PROPAGANDA UNDERMINING IDEALS
Transformation debates flipped to benefit a few, says judge
Judge Dennis Davis warns against skewed transformation debate that eases the way for personal enrichment of a few
A dangerous trend had manifested itself in debates about transformation in SA, one which flipped worthy ideals into their opposite in order to further the economic interests of a few, Judge Dennis Davis said on Monday. This trend had manifested in the valid criticisms of the banks and Constitution as obstacles to transformation, which in the hands of propagandists became an argument to ease the way for personal enrichment. Davis, who heads the Davis tax committee, drew in his address to the Cape Town Press Club on the book How Propaganda Works by Yale University philosophy professor Jason Stanley. "Propaganda uses language that purports to support democratic ideals such as liberty, equality and objective reason and then flips the language in the service of undermining these very ideals themselves. It is the idea of taking an ideal which is utterly commendable and with which many people would agree and flipping it in the service of its very antithesis which destroys the very ideal it...
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