The Untold History of Controlling the Masses Through
the Manipulation of Unconscious Desires "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.
We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas
suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical
result of the way in which our democratic society is organized." -
Edward Bernays
THE CENTURY OF THE SELF
Adam Curtis' acclaimed series examines the rise of the all-consuming
self against the backdrop of the Freud dynasty.
To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the
ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the
people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they
really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes
controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in
Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created,
by whom, and in whose interests?
The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history.
Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who invented
public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund's devoted daughter; and
present-day PR guru and Sigmund's great grandson, Matthew Freud.
Sigmund Freud's work into the bubbling and murky world of the
subconscious changed the world. By introducing a technique to probe
the unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding
the secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the
precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls,
and society's belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is
man's ultimate goal.
Please Note: Viewers should be sure to read
Ludwig Von Mises' 'The
Anti-Capitalist Mentality' to balance the socialistic
elements of this film.
This film was produced by BBC which is Britain's government run news
channel, therefor it downplays the evils of government and plays up
the vices of business. The enemy is not capitalism or 'consumption'
but government and its insidious propaganda. Mass produced goods
enrich society because they reduce the amount of time a person has to
work to satisfy one's essential needs. Government propaganda debases
society because it is used as an excuse for everything from murderous
wars of aggression to oppressive economy killing taxation and
regulation. When a business sells you something voluntarily you will
only buy it if you think the product is worth more than the price you
have to pay for it. When the government propagandizes you they are
merely giving you excuses to submit to their use of force which will
be bearing down on you whether you like it or not. The two are very
different and this film does a disservice by confusing them. That
said, it's important to understand the propagandists who serve to
justify the crimes of the state. Selling someone a product they don't
truly need hurts no one, selling people on a war they don't need gets
millions of people murdered and destroys entire societies. - Chris,
InformationLiberation
Happiness Machines Part One
One: Happiness Machines
The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American
nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations
profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas
to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they
could make people want things they didn't need by systematically
linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.
Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of
mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from
celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the
motorcar.
His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by
persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and
freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way
of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to
control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that
his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus
docile.
It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate
today's world.
The programme explores how those in power in post-war America used
Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the
masses.
Politicians and planners came to believe Freud's underlying premise -
that deep within all human beings were dangerous and irrational
desires and fears. They were convinced that it was the unleashing of
these instincts that had led to the barbarism of Nazi Germany. To stop
it ever happening again they set out to find ways to control this
hidden enemy within the human mind.
Sigmund Freud's daughter, Anna, and his nephew, Edward Bernays,
provided the centrepiece philosophy. The US government, big business,
and the CIA used their ideas to develop techniques to manage and
control the minds of the American people. But this was not a cynical
exercise in manipulation. Those in power believed that the only way to
make democracy work and create a stable society was to repress the
savage barbarism that lurked just under the surface of normal American
life.
There is a Policeman Inside All Our
Heads: He Must Be Destroyed Part Three
Three: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be
Destroyed
In the 1960s, a radical group of psychotherapists challenged the
influence of Freudian ideas in America. They were inspired by the
ideas of Wilhelm Reich, a pupil of Freud's, who had turned against him
and was hated by the Freud family. He believed that the inner self did
not need to be repressed and controlled. It should be encouraged to
express itself.
Out of this came a political movement that sought to create new beings
free of the psychological conformity that had been implanted in
people's minds by business and politics.
This programme shows how this rapidly developed in America through
self-help movements like Werber Erhard's Erhard Seminar Training -
into the irresistible rise of the expressive self: the Me
Generation.
But the American corporations soon realised that this new self was not
a threat but their greatest opportunity. It was in their interest to
encourage people to feel they were unique individuals and then sell
them ways to express that individuality. To do this they turned to
techniques developed by Freudian psychoanalysts to read the inner
desires of the new self.
[InfoLib Note: The portrayal of Wilhelm Reich in this film is
completely wrong, Wilhelm Reich was one of the greatest men to ever
live, check out his book "Listen, Little Man!"]
Eight People Sipping Wine in
Kettering Part Four
Four: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering
This episode explains how politicians on the left, in both Britain and
America, turned to the techniques developed by business to read and
fulfil the inner desires of the self.
Both New Labour, under Tony Blair, and the Democrats, led by Bill
Clinton, used the focus group, which had been invented by
psychoanalysts, in order to regain power. They set out to mould their
policies to people's inner desires and feelings, just as capitalism
had learnt to do with products.
Out of this grew a new culture of public relations and marketing in
politics, business and journalism. One of its stars in Britain was
Matthew Freud who followed in the footsteps of his relation, Edward
Bernays, the inventor of public relations in the 1920s.
The politicians believed they were creating a new and better form of
democracy, one that truly responded to the inner feelings of
individual. But what they didn't realise was that the aim of those who
had originally created these techniques had not been to liberate the
people but to develop a new way of controlling them.
"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.
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