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Randal Marlin Quotes

Randal Marlin is a Canadian philosophy professor at Carleton University in Ottawa who specializes in the study of propaganda. He was educated at Princeton University, McGill University, the University of Oxford, Aix-Marseille University, and the University of Toronto. After receiving a Department of National Defence fellowship to study under propaganda scholar Jacques Ellul at Bordeaux in 1979–1980, he started a philosophy and mass communications class at Carleton called Truth and Propaganda, which has run annually ever since.One of the texts for this class is his 2002 book Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion, which examines historical, ethical, and legal issues relating to propaganda. The revised second edition, released in 2013, examines the Bush administration's use of propaganda based on fear to persuade Americans to support the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Marlin acknowledges that there are many definitions of propaganda, including favourable ones. However, his book reflects Ellul's view that propaganda suppresses individual freedom and autonomy.In 1998, Marlin published a book examining the public uproar following the appointment of a former separatist Quebec political candidate to the top administrator's post at the new Ottawa Hospital. The David Levine Affair: Separatist Betrayal or McCarthyism North? criticizes the Ottawa news media for fanning the flames of intolerance in their quest for higher circulations and audience ratings. The book also documents how the media kept the controversy going with a barrage of stories, columns, letters, editorials and radio phone-in shows. The David Levine Affair draws on Marlin's knowledge of propaganda techniques that play on stereotypes as well as pre-existing fears, suspicions and resentments to incite intense emotional reactions.Marlin's studies and teaching in the field of propaganda have earned him the nickname "Ottawa's Orwell". Wikipedia  

✵ 1938
Randal Marlin photo
Randal Marlin: 27 quotes1 like

Famous Randal Marlin Quotes

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

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Eight, Propaganda, Democracy, And the Internet, p. 305

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

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter One, Why Study Propaganda?, p. 15

“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.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Five, Advertising And Public Relations Ethics, p. 176

“Exposure as a propagandist is fatal to the would-be persuader.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Three, Propaganda Technique, p. 95

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

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Two, History Of Propaganda, p. 45

“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.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Three, Propaganda Technique, p. 99

Randal Marlin Quotes about the trip

“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.”

Randal Marlin

Preface, p. 9
Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002)

“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.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Two, History Of Propaganda, p. 43

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

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Three, Propaganda Technique, p. 107

Randal Marlin Quotes about people

“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.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Eight, Propaganda, Democracy, And the Internet, p. 306

“The special harm attaching to prior restraint is that the government can keep materials from reaching the public, so there can be no accountability, no judgment by the people that the power to suppress was wrongly exercised.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Six, Freedom Of Expression, p. 207

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

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Two, History Of Propaganda, p. 50

Randal Marlin Quotes

“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.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter One, Why Study Propaganda?, p. 13

“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.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Six, Freedom Of Expression, p. 230

“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.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Eight, Propaganda, Democracy, And the Internet, p. 284

“If war is glorified, it tends to eclipse the policies it is meant to serve.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Two, History Of Propaganda, p. 59

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

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Four, Ethics And Propaganda, p. 149

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

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Eight, Propaganda, Democracy, And the Internet, p. 302

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

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Three, Propaganda Technique, p. 118

“Since the time of Plato and Aristotle philosophers have had an interest in taking note of common fallacies in reasoning.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Three, Propaganda Technique, p. 110

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

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Four, Ethics And Propaganda, p. 149

“To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, an alert citizenry today should take the trouble to learn how easy it can be for a powerful minority to manipulate information to win the support-or the indifference-of the majority towards an action.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter One, Why Study Propaganda?, p. 14

“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.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Two, History Of Propaganda, p. 47

“We live in a time when complex ethical questions are easily subordinated to the demands of efficiency, profit maximization, and maintenance or furthering of political power.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter One, Why Study Propaganda?, p. 39

“There is arguably something wrong with a method of persuasion that cannot pass the test of publicity.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Four, Ethics And Propaganda, p. 166

“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.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Four, Ethics And Propaganda, p. 155

“If you can show that something is to a person's advantage, they have an attractive reason for doing that thing.”

Randal Marlin

Source: Propaganda & The Ethics Of Persuasion (2002), Chapter Four, Ethics And Propaganda, p. 140

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