Death Propaganda

When we think of the word propaganda, here in the west we (generally speaking) automatically conjure images of wartime messages posted on paper strewn about on city lamp posts, or marquee-sized messages like the one below that invite us to embrace a certain sentiment  - often appealing to our sense of pride or even preying on our deepest fears and sympathies. 

This type of propaganda is the most blatant and
the most familiar - it calls to action
and appeals to certain ideals. 

And certainly this fits within the classical definition of propaganda. However,  the definition of propaganda is actually much larger than that, and encompasses much more than just this type of message.     Propaganda is - effectively - the dissemination of information, either factual or rumor, half-truth or entirely false - to influence public opinion.   There are a variety of methods employed in these messages to achieve the ultimate goal of swaying that opinion, but generally you can expect to see things like name calling (or the use of derogatory labeling, what I also like to term "othering"), the bandwagon tactic (using widespread social appeal), and then more importantly the employing of glamorous but imprecise banalities that really express nothing more than frothy feelings, and which have no real basis in fact.  

So let's keep this in mind and examine now the message of death and dying we often see.  To start, let's look at a very simply bulletin from Johns Hopkins Medical Center (an esteemed clinic here in the US) that describes grief and loss. You can view it HERE.

First, the article talks about the types of grief, and uses words like illness, loss, death, anticipation, emotions, anger, guilty, and pain.  It mentions support, clergy, and spirituality.    In addition to this, it immediately proceeds to discuss funeral and burial, and consequently how expenses for these are to be paid. Notice, then, the juxtaposition of death and grief near the central western god of money - and I've talked about our Western worship of that in this post here.   

This propaganda, then - if we are viewing propaganda from the lens which I created through the definition above - is intended to inspire fear and confusion.  In fact, it might manufacture internal dialogue that looks something like this:  "How can I leave my loved ones behind? My legacy must be financial - and because of this, I must do everything I can NOT to die. I must prolong my life as long as I possibly can.  Moreover, what happens when someone I love dies?  How am I going to go on without them?" All of this line of thinking continues the narrative of fear of death, as inspired by propaganda to support the death industry.  

Additionally, the healthcare industry in the West utilizes successful death propaganda campaigns all the time - but we are so immersed in our cultural narrative that we fail to see them.  Take, for instance, advertisement campaigns for cancer treatment, some of which are described here.    Words like "fight" or "battle" are used to inspire fear, and words like "survival" and "winning" are used to create images of victory.    All of these appeal to us on a very emotional level: who among us doesn't want more time with family? And if death is final, who wants to sign up to die?? 

As an example, here is a photo of part of an ad campaign for the hospitals of the University of Southern California healthcare system.   It employs the emotional tools mentioned above:

Photo courtesy of USC Healthcare systems. 

Death propaganda, then, serves to further industry rewards, and does not help us understand the mystery that surrounds it.  It speaks with a loud voice, however, and we are ever subject to its presence and pervasive message.   In order to better understand biochemical death (and whether or not we make it out of here alive at all), we have to begin to dismantle the message promoted by death propaganda in our culture.