Daniel Lattier | August 21, 2015
"Jacques Ellul’s Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (1965) has been called “a far more frightening work than any of the nightmare novels of George Orwell.”
In it, the French philosopher and sociologist dispels some of the popular notions about propaganda and exposes how it really operates in the modern world.
In the first chapter of the book, Ellul describes some of the characteristics of modern propaganda. Eight of them appear below:1) It Prevents Dialogue.
“To be effective, propaganda cannot be concerned with detail... Propaganda ceases where simple dialogue begins… it does not tolerate discussion; by its very nature, it excludes contradiction and discussion.”
...3) It is “Total”
“Propaganda must be total.
The propagandist must utilize all of the technical means at his disposal – the press, radio, TV, movies, posters, meetings, door-to-door canvassing.
Modern propaganda must utilize all of these media.
There is no propaganda as long as one makes use, in sporadic fashion and at random, of a newspaper article here, a poster or a radio program there, organizes a few meetings and lectures, writes a few slogans on walls; that is not propaganda.”
...Does this sound like anyone’s playbook today?
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