Propaganda
French Christian anarchist Ellul explains how propoganda goes beyond politics to be about making the individual serve and conform. One of his insights is that those people who consume the most media are the most propogandized.
Stats for nerds
10recommend
27mentions
16people
2010–2026years
63% recommend37% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- WWIII is all but certain and the root cause is Geopolitics of Europe/USA/UK/Russia. Look at history from the time of British Empire vs. Russia (before WWII) later Soviet Union vs. USA/Europe/UK and then Russia vs. USA/Europe/UK. The new factor in current times is China which would like nothing better than have the above combatants finish each other off, so its supremacy is automatically established.
All the above participants use "Reflexive Control" against each other to Manipulate and Propagandize in furtherance of their goals - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflexive_control
The current example is how Ukraine was manipulated into being the sacrificial lamb in order to draw Russia into invading it thus expending its resources while USA/Europe/UK don't suffer as much.
One way to understand this is via Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes by Jacques Ellul - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda:_The_Formation_of_M...
The aim of modern propaganda is no longer to modify ideas, but to provoke action. It is no longer to change adherence to a doctrine, but to make the individual cling irrationally to a process of action.
Propaganda employs encirclement on the individual by trying to surround man by all possible routes, in the realm of feelings as well as ideas, by playing on his will or his needs through his conscious and his unconscious, and by assailing him in both his private and his public life.
Propaganda is concerned with timeliness since an individual is only moved to action if he is pushed towards a timely one by propaganda..."Operational words" are used to penetrate an individual's indifference...Incidentally, there are also the undecided, people whose opinions are vague, who form the majority of citizens within the collective. These citizens are the most susceptible to control of public opinion that is dictated by propaganda.
Political Propaganda involves techniques of influence employed by a government, a party, an administration, or a pressure group with the intention of changing the behavior of the public...The methods of political propaganda are calculated in a precise manner and its main criterion is to disseminate an ideology for the very purpose of making various political acts acceptable to the people.
Sociological propaganda aims to increase conformity with the environment that is of a collective nature by developing compliance with or defense of the established order through long term penetration and progressive adaptation by using all social currents. The propaganda element is the way of life with which the individual is permeated and then the individual begins to express it in film, writing, or art without realizing it...This propaganda reinforces the individual's way of life and represents this way of life as best. Sociological propaganda creates an indisputable criterion for the individual to make judgments of good and evil according to the order of the individual's way of life.
Information is indistinguishable from propaganda in that information is an essential element of propaganda because for propaganda to succeed it must have reference to political or economic reality. Propaganda grafts itself onto an already existing reality through "informed opinion".
Citizens are aware that political decisions affect everybody and governments cannot govern without the support, presence, pressure, or knowledge of the people. Yet the people are incapable of making long term policy so opinion must be created to follow the government because the government cannot be led by opinion. All of this describes the "Mass-Government" relationship characterized by people demanding what has already been decided, in order to appear as though the government is actually caring about what the people need.
The propagandist cannot be constrained by the ideology of his State but must operate in service of the state and be able to manipulate the ideology as if it were an object. The ideology merely provides the content for the propagandist to build off since he is limited to what already is present within the group, nation, or society. The fundamental ideologies are nationalism, socialism, communism, and democracy.
Since democracy depends on public opinion, it is clear that propaganda must be involved...However, as discussed in early chapters Ellul described the masses are incapable of making long-term foreign policy and the government needs to make these decisions in a timely manner. This is where propaganda comes into play and projects an artificial reality to the masses to satisfy their need to participate in government while the decisions are really made behind the scenes. .. Democratic regimes develop propaganda in line with its myths and prejudices. Propaganda stresses the superiority of a democratic society while intensifying the prejudices between democratic and oppressive.
- You have already given some reasons in Part VIII, but for a more comprehensive theory, see, Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes by Jacques Ellul - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda:_The_Formation_of_M...
- You missed the point.
The idea is to protect oneself by using various techniques of deception/reflexive control through stratagems like "poisoning the well", "borrow a knife", "misdirect/misinform" etc. to present different contradictory information/personas/overload-data to "The System" thus obfuscating/masking reality.
You mess-up the raw data and then use reflexive control techniques to allow them to draw inferences from a set that you have predetermined.
Technology, mass commoditized and given easy access to, is central here and should be spearheaded by the organizations i mentioned due to their reputation cachet eg; Tor/Tails/Proxies/Vpns/Secure OSes/Protocols/etc. Simultaneously they should also push for legislation for stricter govt. control over data usage/companies eg. GDPR/etc.
The populace also needs to educate themselves on techniques of Propaganda/Manipulation by reading the works of the authors i mentioned earlier. This will sharpen their critical thinking skills which is a must-have today.
Palantir is very much in the vein of Cambridge Analytica except that they have expanded vastly on its theme and gained "legitimacy". People need to study all about CA and then extrapolate it to today's AI capabilities if they want to understand the shape of things to come.
Some References:
Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIA by Edward Jay Epstein; For history/ideas/themes/motivation for further study on a complex subject.
Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes by Jacques Ellul - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda:_The_Formation_of_M...
Reflexive Control - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflexive_control
Psychographics - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychographics
- Oh Man; You need to shake off your naivete asap!
Our entire Social/Economic/Psychological value system has been completely remade to value only Money and Power. Humanity/Ethics/Morals/Community/Individuals are only useful in so far as they sustain the system in pursuit of the above objectives else they are all just a hindrance and must be manipulated/overlooked/removed.
Our very mastery of Science and its consequent Technology has enabled the exercise of all "our" (i.e. Individuals/Groups/Corporations/Governments/etc.) powers in service of Money/Power to a degree unimaginable before the Scientific Revolution. Nothing matters but only the sustaining of "The System" which has taken a life of its own independent of the Humans (and other life forms) who inhabit it.
To explain using pop-culture references, you are mere disposable "Soylent Green" in "The Matrix" all of which are embedded in omniscient "The System".
References:
1) Notes on Nationalism by George Orwell - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notes_on_Nationalism
2) Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control by Kathleen Taylor - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwashing:_The_Science_of_T...
3) Reflexive Control - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflexive_control
4) Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes by Jacques Ellul - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda:_The_Formation_of_M...
5) The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Technological_Society
- Jacques Ellul's two classics The Technological Society and Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (wikipedia has an excellent overview - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda:_The_Formation_of_M...) should be required reading for every educated person today. With the rise of AI and its unconstrained applications his works seem even more prescient than before.
Technology and "Technique" have become so inherent and intrinsic to modern society and life today that hardly any intellectual is able to stand apart from it and critique it like Ellul was able to. We are already in the early stages of a social dystopia but are unable to recognize it since the paintings of it (by vested interests) are so very seductive.
- Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes by Jacques Ellul.
Related
The Technological Society
36 recommend · 96
Politics and the English language
112 recommend · 263
Capitalist Realism
41 recommend · 100
Technopoly
35 recommend · 96
Age of propaganda
2 recommend · 2
This Is Not Propaganda
6 recommend · 10
Class
26 recommend · 73
