Travis Watrous
Annotations
Chapters 2-4

In Chapter 2 most of the key points center around the belief that propaganda can manipulate the human mind in many ways, in positive but almost always in a negative way. The industrial revolution was fueled by the mass media of its time. Most people thought they were impervious to the media, and the subliminal messages that captivated many. Some studies showed that people who stayed more current on the news tended to side with the station or a center perspective of the story, which in most cases was not the truth. To fully understand why we act and react certain ways, we must understand what is the source of these feelings and thoughts. The cognitive part of our brain dictates how we feel and how we react to a story.
Chapter 3 talks about modern propaganda and what elements make it up. Some ads use certain words to portray an item or idea as being “new, improved, etc.” Also an example would be that items that are place at the end of aisles or near a check out stand are more likely to be purchased.
Chapter 4 focuses on the idea that humans are “rational animals”, we have the ability to face a confrontation and find a way to deal with it. We may not always use rational thought to decide the dispute, but we try to explain why we acted the way we did and even apologize for the behavior, recognizing why we acted a certain way is what defines a rational being. Unfortunately the ways we deal with being irrational are along the ling of dehumanization. Once we dehumanize a situation it is easy for us to rationalize a past behavior, and to justify that action, an watch the cycle repeat.