Randal Marlin Quotes

Aristotle writes that persuasion is based on three things: the ethos, or personal character of the speaker; the pathos, or getting the audience into the right kind of emotional receptivity; and the logos, or the argument itself, carried out by abbreviated syllogisms, or something like deductive syllogisms, and by the use of example.

There are many special interests skilful at manipulating circumstances and communications in such a way as to benefit their own ends and not necessarily the public good.

Propaganda analysis can contribute to world peace by exposing those techniques that lead to armed conflict by creating misapprehension of reality.

Once we recognize the power of propaganda, we need to ask whether its exercise is consistent with those democratic ideals to which lip-service is commonly accorded.

In modern times sound policy-making must often come to grips with numbers.

Small town people assume you are a friend if you simply remember their names.

There are many other ways in which language can be used to manipulate an audience. one obvious way is to simply lie.

Any restrictions to freedom of expression will always open the door to possible others, because analogical reasoning can mount arguments showing why this or that class of objects is closely similar to those for which exceptions have been made.

The liar wants to be believed, but lying undermines the foundation for credibility.

In a general way, a major goal of the propagandist is to seek some kind of authoritative backing for the belief he or she is propagating.

When we look for propaganda, we have the obvious job of asking what messages are being propagated.

Anyone familiar with the marvels of the Worldwide Web can hardly fail to see that we have entered a new era in communications on a scale perhaps comparable to the invention of the Gutenberg press.

Party politics in modern democratic society means pandering to a wide variety of different groups and sympathizing with their often quite base motives, such as revenge, power, booty, and spoils, to maintain the necessary level of support.

When you give false information you tend to restrict the freedom of choice to others.

When we consider propaganda as the attempt to shape the thoughts and feelings of others, in ways conforming to the aims of the communicator, we find a vast array of different examples throughout history.

The specific media my change, but the principles of human nature have remained fairly constant over the millenia.

Down to the present day the luminous image of democracy has often served as a pretext for the most undemocratic actions.

It is true that advertising often gives information and is valuable for doing so, but some forms of advertising give precious little information, and even that little is wrong.

The best goal for propaganda analysis is to develop such an understanding of the phenomenon that it will no longer be profitable for people to engage in it.