Randal Marlin
American-born Canadian philosophy professor at Carleton University in Ottawa who specializes in the study of propaganda.
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.
Small town people assume you are a friend if you simply remember their names.
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.
Down to the present day the luminous image of democracy has often served as a pretext for the most undemocratic actions.
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.
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.
The liar wants to be believed, but lying undermines the foundation for credibility.