If you’ve read our last article, “Narrative…What Does It Mean?”, then you know that:

• “Narrative” and “Propaganda” are one in the same
• It’s a “story” that “propagates a doctrine or a system”
• Another way to say it is “a story that tells you the rules of the road”
• Narrative Propaganda is how the mind processes information
• Narrative Propaganda can be good or bad
• Good Narrative Propaganda has facts to back up its case
• Bad Narrative Propaganda has no facts
• Narrative Propaganda isn’t just for Political Regimes…
• It can teach eternal truths about human nature and the human condition

In our last article, we told you how Mind at War.com uses a 6-Point Checklist to assess the pillars a Propaganda Narrative.

Once we use Checklist to figure out the foundation of a particular Propaganda Narrative, we then use it to see if the story holds water to the facts.

In this article, we give you the first 3 points of the Checklist!

The Story Behind The Story

Our checklist is based off of the work of Southern Illinois University Professor of Mass Communications Ralph Donald. His 2017 book, Hollywood Enlists! Propaganda Films of World War II, provided the springboard for our own checklist.

At Mind at War.com, we’ve streamlined Professor Donald’s findings, ditched his Marxist bias, and linked his research up to Classical intellectual concepts like Aristotle’s 4 Cardinal Virtues of Western Civilization and Nietzsche’s Master and Slave Morality.

Without further ado, we are proud to present to you the first 3 categories of our 6-Point Narrative Propaganda Checklist.

The Big Picture

All Narrative Propaganda portrayals boil down to Nietzsche’s Master and Slave Morality.

On one hand, there are the Masters. They’re the best. They’re the toughest, the smartest, the most disciplined, the most  just. They’re the Masters because they are the greatest. They’re big time winners in every way.

On the other hand, there are the Slaves. They’re the worst. They’re the weakest, the dumbest, the laziest, the most egotistically vindictive. They’re the the Slaves because they are the lowest. They’re big time losers in every way.

Because they can in no way threaten the Masters, the Slaves to turn to dirty tricks…they become sneaky, liars, thieves. In this way, they can realize their vindictiveness to destroy the Masters.

This means that the social roles of the Good Guy Masters and the Bad Guy Slaves might not correspond to literal masters and slaves…the tough Masters might be serving as slaves because they were brainwashed by the sneaky lies of the weak Slaves serving as masters.

But no matter the social roles, the rules are the same…

In Nietzsche’s Master and Slave Morality of Narrative Propaganda, the Masters are always the Good Guys and the Slaves are always the Bad Guys.

Category 1:

The Good Guys

In our Narrative Propaganda Checklist, the Good Guys Masters represent Aristotle’s 4 Cardinal Virtues of Western Civilization, or as we call them, “The Big 4″…Tough, Smart, Disciplined, and Just.

Here’s how we lay the Good Guys out on the Checklist:

Good Guys

• Good Guys are Tough and Confident: they can beat any problem in front of them and are not afraid to do so. They’re excited for challenge.
• Good Guys are Smart and Skilled: they’re not just tough, but knows all the secrets of winning. They’re not too full of themselves to take good advice.
• Good Guys are Disciplined: It’s the Guts and Dedication to refine themselves that make them Tough and Smart. 
• Good Guys are Just: They love all good people everywhere, and makes friends with the local people they liberate, even if they’re different from them.
• Their Belief System makes them both Tough and Just.
• They’re personified with Good Guy Leader Figures who embody all these traits. 

Category 2:

The Bad Guys

In our Narrative Propaganda Checklist, the Bad Guys Slaves represent the opposite of the Big 4…Weak, Dumb, Lazy, and Egotistically Vindictive.

We call these opposites “The Sad 4.”  

Here’s how we lay out the Bad Guys out on the Checklist:

Bad Guys

• The Bad Guys are Weak and Pathetic: The bad guys fold when the going gets tough, especially when the deck is not in their favor. 
• The Bad Guys are Dumb: they’re so full of themselves, they are not smart enough to know how to win—or play at all.
• The Bad Guys are Lazy: Their failure to improve themselves makes them Weak and Dumb. Being Weak and Dumb keeps them Lazy. It’s a vicious cycle!
• The Bad Guys are Egotistically Vindictive: they’re so full of themselves, they can’t relate to anybody, can’t make friends, and hate all people that aren’t losers like them…which is most people!
• Their Belief System makes them both Weak and Vindictive.
• They’re personified with Bad Guy Leader Figures who embody all these traits. 

Category 3:

Bad Guy Danger

If the Bad Guys Slaves were only Weak, Dumb, Lazy, and Egotistically Vindictive, they’d be a cakewalk to beat.

The Bad Guys Slaves know this, so out of their Vindictive hate, they develop sneaky, stab-in-the-back ways to threaten the hated Master Good Guys.

Here’s how we lay out the Bad Guy Danger on the Checklist:

Bad Guy Danger

• The Bad Guys are Sneaky: they’re not tough or smart, so they can only get the good guys by playing dirty, not fighting fair. They hide in the shadows and viciously attacking when least expected, stab-in-back style. They wait until the good guys are weak beacuse they can only beat the weak! Why? Because they’re weak themselves! [Danger of Weak]
• The Bad Guys are Liars: Because they are not tough or smart, they have to use deception, telling the good guys what they want to hear so they lower their guard [Danger of Dumb]
• The Bad Guys are Thieves: anything good they have—whether an idea or a material object—is stolen from the Good Guys. [Danger of Lazy]
• The Bad Guys are able to realize their hateful Vindictive fever dreams with the above three.
• Their Belief Systems justify these rule-breaking tactics.
• The Bad Guy Leader Figures are the worst offenders of all.

The Bottom Line

There you have it. The first 3 categories in our 6-Point Narrative Propaganda Checklist.

Want to read the next 3?

Then read the next part…”Narrative Propaganda Checklist: Part 2” and see the complete system!