Episode 427 - Finding a Place to Stand

Living Myth

Michael Meade

Transformation, Philosophy, Society & Culture, Genius, Education, Myth, Soul, Culture

4.9 • 944 Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode begins by tracing the evolution of propaganda from the creation of a papal agency entitled The College of Propaganda just over 400 years ago to the current process of “flooding the zone” to gain “full spectrum dominance of the news.” What is described as “rapid fire propaganda” aims, not simply to reframe the collective narrative, but rather to drown out all other narratives.

In addition to being emotionally and psychologically exhausting, the flood of emotionally charged language, outrageous claims and crude accusations serves the goal of turning people against each other, using the age-old divisions of right vs wrong, us vs them and good vs evil.

Since there is no simple way to stop the rapid-fire propaganda project that is well underway, one question becomes, how do we find a place to stand when we find ourselves, not just in a time of increasing uncertainty, but also in a storm of unreality? Michael Meade turns further back than the origins of propaganda to the sources of universal truths that cannot simply be drowned out or be canceled because they are indelibly rooted in the innate nobility, radical creativity and ancient wisdom of the human soul.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Living Myth podcast with Michael Mead, where the shifting, changing world is looked at from a mythic perspective.
0:18.5	This episode begins by tracing the evolution of propaganda from the creation
0:24.0	of a papal agency entitled The College of Propaganda over 400 years ago to the current
0:30.7	process of flooding the zone to gain full-spectrum dominance of the news. Since there is no simple way to stop the rapid-fire propaganda project that is well underway,
0:43.3	one question becomes, how do we find a place to stand, and we find ourselves not just in a time
0:50.3	of increasing uncertainty, but also in a storm of unreality.
0:55.0	Humans have told lies throughout the course of history. We stretch the truth for a variety
1:18.3	of reasons and spin little white lies of convenience. We lie to avoid consequences or
1:26.1	humiliation and also just to please others.
1:30.9	And then there are the big lies, the ones that can have big consequences, that can even shake
1:37.8	civilizations and turn life upside down.
1:42.3	At critical times in history, it becomes a matter of survival to distinguish
1:48.0	lies from the truth. And since the dawn of time, humans have sought ways to know and express the difference.
1:58.5	Alexander Pope once said,
2:04.5	Whoever tells a big lie has undertaken a great task,
2:09.9	for they will be forced to invent 20 more lies to sustain the first one.
2:21.3	Propaganda is a term used for the process of creating moral lives to sustain big lies that have already been promulgated. The word propaganda has a long history that includes attempts to spread ideas
2:28.8	and promote policies, but also to spread lies and manipulate public opinion.
2:35.8	At its roots, propaganda means to propagate, to multiply, to spread.
2:41.9	The meaning of spreading fixed beliefs and doctrines first came into use in Europe
2:48.1	as a result of missionary activities by the Catholic Church.
2:53.7	In the year 1622, Pope Gregory V.15 created the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith,
	...

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