Despite its age, it remains a penetrating, insightful must read for how people's actions are influenced by deliberate and even incidental propaganda, and how this propaganda becomes (even without design) essential to adapting people's behavior to mechanized mass society. Typical of Ellul, his work is filled with sweeping statements not specifically supported by empirical evidence (though he cites legion other works for more technical analysis of specific subjects), but when one considers most of

Despite its age, it remains a penetrating, insightful must read for how people's actions are influenced by deliberate and even incidental propaganda, and how this propaganda becomes (even without design) essential to adapting people's behavior to mechanized mass society. Typical of Ellul, his work is filled with sweeping statements not specifically supported by empirical evidence (though he cites legion other works for more technical analysis of specific subjects), but when one considers most of his propositions critically, one may be able to quibble around the edges, but finds the substance to be worth considering. Also, as normal, the work is not prescriptive and does not tell the reader "what is to be done" about the problem of propaganda and its negative impact on human dignity.Ellul defines propaganda as "a set of methods employed by an organized group that wants to bring about the active or passive participation in its actions of a mass of individuals, psychologically unified through psychological manipulations and incorporated in an organization." (p 61) Along the lines of his The Technological Society , Ellul notes "Ineffective propaganda is no propaganda," and therefore effectiveness becomes the supreme criteria (p x) and "propaganda has decided to submit itself to science and make use of it" showing its evolution alongside technological society. (p 4) Ellul examines propaganda in the broad sense, not of lies, but facts presented to those living in a world of information, aiming at psychological action, psychological warfare, re-education/brainwashing, and public/human relations. (p xiii) Ellul's avoidance of empiricism stems, in part, from his own analysis of it: "Modern man worships 'facts'--that is, he accepts 'facts' as the ultimate reality. He is convinced that what is, is good...which he somehow connects with the idea of progress...Consequently it is assumed that anyone who states a fact (even without passing judgment on it) is, therefore, in favor of it." (p xv) He later explodes the use of statistics, especially in evaluating the effects of propaganda (p 275).Ellul states he is in favor of democracy and notes the danger propaganda poses to it (and propaganda's effectiveness within it, despite the illusions of some): "man is terribly malleable, uncertain of himself, ready to accept and to follow many suggestions, and is tossed about by all the winds of doctrine...I can only regret that propaganda renders the true exercise of [democracy] almost impossible." (p xvi)He notes propaganda's work within mass society: people share in newspapers, television, movies, etc., individually yet as part of a mass of people doing the same thing. If propagandists address people as a mass, the individuals reject it; "On the contrary, each one must feel individualized, each must have the impressions that he is being looked at, that he is being addressed personally." (p 8)He also focuses extensively on propaganda's reliance on creating and manipulating myths to influence people's actions on a basic level: "It furnishes him with a complete system for explaining the world, and provides immediate incentives to action...Through the myth it creates, propaganda imposes a complete range of intuitive knowledge, susceptible of only one interpretation, unique and one-sided, and precluding any divergence...by its very nature, it excludes contradiction and discussion." (p 11) Propaganda incorporates itself into education and the rewriting of history (p 14). Although Ellul defines propaganda in terms of actions (vice alleged beliefs or attitudes) from propagandees, he notes the importance of pre-propaganda to make people more open to the propaganda of action, things which depict the targeted messages in favorable light (p 15).Given propaganda's reliance on myth, which draws from existing ideas and attitudes of a group, Ellul notes the difficulty in targeting a group from outside (propaganda against an enemy population in wartime, for instance) and the superiority of working from the inside, as through locally-established chapters or parties, much the way the Soviet Union worked through indigenous Communist parties in democratic countries.Ellul notes action commits a person to a given propaganda, "He who acts in obedience to propaganda can never go back. He is now obliged to believe in that propaganda because of his past action. He is obliged to receive from it his justification and authority, without which his action will seem to him absurd or unjust, which would be intolerable...Often he has broken with his milieu or family; he may be compromised." (p 29)Throughout the work, Ellul notes the harmful effect of propaganda per se on man, regardless of its specific goals or content. Perhaps he best explains this effect here:Propaganda does not aim to elevate man, but to make him serve. It must therefore utilize the most common feelings, the most widespread ideas, the crudest patterns, and in so doing place itself on a very low level with regard to what it wants man to do and to what end. Hate, hunger, and pride make better levers of propaganda than do love or impartiality. (p 38)Ellul points out the superficiality of propaganda, its need to stay abreast of current terms, ideas, and fads to motivate people. In reciprocal manner, propaganda seeks to keep people moving with the current, so as to prevent reflection, "To the extent that propaganda is based on current news, it cannot permit time for thought or reflection. A man caught up in the news must remain on the surface of the event; he is carried along the current...Such a man never