Propaganda

PROPAGANDA
The Formation of Mens Attitudes
BY
JACQUES ELLUL
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BT KONRAD KELLEN AND JEAN LERNEB
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BT KONRAD ZELLEN
VINTAGE BOOKS A DIVISION OF RANDOM HOUSE NEW YORK
VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION. FEBRUARY »973 Copyright 1965 by Alfred A. Knopf. Inc.
AÜ rights reserved under Intematiimul and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited. Toronto. Originally published in French as Propagandes bv Librairie Annand Colin. Copyright © 196a by Max Leclcre et Cie, proprietors of Librairie Annand Colin. This edition was first published by Alfred A. Knopf. Inc., on October 25. 1968.
Library of Congrus Cataloging in Publication Data Ellul. Jacques.
Propaganda.
Heprint of the 1965 ed.
Bibliography: p.
1. Propaganda.
(HM263.E413 1973] 301154 72-ÍS053 ISBN 0-394-7I&74-7
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATE* OF AMERICA
% 38 37 36 35 34
Introduction
Jacques Ellul’s view of propaganda and his approach to the study of propaganda are new. The principal difference between his thought edifice and most other literature on propaganda is that Ellul regard« propaganda as a sociological phenomenon rather than as something made by certain people for certain purposes. Propaganda exists and thrives; it is the Siamese twin of our technological society. Only in the technological society can there be anything of the type and order of magnitude of modem propaganda, which is with us forever; and only with the all-pervading effects that Sow from propaganda can the technological society hold itself together and further expand.
Most people are easy prey for propaganda, Ellul says, because of their firm but entirely erroneous conviction that it is composed only of lies and “tall stories” and that, conversely, what is true cannot be propaganda. But modem propaganda has long disdained the ridiculous lies of past and outmoded forms of