Down to the present day the luminous image of democracy has often served as a pretext for the most undemocratic actions.

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.

Exposure as a propagandist is fatal to the would-be persuader.

The specific media may change, but the principles of human nature have remained fairly constant over the millenia.

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.

Down to the present day the luminous image of democracy has often served as a pretext for the most undemocratic actions.

We live in a time when complex ethical questions are easily subordinated to the demands of efficiency, profit maximization, and maintenance or furthering of political power.