ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book explores the propaganda as the deliberate and systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist. Interestingly, similar propaganda content and similar patterns of change can be observed in other countries of the Soviet bloc. In shaping perception, textbooks constructed their realities according to Marxist ideology, including the theory of the stages of history, materialism, knowledge of the world, evolutionary theory and the omnipotence of man, especially in transforming the environment. The policy of one textbook per subject and grade eliminated any competition and divergent interpretations. Moreover, in democratic countries in the post–World War II period teachers were asked to encourage their pupils to identify the bias of textbook authors as a way of dealing with this inevitable phenomenon.
