Edward Bernays and the Invisible Government
a recent talk
A few years ago I was asked to teach a course on writing theory or rhetoric or whatever. Since my academic background is in literature, theology, and philosophy, rather than deliver a course on theory, I decided to teach what I actually know about rhetoric and persuasion. To that end, I brought together a number of disparate materials, including Ivan Illich and Barry Sanders’s ABC: The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind, St. Augustine’s Confessions (especially the part where he talks about language/meaning acquisition), Plato’s dialogue Gorgias, George Steiner’s masterpiece Real Presences, Georges Poulet’s “The Phenomenology of Reading,” the 1659 occult blockbuster A True and Faithful Relation of what Passed between John Dee and Some Spirits (if there’s “no such thing as an author,” then who wrote this bad boy?) and Edward Bernays’s 1928 handbook for totalitarian democracies simply entitled Propaganda. )Bernays. in case you didn’t know, was Sigmund Freud’s American nephew and the first person to bring psychological theory into the promotion of products and politicians. He’s the guy who coined the phrases “making the world safe for Democracy” and “the engineering of consent” among others. After engaging in a conversation last week with my wife and son about propaganda (and Propaganda) I thought I might record a quick video on the book and topic. Here it is:
Another book that is amazingly prophetic in its early observation of the really bad effects of late stage liberalism is James Burnham's book "The Managerial Revolution" (written in 1941!) - which anticipated the creation of unelected managerial elites that would undermine American democracy as it morphed into empire. Burnham is interesting because he was part of that generation who had been seduced by Marxism as young men - and then woke up to the reality of the Soviet slave empire in middle age and became one of National Review's great early writers on culture (i.e., before the publication was ruined by Neo-Conservatives).
Anyways - its a great compliment to the book on propaganda by Bernays if you want to truly understand how our meritocracy operates and controls the narrative in the strange days we are all living through today. Eric in Mad City (i.e., Madison, WI)
Oh yeah, I remember now: that documentary *Century of the Self* talked a lot about that bastard.