"Theorists of propaganda have identified five basic rules: 1. The rule of simplification: reducing all data to a simple confrontation between Good and Bad, Friend and Foe. 2. The rule of disfiguration: discrediting the opposition by crude smears and parodies. 3. The rule of transfusion: manipulating the consensus values of the target audience for ones own ends. 4. The rule of unanimity: presenting ones viewpoint as if it were the unanimous opinion of all right-thinking people: drawing the doubting individual into agreement by the appeal of star-performers, by social pressure, and by psychological contagion. 5. The rule of orchestration: endlessly repeating the same messages in different variations and combinations."
Ivor Norman Richard Davies is a British and Polish historian, known for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland and the United Kingdom. He has a special interest in Central and Eastern Europe and is UNESCO Professor at the Jagiellonian University, professor emeritus at University College London, a visiting professor at the Collège d'Europe, and an honorary fellow at St Antony's College,
Ivor Norman Richard Davies is a British and Polish historian, known for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland and the United Kingdom. He has a special interest in Central and Eastern Europe and is UNESCO Professor at the Jagiellonian University, professor emeritus at University College London, a visiting professor at the Collège d'Europe, and an honorary fellow at St Antony's College,
View all quotes by Norman Davies"When Henryk Sienkiewicz set Poland alight with his tales of chivalry, it was Cossack life in 17th-century Poland that stirred his readers. Just as many great Englishmen turn out to be Irishmen or Scots, so many great Poles, like Mickiewicz, Słowacki, or Kościuszko, turn out to be Lithuanians."
Norman Davies"The immediate future may be determined by a race between the United Kingdom and the EU over which beats the other to a major crisis."
Norman Davies"Arguably, the only fruit of the Crusades kept by the Christians was the apricot."
Norman Davies"Reconstructing the past is rather like translating poetry. It can be done, but never exactly. Whether one deals with prehistoric recipes, colonial settlements, or medieval music, it needs great imagination and restraint if the twin perils of artless authenticity and clueless empathy are to be avoided."
Norman Davies"The debased coinage of his reign bore his initials, ICR: Iohannes Casimirus Rex. These were taken to stand for Initium Calamitatum Reipublicae, the Beginning of the Republics Catastrophes."
Norman Davies"The difference between a referendum and a plebiscite is a fine one. Both pertain to collective decisions made by the direct vote of all qualified adults. The referendum, which derives from Swiss practice, involves an issue that is provisionally determined in advance, but that is then referred for a final decision by the whole electorate."
Norman Davies