This is an online rendition of the "The Propaganda Game" by Robert W. Allen and Lorne Greene. From the introduction:
"Propaganda is a subject of great concern in our society today, perhaps more so than in any other society in history. With the advent of television as a complement to the other communications media now available to us, the opportunities to use propaganda in disseminating information, expounding ideas, and offering opinions have increaseed considerably. And, unfortunately, it is far too often the case that propaganda is used to make us accept questionable points-of-view, to make us vote for men who may be unfit for public office, and to make us buy products which are useless and sometimes even dangerous. Therefore, propaganda, or the method of influencing people to believe certain ideas and to follow certain courses of action, is of special importance to each of us.
"The word 'propaganda' comes from the Latin pgrase "Congregatio de Propaganda Fide," or "Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith," a committee formed early in the Roman Catholic Church, whose function it is to aid the propagation or spread of the church doctrine throughout the world [World Book Encyclopedia, 1962, Vol. 14, pp. 725-727]. Propaganda plays a dynamic, positive role in the daily lives of many men. Actors, preachers, teachers, politicians, editors, advertisers, salemen, reformers, authors, artists, parents–our friends and even ourselves–practice the art of persuasion. And each of us, as we attempt to put our ideas across to others, to persuade them to agree with our way of thinking, is, in a sense, acting in the ancient Roman tradition of the word; we are all missionaries for our causes."
harry@harrydole.com