… from the man who wrote the book

Edward Bernays – while you may not have heard of him (and that is assuming you did not see the video embedded in a recent post which went off-topic) – has touched your life either directly or, as he would prefer it, indirectly.

From his pioneering 1928 publication, Propaganda:

We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.

Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet.

They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership, their ability to supply needed ideas and by their key position in the social structure. Whatever attitude one chooses to take toward this condition, it remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily 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—a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty million—who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.

- Propaganda by Edward Bernays
Excerpt from Chapter One: Organizing Chaos

Bernays’ book goes on to explain several of his endeavors as a propagandist and their outcomes. Read more, if you like – it is very fascinating stuff.

… and in tracking down a copy of Propaganda, I ran across HistoryIsAWeapon.org which, by all appearances, has some fascinating points unto itself.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 17:11:37 and is filed under Misc..

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