen name George Orwell released the 9th and his last book entitled 1984. His last book, was written as a warning and even an oracle about the condition of the world in the future led by tyrants. Orwell lived during a period when totalitarianism was a reality in Spain, Germany, the Soviet Union, and other countries, where governments ruled with an iron fist, and there was little freedom, poverty, work coercion, and mass killings. Orwell’s traumatic experience in Spain in 1936, along with the European political climate during and after World War II, was the beginning of his writing in 1984.
1984 tells of a man named Winston Smith who lives led by a totalitarian government, Big Brother. Winston himself worked in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth. His job is to manipulate the contents of magazines, reports, archives, the contents of speeches, and others. Everything he fabricates and manipulates is according to the request of Big Brother. Winston is dispatched to erase existing history and reveals a manipulation of what is true and what is wrong, which is a lie and which is real. Therefore, people have lost track of the true history. 1984 gave birth to a new term called “Orwellian.” Orwellian itself is an adjective that describes a situation, idea, or condition of a society that was controlled by propaganda, surveillance, misinformation, resistance to truth, and an embodiment of the past whose existence has been erased from records and public memory carried out by a totalitarian government.
By this time, 39 years have passed since the year 1984 and 74 years have passed since the publication of the first novel 1984. However, is this novel still relevant to be discussed and discussed again? Why do we need to discuss a literary work that talks about a past that has been missed? What about today’s world? Is Orwellian still relevant?
The History of Propaganda and How it Corrupted The Truth
If we traces back to 1622, The word propaganda has its first appearance in “Congregation de propaganda fide” or congregation for propagating the faith. At that time, Propaganda was originally an operation delegated by Pope Gregory XV to spread the doctrine of the Catholic Church to non-believers. However, in the early 20th century, around the time of the First World War, this concept started to change. The word propaganda began to define political rather than religious indoctrination, reflecting the shift in societal power from Church to State (Fellows, 1959) [1]. From here we can say that propaganda has always been used as an instrument of control and conformity by the dominant social power. Edward Bernays in his book, Propaganda, recalled propaganda as an invisible government that tends to control opinion and action in the interest of any who can use its techniques on a large scale [2].
History is one of the various mediums that may be used to disseminate propaganda. History is used as a political vehicle by certain groups to consolidate their dominance, which results in wars, massacres, or losses that affect many people. In Wahyu yang Hilang Negeri yang Guncang, Ong Hok Ham argues that falsification of historical knowledge often occurs. This cannot be separated from the function of history in society, such as the function of legitimacy or the function of setting an example for the younger generation [3].
Ideological Indoctrination through Teaching and Curriculum
Students in elementary and secondary schools may be more vulnerable to propaganda since their critical thinking skills are still developing. Because of this, propaganda and indoctrination may be spread simply through instruction, textbooks, and curriculum. Indoctrination means teaching someone to accept a set of beliefs without questioning them. When students become indoctrinated, students lose their ability to assess the merits of the ideas they are studying and find themselves locked into particular beliefs and assumptions in such a way that they are unable to critically evaluate opposing viewpoints because their minds have been closed.
From this, we can conclude that educators shouldn’t manipulate their authority to push particular views and beliefs upon their students. As a consequence, young students will become incapable of assessing such views for themselves. On the other hand, teaching should serve as a platform to help students develop their critical thinking abilities, which call for constructive skepticism, questioning, examination of opposing viewpoints, the use of evidence, and a willingness to follow an argument wherever it may lead. Therefore, rather than instilling ideological conformity, our energies should be directed toward building the capacity and disposition to educate in this approach [4].
Propaganda Trough the World War
Throughout the First World War, propaganda was widely used in England to promote patriotism and loyalty to the British Empire among children of all social classes. Furthermore, the war at this time dominated the stories of bravery and hardihood that were the basis for the content in children’s magazines like Boy’s Own [5]. The Boy’s Own Paper was a large propaganda campaign at the time, aimed at encouraging readers to support the battlefront and rallying English children to support the war. Articles and stories highlighted soldiers’ and young heroes’ sacrifices, their powerful armies and weapons, and British military superiority, all with the intention of campaigning absolute triumph for the British and the formation of a new generation of soldiers [6]. Moreover, in the school curriculum, specifically math subjects, students were learning a new model framework about the relative numbers of British warships in different categories against the equivalent German complement, even a set of arithmetical questions on war savings, designed to intensify children’s interest in the subject.
Meanwhile in Germany during the Nazi, children’s books established scientific myths that Douglas Allchin identifies in children’s books that simply distort the nature of science (2003, p. 341 and p. 347). Nazi children’s schoolbooks provide an illuminating historical example of a nation that revered science to the point of making biology the organizing element of its educational system while producing children’s literature filled with fabrication and falsehood. Children’s textbooks propagate the big Nazi idea of a racial utopia based on Aryan supremacy and the removal of ethnic distinctions, which is unfounded both historically and scientifically. There are three children’s books of Nazi propaganda that are frequently mentioned in accounts of anti-Semitism: Elvira Bauer’s Trau keinem Fuchs auf grüner Heid und keinem Jud auf seinem Eid (1936), Ernst Hiemer’s Der Giftpilz (1938), and Hiemers Der Pudelmopsdackelpinscher (1940). The books clearly show how racist science and ideological narrative tautologically reinforce each other in an extreme form of how “narratives play a major role in disseminating science” (Pauwels, 2019, p. 434) in children’s nonfiction to promote a racist agenda [7].
