Here’s an excellent quote from Jacques Ellul’s essay Propaganda, as quoted in John Gatto’s book, The Underground History of American Education:

Critical judgement disappears altogether, for in no way can there ever be collective critical judgement… The individual can no longer judge for himself because he inescapably relates his thoughts to the entire complex of values and prejudices established by propaganda. With regard to political situations, he is given ready-made value judgments invested with the power of truth by… the word of experts.

The individual has no chance to exercise his judgement either on principal questions or on their implication; this leads to the atrophy of a faculty not comfortably exercised under [the best of] conditions… Once personal judgment and critical faculties have disappeared or have atrophied, they will not simply reappear when propaganda is suppressed…years of intellectual and spiritual education would be needed to restore such facilities. The propagandee, if deprived of one propaganda, will immediately adopt another, this will spare him the agony of finding himself vis a vis some event without a ready-made opinion.

I think those “critical faculties” are also the root of creativity. I know we always talk about creativity in an artistic sense, but can someone explain the difference between artistic creativity and critical thinking? Which requires the other? Or are they the same thing?