"You can't fool all the people all of the time"
"But if you fool the right ones, then the rest will fall behind"
Politically conscious artists like the Dead Prez understand that our humanity and culture are being viciously and violently undermined by corrupt forces who try to brainwash us and occupy our hearts and mind with political propaganda. The song “Propaganda” gets to the heart of this problem.
Our economic survival is often cited for the reason we have to endure unjust laws and oppressive individuals and institutions. The corrupt forces in our society will tamper with science and present false data to distort reality and keep the people in line. When propaganda doesn’t keep people from exercising their constitutional right to petition the government with legitimate grievances, violence will be unleashed by the state to subdue them, and those caught in the mayhem employed by a corrupt government will be blamed for the situation they find themselves in.
Mainstream media is contaminated with propaganda. Our school curriculums are contaminated with propaganda. Only when we all have the determination to seek truth, demand truth and share truth can we change our world for the better.
The song helps a listener begin to think about their core beliefs about the world they live in. “Propaganda” challenges a person to look carefully at the motivations of those who keep them informed. It dares people to question the sources of all of the things they know. Once you consider the source, the picture of reality becomes clearer. Once you consider the motivations of the source you will be able to see clearly the distractions used to block the truth from view. Once you begin to look closely at economic interests of people distributing information you will begin to hear all of the linguistic manipulations in their speeches that are designed to make us act against our own interests. Once you realize you are being manipulated for socio-economic and political reasons it will become clear exactly who corrupt forces are targeting for destruction, and why.
Human beings have a lot of lies to sift through to find the truth. The lies being fed to us, to perpetuate the status quo, are in abundance. The Dead Prez close the song by getting us to ask ourselves, what is the purpose of life? Living in a world full of lies generated by fear and hatred are undermining our humanity. Too many people are suffering. We must choose to be champions and defenders of the truth if we truly want all people to live in peace and harmony. We must all be united and committed to making sure anyone who lies to us is exposed by the truth. The lies spread by the status quo are keeping us at war with each other and that is not living.