From “The Discipline of Inspiration: The Mysterious Encounter with God at the Heart of Creativity” by Carey Wallace
These artists may be the first victim of their own propaganda. Their need to believe may help them to create especially potent lies. Recording those lies may reveal fundamental truths about human nature and desire. And the artist’s sincerity may have a ring of authenticity that gives the propaganda added power.
But sincerity is not truth. And artists who are unable or unwilling to confront the deepest realities, either about ourselves or the world, will not produce art but propaganda, no matter how deeply felt.
Propaganda appears not just in campaign posters and parades, but everywhere from Hollywood movies to literary novels, in rap and country songs, in art flicks and fashion spreads.
It may be ingenious, even beautiful. But no matter how well-executed and regardless of the cause it champions, its primary purpose is not to reveal, but convince.