Propaganda... good or bad?

Whether we like it or not, propaganda is everywhere we turn. It's not only on tv and in the commercials that consistently interrupt our viewing pleasure, or plastered on billboards and sides of buses in the city, but from the words of our leaders, and teachers, and favorite celebrities and even our best friends.

As much as I would love to not have any propaganda for myself, and to live in a world where everyone can speak their own thoughts, it is not the case. It sadly seems that if there weren't any propaganda in the world, many people would not be able to form their own opinions, and inevitably latch on to what somebody else said because they had the human need to have their thoughts on an issue. Maybe the forms of propaganda today aren't as straightforward as that of the propaganda from the years of the World Wars, but that makes propaganda both much more dangerous and much more reliable. It has the negative capabilities to spread a rumor quicker than ever, and allow people to buy into ideas that have no affect except for a negative one on people. But at the same time, propaganda can be used in a way that allows people to do what's right.

Although there was much dispute over the course of action that was to be taken by the charity group, the KONY 2012 videos had such an extreme impact in such a short amount of time that not only caused people to think about people other than themselves and focus on other problems going on in the world besides their own, it also caused people to band together and try to do something for the greater good. While some of the things that were said in the video were exaggerated and untrue, which is why it can be categorized as propaganda, the outcomes of it spread had a positive impact on society.