I launched my book “AUTHORITARIANISM & PROPAGANDA The Puppet Master Tools” on paperback December 28, due to the symbolism linked to Innocent Saints Day.
AUTHORITARIANISM & PROPAGADA The Puppet Master Tools
Available on eBook or Paperback worldwide
The symbolism behind this day
For many cultures around the world, the 28th day of December has a lot of cultural significance. Each country has a bit of variation in their tradition. Ecuador, which is the country where I was born and lived until the age of 16 was no different. This used to be actually one of my favorite days, because it was better known as a day to play well-intentioned pranks on your loved ones. You know? Akin to “April’s Fools” in the USA.
But of course, that is where the similarities end. There is a much larger story behind this tradition. Much like many other traditions and holidays we celebrate today, but we don’t quite stop to think about the full context of them. Symbolism and information are fluid. People throughout the ages might change stories to fit a particular narrative or to concord with specific cultural traits.
That is why a lot of the traditions we celebrate today have roots, have been adapted, or even appropriated from other cultures. It is fascinating because it demonstrates how what we have normalized in our lives is full of amalgamated stories that have morphed into what we have grown accustomed to in our societal environments. I know – long sentence, but just like that – the complexity and context are also very much extensively encompassing.
For Innocent Saints, far from being what it was normalized to me even as a kid – a day to play well-intentioned and silly pranks on my loved ones; has a far darker connotation. In reality, this day is meant to commemorate the “Innocent Saints” (Santos Inocentes). These “Innocent Saints” are said to children two years old and under who were murdered by King Herod the Great, back in biblical times – when he felt threatened that the Messiah was going to dethrone him. Is this story actually historically accurate?
Well, not quite (sorry for the spoiler). Actually, King Herod who was the king of Judea, in an area that is considered modern-day Palestine – was not the nicest guy around. Some consider him a great but misunderstood leader. It is also worth noting that his reign was very robustly recorded even back then. However, during biblical times there was also as much misinformation, half-truths, and propaganda as you would expect today. Minus all the social media and fancy graphics.
But having dissenters on any political strata was not to be expected. And it indeed happens. So, it is not unlikely that King Herod (like many other monarchs) had plenty of people who did not care for them at all. Especially if their power was contrary to whatever other goals they had (good or bad). It is worth noting that history could have been written with a particular bias – regardless of actual facts.
You can see this phenomenon even today – and fact-checkers are a lot keener to spot BS when they see it. People did not have the same capabilities back then. Or even if they did, they could have risked life or limb if they were speaking out of turn. Even today, there is no shortage of people who are speaking facts, and they drown in a sea of willful ignorant people who are enamored with whatever propagandistic narrative that best resonates with their confirmation biases.
Did King Herod sent his followers to kill all the children two years and under? Who knows? But most scholars (even biblical scholars) do not quite agree that is an accurate characterization. Don’t get me wrong, people were brutal in those days, life was short and scary to the majority of people. Also, comprehensive education was only limited to a very select minority (not in ethnicity but in number). They understood even back then that the more you learn, the less proclivity it is to become naïve about something. That is not convenient for a group who wants to control others.
And the realization that propaganda is as timeless as human history itself is yet another reason why I felt it was best to launch the paperback version of my debut book on this date. My book pertains to authoritarian propaganda, and propaganda can become the prominent voice even if it is riddled with falsehoods. Conversely, a message fostering critical thinking and intellectual honesty tends to get buried below all the misinformation. Sadly, and realistically – that is how I feel my book is coming into existence on this planet – until it gains more prominence.
Exploited Biases and the King Herod Story
A few quick facts about King Herod the Great. As mentioned before, he was the King of Judea in what we geographically know as present-day Palestine. He was born 73 years before Christ in Edon, when the region was ruled by the Roman Empire. Herod died in Jerico. Although he was the King of Judea; he was actually born as an Arab.
Herod’s father was very amicable with the Romans, and as the Roman empire continued to expand, they knew how to use these relationships to their advantage. The Romans were not very nice to others, they were occupiers with a formidable army. But they were also able to maximize the cultural attributes for each region they conquered in order to create a lasting presence. That does not mean that the occupied group was exactly happy about it.
