Life & Wisdom Quote by Fredrik Bajer

Propaganda here isn’t sold as persuasion; it’s sold as self-indoctrination. Bajer pinpoints a quietly ruthless dynamic: the public-facing appeal matters less for the audience than for the people attaching their names to it. Once you sign, you’ve crossed a threshold from sympathetic observer to invested participant. The signature becomes a small contract with your future self, a reputational stake that demands follow-through. That’s the “special value” he’s naming: propaganda as a machine for manufacturing commitment.

The subtext is almost clinical, even faintly amused. Bajer treats “propaganda” not as a dirty word or a lofty cause but as a training pipeline. The phrase “if I may use the term” reads like a brief clearing of the throat, acknowledging the word’s charged connotations while insisting on its usefulness. He’s not primarily moralizing; he’s dissecting method. Appeals recruit, yes, but more importantly they teach recruits how recruitment works. By repeating the act of petitioning, organizing, and broadcasting, signers internalize the logic of messaging, escalation, and group discipline. They learn to see persuasion as necessary infrastructure, not optional decoration.

Contextually, this fits the late 19th- and early 20th-century world of leagues, petitions, and transnational causes, where public opinion was becoming a measurable force and activism was professionalizing. Bajer’s insight anticipates modern movements’ obsession with “engagement”: the point isn’t just to change minds; it’s to turn supporters into operators. Propaganda, in his telling, is less a loudspeaker than a boot camp.