patternsofmeaning | Your mind is being controlled by distant strangers who don’t have
your best interests at heart. If that sounds like a paranoid fantasy,
brace yourself and read on. These are the findings of a series of
scientific studies that show how a few dominant institutions have the
power to affect how you feel, how you act, and even how you vote –
without you ever knowing about it.
Deliberate mind manipulation of the masses is, by itself, nothing
new. Nearly a hundred years ago, our global mania for consumption was
unleashed by the malevolent brilliance of Edward Bernays, known as the
“father of public relations.” Bernays was Sigmund Freud’s nephew and
used his uncle’s insights into the subconscious to develop his new
methods of mind control, designed to create the modern American consumer.
“We must shift America from a needs to a desires culture,” declared
Bernays’ business partner, Paul Mazur. “People must be trained to
desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely
consumed. We must shape a new mentality. Man’s desires must overshadow
his needs.” In 1928, Bernays proudly described how his techniques for
mental manipulation had permitted a small elite to control the minds of
the American population:
[T]he 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 that is the true ruling power of this country. We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of… In almost every act of our daily lives… we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons … who pull the wires which control the public mind.[1]
Bernays set in motion what we have all come to know as an essential
part of our capitalist ecosystem: the use of mass media to promote
roles, desires and status symbols that rake in profits for corporations.
The chilling words of Wayne Chilicki, chief executive of General Mills,
show how faithfully Bernays’ vision has been followed: “When it comes
to targeting kid consumers, we at General Mills follow the Procter &
Gamble model of ‘cradle to grave.’ We believe in getting them early and
having them for life.” [2]
