Are Your Opinions Really Yours? — Jacques Ellul

This is NOT an online meeting but an in-person meeting.
Meeting in English.
Reading the book is not required.

During the book discussion the leader of the discussion presents the most interesting parts of the book. The great emphasis is placed on discussion.

Opis Książki
How do people form their opinions in a society dominated by mass & social media, advertising, and political communication?

In Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes, Jacques Ellul examines propaganda not simply as deliberate political deception, but as a broader system through which modern societies shape people's attitudes and behavior.

Ellul argues that effective propaganda does not necessarily work by forcing people to believe a particular idea. Instead, it operates through a constant flow of information, repetition, social pressure, emotional appeals, and the creation of an environment in which certain ways of thinking become natural.

Written in 1962, the book explores the relationship between propaganda, democracy, technology, mass media, advertising, and modern political life. Many of its questions have become even more relevant in an age of social media, targeted advertising, algorithms, and information overload.

From the book:
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 modern propaganda has long disdained the ridiculous lies of past and outmoded forms of propaganda. It operates instead with many different kinds of truth— half truth, limited truth, truth out of context.

A second basic misconception that makes people vulnerable to propaganda is the notion that it serves only to change opinions. That is one of its aims, but a limited, subordinate one. Much more importantly, it aims to intensify existing trends, to sharpen and focus them, and, above all, to lead men to action (or, when it is directed at immovable opponents, to non-action through terror or discouragement, to prevent them from interfering).

At this event, we'll use the book as a starting point for a broader discussion about propaganda, persuasion, media, and how modern societies form public opinion.

Discussion Topics

• What is propaganda, and how is it different from persuasion, advertising, or education?
• Can propaganda exist in a democratic society?
• Why can an excess of information make people more susceptible to propaganda?
• Does propaganda require someone deliberately controlling the information environment?
• How have social media and algorithms changed the way propaganda works?
• Can people recognize propaganda when they are exposed to it?
• Is it possible to have a mass society without some form of propaganda?