Straight Bernays

"What is truly vicious is not propaganda, but a monopoly of it."

-Edward Bernays, 1952

I'm not sure why people hate Edward Bernays so much. Especially Americans. In America, the economy itself relies on people being brainwashed into spending their money on stuff they don't need. "Disposable income" it's called, and it's the basis for the consumer economy that apparently gives America its edge. Without "engineering the consent" of an entire population, we wouldn't have teflon or wall-to-wall carpet. And we wouldn't all be living the American dream of freedom from tyranny, you know, protection against authoritarian overreach like warrantless wiretapping, or more terrible things like being kidnapped off the street into an unmarked van. We wouldn't all have access to free health care, or cars and cheap gas so we can dissolve the social fabric by driving away from our friends and families, towards better economic opportunities that distort the value of our labor, and exploit our social capital leaving us alone, depressed and financially insecure. I thought we like all those things, yet we don't like Bernays. I thought we like surveillance advertising; it's cute to think that someone cares so much about you they're logging your location every 5 seconds throughout the day and plotting it against all the other people you're co-located with so they can sell you lipstick to make you look better, because I'm sorry to have to say this but you don't look that great right now, and could use some help, and we're here to help. Edward Barnays is here to help. Why are you resisting?

"People must want cleanliness before they want soap."

-Also Edward Bernays

(AKA "People must forget how to use a frying pan before they want teflon")

Finally, I'm paraphrasing here, on how to change people's minds:

People hold no allegiance to beliefs. They hold allegiance to other people, authorities who espouse those beliefs. These are two different things. To change one's beliefs, therefore, one must either discredit the authority or create new authorities. Discrediting the beliefs does not work.