DefDog: PSYOP Reading List for Citizens

FYI……some good insight…..it is in the very fabric of society….

Towards a Psychological Operations Reading List

Skilluminati Research, 7 September 2011

Defining Psychological Operations is straightforward enough, but
determining where exactly it ends is extremely tricky. The US Department of Defense has infiltrated institutions around the world, they expend billions every year on domestic and foreign propaganda, yet they still only represent a single slice of the spectrum. Intelligence agencies, private think tanks and public corporations are all competing for attentional bandwidth, too. PSYOPS has become ubiquitous, metastasized into Standard Operating Procedure for the entire edifice of Western Culture. Our news and our entertainment, scientific studies, history books, political campaigns and activist movements are all just sponsored messages and paid promotions. From advertisements to astroturfing, everyone's got “desired effects” and everyone's got a “target audience” now.

Read list in context (commentary by the editors).

Phi Beta Iota:  PSYOP succeed when education fails.  Education fails and PSYOP succeed when integrity fails.  This ultimately boils down to Philosophy and the Social Problem (Will Durant, 2008 x 1916).

Below the line:  structured and expanded list with links.

Skilluminati in bold, others added by Phi Beta Iota.

A Century of Media. A Century of War by Robin Andersen (2006)

Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion by Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson (2001)

Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential by James Moore and Wayne Slater (2004)

Captains Of Consciousness Advertising And The Social Roots Of The Consumer Culture by Stuart Ewen (2001)

Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists by Joel Best (2001)

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto (2002 x 1992)

Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin by Larry Beinhart (2006)

Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography by Roger Shattuck (1997)

Hidden Truth: Forbidden Knowledge by Steven Greer (2006)

Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & ‘Project Truth' by Robert Parry (1999)

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward Herman & Noam Chomsky (2002 x 1988)

Mass Deception: Moral Panic and the U.S. War on Iraq by Scott Bonn (2010)

Media Control, Second Edition: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda by Noam Chomsky (2002)

Mirage Men: An Adventure into Paranoia, Espionage, Psychological Warfare, and UFOs by Mark Pilkington (2010)

Munitions of the Mind: A History of Propaganda by Philip Taylor (2003)

PR! – A Social History of Spin by Stuart Ewen (1996)

Propaganda by Edward Bernays (2004)

Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes by Jacques Ellul (1973)

Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann (2010 x 1922)

Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids by Jim Marrs (2001)

Science of Coercion: Communication Research and Psychological Warfare, 1945-1960 by Christopher Simpson (1996)

Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James Scott (1999)

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History by Michel-Rolph Trouillot (1997)

Techniques of Propaganda and Persuasion by Magedah Shabo (2008)

The Age of Missing Information by Bill McKibben (2006)

The Gods of Antenna by Bruce Herschensohn (2000)

The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard (2007 x 1957)

The Image: A Guide to Pseudo Events in America by Daniel Boorstein (1992)

The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America by HUGH Wilford (2009)

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion by John Zaller (1992)

The Politics of Knowledge: Area Studies and the Disciplines by David Szanton (2004)

Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry and John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton (2002)

Trust Us We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton (2002)

Universities and Empire: Money and Politics in the Social Sciences During the Cold War by Christopher Simpson (1999)

Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber (2003)

Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto (2010)

When Media Goes to War: Hegemonic Discourse, Public Opinion, and the Limits of Dissent by Anthony DiMaggio (2010)