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.
A seminal and controversial figure in the history of political thought
and public relations, Edward Bernays (1891-1995), pioneered the
scientific technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion, which
he famously dubbed "engineering of consent." During World War I, he was
an integral part of the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI), a
powerful propaganda apparatus that was mobilized to package, advertise
and sell the war to the American people as one that would "Make the
World Safe for Democracy." The CPI would become the blueprint in which
marketing strategies for future wars would be based upon.
Bernays applied the techniques he had learned in the CPI and,
incorporating some of the ideas of Walter Lipmann, as well as his uncle,
Sigmund Freud, became an outspoken proponent of propaganda as a tool for
democratic and corporate manipulation of the population. His 1928
bombshell Propaganda lays out his eerily prescient vision for using
propaganda to regiment the collective mind in a variety of areas,
including government, politics, art, science and education. To read this
book today is to frightfully comprehend what our contemporary
institutions of government and business have become in regards to
organized manipulation of the masses.
