8 | MP introduction
needed this sort of experience at least as much as they need
bread. In some countries, to mass people together has become a
recognized device of modern statecraft. The rulers of
this country, too, were surprised at the overwhelming and spontan-
eous response to Jubilee and Coronation. The disciplined march
and the emotionally warm mass meeting are now the most effective
propaganda weapons of all. The individual man and woman acquires
a feeling of terrific strength when they are among a large number
of people who act as one. For the time being, they incorporate
into themselves the combined strength of all the others. And what
is more, for a time they can merge, or lose themselves, in an
impassioned and rapturous crowd. By a massed array of its forces
a 'cause' binds to itself the deepest yearnings of the human
soul, longings which are beyond the reach of reasoned argument.
It would be a miracle if the intellectuals, always eager to
find something new to write about, had overlooked a 'find' like
modern propaganda. In many hundreds of books, pamphlets and arti-
cles, propaganda has been discussed from almost every conceivable
angle.[10] Much information has been accumulated about the organi-
sation of propaganda, and its instruments, organs or vehicles -
books, pamphlets, leaflets, newspapers, private letters, public
meetings, rumours and gossip, cinema and wireless. Others focussed
attention on the various purposes for which propaganda is used -
from selling tooth brushes and making more money to building em-
pires, and saving souls.
While engaged in some great social task, people like being
lied to. The dresses of to-day look becoming, those of yesterday