“Edward Bernays was the master of influencing and shaping public opinion
who developed upon the ideas of earlier social psychologists and the
work of his uncle, Sigmund Freud, in order to create techniques to
manipulate the subconscious desires of the masses. Throughout his
103-year lifespan, the "father of public relations" was at the pinnacle
of his field advising US Presidents Coolidge, Eisenhower, Hoover and
Wilson, as well as inventor Thomas Edison, US industrialist Henry Ford
and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. He also reportedly refused invitations
by Hitler and Franco to work on fascist propaganda campaigns in
Europe.
At the end of World War 1 Bernays served as a propagandist for America
before going on to work with various government departments and
corporations throughout his lifetime, including: the US Department of
State, CBS, Procter and Gamble, and the American Tobacco Company, as
well as designing the propaganda campaign for the United Fruit Company
which led to the CIA coup against the Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz
in 1954.
Bernays combined the work of people such as the French social
psychologist Gustave Le Bon to create techniques which appeal to the
subconscious emotions of the public, as opposed to engaging the public
in rational and intellectual debate. Le Bon studied the mental
characteristics and the behaviour of the crowd, believing that when part
of a mass, individuals are subordinate to the crowd mind and that a
human behaves in a more emotive, irrational manner. Bernays observed
that if a propagandist could understand the "motives of the group mind",
they would possess the ability to "control and regiment the masses":
“The systematic study of mass psychology revealed to students the
potentialities of invisible government of society by the manipulation of
the motives which actuate man in the group. Trotter and Le Bon, who
approached the subject in a scientific manner, and Graham Wallas, Walter
Lippmann, and others who continued with searching studies of the group
mind, established that the group has mental characteristics distinct
from those of the individual, and is motivated by impulses and emotions
which cannot be explained on the basis of what we know of individual
psychology. So the question naturally arose: If we understand the
mechanism and the motives of the group mind, is it not possible to
control and regiment the masses according to our will without their
knowing of it?" (Bernays, 1928, p.71)
Bernays continues to reveal the growing ability of the propagandist to
understand and successfully alter "public opinion" way back in the
1920s, long before television sets were in every household and the
sophisticated modern media techniques of today: “The recent practice of
propaganda has proved that it is possible, at least up to a certain
point and within certain limits. Mass psychology is as yet far from
being an exact science and the mysteries of human motivation are by no
means all revealed. But at least theory and practice have combined with
sufficient success to permit us to know that in certain cases we can
effect some change in public opinion with a fair degree of accuracy by
operating a certain mechanism, just as the motorist can regulate the
speed of a car by manipulating the flow of gasoline.” (Bernays, 1928,
p.71 & p.72)
The basic premise of Bernays thesis is that humans are "rarely aware" of
the true motivations and desires powering their actions, and if certain
individuals could uncover the real desires of the mass mind, the public
could be influenced and manipulated without their knowledge of it: "Men
are rarely aware of the real reasons which motivate their actions... It
is chiefly the psychologists of the school of Freud who have pointed
out that many of man's thoughts and actions are compensatory substitutes
for desires which has been obliged to suppress. A thing may be desired
not for its intrinsic worth or usefulness, but because he has
unconsciously come to see it as a symbol of something else, the desire
for which he is ashamed to admit to himself... This general principle,
that men are very largely actuated by motives which they conceal from
themselves, is as true of mass as of individual psychology. It is
evident that the successful propagandist must understand the true
motives and not be content to accept the reasons which men give for what
they do... Human desires are the steam which makes the social machine
work. Only by understanding them can the propagandist control that
loose-jointed mechanism which is modern society. (Bernays, 1928, p. 74,
p.75 & p.76)
The study of mass psychology and herd behaviour were important areas
which had to be understood to intelligently manipulate the public: “The
whole basis of successful propaganda is to have an objective and then to
endeavour to arrive at it through an exact knowledge of the public and
modifying circumstances to manipulate and sway that public (Bernays,
1928, p.126). But clearly it is the intelligent minorities which need to
make use propaganda continuously and systematically... Small groups of
persons can, and do, make the rest of us think what they please about a
given subject.” (Bernays, 1928, p.57)
“In ancient times, leaders of a tribe, group or society processed
tremendous power over the rest of the people especially if they are
skilled in the art of persuasion. Political leaders in modern times have
the ability to shape and mould the psychology of their followers in a
truly profound manner, especially if they have the ability to use
propaganda effectively: The voice of the people expresses the mind of
the people, and that mind is made up for it by the group leaders in whom
it believes and by those persons who understand the manipulation of
public opinion. Fortunately, the sincere and gifted politician is able,
by the instrument of propaganda, to mould and form the will of the
people.” (Bernays, 1928, p. 109)
Bernays reveals the power propagandists have to manipulate and control
the "public mind" through understanding the techniques of managing the
public: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised
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. We are governed, our minds moulded, our tastes formed, our
ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of... Whatever
attitude one chooses 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 a 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.” (Bernays, 1928, p.37 & p.38)"
◆
Free Download: Edward Bernays, “Propaganda,”
- https://archive.org/details/Propaganda1928
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OneLove
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