The Danger of Propaganda

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. LewRockwell.com

In an interview with the journalist Mike Wallace in 1958, Aldous Huxley warned about the danger of propaganda in leading America down the road to totalitarianism. The danger has only gotten worse since then.

In the interview, Huxley responded to Wallace: “WALLACE: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Now the devices that you were talking about, are there specific devices or er…methods of communication which diminish our freedoms in addition to overpopulation and over-organization? HUXLEY: Well, there are certainly devices which can be used in this way. I mean, let us er…take after all, a piece of very recent and very painful history is the propaganda used by Hitler, which was incredibly effective. I mean, what were Hitler’s methods? Hitler used terror on the one kind, brute force on the one hand, but he also used a very efficient form of propaganda, which er…he was using every modern device at that time. He didn’t have TV., but he had the radio which he used to the fullest extent, and was able to impose his will on an immense mass of people. I mean, the Germans were a highly educated people.