Introduction: Thirteen Propositions About Propaganda

The scope of propaganda is biblical. God’s injunction against spreading false reports prompted subsequent commentators to caution against “propagators of calumny” whose sin consists in sowing seeds of dissension and suspicion that prevent the establishment of peace on earth. Thou shall not publish” would be a serviceable translation of the original Hebrew of Exodus 23:1, according to a nineteenth-century theologian. A generation before, John Wesley had glossed this verse to explain that the divine prohibition included not sim-ply the spreading of rumors but also their receipt. Th e truth or falsity of the message is only half of what Moses is instructed to adjudicate. Equally if not more signifi cant are the postions along an ancient media chain connecting senders and receivers. Linking each end of this communications circuit is an array of activities whose appearance may be an everyday event but whose power is immense: dissemination, circulation, and, of course, propagation.