Saturday Rave: propaganda by Eric Hoffer.

 Eric Hoffer was born in 1902. He went blind at the age of seven, and recovered his sight, quite unexpectedly, at the age of fifteen. 

He spent a long time wandering about the USA, just about keeping himself afloat. He worked at various times as a migrant harvester, a longshoreman, and panning for gold. 

He read Montaigne, was impressed, wrote some stuff, and suddenly found himself a professor at Berkeley. 

He retired early, and lived long.

No one knows (or ever knew) quite what to make of him. Philosopher? Perhaps. Intellectual? Again, perhaps, but he didn't recognise that as a label for himself. He just wrote about Life - and it had taught him a lot.

Whatever you call him, he was a wise man, and never wiser than when he said this:

Propaganda does not deceive people, it merely helps them to deceive themselves.

Wherever we are, it seems a good basis upon which to listen to the news.

Word To Use Today: propaganda. This word is Italian, and came to English in the 1700s. It comes from propāgandā from the book title Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, Sacred Congregation for Propagating the Faith. 

In the Roman Catholic Church, the word propaganda describes people who direct the work of foreign missionary organisations.