Power and propaganda

LewRockwell.com, always a useful site when it comes to libertarian views on politics, economics and philosophy, has a very interesting link today. It doesn’t mention the Balkans at all – in fact, it’s about French fast food. But it contains an interesting examination of corporate/government propaganda. Something to think about…

Writes Theodore Dalrymple:
“…I reflected upon the meaning of the propaganda I had witnessed in the Communist world before its downfall. The function of this propaganda was not to persuade, much less to inform, but rather to humiliate. To have the grossest lies poured into your ears and eyes all the time, day and night, and yet not to protest their untruth, but on the contrary to participate in their propagation, and to behave as if you believed they were true — that is the ultimate dehumanisation of man, for it robs him of meaningful language.
[…]
The purpose of such lies is to destroy our integrity by making us complicit by our silence, so that we can no longer protest against anything with a clean conscience. Where all are guilty, no one is responsible for anything, and power becomes absolute.”