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Political Propaganda In The Code Of Hammurabi

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Imagined order, or shared beliefs that reinforce political and social structures of a society, through political propaganda can be seen in many ancient civilizations. The rulers of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Rome established political propaganda in different ways in order to construct or promote imagined order, which is an essential part of a stable civilization. The Mesopotamian leader, Hammurabi, created a set of laws and punishments for those laws called the Code of Hammurabi. Included in the Code of Hammurabi is an introduction, where Hammurabi writes his justifications and reasoning for the laws and rules he established. In the introduction, he says he is supported by the gods and that he must, “bring about the rule of righteousness in the land…to further the wellbeing of mankind” (*). This justification is political propaganda that creates imagined order because the people under Hammurabi’s rule would believe that by breaking the laws, they are also betraying or going against wishes of their gods, so they are much more likely to obey and not question anything he says …show more content…

The unity of the different areas of Egypt created and promoted a sense of imagined order in society. Unlike Hammurabi, who claimed to be supported by gods, the Egyptian pharaohs considered themselves to be actual gods on Earth (@). This is an example of political propaganda in Egypt because the pharaohs convincing the people that they were gods enforced their absolute power over the empire. Imagined order was created in the unity of Upper and Lower Egypt. The pharaoh Menes, the first pharaoh, created this unity and order by wearing the crowns of both Upper and Lower Egypt (#). Seeing this was a rarity in Egypt, but it showed that the two sections of Egypt could be unified. This was necessary for a stable society because the unity eliminated any tension between Upper and Lower

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