“Without the scientific research of modern psychology and sociology there would be no propaganda, or rather we still would be in the primitive stages of propaganda that existed in the time of Pericles or Augustus.”
Vintage, p. 4
Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (1965)
Context: First of all, modern propaganda is based on scientific analyses of psychology and sociology. Step by step, the propagandist builds his techniques on the basis of his knowledge of man, his tendencies, his desires, his needs, his psychic mechanisms, his conditioning — and as much on social psychology as on depth psychology. He shapes his procedures on the basis of our knowledge of groups and their laws of formation and dissolution, of mass influences, and of environmental limitations. Without the scientific research of modern psychology and sociology there would be no propaganda, or rather we still would be in the primitive stages of propaganda that existed in the time of Pericles or Augustus.
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Jacques Ellul 125
French sociologist, technology critic, and Christian anarch… 1912–1994Related quotes
Source: Taking the Risk Out of Democracy: Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty (1995), p. 21

“The aim of modern propaganda is no longer to modify ideas, but to provoke action.”
Vintage, p. 25
Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (1965)

Source: 1970s, From Cliché to Archetype (1970), p.77
2010s, Interview with the Reuters War College (April 2017)

Source: The Coming Struggle for Power (1932), p. 262

Mammonart - an Essay in Economic Interpretation Ch. 2 Who Owns the Artists? (1925)