Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.
Interpretation
Propaganda influences individuals, leading them to create their own false narratives.
This quote by Eric Hoffer suggests that propaganda does not inherently trick individuals; rather, it serves as a tool that allows them to construct their own illusions or justifications for their beliefs and actions. It highlights the power of self-deception and how external influences can exploit our predispositions to believe what aligns with our desires or biases.
In practice
In a discussion about media bias, one might cite this quote to illustrate how individuals rationalize their biased viewpoints.
Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question. Social stagnation results not from a lack of answers but from the absence of the impulse to ask questions.
Faith in humanity, in posterity, in the destiny of one's religion, nation, race, party or family-what is it but the visualization of that eternal something to which we attach the self that is about to be annihilated?
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.
Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about.
Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence, by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills, responsibilities, and rewards of grownups, and opportunities for action in all spheres of life. Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults.
The Ultimate and Highest leave taking is leaving God for GOD, leaving your notion of God for an Experience of That which transcends all notions.
all stories are like those about the creation of the universe, no one was there, no one witnessed anything, yet everyone knows what happened.
If we cannot make a profit, that means we are committing a sort of crime against society. We take society's capital, we take their people, we take their materials, yet without a good profit, we are using precious resources that could be better used elsewhere.
That agony returns; And till my ghastly tale is told, This heart within me burns.
Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
Religions are founded by what mystics say when they come back; but what the mystics say is not the same as what happened to them.
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