China Cultural Revolution: Little Red Book
Meanwhile in China during the Cultural Revolution education was the centerpiece of that upheaval. The Cultural Revolution, officially known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that was started by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his death in 1976. The Cultural Revolution was supported and conducted by a communist Chinese political elite that operated as the Chinese government’s powerful and highly centralized authority. Fully understanding the power of education, that elite explicitly used China’s schools as the vehicle for the turmoil it wrought. The elite wanted to replace pre-revolutionary feudal-capitalist values and norms with proletarian ones in order to abolish what it saw as pre-revolutionary feudal-capitalist systems. It did not know exactly what forms and structures Chinese society should have, but it did believe passionately that the old values, norms, structures, and processes needed to be destroyed [8].
Because children’s minds are easily shaped, they were the most common target of political propaganda. The Cultural Revolution’s ideas will endure if children are taught to love Chairman Mao above all else and to want to be revolutionaries. By using propaganda, it was made clear that kids would take part in the Cultural Revolution [9]. During this time, The Little Red Book was used in propaganda as an everyday item. The little red book is a book that contains a collection of excerpts from Mao Zedong’s past speeches and publications. This book is specially printed and sold pocket-sized to make it easier to carry and read. It became an unofficial requirement to read the Little Red Book at school and always carry a copy.
Indonesia During New Order Era: The Bloody Haunting Propaganda of Anti-Communism
During 1965–1966 there was a haunting genocide in Indonesia. A movement known as the Gerakan 30 September, in which seven high ranking army officials were abducted and assassinated, served as the catalyst for the 1965–1966 bloodshed. The Partai Komunis Indonesia or Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was charged by the Indonesian army with being the offender, despite the fact that there is still debate on the Movement itself. Following this allegations, the military launched an extermination campaign against communists and other members and sympathizers of leftist organizations, including those who were family members of those individuals. Approximately 500,000 to 1,000,000 people were killed during those years; others experienced grave human rights violations, such as mass killings, torture, sexual violence, forced labour and so on (Komisi Nasional Hak Asasi Manusia RI, 2012). Furthermore, the authoritarian New Order dictatorship under Suharto created a national memory project at this time to eradicate stories of the deadly violence against the (accused) communists and members of leftist groups [10].
On top of that, during the New Order era, history education plays an important role in circulating anti-communist narrative (Hendrix 2017: 52). The new order government tightly controlled many aspects of life, including the educational system (McGregor 2007: 66). The narrative of communists as a national enemy and as rebels was deeply engrained in the minds of the schoolchildren. The military’s account of Indonesian communism permeates what is currently taught in schools about the country’s post-independence history. The political screening committee conducted checks on teachers who worked for the government to make sure they weren’t affiliated with any communist groups or ideologies (Thomas 1981: 385). During the New Order era, the government also exercised strict supervision over the creation of educational materials (Ahmad 2016: 68; McGregor 2007: 49–50). Since 1979, the Ministry of Education has strictly screened textbooks in order to make sure that they contain the standardized version of history (Wirasti 2002: 147–148). Of equal importance, The People’s Consultative Assembly Resolution about the banning of Marxism and Indonesian communism became one of the regulating bases to evaluate school textbook content.
In addition to that, indoctrination did not only occur through a learning process in the classroom as students could also learn history by visual media outside the classroom. Students were obliged to watch the film about the cruelty of the communists (Heryanto 2015: 121). This film was screened in a movie theater, and viewers must pay the ticket fee, in order to watch (Budiawan 2004: 20). Through these remembrance initiatives and media propagandizing, the regime continuously remembered the kidnapping and murder of the army officers and the “evil” of the communists, while omitting the army-supported anti-communist executions. As a result, there is eventually a great deal of suppression and silence regarding the victims of the widespread violence, both in the public realm and among the relatives of the victims [11].
Knock Down the Brick on The Wall
From the several historical events earlier, we can say that books and education can be an instrument for serving someone’s personal purposes and aim. Additionally, history can be fabricated into a propaganda machine and produces hatred. As George Orwell said, ‘The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.’ And for this reason, Orwellian served as a prophet of how the government can exert control through propaganda.
Books and education are binoculars through children’s eyes and how they will perceive the world. If their binoculars were poisoned by propaganda, the resulting attitudes and actions would contribute to misunderstanding of the world and help to provoke resentment. Thus, the design of the educational curriculum and historical knowledge must be given additional consideration. History classes should aim to teach students not only a sense of nationalism but also a critical mindset. As a result, historical awareness can become more concrete, and history might be perceived to belong to everyone.
“We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control. ” — Pink Floyd
Oleh: Salsabila Nur Shabrina (EIEI’21)
Wakil Kepala biro Jurnalistik
SNF FEB UI 2022–2023
Reference
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[4] Hare, W. (2007). Ideological indoctrination and teacher education. Journal of Educational Controversy, 2(2), 5.
[5] Paul, L., Johnston, R. R., & Short, E. (Eds.). (2016). Children’s Literature and Culture of the First World War. London: Routledge.
[6] Marsden, W. E. (2000). ‘Poisoned history’: a comparative study of nationalism, propaganda and the treatment of war and peace in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century school curriculum. History of Education, 29(1), 29–47.
[7] Feldman, D. (2021). Reading poison: Science and story in Nazi children’s Propaganda. Children’s Literature in Education, 53(2), 199–220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-021-09454-9
[8] Kwong, J. (1988). Cultural revolution in China’s schools, May 1966-April 1969. Hoover Institution Press.
[9] Mitchell, J., & Harris, K. (2018). Chairman Mao’s Morning Sunlight: Children in the Cultural Revolution.
[10] Leksana, G., & Subekti, A. (2022). Remembering through fragmented narratives: Third generations and the intergenerational memory of the 1965 anti-leftist violence in Indonesia. Memory Studies, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980221122175
[11] Pratama, S. (2020). Teaching Controversial History: Indonesian High School History Teachers’ Narratives about Teaching Post-Independence Indonesian Communism.