5 Mass Persuaders

If you want to know more about the weird and wonderful ways we’re controlled, then I found these books to be super helpful:

• The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard (1957): This sweet little old-school book comes straight outta Madmen. It was one of the first to highlight the links between psychology and getting people to buy shit.

• Propaganda by Edward Bernays (1928): This guy (Freud’s nephew) cashed in on his uncle’s theories. He came up with the term PR, got women to smoke in public, and essentially spawned the entire advertising industry as we know it. His slim book is an interesting insight into how people in power try to manipulate the masses.

• The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu (2016): Does a sick job explaining how marketing and advertising work online. Wu starts way back and draws a nice thread all the way up to today. You gotta give him credit for predicting the rise of Donald Trump before he won that year’s election.

• Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged (1957) and The Fountainhead (1943) are such naked propaganda they make sick case studies for learning the fine art of persuasion. Her characters represent arguments; her plots serve as ideologies. Her novels are philosophical treaties and they’re deceptively powerful.

• Influence by Robert Cialdini (1984): This one takes a step back from superficial ads to look at why human beings do what they do and the forces exerted from within and without.

I’ve learned a hell of a lot by reading books on advertising and propaganda. If I was to sum up the lessons, I’d say the main ones:

• Advertising works on everyone.

• Crowds are insane and no one really understands them.

• Like every tool, advertising can be used for good and for bad.

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Further Reading

If you’re interested in advertising/marketing/propaganda then these are also worth checking out:

• George Orwell – everything he’s ever written

• Money by Martin Amis

• The Circle by Dave Eggers

• Ogilvy on Advertising

• The Century of the Self (a documentary by Adam Curtis)

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Other recommendations

Here are some kicking off points if you don’t know what to read next:

• Books for angry young men

• Books for if you’re depressed

• Books that will fuck you up

• Books that started new genres

• Books that are gonzo as fuck

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House of Electric Sheep

I’ve written 5 novels which you can find on Amazon, available as e-books and paperbacks:

• Conversations with America (2010)

• Ravenstone (2015)

• one time (2017)

• Eden 2.0 (2020)

• Team Human (2022)

• Black Skull (coming soon…)

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Thanks for your time.

Read hard. Read wide. Read free.