Synthesis Essay 'Empire Of Illusion'

In Cross’s opinion, she believes people are bamboozled by propaganda because they fail to recognize when they experience it (248). The thirteen propaganda methods Cross describes in this essay include the following: Name-Calling, Glittering Generalities, Plain-Folks Appeal, Arguementum Ad Populum (Stroking),

As a society we are guided by false veneers and deceit. Artifice is unfortunately a prominent tactic used in hope of gaining the respect of the public. Politicians and celebrities who we look up to utilize artifice on a daily basis to gain our recognition and approval. Even teenagers are being taught how to use artifice to their advantage. Chris Hedges believes that the use of artifice is a necessary device to achieve success. In his book, The Empire of Illusion, he discusses the appeal of artifice and how individuals become “unreal” and “ignored” if they do not utilize it. His viewpoint is immensely untrue because this “strategy” causes a never-ending cycle of conflict. If we continue to feign our true appearances, we will become unable to fix societal issues we face to today.

Propaganda is used everywhere in life and books. It has such a complex meaning under what the people or it is saying. In Animal Farm, The Wave, and Night propaganda is used to describe what life was like for all the people in that time and how crucial survival was and how to not get outcasted.

Both negative and positive, propaganda affects our lives daily sometimes without us even acknowledging that it exists. The main goal of propaganda is trying to sell your product or idea to other people, one major form of Propaganda occurs in the news. Propaganda is used for companies and trend setters who want to get their products and ideas out in the world so that they could potentially become popular. Smart propagandists discovered that to create the best propaganda, the viewer must not even realize that the product or idea is being sold to them. Propaganda creates an extremely large impact on us and is sometimes mistaken for being “just another advertisement” when they actually change the way we live our lives.

The art of deception is an essential skill, especially in moments such as political debates and commercial promotions. In today's society, artifice is a widely utilized skill to persuade the public. The commercial market connects producers to consumers through propaganda which appeals to consumers through elements such as pathos, ethos, and logos. Utilizing these elements, the audience is immediately drawn into the viewpoint of the deceiver. Politicians tried to appear as ordinary and modest as possible to seem more appealing to their audience. But, it can be a deception. As Chris Hedges said in his Empire of Illusion, a story is the best form of artifice because the “consistency and emotional appeal of the story are paramount.” Often politicians tell stories to create a persona making themselves look more trustworthy.

In the excerpt Chris Hedges says, “... to create a sense of faux intimacy with citizens, no longer need to be content or sincere, or honest.” For example when selling a product, you can lie to your viewers about the product as long as the lie isn’t obvious and the product still appears to be true and relative. In other words, this means when you sell a product and tell the audience the complete and honest truth, no matter how bad it is, this will scare your audience away, but when you sell a product and tell more lies than truth, you can somewhat curve the narrative and appeal to your audience. All this is important in a consumer because the best use of artifice will survive in the competition of marketing, though this is true there is another way to attract an audience willing to invest money into your product or

Tourism today is as a distinct field of activity, with a more active presence in social and economic life evolving rhythms of the highest. Generator of profound transformations in social dynamics, tourism has also stated

Imperialism was reborn in the West with the emergence of the modern nation-state and the age of exploration and discovery. It is to this modern type of empire building that the term imperialism is quite often restricted. Colonies were established not only in more or less sparsely inhabited places where there were few or no highly integrated native states (e.g., North America and Africa) but also in lands where ancient civilizations and states existed (e.g., India, Malaya, Indonesia, and the Inca lands of South America). The emigration of European settlers to people the Western Hemisphere and Africa, known as colonization , was marked by the same attitude of assumed superiority on the part of the newcomers toward the native populations

“Those who have not mastered the art of entertainment, who fail to create a narrative or do not have a fashioned for them by their handlers are ignored” .This is a quote from Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges. This quote is stating that people haven’t grasped the idea that in order to prosper you have to sell your idea with propaganda.This concept is fascinating because all social media show this idea that in order to succeed, your merchandise or idea has to be enhanced. There are billions of things being advertised in social media, and tv. For one of these products to stand out it needs to show that it works for example, If it was an ad about weight loss, including pictures like before and after or they include a video of them talking about how the process was, how long it took them to lose a certain amount .And how their experience was. If it was effortless, or quick .Doing this is an example of one of Hedges ideas that the most essential skill is artifice.

British Imperialism is the idea that it is the white man’s duty to civilize other, more primitive, people (Cody). Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, is a story about a man named Marlow who travels up the Congo River with a European trading company. In the story Marlow see’s many horrifying things, and slowly he becomes desensitized to what is really going on. In the beginning he is highly critical of the trading company, but by the end he has become so used to the things he has seen that they no longer shock him. Heart of Darkness is not only a criticism of Imperialism, but it is an explanation of how a man can go from inherently knowing something is wrong, to viewing it as normal.

Political propaganda has dominated most of literature works. Various literature books contain half-truths or blatant false stories that are meant to serve the interest of some nations, communities, emperors, kingdoms, and religious beliefs. The misinformed approach in literature books seeks to persuade, influence, or manipulate readers using information that is specifically defined and disseminated for this purpose. As a medium of communication, leaders have used literature works over the years to brainwash, deceive, persuade, and enhance certain euphoria on people. Propaganda is packaged in a strategic way that makes it difficult for people to distinguish the thin line between truth, half-truth,

Propaganda can also be analysed from a functionalist perspective. It is not all about what is wrong or is intended to convince others. Propaganda plays a very functional role in society, as it corresponds exactly to a need of the masses and speaks to man’s mythic needs (Jacque Ellul, 2006). Man is full of problems ranging from loneliness, passivity diminished self-esteem and repression. Propaganda functions as a

According to James Brooks, “the manipulation of meaning to assure an audience would destroy the reality of the work and debase the concept of communication.” The essay will examine how images are used nowadays in media to influence people’s opinions rather than only for artistic purposes.

Any agreement between two or more gatherings requires taking compelling measures before settling on any choice, to guarantee and stay away from an insufficiency or result that may occur later on. Nonetheless, there is one particular variable, distortion, which might influence the choice of the offered party notwithstanding when they have cleared every one of the measures that ought to be taken. Distortion is a type of misdirection where one gathering expresses a misleading articulation or act to the next gathering before the agreement was made, along these lines coming about the affectation of the other party to enter the agreement. In the business world, each representor searches for the best advantage of his/her ware while arranging an agreement with another gathering. Lamentably, it

In the age of New Imperialism, European nations rushed to gain advantage over ruling Africa, most specifically Congo, to expand economic prospects under the guise that they were civilizing the natives of these areas. The negative impacts of Europe in the Congo are supported in the novel, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, who employs his narrative to showcase how the drive for Imperialism stripped away the humane reasoning for colonizing the Congo, as the protagonist is brought face to face with the horrors of this colonization. The novel’s themes are furthered by first-hand account articles that depict the violence that Conrad fictionalized to stress that Europe’s goal for