War party's ministry of truth: the Woodrow Wilson administration pioneered using the media to cultivate uncritical loyalty, a technique being emulated by "conservative" media organs under President Bush.(Irag War)

One-party totalitarian states are typically built on a cult of personality woven around the Dear Leader. This benevolent ruler is depicted in official iconography as a pillar of rectitude--a selfless, determined figure whose leadership is all that stands between the regime's subjects and their foreign enemies. In this environment of all-encompassing conflict, it is the patriotic duty of all citizens to unite behind the Dear Leader.

The classic expression of this theme is found in George Orwell's 1984, which describes how inhabitants of Oceania are indoctrinated each morning, via the ubiquitous telescreen, about the need for unstinting loyalty toward Big Brother, ...