From The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse (1943). Here Hesse presents a faux history of a fabricated former era that likely serves as a critique of the author's then-present condition that also fits the current moment like a glove. #socialmedia #internet #masscommunications #tech #literature #HermannHesse

Jill Lepore on the link between WWII Psychological Warfare and Mass Communications

A lot of [psychologists] worked both in the study of voting behaviour in the US and in the study of propaganda in third-world countries trying to prevent them from becomming Communist.
Those things are closely related. They’re both the study of how you get inside someone’s head and change their mind? You have to know what they’re thinking, what you want them to think, and then you have to figure out what message will move them from what they’re thinking now to what you want them to think. This used to be called “psychological warfare”, and after the 2nd World War people were like, we shouldn’t call it that any more, we’ll call it “the study of mass communications”.

-- Jill Lepore, 2020

https://www.cityarts.net/event/jill-lepore-2/

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/dovetail.prxu.org/178/a3550bf0-cb21-4ad6-b0f1-9cf1ec316a6f/CityArtsJillLepore200927a.mp3 (MP3)

Transcription by me, edited lightly for clarity / continuity.

#JillLepore #Simulmatics #SimulmaticsCorporation #Psywar #PsychologicalWarfare #MassCommunications #MassMedia #AdTech #Facebook #Google #SiliconValley #Privacy #Surveillance #Propaganda #Manipulation #Monopoly