Losing Alignment: Some Further Thoughts

"Friend of the pod" Eugyppius recently wrote a piece discussing why it is that the regime seems incapable of maintaining its control of popular opinion. I have some further thoughts on this.

88. Losing Alignment: Some Further Thoughts

In a recent piece,

eugyppius

discussed why the regime is losing control of popular opinion. He notes that the fact of populist movements is itself noteworthy, as the regime broadly considered has an almost universal stranglehold on messaging. He uses a very helpful term, “alignment,” to discuss the phenomenon and why it is happening. You should read the piece, it’s excellent (it’s for paid subscribers, but perhaps this is the excuse you need to treat yourself to his writing):

Losing Alignment: Why have establishment politics become so destructive, immoderate and self-defeating?

As my readers will know, I am deep into a multi-piece look at Jacques Ellul’s Propaganda: the Formation of Men’s Attitudes, and Eugyppius’ piece brought to mind one of Ellul’s insights that I have yet to share in regards to the nature of propaganda and the propagandist. This will be both an introduction and a teaser for the fuller treatment to come.

As I have discussed at length already in regards to propaganda, we must properly understand it as an integral part of the technological society. Its real purpose is to int…