Tag: propaganda
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Why Propaganda Works
“American sociologists scientifically try to play down the effectiveness of propaganda because they cannot accept the idea that the individual—that cornerstone of democracy—can be so fragile; and because they retain their ultimate trust in man.” This is a line from early in Jacques Ellul’s book Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (Propagandes in the original…
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Palestine: A Virtuous Cause
I’ve just finished the book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi and I found it very illuminating. The greatest impact it’s had on my thinking so far, and what I will be digesting for some time, is how the book changed my view of the Palestinian side of the conflict. This is…
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How to Win the Culture War
You cannot win the culture war by fighting on the battlefield of culture. It’s how most wars are won so I understand why you want to do this. But that is not how the culture war works.
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French Propaganda Technique, or Why I Bounced Off of Jacques Ellul
These works of Ellul are thought-provoking but they are not works of first-rate philosophy. Ellul’s analysis in them is too limited. His observations can be made more useful but they will need someone who can go through his works line by line and elaborate the points that he touches on. As an account of these…