FOCUS SERIES
Series Editor Jean-Charles Pomerol
First published in the English language 2016 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
First published in the French language by Presses Universitaires de France, from pages 3–146 and 275–325 (of the French Edition) © La démocratie des crédules, Presses Universitaires de France, 2013.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:
ISTE Ltd
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www.iste.co.uk
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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USA
www.wiley.com
© ISTE Ltd 2016
The rights of Gérald Bronner to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015954428
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISSN 2051-2481 (Print)
ISSN 2051-249X (Online)
ISBN 978-1-84821-916-8
This book will mention the media, beliefs, the news, the Internet, etc. but it should not be seen as yet another critique of the media system, exploring with indignant fascination the idea of a machination against truth set up to serve a society of domination. These kinds of theories, whether they pertain to conspiracy theories or, more subtly, to a self-styled “critical” way of thinking, have always seemed to me the expression of a form of intellectual puerility. This is not to say that attempts at manipulating opinions do not occur, or that our world is free from compromised principles, or indeed corruption; far from it, but none of this is the key issue.
In fact, reality somehow strikes me as even more unsettling than those myths, however sophisticated they might be, which envisage the media system hand-in-hand with industry, science and so forth, all in agreement to lead the “people” away from the truth. This is more unsettling, because the processes that will be described in this book and that allow falsehood and dubiousness to take hold of the public sphere are boosted by the development of IT, the workings of our mind, and the very nature of democracy… It is more unsettling then because we are all responsible for what is going to happen to us.