(May 15, 2017 at 5:51 pm)scoobysnack Wrote: Everyone should read the book propaganda by Edward Bernays from 1923
http://www.whale.to/b/bernays.pdf
I would rather read a more this-century book on propaganda and manipulation than early 20th century. Really, things have evolved a lot since then, democracies have also matured, people are more educated, and there is a broader variety of news agencies. Transposing a view of the reality of early 20th century to 2017, interpreted in such a way that makes it look like the democracy of today's USA is the same propagandistic and diabolical as Hitler's propaganda is a bit off.
Now some personal views...
Quote:THE conscious and intelligent manipulation of the
organized habits and opinions of the masses is an
important element in democratic society.
Not as if the dictatorial governments are doing better...
Quote:Those who
manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute
an invisible government which is the true ruling
power of our country.
Why must it be an INVISIBLE force that manipulates you? Why would we assume, here and now, that the ones who manipulate the people or who "rule the world" stay beyond public eye, I don't know, "in a secret dark fortress of doom"? Why would it be difficult to expect that the ones we see, people such as politicians, are the ones who are actually manipulating the masses? And that there are advisers, even experts in psychology of the masses, who help them do it?
Quote:We are governed, our minds are molded, our
tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men
we have never heard of.
Sounds as if we are poor, mindless, unintelligent, victims of a super-intelligent and super-diabolical power. Might have been more the case back in Stalin's days, when you couldn't expect better than to have only one news agency, which was controlled by the government, while communication and traveling were pretty feeble, so basically fact checking anything was nearly impossible. You simply had no other option than to believe what you were told.
