This blizzard of mind-warping war propaganda out of Washington is building up steam. Monday is Anthrax, Tuesday is Bankruptcy, Friday is Child-Rape, Thursday is Bomb-scares, etc., etc., etc... If we believed all the brutal, frat-boy threats coming out of the White House, we would be dead before Sunday. It is pure and savage terrorism reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
- Hunter S. Thompson
Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.
You’ve got to keep them [the bewildered herd] pretty scared, because unless they’re properly scared and frightened of all kinds of devils that are going to destroy them from outside or inside or somewhere, they may start to think, which is very dangerous.
- Noam Chomsky
The totalitarian systems of the future will be docile and subservient, plying us with drinks and soft slippers like a hostess on an airliner, adjusting our TV screen for us so that we won't ask exactly where the plane is going, or even whether there is a pilot on board.
- J.G. Ballard
The engineering of consent is the essence of democracy.
– Edward Bernays