Why Americans will believe almost anything

[Sassy]

The Doors of Perception - Why Americans will believe almost anything

The Father Of Spin

Bernays dominated the PR industry until the 1940s, and was a significant force for another 40 years after that. (Tye) During all that time, Bernays took on hundreds of diverse assignments to create a public perception about some idea or product. A few examples:

As a neophyte with the Committee on Public Information, one of Bernays' first assignments was to help sell the First World War to the American public with the idea to "Make the World Safe for Democracy." (Ewen)

A few years later, Bernays set up a stunt to popularize the notion of women smoking cigarettes. In organizing the 1929 Easter Parade in New York City, Bernays showed himself as a force to be reckoned with.

He organized the Torches of Liberty Brigade in which suffragettes marched in the parade smoking cigarettes as a mark of women's liberation. Such publicity followed from that one event that from then on women have felt secure about destroying their own lungs in public, the same way that men have always done.

Bernays popularized the idea of bacon for breakfast.

Not one to turn down a challenge, he set up the advertising format along with the AMA that lasted for nearly 50 years proving that cigarettes are beneficial to health. Just look at ads in issues of Life or Time from the 40s and 50s.  

Smoke And Mirrors

Bernay's job was to reframe an issue; to create a desired image that would put a particular product or concept in a desirable light. Bernays described the public as a 'herd that needed to be led.' And this herdlike thinking makes people "susceptible to leadership."

Bernays never deviated from his fundamental axiom to "control the masses without their knowing it." The best PR happens with the people unaware that they are being manipulated.  (read full article at link above)

[fourx]

I think he just caught the same mass media, affordable transport and widespread literacy bus as Goebals and Leni Reinisthel (sp?) did with Hitler- from the mid 1930's on, for the first time in human history, a single concept or idea or worldview could be presented to a huge volume of possibal consumers, be it of product or concept, instantly and effortlessly.
While the same method is greeted with weary cynicism by most populations today it still has considerable impact in the US because, IMHO, Americans have the lowest per-capita rate of passport possesion in the western world and the highest per-capita rate of church attendence in the western world- blend a predisposition of respect for authority figures and unquestioning acceptace of religious dogma drawn from church-based mind control with a widespread ignorance of the outside world aside from that squeezed from the bland, safe pap that passes for television and you have a very fertile field indeed to exploite. No offense intended.

[Sassy]

Unfortunately, that's very true, Fourx...  So many well-intentioned "church" people never really know or understand what they are taught to believe, so they never question those who teach it to make sure it's "truth"...
That's the only way I can figure out how so many of the "Christian Right" have bought into the deceptions of the world leaders.  If they are like my father, FOX News is his source & I've given up trying to "enlighten" him   , after all, I haven't lived as long as he has, I wasn't in the military for 30 yrs as an officer & commander & "what do I know"   :-/  (and I certainly don't claim to have total knowledge  :-? )

[glenn-k]

Amen, fourx.

Fortunately I had a rather radical teacher in the second grade who taught me to question authority.  If she hadn't smacked me so hard across the fingers with a ruler. I'd have questioned her authority too.

Actually she and her husband (the principal in a 3 room school) received tutoring in child management from Jim Beam at lunch time and after hours I'm pretty sure.

[fourx]

...and chasing a wild turkey around, if Mr Beam is unavailable. ..I can well understand the urge.

[glenn-k]

That's right -nearly forgot- you're on the other side of the fence.

[benevolance]

Wild Turkey....

This stuff is proof that god exists and he loves us.... Benjamin Franklin said that about Beer... Wild turkey is just more proof

[fourx]

Ah, Wild Turkey- favourite tipple of all those roadies who's motto is :""If it's wet- drink it. If it's dry- smoke it. If it's alive, f--- it...and if you can't figure out what to do with it, put it in the van for later""  

What it brings to mind, in my case, is the dog in the manger attitude dripping out of my comment above....for every Wolfowitz and Chaney there is a Gershwin and Zimmerman..for every Bakker, Swaggart and Jim Jones there is a Mark Twain, a Gore Vidal, a Truman Capote- for every bit of bad there's a whole lot of good comes out of the US, not forgetting all those bones at the bottom of the South Pacific which allow me not to be typing this in Japanese. On balance, US warts and all, it's obvious that the good far outweighs the bad in every respect.

[benevolance]

Japanese typing wopuld probably suit you....

[Sassy]

fourx, that's why we need to keep the US free - try to inform the citizens & hopefully there's enough people who will stand up for the freedoms our country was founded on & not let the political sluts take us into the gutters...  :-/

[Amanda_931]

Either that or we are being protected from having to use the metric system.

