New audiobook release: The Phantom Public, by Walter Lippmann

Today The Phantom Public is now available, much to my surprise.

https://librivox.org/phantom-public-by-walter-lippmann/

I actually own a hard-copy of this book, one of the early printings from the 20s. I could never make time for it but when I purchased this there were no available PDF online anywhere(it was still under copyright) and I had planned to scan all the pages and read it myself from my own uploaded scans once it went public domain. So among other things, this release saves me a ton of time. It's a solo recording as well, which is wonderful.

In The Phantom Public, Lippmann takes a very sour look at the world and becomes much more rigidly in favor of rule by experts. He captures a moment when the progressives had been so defeated after the 1920 election, these people didn't even want to be called progressives anymore it was that bad! Little did he know. In less than a decade from this progressives would re-brand themselves as "liberals".

The Phantom Public is a sort of follow up to his earlier book Public Opinion, which I did the recording all by myself.

New audiobook release: Propaganda, by Edward Bernays

Today we have a new audio book release, this time from Edward Bernays with his 1928 work "Propaganda". Download the audio here.

There is a lot to learn about progressivism in this book. Among other things (prior post on this) Bernays believed the following items which were captions on a newer reprint cover:

As civilization has become more complex, and as the need for invisible government has been increasingly demonstrated, the technical means have been invented and developed by which opinion may be regimented(Page 39)

Nowadays the successors of the rulers, those whose position or ability gives them power, can no longer do what they want without the approval of the masses, they find in propaganda a tool which is increasingly powerful in gaining that approval(Page 54)

Democracy is administered by the intelligent minority who know how to regiment and guide the masses(Page 127)

Democracy is administered by the intelligent minority. The "experts". That's the arrogance of progressivism. They can't just leave us alone. Ok, then we need to study these moonbats so we can defend ourselves against their machinations. My guiding principle since day one, this has never changed going all the way back to 2010:

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle - Sun Tzu (Art of War, Chapter 3)