If you want another interesting title to read, I highly suggest “Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes “ by Jacques Ellul. Printed in 1965.

On one fact there can be no debate: the need of democracy in it’s present situation, to “make propaganda.” We must understand, besides, that private propaganda, even more than governmental propaganda, is importantly linked to democracy. Historically, from the moment a democratic regime establishes itself, propaganda establishes itself alongside it under various forms. This is inevitable, as democracy depends on public opinion and competition between political parties. In order to come to power, parties make propaganda to gain voters.

Modern propaganda could not exist without the mass media- the inventions that produce press, radio, television, and motion pictures, or those that produced the means of modern transportation and which permit crowds of diverse individuals from all over to assemble easily and frequently. Present-day propaganda meetings no longer bear any relation to past assemblies, to the meetings of the Athenians in the Agora or of the Romans in the Forum. Then there is the scientific research and all the other fields- sociology and psychology, for example. Without the discoveries made in the past half century by scientist who “never wanted this” There would be no propaganda. The findings of social psychology, depth psychology, behaviorism, group sociology, sociology of public opinion oare the very foundations of the propagandists work.

Full disclosure, he describes himself as a Christian Anarchist and thinks anarchy is the purest form of Socialism. Still an interesting read and one of his main points is the ever present danger of propaganda in a technological society.

If you want another interesting title to read, I highly suggest “Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes “ by Jacques Ellul. Printed in 1965.

On one fact there can be no debate: the need of democracy in it’s present situation, to “make propaganda.” We must understand, besides, that private propaganda, even more than governmental propaganda, is importantly linked to democracy. Historically, from the moment a democratic regime establishes itself, propaganda establishes itself alongside it under various forms. This is inevitable, as democracy depends on public opinion and competition between political parties. In order to come to power, parties make propaganda to gain voters.

Modern propaganda could not exist without the mass media- the inventions that produce press, radio, television, and motion pictures, or those that produced the means of modern transportation and which permit crowds of diverse individuals from all over to assemble easily and frequently. Present-day propaganda meetings no longer bear any relation to past assemblies, to the meetings of the Athenians in the Agora or of the Romans in the Forum. Then there is the scientific research and all the other fields- sociology and psychology, for example. Without the discoveries made in the past half century by scientist who “never wanted this” There would be no propaganda. The findings of social psychology, depth psychology, behaviorism, group sociology, sociology of public opinion oare the very foundations of the propagandists work.