And this is not to say that bad people can't sometimes do good things.
Even well-intentioned individuals have their flaws; they are capable of actions that inflict harm upon others. It's important to acknowledge that even those deemed "bad" can sometimes engage in positive behaviors. However, the root cause often lies in unresolved emotional wounds and conflicts, often hidden from their conscious awareness. When essentially good people commit harmful acts, their lack of malevolent intent and subsequent remorse indicate their unawareness of the true nature and reasons behind their actions.
However, there exists a subset of individuals who knowingly, intentionally, and repeatedly cause harm. This includes narcissistic or egotistic personalities driven by selfish desires, displaying a pathological indifference to the rights and concerns of others. Additionally, aggressive personalities achieve their goals by deliberately disregarding the rights and concerns of those around them.
Creating space for God in one's heart requires humility and acknowledgment of a power greater than oneself. Some individuals, despite outwardly professing belief in God, lack this space within their hearts. Their souls resist the idea of submitting to an unseen, incomprehensible higher power. When put to the test, their true allegiances become apparent.
Egotistic or narcissistic characters often worship a grandiose image of themselves, viewing others as inferior and feeling entitled to act without constraint. Their lack of faith in a greater source inhibits them from recognizing the importance of treating others with respect and empathy.
The subsequent vignette illustrates individuals with diverse backgrounds and accomplishments but who share essential character flaws. Despite worldly success, their relationships suffer due to inherent character defects.
Propaganda has exerted influence in various facets of French society, including religion, politics, and warfare, since the year 1500. Over the course of five centuries, the role of public opinion, or vox populi, has expanded, accompanied by the evolution of propaganda channels and techniques designed to sway it.
The introduction of the printing press in the sixteenth century marked a pivotal moment in French life. Mass-produced books, pamphlets, placards, journals, newspapers, and cartoons emerged as effective tools for propaganda. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw the incorporation of photography, film, and broadcasting into the propaganda arsenal.
Regardless of the cause be it religion, rebellion, absolutism, revolution, reaction, republicanism, socialism, laissez-faire, democracy, fascism, or patriotism the overarching objective remained consistent: to garner support or opposition from the public concerning a specific stance on the prevailing status quo.
The emergence of Protestantism during the reign of Francis I (1515 - 1547) witnessed dissenters employing placards in Paris and nationwide to denounce perceived abuses in the papal mass. Books, tracts, and woodcuts, such as "Muster of the Archers at the Popinjay" and "The Great Marmite [pot] Overturned," were distributed. In response, the church wielded censorship, sermons, and violent persecution of heretics, often collaborating with the parliament of Paris but not with the crown. Even figures like Marguerite of Navarre (1492 - 1549) faced attacks for challenging clerical dogma. Satirical plays depicted her as a heretic, further intensifying the religious conflict.
Dissident propaganda found a more prominent platform in the works of the philosophes. Rousseau championed social and political reform for the people, coining the revolutionary slogan "Liberte, egalite, fraternite." Voltaire launched attacks against the ecclesiastical establishment, while Beaumarchais ridiculed the privileged classes in Le Mariage de Figaro. Diderot and the Encyclopedie recognized the pivotal role of propaganda in effecting change.
Early volumes set the writers on a collision course with church and state, prompting Diderot's coeditor d'Alembert to resign. In 1753, La Grand Remonstrance, an assault on l'ancien regime, sold twenty thousand copies in three weeks, fostering popular discontent with a government resistant to change and a society where the privileged were indifferent to the less fortunate.
The history of Germany is renowned for its unique characteristics and paradoxes. This "land in the center of Europe," marked by ever-shifting boundaries, also gave rise to notable figures such as Martin Luther, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Adolf Hitler. While the abuse of propaganda is often associated with the Third Reich, consensus politics has been largely absent from German political culture throughout its non-democratic journey to modernity.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the term "Germany" held little political significance. The various states that composed it were loosely tied through their membership in the old Holy Roman Empire, maintaining distinct regional variations rooted more in political and cultural history than geography. Medieval Germany, under the Saxon and Salian dynasties, featured a feudal societal and political organization, with a dominant military aristocracy. The revival of intellectual life owed much to the church, particularly its monasteries and cathedral schools, many of which experienced a resurgence in the tenth century.
The period from the mid-eleventh to the mid-twelfth century was characterized by political conflicts and religious strife, giving rise to the great dynasties that would leave lasting imprints on German history. The aristocracy, primarily a warrior class, developed an intricate code of honor that influenced Middle High German art and literature by the end of the twelfth century. Lyric poetry, known as Minnesang, provided expression to the ethos of the knightly class. Additionally, narrative poetry, exemplified by the first German version of the Tristan and Isolde legend around 1170, emerged. Another notable category was the heroic epic, with the Nibelungenlied being the most famous example.
Meanwhile, Henry's promoters portrayed him to the French populace as a chivalrous, brave, and patriotic absolute ruler devoted to the well-being of all. In the Latin Quarter of Paris, miniature portraits of the king were marketed to stir support for Henry and opposition to the league. Satirical pieces, like "Pleasant Satire or the Efficacy of Catholicon," were crafted by propagandists, wherein league zealots revealed their dubious motives when exposed to the purported wonder drug "Catholicon."
Unable to overcome the league through either propaganda or war, Henry executed a strategic "recantation" of his Protestantism. This served as his ultimate propaganda maneuver. By partaking in communion at Notre Dame, he gained acknowledgment as the king of France, although it did not signify a genuine change of heart regarding religion. Paris, in Henry's view, was "worth a mass" if it fulfilled a crucial political necessity.
Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, governments and dissidents alike employed propaganda to advance political and social agendas. Royal administrations supported newspapers like the Gazette de France, the Journal des Savans, and Memoires de Trevoux, which reciprocated by promoting state policies. Dissidents sometimes expressed their views in the theater, exemplified by the play La Fausse Prude, of uncertain authorship, purportedly a satire on Madame de Maintenon, Louis XIV's mistress (1643 - 1715), promptly censored by the state.
Art Style 2024
