Propaganda
Manufacturing consent — Bernays's 1928 manual on the invisible government, group leaders, and the engineering of public opinion.
Mechanisms
Rubber-stamp minds
Literacy did not produce independent minds; it produced identical imprints from identical stimuli — the precondition of mass persuasion.
But instead of a mind, universal literacy has given him rubber stamps, rubber stamps inked with advertising slogans, with editorials, with published scientific data, with the trivialities of the tabloids and the platitudes of history, but quite innocent of original thought. Each man’s rubber stamps are the duplicates of millions of others, so that when those millions are exposed to the same stimuli, all receive identical imprints.
Why it matters
Literacy did not produce independent minds; it produced identical imprints from identical stimuli — the precondition of mass persuasion.
Use when: When everyone suddenly agrees.
Reach the group leaders
The targeting doctrine: persuade the leaders who dictate the public’s thoughts and the group follows — hence the propaganda specialist.
To reach and persuade the group leaders who dictate the public’s thoughts and actions is likewise expensive. For this reason there is an increasing tendency to concentrate the functions of propaganda in the hands of the propaganda specialist.
Why it matters
The targeting doctrine: persuade the leaders who dictate the public’s thoughts and the group follows — hence the propaganda specialist.
Use when: When planning how an idea actually spreads.
Influence the leaders, sway the herd
Mass psychology works without the mass: man feels himself a herd member alone in his room, so moving the leader moves the group.
If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious coöperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway.
Why it matters
Mass psychology works without the mass: man feels himself a herd member alone in his room, so moving the leader moves the group.
Use when: When a message needs scale without a crowd.
Arguments
The invisible government
The book’s opening thesis: democracy is governed by unseen manipulators of mass habit — a structural feature, not a conspiracy.
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. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.
Why it matters
The book’s opening thesis: democracy is governed by unseen manipulators of mass habit — a structural feature, not a conspiracy.
Use when: When “who really decides?” is the question.
The intelligent minorities
Bernays’s open claim: progress comes from small groups making the rest think what they please; minorities use propaganda continuously.
clearly it is the intelligent minorities which need to make use of propaganda continuously and systematically. In the active proselytizing minorities in whom selfish interests and public interests coincide lie the progress and development of America. Only through the active energy of the intelligent few can the public at large become aware of and act upon new ideas. Small groups of persons can, and do, make the rest of us think what they please about a given subject.
Why it matters
Bernays’s open claim: progress comes from small groups making the rest think what they please; minorities use propaganda continuously.
Use when: When a fringe idea goes mainstream overnight.
Induce our leaders to lead
The democratic paradox: the voice-of-God dogma makes elected men will-less servants, producing political sterility.
The great political problem in our modern democracy is how to induce our leaders to lead. The dogma that the voice of the people is the voice of God tends to make elected persons the will-less servants of their constituents.
Why it matters
The democratic paradox: the voice-of-God dogma makes elected men will-less servants, producing political sterility.
Use when: When leaders only follow polls.
Definitions
The executive arm
Propaganda named as the operating machinery of the invisible government — every social project runs on it.
Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government.
Why it matters
Propaganda named as the operating machinery of the invisible government — every social project runs on it.
Use when: When someone thinks propaganda is only a wartime word.
The PR counsel, defined
The job description of the new profession: bringing ideas to public consciousness via media and group formations.
The public relations counsel, then, is the agent who, working with modern media of communication and the group formations of society, brings an idea to the consciousness of the public.
Why it matters
The job description of the new profession: bringing ideas to public consciousness via media and group formations.
Use when: When “PR” needs distinguishing from advertising.