

Edward Bernays - markmassie
http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays

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rdtsc
PR, especially deciphering it, and understanding how it works, should be one
of the mandatory subjects every student should take alongside, science, math,
and personal finance. There are "Logic", "Marketing" and "Critical Thinking"
but those don't quite cut it. It needs to be something like "Influencing
Public Mind" and it should be chock full of examples of propaganda campaigns,
how they worked and effects they had.

I say this because it is one of the subjects that will have a direct impact on
everyone's life. Every day on TV corporations, government officials, other
governments, basically anyone who wields power and resources will vie for
people's mind and support. And while doing that they will employ sometimes
basic and sometimes sophisticated propaganda techniques. It can thought of a
"practical Critical Thinking" or "Practical Logic". Propaganda determines who
will be the next president, the next Congressperson, the next State Supreme
Court judge.

Great work at a propaganda campaign is what put Obama in power. Ad Age didn't
give him Marketing Campaign of the year in 2008 for nothing. He was ahead of
Apple and Coke.

[http://adage.com/article/moy-2008/obama-wins-ad-age-s-
market...](http://adage.com/article/moy-2008/obama-wins-ad-age-s-marketer-
year/131810/)

~~~
FreakLegion
A good Rhetoric program teaches what you're asking for (and much more), but I
don't know how many schools have one at this point. Of those that do,
certainly it isn't a mandatory subject. Outlines of the material are instead
punted to English 1A-type classes, where there's no time to tackle them with
any degree of rigor. It's a shame.

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gruseom
I used to think it an astonishing coincidence that Bernays was Freud's nephew.
But then I learned that Bernays was involved in making Freud's reputation so
high in the US while it lasted (a reputation which was odd in the extreme if
you think of, say, Dale Carnegie as a native species of American popular
psychology). So the two variables weren't independent; Bernays helped make
Freud Freud in the first place.

~~~
akkartik
Oddly enough, just last week I finally got around to watching the Adam Curtis
documentary about him: [http://vimeo.com/67977038](http://vimeo.com/67977038)

~~~
sonofsam
I suggest you also check out Bernay's book propaganda. It's not an easy read
(simply, because you have read through bullshit), but it's fairly important
that people understand the media that targets them. Quick Google shows a
freely available copy.

Here's an interesting quote from Bernay's Propaganda: "Different men rule us
in the various departments of our lives. There may be one power behind the
throne in politics, another in the manipulation of the Federal discount
rate..." Chapter III

I find a lot of people complain about the gap between the rich and the poor,
but they never take a second to think about the easily accessible and 0% - 1%
interest rate loans that the rich enjoy from governments. Governments creating
poverty?!? Nah :)

