![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() These two qualities are often considered contradictory. (vi)įor propaganda to succeed, a society must first have two complementary qualities: it must be both an individualist and a mass society. In fact, education is largely identical with what Ellul calls “pre-propaganda”-the conditioning of minds with vast amounts of incoherent information, already dispensed for ulterior purposes and posing as “facts” and as “education.” Ellul follows through by designating intellectuals as virtually the most vulnerable of all to modern propaganda, for three reasons: (1) they absorb the largest amount of secondhand, unverifiable information (2) they feel a compelling need to have an opinion on every important question of our time, and thus easily succumb to opinions offered to them by propaganda on all such indigestible pieces of information (3) they consider themselves capable of “judging for themselves.” They literally need propaganda. On the contrary he says, education, or what usually goes by that word in the modern world, is the absolute prerequisite for propaganda. Full PDF here.Ĭentral in Ellul’s thesis, is that modern propaganda cannot work without “education” he thus reverses the widespread notion that education is the best prophylactic against propaganda. Selected excerpts from Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes, without commentary. ![]()
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