[glenn-k]

I like that thought, Amanda.  That is a freedom worth fighting for.  Feet and inches for me.  Long live the pound, cup, pint, quart and gallon.

[fourx]

Yeah, I agree. I grew up before metric was introduced, and to grasp metres and kilometres, I have to convert them in my head to feet and miles. Centimetres and milimetres are the worst- far more difficult to use than inches and fractions of inches-
The really dumb thing is that you still buy pipe in inch, half-inch, etc...properties are advertised for sale in acres, only very rarely in hectares.
Would have been nice to be asked if I wanted it,.

[MountainDon]

I "escaped" metric by moving to the USA from Canada in the mid 80's    it took a while before I stopped doing mental conversions.

[Sassy]

Secret Governent

Does anyone remember this special The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis, by Bill Moyers that was on TV in 1987.  I just watched it yesterday, a must watch!  Great history refresher.

**click on "secret gov't" above

[ScottA]

The Japanese never had any notion of taking over the US. The only reason they even attacked us is because we baited them into it by leaving them no choice. They hoped they could set us back enough to buy them the time to finnish what they had started in Asia. Spin doctors turned them into little yellow demons and the rest is history. 

[williet]

Ah, Wild Turkey- favourite tipple of all those roadies who's motto is :""If it's wet- drink it. If it's dry- smoke it. If it's alive, f--- it...and if you can't figure out what to do with it, put it in the van for later""  

What it brings to mind, in my case, is the dog in the manger attitude dripping out of my comment above....for every Wolfowitz and Chaney there is a Gershwin and Zimmerman..for every Bakker, Swaggart and Jim Jones there is a Mark Twain, a Gore Vidal, a Truman Capote- for every bit of bad there's a whole lot of good comes out of the US, not forgetting all those bones at the bottom of the South Pacific which allow me not to be typing this in Japanese. On balance, US warts and all, it's obvious that the good far outweighs the bad in every respect.

This is a good post, but it draws on a time when an education was important in the US.

An EDUCATION being more than passing a test on math and science.....There was a time when literature, history and art...the ability to REASON and APPRECIATE the acheivements of mankind were the strongest abilities an EDUCATED citizen of this country owned. We, United States citizens, were valued throughout the world because we could "figger it out" we we're "crafty" and "good with our hands" and "minds"...
Now we struggle to keep up with China and India......

No more Twains, Vidals, or Capotes here...just Cheney and Falwell wannabees.....Never another Gershwin here...not enough UP FRONT profit in it.... Cover the Venus De'Milo ... she's vulgar.....Michelangelo's David is PORN....I heard a couple of days ago that Santa can't say Ho Ho Ho anymore because it's not "diverse" and it seems he's demeaning women!

I fear as long as this country believes an education is ONLY the ability to do math on a computer or understand simple chemistry....we've lost our edge..... No more Thinking here....No more ART here.... the FREEDOM to form independent thought and FREEDOM of expression are no longer good things in the United States. The politicans and preachers have sold us out.

We're just beginning to see the price that's to be paid for the "DUMBING of America"

Let's make a huge profit by cheating others and then go to a mega church where we'll pay a preacher to tell us it was the will of God that we made the money.....We'll give a part to the preacher for strokin' us and a part to the government so they can make war and kill in the name of greed....... or oil.......

No ... not another Samuel L. Clemens here. He was too honest.....and he had an education.

[MountainDon]

... not another Samuel L. Clemens here. He was too honest.....and he had an education.

How many know who this is?

[Sassy]

I do, I do!  But I won't spill the beans...    Sadly, Williet, you pretty well have hit it on the head.    They're all waiting for the "rapture"     now, sassy, don't judge... 

My understanding is that we "are to occupy until He comes..." 

[glenn kangiser]

...and I also-- he had a cabin near here.

When I was in school, 95% of the students goofed off for a month on things I had learned in the second grade or learned  the first day or so when it was taught.  I was bored for the rest of the month so played all night and slept or read in class and gave them "D"s to pass in their little government team player mandatory prisons.

Dumbing down of America -- It's taught everyday in government schools.

Note that I am not saying that none excel there.  There are many good students in public schools who excel in spite of the PC gov agenda.

[Sassy]

"Spin"
It's a film made about the 1992 presidential
election and it explains just about everything
that is going on now, 16 years later.

The film shows:

* viable candidates being eliminated by the news media
* politicians being fed slick answers by spin doctors
* hopelessly corrupt news reporters lying through
their cosmetically perfect teeth

The stars of the movie are Bush and Clinton.
No, not junior and Hilary. The other Bush and
Clinton show.  Bill and Sr.


http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/43.html