Coming, Nov. (1)5, 2024
"Constant election campaigns, as a permanent media spectacle produce pathological Individuals in a pathological Society."
- Jacques Ellul
"We have seen that the existence of two contradictory propagandas is no solution at all as it in no way leads to a 'democratic' situation: the individual is not... a supreme arbiter when he decides in favor of the more honest and convincing (candidate)... The individual is seized, manipulated, attacked from every side: the combatants of two propaganda systems do not fight each other, but try to capture him.
As a result the individual suffers the most profound psychological influences and distortions. Man modified in this fashion demands simple solutions, catch words... a clear and simple division into Good and Evil... he cannot bear ambiguity. He cannot bear that the opponent should in any way whatever represent what is right or good." (254-255)
-Jacques Ellul, "Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes"
tRump's cultists are very comfortable within his disinformation silo.
ReplyDeleteAs opposed to yours?
ReplyDelete"We have seen that the existence of two contradictory propagandas is no solution at all as it in no way leads to a 'democratic' situation: the individual is not... a supreme arbiter when he decides in favor of the more honest and convincing (candidate)... The individual is seized, manipulated, attacked from every side: the combatants of two propaganda systems do not fight each other, but try to capture him.
As a result the individual suffers the most profound psychological influences and distortions. Man modified in this fashion demands simple solutions, catch words... a clear and simple division into Good and Evil... he cannot bear ambiguity. He cannot bear that the opponent should in any way whatever represent what is right or good." (254-255)
-Jacques Ellul, "Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes"
...as opposed to:
ReplyDeleteIsaiah Berlin, author of The Hedgehog and the Fox, said, “Some among the great goods cannot live together. That is a conceptual truth. We are doomed to choose, and every choice may entail an irreparable loss”.
Berlin also said, “The notion of the perfect whole, the ultimate solution in which all good things coexist, seems to me not merely unobtainable—that is a truism—but conceptually incoherent”