Showing results for "The Government of Life" in Elections & Political Process

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.

Conventional wisdom holds that John F. Kennedy was the first celebrity president, in no small part because of his innate television savvy. But as Kathryn Brownell shows, Kennedy capitalized on a tradition and style rooted in California politics and the Hollywood studio system. Since the 1920s, politicians and professional showmen have developed relationships and built organizations institutionalizing Hollywood styles, structures, and personalities in the American political process.

As Prime Minister for three years and Home Secretary for six years, Theresa May confronted a series of issues in which the abuse of power led to devastating results for individuals and significantly damaged the reputation of, and trust in, public institutions and politicians. From the Hillsborough and Grenfell tragedies, to the Daniel Morgan case and parliamentary scandals, the powerful repeatedly chose to use their power not in the interests of the powerless but to serve themselves or to protect the organisation to which they belonged.

"Política e religião sempre andaram juntas: na Pré-história, na Antiguidade, desde sempre e até hoje, mesmo que sob formas não tão evidentes." "O cotidiano saturado de políticas permeadas pelas guerras culturais tem vocação beligerante contínua." "Seja lá o que for a ‘verdade’, ela nunca interessou à democracia na construção cotidiana do poder." "O homem comum não se preocupa muito com liberdade de expressão e troca facilmente qualquer regime por uma janta melhor. É um fetiche achar que o homem comum ama a democracia."