Holding Truths in Tension

When conflict propaganda dangerously drives out nuance

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Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash

Dear reader,

I have some other topics lined up, but with the events of last weekend in particular, thought it worth writing what follows. In the next couple of weeks you can expect articles on fictional AI Bible vlogs, and the old Left Behind series of books… unless other issues crop up and take priority. Then I hope to get back to exploring ideas around spirituality with its practices and rhythms.

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When conflicts break out that involve powerful nations and military activity, info-wars also ramp up and propaganda machines kick into gear as various parties within the conflict do their utmost to paint themselves as the one’s on the right side, and tar the other side as evil.

The propaganda necessarily seeks to reduce complexity and simplify the justifications for military action. In doing so it looks to provoke an emotional response that pushes the recipient of the propaganda in a particular direction, forcing people to choose a side. There’s little room for nuance as it becomes something akin to an extremely high-stakes football match with people cheering for one side or the other. Those high stakes are a sense of justice, and standing with the right side against evil.

That reduction of complexity and the picking of sides means that people are shaped to push against anything they hear as being sympathetic to the ‘other’ side, often with the assumption that you must be ignorant of these other elements. The ability to hold multiple truths in tension with each other is done away with.

This became very apparent for me during one of our recent Sunday evening shows on Newstalk ZB where we discussed the US strike on Iranian nuclear sites. It had happened within the previous 12-18 hours. I’ll put the whole show at the end of this article so you can listen to it if you want.

I want to cover why it is an absolute must that we hold multiple truths in tension and not give into the over-simplified narratives of conflict propaganda.

Firstly, my broad position on the recent strikes on Iran from Israel and the US…