The manipulation of the American mind—Edward Bernays and the birth of public relations

by Richard Gunderman, The Conversation
Phys.org, July 9, 2015

"The most interesting man in the world." "Reach out and touch someone." "Finger-lickin' good." Such advertising slogans have become fixtures of American culture, and each year millions now tune into the Super Bowl as much for the ads as for the football.

While no single person can claim exclusive credit for the ascendancy of advertising in American life, no one deserves credit more than a man most of us have never heard of: Edward Bernays.

I first encountered Bernays through an article I was writing on propaganda, and it quickly became clear that he was one of the 20th century's foremost salesmen of ideas. The fact that 20 years have elapsed since his death provides a fitting opportunity to reexamine his legacy.

Bernays pioneered public relations

Often referred to as "the father of public relations," Bernays in 1928 published his seminal work, Propaganda, in which he argued that public relations is not a gimmick but a necessity:

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.

SNIP...

Bernays' ideas sold a lot more than cigarettes and Dixie cups

SNIP...

Bernays learned that the Nazis were using his work in 1933, from a foreign correspondent for Hearst newspapers. He later recounted in his 1965 autobiography:

They were using my books as the basis for a destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me, but I knew any human activity can be used for social purposes or misused for antisocial ones.

What Bernays' writings furnish is not a principle or tradition by which to evaluate the appropriateness of propaganda, but simply a means for shaping public opinion for any purpose whatsoever, whether beneficial to human beings or not.

This observation led Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter to warn President Franklin Roosevelt against allowing Bernays to play a leadership role in World War II, describing him and his colleagues as "professional poisoners of the public mind, exploiters of foolishness, fanaticism, and self-interest."

CONTINUED...

http://phys.org/news/2015-07-american-mindedward-bernays-birth.html

“The Damage to Our Intelligence is Gut-Wrenching to See”

Why the Ruling Class is So Upset About Edward Snowden

by GARY LEUPP
CounterPunch June 26, 2013

EXCERPT...

It all, in my humble opinion, boils down to this. The entirety of the ruling elite and the journalistic establishment are keen on defending the programs Snowden has exposed; keen on punishing him for his whistle-blowing; determined to vilify him as a punk, narcissist, egoist, attention-hungry ne’er-do-well (anything but a thoughtful man who made a moral choice that has enlightened people about the character of the U.S. government); feverishly working on damage control while anticipating more damning revelations; and determined to get those four laptops with their incriminating content back into the bosom of the national security state.

What sort of state is it, that says to its own people, we can invade a country based on lies, kill a million people, hold nobody accountable but hey, when one of us does something so abominable as to reveal that the state spies constantly on the people of the world, we have to have a “manhunt” for him and punish him for treason?

The Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, has the audacity to tell NBC News, “It is literally gut-wrenching to see” Snowden’s revelations… because of the “damage” they do to “our intelligence capabilities”! As though there were really an “our” or “us” at this point. As though we were a nation united, including the mindful watchers and the grateful watched.

[font color="green"]No, there are us, and there are them. The tiny power elite that controls the mainstream press and cable channels, the corporations that dutifully hand over meta-data to the state (and then deny doing so to allay consumer outrage), the twin political parties, are sick to their stomachs that they’ve been so exposed.[/font color]

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/26/why-the-ruling-class-is-so-upset-about-edward-snowden/

Thank you, heartofstone! This subject is near and dear to me -- and underappreciated by the general Google.

PS: ETA: A hearty welcome to DU!

White Liars. Big Time. Major League. Heh heh heh.

An example of what most Americans DON'T KNOW or if they did, apparently, give two figs about:

From Project Censored 1993:



How many people do you know who know what "Iraq-gate" is?

For DUers and the interested, the late William Safire detailed how: Poppy Bush helped arm Saddam's Iraq



Get it while you can, Compay Raoulito. I've noticed a lot of this history is disappearing from the DU servers and the rest of the Web, likely the result of how everything like the Bill of Rights changed after September 11. Once those of us who know it are gone, it is highly unlikely Corporate McPravda and LAckademia will cover such inconvenient realities for future generations. They'll just live it, without knowing what hell they're in.

Why a new book matters.

"Money trumps peace" is why we can't have nice things, like jobs and democracy.