stops to investigate any one point, any more than he will tie together a series of news events." (p 46) Propaganda relies on presenting facts that may be true but difficult to verify, or facts that lack context, i.e., an increase of 15 percent (compared to what? when?) (p 55).Busy people do not think too much and are the easier to manipulate, "those who think, establish the schedules, or set the norms, never act--and those who act must do so according to rules, patterns, and plans imposed on them from outside. Above all, they must not reflect on their actions. They cannot do so anyhow, because of the speed with which they work...According to propaganda, it is useless, even harmful for man to think; thinking prevents him from acting with the required righteousness and simplicity." (p 180)Ellul stresses the importance of education and culture for people to be susceptible to the more developed forms of propaganda; the poor and uneducated being susceptible mainly to only short-term agitation propaganda. But the educated people tell themselves, "'Of course we shall not be victims of propaganda because we are capable of distinguishing truth from falsehood.' Anyone holding that conviction is extremely susceptible to propaganda, because when propaganda does tell the 'truth,' he is then convinced that it is no longer propaganda; moreover, his self-confidence makes him all the more vulnerable to attacks of which he is unaware." (p 52) So while Ellul ties modern propaganda into the industrial era, as part of technological mass society, I would go back at least as far as the Protestant Reformation. The idea that any one person can read for himself and decide (the Bible, in that instance) being preposterous--what one person could in one lifetime? First of all, what he reads has been collected, edited, decided upon, and translated by others, meaning the person's conclusion is all but foregone by those that assembled the "facts" upon which the person "decides for himself." The Reformation also came hand in hand with a gradual rise of a middle class in Europe, which was precisely the group of people that felt confident enough to read and decide and go on doing so today (in all topics), even when they hopelessly lack the skills or the time to penetrate beyond what has been carefully presented to them by others.Ellul observes "the propagandist must insist on the purity of his own intentions and, at the same time, hurl accusations at his enemy...he will accuse him of the very intention he himself has and of trying to commit the very crime that he himself is about to commit. He who wants to provoke a war not only proclaims his own peaceful intentions but also accuses the other party of provocation." (p 58)He notes the relative simplicity of using agitation propaganda (agitprop), especially that based on hatred, as "hatred once provoked continues to reproduce itself." (p 73) It is integration propaganda that is much harder to achieve and usually requires the elevation of a population's level of education and culture in order to be effective (p 106). "The vast majority of people, perhaps 90 percent, know how to read, but do not exercise their intelligence beyond this...As the people do not possess enough knowledge to reflect and discern, they believe--or disbelieve--in toto what they read. And as such people, moreover, will select the easiest, not the hardest, reading matter, they are precisely on the level at which the printed word can seize and convince them without opposition. They are perfectly adapted to propaganda." (p 109)Yet Ellul shows that an individual in mass society actually demands integration propaganda as a coping tool (along the lines of the "Everything is Awesome" scene in the Lego Movie). He explains, "the first move toward liberation of the individual is to break up the small groups that are an organic fact of the entire society...a mass society can only be based on individuals--that is, on men in their isolation, whose identities are determined by their relationships with one another." (p 90) He even notes those organs of traditional society try to hang on by use of modern propaganda and so negate themselves (p 98). "We are thus face to face with a dual need: the need on the part of regimes to make propaganda, and the need of the propagandee...Propaganda is needed in the exercise of power for the simple reason that the masses have come to participate in political affairs." (p 121)Ellul posits public opinion cannot drive government policy, so government propaganda must mold public opinion to policy:Does the State then obey and express and follow that opinion? Our unequivocal answer is that even in a democratic State it does not. Such obeisance by the State to public opinion is impossible--first, because of the very nature of public opinion, and second, because of the nature of modern political activities...no sooner would government begin to pursue certain aims favored in an opinion poll, than opinion would turn against it...Ergo: even in a democracy, a government that is honest, serious, benevolent, and respects the voter cannot follow public opinion. But it cannot escape it either...Only one solution is possible: as the government cannot follow opinion, opinion must follow the government. (p 124-126)In this process, Ellul lays out his criticism of Liberalism generally, "a great difference nevertheless exists between them [theory and practice of individualism]. In individualist theory the individual has eminent value, man himself is the master of life; in the individualist reality each human being is subject to innumerable forces and influences, and is not at all master of his own life." (p 91) Nor does Ellul accepts that a plurality of propagandas leave an individual to choose, rather likening it to a boxer hit by a left hook becoming groggier, not normal, when then hit by a right. (p 181) The assault of propaganda upon the dignity of man is such that in a democratic country "the citizen can repeat indefinitely 'the sacred formulas of democracy' while acting like a storm trooper," (p 256) a phenomenon we