The Pretentious Persuaders

Synopsis

This book is sure to become one of the most influential of modern times.

Its primary hypothesis is that, like the apes from which we evolved, homo sapiens sapiens or modern man lived from the outset in tribes, each with its own language, culture and religion passed on by tribal elders to succeeding generations. As with chimpanzees, however, tribes tended to be dominated by alpha males and periodically engage in wars with neighbouring tribes.

From the outset, therefore, men developed the art of persuading others to believe their often ridiculous religious notions or to fight misguided wars.

The Agricultural Revolution led to larger societies in which people had many different roles, paving the way for the today’s industrialized consumer society
in which we have been reduced to consumer zombies easily persuaded to overindulge in often unnecessary, if not harmful, products. This, of course, has been a disaster which has damaged our environment and ourselves, one result being decreases in our IQ that have been observed throughout the last century.

The book’s first chapter gives a brief introduction to the evolution of modern man, the consumer society, and of ‘the persuaders.’ The next three chapters are devoted to discussion of language and learning, conditioning, memory, and attitude formation and measurement, including the contact hypothesis of ethnic conflict.

Following chapters discuss several of the most important areas of man’s activities, including religion, war, art and science, industry, education, politics, business, the media, advertising and economics. In each of these it is seen that people are persuaded or ‘brainwashed’ into ‘buying’ some message or product.

The final chapters discuss

(a) Global problems such as overpopulation, pollution, and resource depletion.

(b) The reverse evolution decreasing us both physically and mentally.

(c) Some solutions to these growing problems that threaten our very existence.