The Pope's no to the people's yes: the tide of British history. (7).

The helmet reads militarism. Theirs, not ours, obviously.

    One type of communication that always does very well in war-time is the basic art of propaganda.  Like all describing and explaining, information is assembled in such a way as to push an idea. If you can get certain ideas into people's heads then they will act in certain ways.
    In the World War One poster for the U.S. army above, the ape is immediately recognisable from his pickelhaube. It's also immediately apparent that he's the kind of rough beast who likes nothing better than smashing things and raping women. Not just a feral ape though, as his society's culture, its most basic ideas, demand wanton destruction and violence. This is  evidenced by his weapon, a weapon that pleads to be described as a Kultur Klub.*
    A subtler technique used within the poster is the fainter image of America upon which the ape is standing. Add to this the smoking ruins in the distance, and it encourages the viewer's dawning realisation that, if we don't stop Germany in Europe, he' ll come here next!
    It is very effective piece of propaganda, encouraging people to think their home-land  and way-of-life is under threat from some terrifying foreign beast. It is a technique still used today-

 
     Understandably, people are not usually very keen on joining the army in order to actually go and fight other people who are trying very hard to kill you.  If the war was being fought on British soil, if Germany had actually invaded Britain, then many more people would be willing to fight. But to encourage someone to travel to France to fight an enemy that had, until very recently, been seen as an ally, would require a whole different kind of information.
    During World War One, the authorities took the very sensible step of establishing  The Ministry of Information  to direct  British propaganda efforts. Using literature, art and film, the British developed new techniques for putting ideas into people's heads.
    About 25 years later, no less an authority than Joseph Goebbels would make the claim that Britain actually won the First World War because of its mastery of propaganda. This importance of propaganda in society gave the Nazis ideas.
    Another idea that connected with the British propaganda effort was the Balfour Declaration of November 1917. This was a letter from the British Foreign Secretary James Balfour to Baron Rothschild that assured the Jewish community of the fact that "His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." British P.M. David Lloyd George saw it as a chance to "help secure post-war British control of Palestine."
    Balfour ** himself suggested that this assurance would allow Britain "to carry on extremely useful propaganda in Russia and America."***
     One man who took away useful ideas from this propaganda drive was Edward Bernays, who stated: "If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it? The recent practice of  propaganda has proved that it is possible, at least up to a certain point and within certain limits."

   Bernays would become known as "the father of public relations", but it is clear that the grand-father of public relations is propaganda. They serve the same purpose, which is to put useful ideas into people's heads.

    But useful for who? As usual, the answer is simply: those in power. The Britain of 1917 was encouraging ordinary people to go to war to protect a system that served those in power. Edward Bernays spent his career serving the purposes of the powerful. Upon cessation of hostlities the propaganda of war's tin helmet was simply swapped for the smiling mask of Public Relations. This was a logical step for, as Bernays maintained :  “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society."

  

    

     
      
      
       Bernays once told a story about how he was "shocked" when informed in 1935 that Goebbels was using his work in order to persecute the Jews. Why he would be "shocked" by this is an interesting question...     
    
       ...but propaganda demands that Bela Lugosi is dead...
                         
                            ....and the sleepers had long started being laid for Birkenau.

 
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               In a better world, this is the only German Propaganda anyone might need-

*Could also be described as a Kultur Knüppel but it doesn't quite have the same ring.

** In a fine example of how communication often works, The Balfour Declaration might be more usefully described as The Milner Declaration, as it was actually drafted by Lord Alfred Milner.

*** Carry on Propaganda (1917):  Dir. Gerald Thomas.  Starring Sid James, Phil Silvers, Hattie Jaques, Barbara Windsor,+  Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey. Written by Talbot Rothwell and a gentleman from the Ministry of Information.

Williams: Monkey Business

Story: In France, General Motors (Silvers) is helping Marechal Bitte (Williams) to hold a Captain's ball. The festivities are thrown into chaos when a huge German ape bursts in and makes off with local girl Lucie Tania  (Windsor). General Smuts (James) and Private Parts (Hawtrey) are then engaged in a mission to contaminate the German water supply with Bromide.


+Also in 1917, the British Royal Family changed its name for propaganda purposes from the screamingly German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the safer option of Windsor.  I have no idea why  Barbara chose the same option.#

#And no, her original name was not Barbara Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.