Quotations-Propaganda Assignment

658.

Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man

will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived… The masses are always impressed by the

superficial appearance of things… NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI (1469-1527), The Prince, 1513.

"Don't judge a book by its cover." "It's on the inside what counts." We are told these things even when we're young and growing up. But as much as we might hate to admit it, we live in a materalized world where most of what we know is based on appearances. The stars on TV commercials are always have the most "aesthetically" pleasing starring. Of course, it is made this way on purpose. This quote explains just that. "Men are so simple of mind, and so dominated by their immediate needs..." Well, yeah, we want food, water, shelter, to reproduce, and basically survive through whatever life throws at us, right? "... that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived." The deceitful man in this situation would be the media, and the mass population those ready to be deceived. Now comes the most important part, " The masses are always impressed by the superficial appearance of things." This is true for I would think mostly everyone. We like classifying things by how they appear. For example, when you're looking for colleges, a lot of people tend to look at campus appearance. When shopping, the prettier it is, the better. It's how we do a lot of things. So when we're sitting in front of the TV and this beautiful actresse comes onscreen and promotes Pantene shampoo, we like it and we want it. This happens more than we often want it to. A perfect example of it is the Nixon vs. Kennedy election that we discussed in class. Nixon knew the politics, had good arguments, and spoke well. Kennedy had script scribes, spoke well, didn't have many good plans for his presidency, but was good at promoting his ideas. To those listening on the radio, Nixon won the debate. To those watching TV, Kennedy won the debate. Why? It's easy to say that Kennedy is certainly better looking than Nixon. We are men of simple mind. We are easily impressed by the superficial appearance of things. This has been evident throughout our history and our lives many times.