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My Life in Propaganda
- Language and Totalitarian Regimes
- Narrated by: Lorene Shyba
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
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My Life in Propaganda
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Publisher's Summary
My Life in Propaganda is Magda Stroińska’s personal account of growing up with communist propaganda in Eastern Europe. She compares the beliefs of her family with what she was taught at school, learning early on about double interpretations and ambiguities through language. Through her chosen field of linguistics, she analyzes ways in which propagandistic language, such as ‘doubletalk,’ Orwellian ‘Newspeak,’ ‘weasel words,’ and, more colloquially, ‘bullshit,’ is used to distort reality. The book demonstrates that democracy can never be taken for granted.
What the critics say
In relatively free Western societies, we are used to the distortion of language in many contexts. Commercial advertisers will use language to try to convince us of the efficacy of their products. Political parties of a particular flavour, the policies of which are highly contestable, will describe their philosophy as "progressive"—how could anybody fail to support a "progressive" political programme? However, this all takes place in an environment of free debate and commercial competition as well as a system of contract law which would prevent businesses from misleading their customers. But what happens if the state monopolises economic life, education and all channels of mass communication? As Magda Stroinska shows, in this fascinating and personal account of the abuse of language, totalitarian states have, though the ages, effectively entrenched their position by abusing the meaning of words. Magda, a philologist, has lived in communist Poland and studied the growth of Nazi Germany. Nobody is better place to explain how the control of language can lead to the control of society. —Dr. Philip Booth, St. Mary’s University, London UK