"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits 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.” ~ Edward Bernays, Propaganda, c. 1928“We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of… 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.” ~ ibid.
I have finally obtained my own copy of Edward Bernays' ground breaking manual on mass manipulation. The irony is that the word propaganda was a good word back then. When this book was written, the liberal elite liked the idea of controlling the masses without having to resort to guns.
Unfortunately for the mind-shapers and benders, a not so nice guy across the seas liked these ideas so much that our first mental association when we say the word Propaganda these days is Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda who made the famous statement “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Quite naturally, after the war American proponents of values shapers and manipulators could no longer call what they did propaganda. Thus was born the public relations industry. Today, it is PR that rules the world. No elected official in high office could exist without spin-masters at his or her right hand. Spin…. organizing today’s massive quantities of information into a tool for massaging minds, controlling perceptions, creating a pseudo-harmony that enables our complex society to function as a somewhat cohesive whole.
Heaven forbid, however, that people should read between the lines and think for themselves. What’s really going on here? What’s really happening in America today? How much of what is really happening do we see in the papers… and how much is spin?
This is a theme that I will undoubtedly return to…
2 comments:
Ed,
I have spent part of this Sunday morning reading a commentary on Romans in prep for our Thursday small group, and have been thinking much of late about the importance of disciplining the mind to meditate on Scripture - something I have done very poorly lately. I am reminded that that discipline is the first and best defense against the kinds of manipulation that you are talking about here. If we first and foremost set our minds "on the things that are above", it seems we will find we are largely shielded against "propaganda" whatever its forms.
Phil. 1:9 exhorts... "And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment"
It is my opinion that being Christian means to be increasingly discerning. It is sadly too much the case that American Christians are too often merely a mirror of the culture, reflecting its values, its celebrity worship, its shallow materialism... and ever believing whatever they read in the papers or hear on TV. As a result, the witness of the church is diminished and tarnished.
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