Larry D. Lauer

The American Council on Education’s (ACE) annual meeting was held in Washington this week, and as you would expect, many of the speakers addressed the huge issues facing higher education, and the dilemmas we face in trying to address them.

I addressed this dilemma previously in Lesson 46, but I am driven again this week to talk about the senseless contradictions inherent these days in most of our political messaging:

Some give rousing speeches to motivate teachers to higher achievement,  and then turn around and make them hostile. 

Many make statements about reducing costs and restoring local responsibility, but then impose national standards and stiffer regulations…all of which, of course, increase costs!

Much rhetoric is about creating new jobs, but then these same folks propose immediate and draconian cuts…putting  people out of jobs by the thousands.

These “political communicators” operate on the premise that repeating the same extreme view over and over again will eventually make it effective.  But this is not true communication.  It is propaganda, pure and simple. 

The consequence of propaganda is that some will buy it, and others just stop participating . We end up with a polarized world, and no solutions.

Genuine political communication is about better understanding and  promoting  the greater good. It seeks to move audiences toward genuine solutions. It favors practical approaches and simple messages that improve social climate and enable democratic progress, one step at a time.

Propaganda, then, aims only to win big for a few. Communication, however,  expands understanding, accounts for differences, and offers reasonable solutions.