With thousands of advertisements seen by Americans everyday, and a corporate media that reinforces the needs of Empire, propaganda in the U.S. is more pervasive and effective than ever before.
The manipulation of public opinion through suggestion can be traced back to the father of modern propaganda, Edward Bernays, who discovered that preying on the subconscious mind was the best way to sell products people don't need, and wars people don't want.
To get a deeper understanding of how propaganda functions in today's society, Abby Martin interviewed Dr. Mark Crispin Miller, professor of Media Studies at New York University, on her show Empire Files.
Doctor Miller in this interview explains how modern propaganda actually began during World War I.
It also acts to "mold" the mind of the masses through subtle means and not direct hammering to make them come to believe that the way to think is simply the way they should think. And then they come to love the propaganda images and even willing to kill for them. And so today they worship the military-industrial complex as a modern day pyramid and thousands go to college in hopes of finding a place of meaning in the bureaucracy for themselves.
The reality is Bernay's discovered that many people actually enjoy mind control.
Here are key quotes by Bernay's from his own book titled Propaganda:
“But being dependent, every day of the year and for year after year, upon certain politicians for news, the newspaper reporters are obliged to work in harmony with their news sources.”
“There are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes.”
“The great Allied campaign to celebrate (or sell) Democracy, etc., was a venture so successful, and, it seemed, so noble, that it suddenly legitimized such propagandists, who, once the war had ended, went right to work massaging or exciting various publics on behalf of entities like General Motors, Procter & Gamble, John D. Rockefeller, General Electric.”
“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.”
“Here was an extraordinary state accomplishment: mass enthusiasm at the prospect of a global brawl that otherwise would mystify those very masses, and that shattered most of those who actually took part in it. The Anglo-American drive to demonize “the Hun,” and to cast the war as a transcendent clash between Atlantic “civilization” and Prussian “barbarism,” made so powerful an impression on so many that the worlds of government and business were forever changed.”
You can buy the Bernays book and take the red pill by going here.