For the most part, it was very well known that if you spoke out of turn against Rome your end would be a very unpleasant and painful one. And of course, the dehumanizing consequences of your disobedience would be used as an example to others to chill out and carry on with whatever your new overloads mandated. It would be naïve not realizing most people preferred to “accept” their new appointed place, or risk being brutally murdered along everyone and everything they ever loved.
In either case, Herod’s way to the throne was not an easy one. And he made a lot of enemies along that route. He is also very well known for his architectural achievements. For example, the western wall in Jerusalem. But he was not kind to criticism and was known for brutally killing people who fell out of favor, even burning them alive. It is also worth noting that he was very much embedded with the Roman elite, and the people who were not happy about being occupied of course would harbor a lot of resentment towards him. Unsurprisingly, some of the worst attributes from his character would stick like a sore thumb.
So, make no mistake, this dude killed people like crazy. And that even included closest family members and even his own offsprings. And yes, that also included ordering his troops to conduct summary executions. According to the Bible on Matthew 2:16-18 Herod was worried that a Messiah was going to kick him out of power. Thus, ordering every child in Bethlehem under the age of two to be killed.
As I mentioned before, scholars do not agree with this particular scripture being historically accurate. It does not appear in any other gospel, nor in any of the actual historical accounts of the time. However, Herod killing a bunch of babies would have not been out of the scope of his character, this dude was nuts. His reign of terror fortunately ended shortly after that time mentioned in the gospels on 4 B.C. Judea was divided after his death.
So, bring it full circle. Did Herod himself actually perpetrate all those insane crimes against humanity? Technically, yes – as the mastermind behind it. But the ones actually executing those directives were his followers. In particular his troops. Not that disobedience was a choice Soldiers had at that time. But it would be naïve to think that many of them did not feel anointed to do so with impunity. Because after all “they were following the King’s Orders.”
AUTHORITARIANISM & PROPAGADA The Puppet Master Tools
Available on eBook or Paperback worldwide
An authoritarian is only as strong as its followers
That is the title of my first book’s last chapter. When you read my book, you can see the full context coming full circle once you reach that point. But for now, I want to emphasize that even today we see instances of people blindly following orders or directives by an authoritarian. They might not realize it, and even feel the authoritarian is even such a thing – that is what makes it so dangerous.
A lot of the crimes against humanity have been perpetrated by people who thought they were doing the “right thing” – even if this meant dehumanizing another person. For instance, I’ve been having a tweeter (X) argument with somebody who feels it was correct for the Minneapolis police officer who killed a man by placing his knee on his neck for almost 10 minutes. The policeman in question was the ranking officer.
Yet, he and all the other three officers were arrested because they did not follow a proportional use of force procedure. The abuse of power resulted in the death of a man. Regardless of the situation, law enforcement is given a badge, a gun and authority because they are to be trained to de-escalate a situation. In other words, police officers are given that jurisdiction because better judgement is expected of them.
In other words, there are procedures in place people in authority positions that are required to follow. They are meant to ensure we are not worse than whatever infraction a person has allegedly committed. In other words, there is no room for double standards, and we are all equal under the law. When their people live under authoritarian regimes, the laws are tilted against them. If it goes on long enough, this dehumanization gets normalized, and it will take some extraordinary circumstances to break free from it.
This is why the significance of this date was important for me when I chose to release the book on “Innocent Saints” day. Authoritarians are seldom the ones getting their hands dirty, but they are the master minds – and the truth about a historical event will get skewed if this narrative is convenient to those who write those pages. And if what was written was accurate but inconvenient, then somebody will redact it in a way that will be convenient to whomever is in charge. Yes, that happened today as well. Hence my book is designed to help the reader identify if that has been the case.
This was meant to be a short article. And it likely be the last article for 2023, but there is a lot of cool stuff coming in 2024! I just want to end by saying thank you for all the support. At the beginning of this year, I did not know where the year was going to lead – but I am very happy that Half Life Crisis has reached readers in every continent (minus Antarctica). Who knows if we’ll reach somebody there too! I’ve heard that the internet connectivity is not easy at all down there though. Thank you for all you do! HLC