Propaganda; The formation of men's attitudes

From one of the greatest French philosophers of the 20th century, comes a seminal study and critique of propaganda. Taking not only a psychological approach, but a sociological approach as well, Ellul’s book outlines the taxonomy for propaganda, and ultimately, it’s destructive nature towards democracy. Drawing from his own experiences fighting for the French resistance against the Vichy regime, Ellul offers a unique insight into the propaganda machine. Jacques Ellul’s view of propaganda and his approach to the study of propaganda are new. The principal difference between his thought edifice and most other literature on propaganda is that Ellul regards propaganda as a sociological phenomenon rather than as something made by certain people for certain purposes. Propaganda exists and thrives; it is the Siamese twin of our technological society. Only in the technological society can there be anything of the type and order of magnitude of modern propaganda, which is with us forever; and only with the all-pervading effects that flow from propaganda can the technological society hold itself together and further expand. Most people are easy prey for propaganda, Ellul says, because of their firm but entirely erroneous conviction that it is composed only of lies and "tall stories” and that, conversely, what is true cannot be propaganda. But modern propaganda has long disdained the ridiculous lies of past and outmoded forms of propaganda. It operates instead with many different kinds of truth— half truth, limited truth, truth out of context. "About 90 percent of the population is 'politically inert'; they become active only accidentally, when they are set into motion, but they are normally 'inactive, inattentive, manipulable, and without critical faculty' "I could give a hundred examples of complete distortion of facts by competent and honest journalists, whose interpretative articles appear in serious newspapers. "Propaganda thus displaces and liberates feelings of aggression by offering specific objects of hatred to the citizen..." It can be "very difficult to determine what constitutes propaganda in our world and what the nature of propaganda is. This is because it is a secret action." Propaganda is a kind of invisible glue that holds a modern technological society together in various ways dictated by many different kinds of sources including political, economic, spiritual, cultural, nationalistic often oppositonal... "A far more frightening work than any of the nightmare novels of George Orwell. With the logic which is the great instrument of French thought, [Ellul] explores and attempts to prove the thesis that propaganda, whether its ends are demonstrably good or bad, is not only destructive to democracy, it is perhaps the most serious threat to humanity operating in the modern world."—Los Angeles "The theme of Propaganda is quite simply . . . that when our new technology encompasses any culture or society, the result is propaganda . . . Ellul has made many splendid contributions in this book.”—Book Week Jacques Ellul was born in Bordeaux in 1912. A Graduate in Jurisprudence in 1936, he thereafter taught in French universities until he was discharged by the Vichy regime. He then joined and fought in the Resistance. After France’s liberation, while attached to the city government of Bordeaux, he was named Professor at the law school there. In 1947, he was appointed to a chair in law and social history at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques. His increasing reputation as a significant social and political philosopher was first established in the United States by the publication here of The Technological Society (1964), Propaganda (1965), and The Political Illusion (1967).