The ethical divide

by Nicole Findlay

The rhetoric leading to the current invasion and occupation of Iraq and the beginning of the Second World War is notable for its similarity.

In each case, the option to go to war was presented to curtail aggressive and disagreeable leaders who posed a threat to world peace.

Sly allusions, such as George W. Bush’s infamous “axis of evil”, equated the regimes of Hussein and Hitler.

In both cases, propaganda was used to enlist support for otherwise unpopular initiatives. While public opinion holds that the decision to go to engage in WWII was the only course of action, the rationale for invading Iraq will likely be examined for generations to come.

Randal Marlin, an adjunct research professor in the Department of Philosophy, examines the methods by which perceived enemies are vilified through propaganda. Is propaganda, especially when used as to enlist support for conflict, ever ethical?

“The reasons for engaging in conflict is one, but only one of the factors that should go into evaluation the ethics of some form of propaganda,” explains Marlin. “The conflict might be justifiable, as in a defensive war, but the means used might still be unacceptable for many different reasons, one of them being that the propaganda might be exposed and become worse than useless.” As an example of the results of the misuse of propaganda, Marline cites the current American government’s loss of credibility. Should a real threat arise, little attention would be paid to any alarms sounded.

However, the ethical use of propaganda is not straightforward, even though some definitions treat it as inherently evil. Without accepting full-scale moral relativism, Marlin allows that existing societal beliefs can be a legitimate consideration in an overall determination of the rightness or wrongness of different propaganda campaigns. “Things become tricky, when you think about assigning blame for those who acted wrongly, but out of a set of false beliefs that seemed reasonable at the time,” said Marlin. Racist stereotyping prevalent in WWII depictions of the Germans and Japanese may have made the bombing of civilian populations more palatable.

Marlin’s own childhood helped shape the research he would pursue decades later. As his family relocated from the US to Canada and then from Ireland to England, Marlin found he was rebounding from one culture shock to another. As a result, he was enrolled in both English and French, public and private schools – each with their own distinctive cultures.

“All of these cultural shocks left a strong impression about the nature of prejudice since I quickly found prejudices I carried over from one group were quickly challenged in the new environment,” said Marlin. “I also saw how prejudices could interfere with peaceful settlement of social problems and could lead to war, so I had a strong inclination to work to dispel prejudice.”

War propaganda is only a small part of Marlin’s research. His work also delves into news management, government information and how it is presented, advertising and public relations, and how these are used to shape public opinion and resulting policies.