“We must shift America from a needs to a desires culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. Man’s desires must overshadow his needs.”
Paul Mazer, a Wall Street banker 1933
"We must remember that in time of war what is said on the enemy’s side of the front is always propaganda, and what is said on our side of the front is truth and righteousness, the cause of humanity and a crusade for peace."
Walter Lippman
Most if not all of you have heard of Sigmund Freud. Many of you have heard of his nephew Edward Bernays. In his obituary Edward Bernays was referred to as "the father of public relations". Bernays felt that the public's democratic judgment was "not to be relied upon" and he feared that "they [the American public] could very easily vote for the wrong man or want the wrong thing, so that they had to be guided from above". He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as irrational and dangerous. Sounds like a paranoid control freak to me. An extremely wealthy paranoid, control freak.
One of Bernays' most extreme political propaganda activities were said to be conducted on behalf of the Chiquita Brands International company and the US govt. to facilitate the successful overthrow of the democratically elected president of Guatemala, Jacob Guzman. Bernays propaganda labelling Guzman as a communist was published in major US media creating public support among US citizens for the overthrow of the democratically elected Guzman. With Guzman out of the picture, this allowed Chiquita Brands to exploit the virtual slave labor in Guatemala in order to produce cheap bananas for the lucrative U.S. market. Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Paul Joesph Goebbels used Bernays' book Crystallizing Public Opinion as a basis for his destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. In a recent article by Dr. Carl Elliot, Dr. Elliot states that the methods of propaganda used by Bernays and Goebbels are now being used by the pharmaceutical industry in what is known as "disease branding." http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/10/11/elliott.branding.disease/
Branding bacon and eggs as a "healthy" American breakfast and encouraging women to smoke cigarettes often and openly in public overcoming a then social taboo are more of Bernays' accomplishments. Following are some selected quotes of Bernays' (and you thought it was George Bush who coined the phrase "make the world safe for democracy") and links to the award winning 2002 documentary series "The Century of the Self" by Adam Curtis, which I'm sure many of you are familiar with. If not, please take the time to view this fascinating four part documentary series each running approximately sixty minutes. As you're watching, or if you choose not to watch, remember, we are human beings, not consumers. As always, thanks for reading.
"When I came back to the United States, I decided that if you could use propaganda for war, you could certainly use it for peace. And 'propaganda' got to be a bad word because of the Germans using it, so what I did was to try and find some other words so we found the words 'public relations'."
"I was at the 1926 Paris Peace conference. Make the world safe for democracy was the big slogan"
"Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested largely by men we have never heard of… In almost every act of our lives whether in the sphere of politics or business in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind."
-Edward Bernays-
Part 1 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1122532358497501036#docid=6718420906413643126
Part 2 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-678466363224520614#
Part 3 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4059451562019895635#
Part 4 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1122532358497501036#
Fatboy sez: What. Me Worry?