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"Bernays' honest and practical manual provides much insight into some of the most powerful and influential institutions of contemporary industrial state capitalist democracies."-Noam Chomsky
"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."-Edward Bernays
Edward Bernays, a significant and controversial figure in political thought and public relations, pioneered a scientific method called "engineering of consent." During World War I, he played a crucial role in the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI), a powerful propaganda machine that packaged and sold the war to Americans as a way to "Make the World Safe for Democracy." The CPI's strategies became the blueprint for future war marketing.
Bernays later applied these techniques, influenced by Walter Lipmann and his uncle Sigmund Freud, advocating for propaganda as a tool to manipulate both democracy and corporate interests. His 1928 book, Propaganda, eerily predicted how propaganda could shape collective thinking across government, politics, art, science, and education. Reading it today reveals how our contemporary institutions use organized manipulation to influence the masses. In this influential work, Bernays explored the psychology behind mass manipulation, including the use of symbolic action and propaganda, which we now refer to as "branding."
