Propaganda - Edward Bernays - Book Review

Edward Bernays was a nephew of Sigmund Freud who lived in USA, and by the time S. Freud was about to be bankrupt due to Nazism, his nephew arranged the translation of all Freud's books into English and publishing them in USA. Since then the mass psychoanalysis therapy has started in US. To the contrary of Freud, Bernays didn’t use the psychoanalytic findings of his uncle to alleviate the pain of fellow humans as the psychoanalysis was supposed to, but to manipulate the targets more profoundly and possibly to shut down the inner voice of individual people which was telling them to at least listen to what their body was telling them.

During that time Edward Bernays was working for American government working in the Creel Commission, hired by Roosevelt as a public relations officer and is one of the pioneers of the public relations. He was the organizer of public relations events behind the slogan Torches of Fire (protests of the suffragettes) for the Chesterfield (tobacco industry), he was working for the pig farmers association, so he was the man behind the idea that Americans have a diet that is not nutritious enough and should eat bacon every day three times a day. He was working for the chemical industry and convinced the public that fluoridated toothpaste is good for the health of the teeth, he was also engineering public relations behind the coup in Guatemala. And, much, much more.

His book Propaganda was published in 1928. It is a very intriguing book presenting us with simple explanations of why and how the things are done in contemporary societies: the minds and hearts are being manipulated to achieve the goals set by those who pay the executors – the PR counsellors. The insight the book presents will make the reader see that practically every movie (and many other tools for presenting ideas) is part of this effort, propagating certain ideas that the client wanted to instil in human hearts and minds. But for these purposes not only movies are used, but also education and art. Practically every group is being used as an opinion influencer and practically every technical means invented so far.

Maybe the book isn't such a popular reading nowadays, but it does contain some interesting facts. Actually, the book is really great, for right in the first chapter he tells us what is going on on this planet. The title of the first chapter is: Organizing Chaos.

Even though he meant that the society is chaotic and public relations officers are organizing it, it could be just as well understood that the chaos is being organized for certain purposes.

And the first paragraph says: »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.«

What he says is done in every contemporary society, be it democratic or not, and in every country, so don’t be any harder on US than on any other country. Thinking that this is or was done only in US would be misleading - it was and still is done all over the planet on many levels, it’s commonplace and the societies on this planet are so saturated with it that they perceive it as normal and usually don’t pinpoint it. Further on, in other chapters he explains how the minds and the hearts of people are captured to serve a particular purpose of the rulers, how opinions are shaped and emotions stirred. “By playing upon an old cliche, or manipulating a new one, the propagandist can sometimes swing a whole mass of group emotions,” and further on “It was one of the doctrines of the reaction psychology that a certain stimulus often repeated would create a habit, or that the mere reiteration of an idea would create a conviction,” and “Continuous interpretation is achieved by trying to control every approach to the public mind in such a manner that the public receives the desired impression, often without being conscious of it.” (Ch. IV, The psychology of public relations)

The insight the book presents will make the reader see that practically every movie (and many other tools for presenting ideas) is part of this effort, propagating certain ideas that the client wanted to instil in human hearts and minds. Here are some confirming quotes from Chapter XI, The Mechanics of Propaganda:
“The American motion picture is the greatest unconscious carrier of propaganda in the world to-day. It is a great distributor for ideas and opinions.
The motion picture can standardize the ideas and habits of a nation. Because pictures are made to meet market demands, they reflect, emphasize and even exaggerate broad popular tendencies, rather than stimulate new ideas and opinions.”

Not only movies, also education and art are being used for the purposes of propagating certain ideas that are behind the agendas. Practically every group is being used as an opinion influencer and practically every technical means of conveying the messages invented so far. Personality is only an instrument for propaganda according to Bernays, today we’d say a polished public image.

“The normal school should provide for the training of the educator to make him realize that his is a twofold job: education as a teacher and education as a propagandist.” (Ch. VIII Propaganda for Education)

Being educated in a certain way, means that the human mind is trained to reason in a prescribed way and to perceive beings, things, events in a prescribed way. Pretty soon, anything out of accepted perceived way seems strange, obsolete, weird, obstructive, insane, to be smashed and destroyed. This seems to be an ongoing process on Earth for quite a long time.

“Public opinion was made or changed formerly by tribal chiefs, by kings, by religious leaders. To-day the privilege of attempting to sway public opinion is every one's,” and “Large groups, political, racial, sectarian, economic or professional, are tending to control stations to propagandize their points of view.”(Ch. IX, Propaganda in Social Service and Ch. XI The Mechanics of Propaganda)

So, before the humans tear down again the intricate patterns of propaganda i.e. public relations messages that are woven throughout the fabric of societies on the planet and substitute them with another set of propaganda messages, humans should look at them and see what they are made off and ask themselves, “ what is false and what is true about just anything”.

Especially, because what Bernays describes is not the thing invented in 20th century, it has been done for quite a long time, maybe even throughout known written history, but without the nowadays tools.

What Bernays presents us in his book Propaganda is actually that words and images are weapons that are being projected at us to make us think and behave in a particular way. It certainly is a book worth reading, for it shows us how simple it is all done and why.

1st book review - This is the first book review in the book reviews series I'm intending to present that may show you a very different picture of the human affairs on this planet. I'm not presenting it to hurt anyone or for the potential users to hurt anyone.