Resisting Propaganda Requires Deep-thinking Free Citizens: The Social Leader Daily

Published: Mon, 05/02/11


 
Email #65
   Social Leader Daily by Oliver DeMille
 
Resisting Propaganda...
 

...Requires Deep-thinking Free Citizens.

"We believe that the reduction of the citizen to an object of propaganda, private and public, is one of the greatest dangers to democracy.
 
"A prevalent notion is that the great mass of the people cannot understand and cannot form an independent judgment upon any matter; they cannot be educated, in the sense of developing their intellectual powers, but they can be bamboozled.
 
"The reiteration of slogans, the distortion of the news, the great storm of propaganda, that beats upon the citizen twenty-four hours a day all his life long mean either that democracy must fall a prey to the loudest and most persistent propagandists or that the people must save themselves by strengthening their minds so that they can appraise the issues for themselves."
These words were written by Robert M. Hutchins in the introduction to the Great Books. It is through reading the great books, perhaps more than anything else, that a person deeply learns to see through any and all propaganda.
 
It is telling the Hutchins identified this objective as an animating force and objective in recommending the Great Books to us. Learning this lesson is vital for all free citizens.
 
 
 
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