(urth) The Devil in a Forest

[Jerry Friedman]

--- On Mon, 5/18/09, brunians at brunians.org <brunians at brunians.org> wrote:
> > I'm grateful for this discussion, because when I read
> tDiaF I thought it
> > was just a quaint, but obvious, morality tale. Now, I
> realize that it isn't
> > so "on the nose" at all. It's actually a quite
> exquisite bit of propaganda
> > (unlike say "Atlas Shrugged"). Truly masterful
> propaganda is one where the
> > audience doesn't realize it's being propagandized.
> 
> Really good propaganda will have people denying that it is
> propaganda.

It depends on what you mean by "good".  I suppose you could
say that a really "good" thief or murderer doesn't get
caught, but I think the quotation marks are appropriate.

Some propaganda helps bring about many deaths.  The
kind that people are describing in /The Devil in a Forest/
(which I haven't read) is presumably far less harmful, but
I still prefer political arguments with the cards on the
table.
 
> I find it very interesting that many of the people who
> disagree with
> Wolfe's politics argue that it is not there.

While a number of others know it's there but disagree
with it.

> Socialism is, when it comes
> down to it, a process of pretending that the World is
> different from the way it actually is.

There are lots of -isms and -ities in that category.

Jerry Friedman