"Clampdown" by The Clash

- This song is about a governing force that is successfully persuading people into doing things that they are reluctant to do. This is shown through the narrator changing his mind about working for the clampdown by the end of the song.
- The quick tempo and anger in the words of the vocalist show the hate that he has for "The Clampdown."
- There is a direct link to the propaganda we've been talking about in in class in the song when it says " They put up a poster saying we earn more than you!" This lyric exemplifies the Clampdown using propaganda in the form of a poster to get people to work for them.

Propaganda Quotations Blog

Quotes that I like and understand from this document are quotes 13, 26, 35, and 42. Quote 42 states "Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade." What this quote is saying is that the covert meaning/message in an advertisement or piece of propaganda is the true force that persuades rather than the overt message. An example of this is in Nazi propaganda where multiple awful things that the Jews had done or caused (most of them being untrue) were stated with the covert message being that Jews were bad and were causing the downfall of Germany. Over time, the general population of Germany began to believe these lies and was willing to have the Jews either kicked out of the country or exterminated. This example shows the true power of a strong covert message in a piece of propaganda.