Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations
The Job of Creating Desire: Propaganda as an Apparatus of Government and Subjectification
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2017
Abstract
This article addresses shortcomings in the way that philosophers and cultural critics have considered propaganda by offering a new genealogical account. Looking at figures such as Marx, Adorno, Marcuse, Habermas, Bourdieu, and Stanley, this article finds that their consideration of propaganda has not necessarily been wrong but has missed some of the most significant and important functions of propaganda. This text draws on archival and published materials from propagandists, most notably Edward Bernays, to elaborate a new governmentality of propaganda and public relations. Through focusing on the concept of public opinion, I argue that propaganda is best thought of as an apparatus whose function it is to construct, modify, counter, and destroy relations of force within public opinion in order to produce the subjectivities and conduct that its disseminators and their clients desire.
Recommended Citation
Wimberly, Cory. “The Job of Creating Desire: Propaganda as an Apparatus of Government and Subjectification.” The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, vol. 31, no. 1, 2017, pp. 101–18. https://doi.org/10.5325/jspecphil.31.1.0101
Publication Title
The Journal of Speculative Philosophy
DOI
10.5325/jspecphil.31.1.0101
Comments
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