can see at work today in the vitriol and even violence of our debates.Ellul shows that in modern mass society, people rely on intermediaries for their information (hearkening back to the problem of the Reformation that I pointed out earlier), they can only express their opinion through channels (elections, parties, associations, media, etc.), and public opinion "is formed by a very large number of people who cannot possibly experience the same fact in the same fashion, who judge it by different standards, speak a different language, and share neither the same culture nor the same social position...This is possible only when all these people are not really apprised of the facts, but only of abstract symbols that give the facts a shape in which they can serve as a base for public opinion...Therefore, public opinion always rests on problems that do not correspond to reality." (p 101)Ellul observes the need for "concentration in a few hands of a large number of media" for propaganda to be effective, whether state or private monopoly (p 103), along the lines of C.S. Lewis That Hideous Strength . One might question how the horizontal expansion of media via the internet might change this situation, but thanks to government censorship and control, whether the Great Firewall of China or submitting the internet to the control of the FCC via "net neutrality" (aka telephone regulations from 1934), this dilemma seems to have been eliminated already.The modern citizen is caught between his desire to participate and his practical inability to do so competently, and therefore demanding and accepting propaganda helps him bridge this gap, "the individual wants to participate in other ways than just elections...He wants to form an opinion on foreign policy. But in reality he can't...Public opinion surveys reveal that people have opinions even on the most complicated questions, except for a small minority...The majority prefers expressing stupidities to not expressing any opinion...The more complex, general, and accelerated political and economic phenomena become, the more do individuals feel concerned, the more do they want to get involved...the individual does not want information, but only value judgments and preconceived positions." (p 139-140) Further:nor can he accept the idea that the problems, which sprout all around him, cannot be solved, or that he himself has no value as an individual and is subject to the turn of events. The man who keeps himself informed needs a framework in which all this information can be put in order; he needs explanations and comprehensive answers to general problems; he needs coherence. And he needs an affirmation of his own worth. (p 146)Continuing his other work on mass society, Ellul depicts it so: "That loneliness inside the crowd is perhaps the most terrible ordeal of modern man; that loneliness in which he can share nothing, talk to nobody, and expect nothing from anybody...Propaganda is the true remedy for loneliness...propaganda is the signal to act, the bridge from the individual's mere interest in politics to his political action. It serves to overcome collective passivity." (p 148)Ellul not only examines propaganda's role and function in democracy, but examines its use and role in Nazi Germany and Communists states. His inquiry into Mao's use of it led to this explanation of the "democratic" method used by Communists:a man knows the absolute truth. He poses problems for which there are solutions. He encourages objections (in a limited circle). The discussion that follows does not have as its aim the common search for truth or a plan based on the opinions of all, which will take shape gradually. The aim of the discussion is to use the opposition and to drain the opponents of their energy and their convictions. Its aim is to "work over" every member of the group until, fully and of his own free will, he adheres to a proposition declared to be the absolute truth by the leader. (p 309)In this one is reminded of the conclusion to George Orwell 's 1984 As for heroes, "The cult of the hero is the absolutely necessary complement of the massification of society...The individual who is prevented by circumstances from becoming a real person, who can no longer express himself through personal thought or action, who finds his aspirations frustrated, projects onto the hero all he would wish to be." (p 172)Propaganda is durable precisely owing to its irrational character: "The individual now has a set of prejudices and beliefs, as well as objective justifications...Every new idea will therefore be troublesome to his entire being...Propaganda has created in him a system of opinions and tendencies which may not be subjected to criticism...He feels personally attacked when these certainties are attacked...the man who has been successfully subjected to a vigorous propaganda will declare that all new ideas are propaganda." (p 166) Which is not to say that a person cannot be successively won over from one group to another via propaganda, Ellul lays out that process as well (p 190).Ellul is sharp about the qualifications of the propagandist himself, the need to stand aloof from belief, "He cannot even share that ideology for he must use it as an object and manipulate it without the respect that he would have for it if he believed in it." (p 197)Ellul shows that propaganda can be effective even when only a skeleton, hardening opinion on just a few key points, but over time, groups crystallize around these key points, opinions become more general and lose detail and nuance (p 204-205). He shows, along these lines, how the needs of propaganda tend to lead to binary arrangements in public opinion, like two-party systems, both because the massive resources required for successful propaganda eliminates a multitude of organizations, and opinions tend to become boiled down to yes-no, for-against, etc. (p 219).In short, an excellent (if sometimes challenging and dry) work, a guide not only to modern propaganda, but a penetrating insight into modern society more broadly. Read The Abolition of Man then read this!