propagandapublic relationsmass manipulationconsentpolitical communication
Cogitavi commentary
Edward Bernays — Sigmund Freud's nephew and the founder of modern public relations — wrote this extraordinary book in 1928 with a candour that his successors in the PR industry have never matched. Bernays argues openly that the "conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses" is a necessary feature of democratic society, and that those who perform this manipulation — the "invisible governors" who shape public opinion — constitute an essential elite whose work makes organised society possible. The book is, simultaneously, a manual for mass manipulation and a frank account of how modern political communication actually works.
Propaganda is essential reading for two reasons. First, it documents with unusual honesty the techniques of manufactured consent that Chomsky and Herman would later analyse critically: the use of third-party credibility, the engineering of events to generate news coverage, the targeting of group identities rather than individual reason. Second, it reveals the ideological assumptions underlying these techniques — that publics cannot be trusted to reach correct conclusions through deliberation, and must instead be guided by those who know better. That assumption is shared by every influence operation that has followed, state-sponsored or commercial. A short, disturbing, indispensable book.
Cogitavi commentary
Edward Bernays — Sigmund Freud's nephew and the founder of modern public relations — wrote this extraordinary book in 1928 with a candour that his successors in the PR industry have never matched. Bernays argues openly that the "conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses" is a necessary feature of democratic society, and that those who perform this manipulation — the "invisible governors" who shape public opinion — constitute an essential elite whose work makes organised society possible. The book is, simultaneously, a manual for mass manipulation and a frank account of how modern political communication actually works.
Propaganda is essential reading for two reasons. First, it documents with unusual honesty the techniques of manufactured consent that Chomsky and Herman would later analyse critically: the use of third-party credibility, the engineering of events to generate news coverage, the targeting of group identities rather than individual reason. Second, it reveals the ideological assumptions underlying these techniques — that publics cannot be trusted to reach correct conclusions through deliberation, and must instead be guided by those who know better. That assumption is shared by every influence operation that has followed, state-sponsored or commercial. A short, disturbing, indispensable book.