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Abstract
During the Great War (and WWII) the propaganda of fear was an emotional stratagem that was exploited to convince people to defend the ideals of the war. This stratagem was obvious in the production of the posters that served to motivate and galvanize the people. The analysis of the posters of American and British forces identified the different persuasive strategies used.
The success of the posters was that of moulding the agenda setting and the opinion of citizens in order to increase the enlistment to defend the identity of the nation. The enemy violates the human rights; he is a threat for the public order, the security, the welfare and for the values of the nation: to combat him is a new crusade. Appealing to fear has its main motivation in causing interlocutors to consider the seriousness of the problem and is effective if, upon reading the message, they follow the instructions given by propagandists.
Our premise is that we can draw parallels with today's war propaganda, also with the themes that guide consumers in their shopping; and members of the public in their political choices confirm the validity of the principles developed in promoting the Great War.
Keywords: propaganda, persuasion, manipulation
Introduction
In Falsehood in Wartime (1928) Lord Ponsonby denounced the manipulative role played by the media during the Great War. He listed and discussed the stratagems used by Allied Forces to create and sustain the war effort. The most important stratagems for our purpose said that:
* we do not want war;
* the only one responsible is the enemy;
* the enemy is a monster;
* we are fighting for a noble cause;
* the enemy commits atrocities, ours are involuntary errors;
* the enemy employs illegal weapons;
* our cause is sacred in character.
In fact, president Wilson justified armed intervention as the defence of American values (democracy, liberty, justice and family)4, emphasizing the fact that only the enemy is responsible. For this reason the war was only a preventive measure (points 1 and 2 on Lord Ponsonby's list). His words were a confirmation of the strategy of attributing the origin of the terror to the adversary. According to Zizek (2009, 121) using it mirrors the behaviour which consists...