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Quotes from Are We Victims of Propaganda, Our Invisible Masters: A Debate with Edward Bernays — Everett Dean Martin

1880–1941 United States

← All quotes by Everett Dean Martin

10 quotes

It must be borne in mind that everything the propagandist does or says is for effect—most commonly the effect on fools. The public wants not truth but a show?

Are We Victims of Propaganda, Our Invisible Masters: A Debate with Edward Bernays (1929)

It is the trivial, the irrelevant, the sensational, the appeal to obsolete bigotry which naturally give it greatest publicity. In such publicity it becomes a mere vulgar caricature of itself.

Are We Victims of Propaganda, Our Invisible Masters: A Debate with Edward Bernays (1929)

For purposes of this discussion, propaganda is defined as the manipulation of the public to the end of securing some specific action.

Are We Victims of Propaganda, Our Invisible Masters: A Debate with Edward Bernays (1929)

Its aim is to “put something over” on people, with or without their knowledge or consent… neither truth nor the basic values of civilization get a fair hearing.

Are We Victims of Propaganda, Our Invisible Masters: A Debate with Edward Bernays (1929)

…prejudice and the well-known weaknesses of human nature are to be exploited and thus encouraged.

Are We Victims of Propaganda, Our Invisible Masters: A Debate with Edward Bernays (1929)

Propaganda is making puppets out of us. We are moved by hidden strings which the propagandist manipulates.

Are We Victims of Propaganda, Our Invisible Masters: A Debate with Edward Bernays (1929)

The evil effect of these attempts to manipulate the multitude by pampering its weaknesses---in return for material and other advantages to persons and for ends not disclosed—is clearly seen in various aspects of our common life. In politics such effect have long been deplorable.

Are We Victims of Propaganda, Our Invisible Masters: A Debate with Edward Bernays (1929)

Education aims at independence of judgment. Propaganda offers ready-made opinions for the unthinking herd.

Are We Victims of Propaganda, Our Invisible Masters: A Debate with Edward Bernays (1929)

…so long as the public may be manipulated by misrepresentation and by appeal to ignorance and prejudice, it is the public’s own fault if the “knowing ones” make use of questionable methods.

Are We Victims of Propaganda, Our Invisible Masters: A Debate with Edward Bernays (1929)

One of the serious results of propaganda is that it has caused the public to think that education and propaganda are the same thing, and thus to make an ignorant multitude believe it is being educated when it is only being manipulated. Education aims at independence of judgement. Propaganda offers ready-made opinions for the unthinking herd.

Are We Victims of Propaganda, Our Invisible Masters: A Debate with Edward Bernays (1929)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Everett Dean Martin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.