AUTHOR=Walsh Robert L. 

TITLE=An Inquisition for Propaganda and Mass Deception: Deposing the Neolithic Mind

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Communication

VOLUME=Volume 6 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/communication/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2021.636292

DOI=10.3389/fcomm.2021.636292

ISSN=2297-900X

ABSTRACT=Human language harbors a mechanical aberration, leaving human communication susceptible to manipulation. Mass deception is the systematic exploitation of this linguistic glitch, the agency of which is premeditated indoctrination. Its influence over human thought and behavior is rooted in the phenomenon of the tribal mind, an unconscious collective ego predisposed to propaganda. In its early modern iterations, it was heralded as a means to establish a shared understanding between an individual and a group that this individual encounters (Bernays, 1928). Any means of communication was seen also a means of propaganda, and this was celebrated. Now, though, inside the utter profusion of multifaceted information, propaganda’s bearing in mass deception cannot be ignored as a contaminant at its source. The challenge is the ease with which communication can be subtly systematized, around an insidious fatal flaw.