But the Freuds were about to be toppled from power by opponents who said they were wrong about human nature. The inner self did not need to be repressed and controlled, it should be encouraged to express itself. Out of this would come a new type of strong human being and a better society. But what in fact emerged from this revolution was the very opposite: an isolated, vulnerable and above all greedy self, far more open to manipulation by both business and politics than anything that had gone before. Adam Curtis, The Century of the Self III: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads
In the 1950s a small group of renegade psychoanalysts began a new form of psychotherapy. They worked in small rooms in New York City and encouraged their patients to express their feelings openly. It was a direct attack on the ideas of the Freudian psychoanalysts who had become rich and powerful teaching Americans how to control their feelings. ibid.
Freud argued that at heart human beings were still driven by primitive animal instincts. The job of society was to repress and control these dangerous forces. ibid.
By the late ’50s psychoanalysis had become deeply involved in driving consumerism in America. Most advertising companies employed psychoanalysts … They had created new ways to understand consumers’ motives above all with the focus group. ibid.
But in the early ’60s a new generation emerged who attacked this. They accused American business of using psychological techniques to manipulate people’s feelings and turn them into ideal consumers. ibid.
Consumerism was not just a way of making money, it had become the means of keeping the masses docile, while allowing the government to pursue a violent and illegal war in Vietnam. ibid.
But the American state fought back violently … a phase of ruthless oppression of the new left. ibid.
And to produce the new self they turned to the ideas and techniques of Wilhelm Reich. ibid.
By the late ’60s the idea of self-exploration was spreading radically in America. ibid.
But while the new beings felt liberated, they had become increasingly dependent for their identity on business. ibid.
This rise of the self was fostered and promoted by business. They had used the ideas of Sigmund Freud to develop techniques to read the inner desires of individuals and then fulfil them with products. Adam Curtis, The Century of the Self IV: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering
Politicians on the left in both America and Britain turned to these techniques to regain power. ibid.
Many of Bernays’ clients were large American corporations and he was the first person to show them how they could sell many more products if they linked them to images and symbols, to those unconscious desires Freud had identified. ibid.
By the late ’80s Mrs Thatcher and her allies in advertising and media had brought the ideas of the individual to the centre of society. ibid.
Those running Labour’s campaign believed that by modern presentation they would attract back the voters yet keep the old policies. ibid.
Privately, Bernays did not believe true democracy would ever work … Consumerism was a way of giving people the illusion of control while allowing a responsible elite to continue managing society. ibid.
We like the politicians have become the slaves of our own desires. We have forgotten that we can be more than that. That there are other sides to human nature. ibid.
The Neo-Conservatives were beginning to believe that their ideal of freedom was an absolute. And that this then justified lying and exaggerating in order to enforce that vision. The end justified the means. Although they portrayed the Contras as freedom fighters, it was well known that they used murder, assassination and torture. And also were allegedly using CIA-supplied planes to smuggle cocaine back into the United States. And to finance the Contras, the Neo-Conservatives were even prepared to deal with America’s enemy – the leaders of the Iranian revolution. In 1985 those running the Nicaragua operation held a series of secret meetings with Iranian leaders in Europe. They arranged to sell the Iranians American weapons; in return the Iranians would release American hostages held in Lebanon. Then the money from these sales would be used by those running Project Democracy to fund the Contras. The only problem was that this was completely illegal. And the President knew it. Adam Curtis: The Trap III: We Will Force You to be Free
What was beginning to emerge was the problem of spreading freedom around the world. To do it those leading Project Democracy had turned not just to manipulation and violence but were beginning to undermine the ideals of democracy in America. The very thing they were trying to create abroad. It was the corruption of freedom that Isaiah Berlin had warned of. ibid.
Guatemala didn’t even have diplomatic relations with Russia … Bernays was offered huge sums of money to develop a propaganda campaign against Arbenz and the people of Guatemala. The Power Principle, 2011
‘We in America are the best entertained and least informed society in the world. Project Censored: The Movie, Neil Postman, 2013
In 2007 two fathers from California were inspired to make a film that explores why today’s corporate media is deliberately dividing the nation. ibid.
What will it take to end the reign of corporate media’s junk food news? ibid.
Vested interests? Or do the American people prefer the sensationalistic junk food news? ibid.
‘Deliberate decisions are made to withhold information from the people.’ ibid. Cynthia McKinney
News abuse … A more subtle form of news bias: stories that have some legitimate newsworthy quality, unlike their junk food counterparts, but where the way the story is presented is so spun or so distorted that the ultimate point of the story gets lost, and this too is a form of propaganda. ibid.
For the past 35 years Project Censored has been publishing the top censored stories that have deliberately and systematically withheld from the American public. ibid.
We have a concentrated top-down corporate media system that’s primarily orientated to make money and provide entertainment, and is increasingly a propaganda machine for the military-media-industrial complex. ibid.
Propaganda is always obvious in retrospect … There’s much more to propaganda than the flashy stuff. Propaganda can be and actually thrives when it’s mundane. You Are Not Immune to Propaganda, Youtube 20.26, Second Thought 2023
Neoliberalism more so than previous capitalist societies has pushed its propaganda, its jargon and its way of thinking into almost every aspect of our lives.
What good is neoliberalism? … We’re burning out like never before. ibid.
The Americans carried out a top secret investigation into the sex life of Adolf Hitler. This film tells the story of the Allied secret sex files on the Nazis. Secret History s7e6: Sex and the Swastika, Channel 4 1999
The PWE [Political Warfare Executive] used a variety of techniques to disseminate its black propaganda. ibid.
The PWE had a team of researchers based in Switzerland. ibid.
The government was split over the use of obscenity. ibid.
The [radio] station broadcast a mixture of sex and scandal about top Nazis. ibid.
After the flour massacre, where Israel killed and wounded thousands of unarmed, starving Palestinians for food, I have nothing left to say. If you still believe that Israel is ‘defending itself’, nothing will change your mind. Propaganda has turned you into a robot. Eric Cantona