Celebrity, Leader, or Both?

Rene Descartes, a 16th century French philosopher, wrote: "For, finally, whether we are awake or asleep, we should never let ourselves be persuaded except on the evidence of our reason." After reading this sentence, I realized what a good philosophy this still is today. No one should be told what to think, or persuaded to think something different than they already do, but rather every individual should formulate their own opinions about issues. The only reason a person should be persuaded in their thoughts is if their own reasons provide evidence that they should indeed be persuaded.

In society today, however, this is not the case. People are persuaded to formulate opinions based on things other than their own reasons. The most clear example of this is certainly the role the media plays in multiple aspects of life, ranging from important issues like the election,
to smaller issues like what to buy for dinner or where to go shopping. The media provides ways of persuading society through many advertisements and propaganda techniques. An explicit example of this is found in a John McCain campaign commercial where it implies that Barack Obama is the "biggest celebrity in the world" and that that does not make him ready to lead a nation. The ad can be viewed at this website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHXYsw_ZDXg. Clearly, this propaganda technique is a way that the media reaches society and persuades them to formulate an opinion about Obama other than their own. This is just one example of propaganda such as this, it is not one sided, but rather a common practice and effective technique in persuasion.

Further, on a much smaller scale, one might be wondering what to eat for dinner and perhaps they cross paths with an advertisement such as this: http://www.inkthinkerblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/3-taco-bell-signs.jpg, which is a picture of the 79 cent, 89 cent, and 99 cent meals at Taco Bell. This use of propaganda may influence a person to eat at Taco Bell for dinner, because as the sign says, it is cheap. I understand that this example is on the utmost small end of an issue (deciding what to eat), but still provides evidence that propaganda can influence the way we think. According to Descartes, no one should be persuaded to think something other than with their own reason, but it appears that this is hard to accomplish in a society like today, where the media attempts to persuade us on issues from both ends of the spectrum.