(originally written sometime in April 2021) Propaganda is ubiquitous. It’s really the air we breathe. One of the most important insights shared by 20th century social critics of various stripes such as Jacques Ellul, Louis Althusser or the Frankfurt School gang, was precisely that industrial mass society cannot function without propaganda. At all.
Great post with lots of fab points but this was a favorite for capturing the moment.
"A wise man from a tribe like the Nuer or the Aché watching all of this at a distance, would conclude that we’ve all been exposed to the modern equivalent of a curse or a hex, where the predominant authorities among our scientific and medical priesthood have proclaimed this great unseen blight which might devastate us unless we adhere to these precise rituals."
Excellent
Great post with lots of fab points but this was a favorite for capturing the moment.
"A wise man from a tribe like the Nuer or the Aché watching all of this at a distance, would conclude that we’ve all been exposed to the modern equivalent of a curse or a hex, where the predominant authorities among our scientific and medical priesthood have proclaimed this great unseen blight which might devastate us unless we adhere to these precise rituals."