In the words of Jacques Ellul, "To be effective, propaganda must constantly short-circuit all thought and decision. It must operate on the individual at the level of the unconscious. He must not know that he is being shaped by outside forces (this is one of the conditions for the success of propaganda), but some central core in him must be reached in order to release the mechanism in the unconscious which will provide the appropriate- and expected- action." It is by understanding these automatic mechanisms, which today are likely to be implanted by social media, that puts the control levers back into our own minds. We need to carefully watch how we respond, particularly emotionally, so that we know when we are surrendering to the automated flow of stimulating words and images and let our minds float away. We need to break out of machine-mode so we can be confident that we possess all the tools necessary to find the truth.