Rules Of Propaganda

Here are five basic rules of propaganda, courtesy of Norman Davies in his extraordinary book "Europe: A History" ISBN 0-7126-6633-8 .

  1. The rule of simplification: reducing all data to a simple confrontation between 'Good and Bad', 'Friend and Foe'.
  2. The rule of disfiguration: discrediting the opposition by crude smears and parodies.
  3. The rule of transfusion: manipulating the consensus values of the target audience for one's own ends.
  4. The rule of unanimity: presenting one's viewpoint as if it were the unanimous opinion of all right-thinking people: draining the doubting individual into agreement by the appeal of star-performers, by social pressure, and by 'psychological contagion'.
  5. The rule of orchestration: endlessly repeating the same messages in different variations and combinations.

-- JohnWilkinson

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