11 chapters, 33,000+ words
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Here’s what I think about propaganda. There’s information and persuasion. Disseminating false information is disinformation. Hiding true information is a cover-up. A monopoly on information is required for both disinformation and cover-up. Using disinformation, cover-up, logical fallacies or unspecified axioms to persuade people is what is commonly known as propaganda. All else is journalism, scholarship, advocacy, advertising, etc.
Does propaganda work? I’m not aware of a scientific proof, but disinformation is blamed for the popular support for World War I. Does propaganda based on logical fallacies work? The proof of this would require many cases of people behaving counter to their desires, interests and values after being presented with logical fallacies. Propaganda can’t be a threat if there’s no monopoly on information and we stay strong.
You won’t get any of this from Bernays. He was an ad man and public relations counsel, so he’s good on public relations, especially the value of giving away free stuff and developing a high-toned image to soothe muckrakers and investors. He's good at reminding us that the word propaganda didn't always have negative connotations. Otherwise, he’s a lightweight.
To him, propaganda is “propagating a doctrine or system” or “establishing the reciprocal understanding between an individual and a group”. The rest of us call this advocacy, dialogue, gossip, etc. He does say that good propaganda must be correct information. But he modifies this by saying that good propaganda must be in the service of a good cause, a potential justification for a cover-up.
I found five authorities Bernays cites: Gustav Le Bon (probably for his THE CROWD: A STUDY OF THE POPULAR MIND (1895)), Graham Wallas (probably for his HUMAN NATURE IN POLITICS (1908)), Wilfred Trotter (probably for his THE INSTINCTS OF THE HERD IN PEACE AND WAR (1908)), Walter Lippmann (probably for his PUBLIC OPINION (1922)), and his own uncle, Sigmund Freud.
Based on synopses of these writers, they saw average people, especially in crowds, as barely above livestock. They advocated the same “propaganda managed democracy” that Bernays advocates.
But Western civilization advanced dramatically at the end of the middle ages, and it was decentralized middle-class progress. Was that the work of livestock? Sufficiently motivated, the average individual learns critical thinking so that he may profit from his own good decisions. Bernays states, “Men are rarely aware of the real reasons which motivate their actions.” When his uncle Sigmund escaped Nazism, was he doing it to save his own life or to seek status by impressing all his friends with his escaping skills? When the stakes get high, frivolous decisions decrease.
Deceptive persuasion will become dangerous when the number of pensioned and alienated people reaches critical mass.
We need a better book on this subject. Maybe it’s time to look into Alinsky’s RULES FOR RADICALS and PROPAGANDA BLITZ by Edwards and Cromwell.
1.8 stars
I learned that Kindles have a highlight limit as part of their Digital Rights Management restriction for properties that aren’t in the public domain. Your e-book will retain the highlight, but when you hit the limit, the Kindle will stop writing highlights to your MY CLIPPINGS.TXT file, writing “<You have reached the clipping limit for this item>” instead. The highlight limit for this book was 24,576 characters. Your notes, however, will continue to be written to your MY CLIPPINGS.TXT file.
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