How to Brainwash a Nation.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3081752751625862941&hl=en

From Episode Two of the film series “The Century of the Self” by Adam Curtis. The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays started his … all » business life as a publicist. While still in his twenties, he was part of the propaganda effort that drove the United States into in World War I (WW I.)

He personally advised several US presidents starting with Woodrow Wilson and counseled numerous corporations and business associations. Hitler’s propaganda chief and Nazi henchman Joseph Goebbels was a reader and fan of Bernay’s writing in particular Bernay’s book “Crystalizing Public Opinion.”

In this short excerpt from Curtis’s film we see one example of Bernays at work.

Bernays was one of the engineers of the Cold War. He perfected the technique of manufacturing a distant but ever-threatening enemy and then creating a constant state of fear by generating false news reports that endlessly re-stated and exagerated the threat.

The stated purpose of Bernay’s methods was to give those in power greater control over what he called “the mass mind.” It worked well in the 1950s and sadly, it appears to be working quite well today… but maybe not forever.

Yeah, it wasn’t like there were Communists in half of Europe, China and South Korea in the 50’s or anything.

[quote]Gkhan wrote:
Yeah, it wasn’t like there were Communists in half of Europe, China and South Korea in the 50’s or anything.[/quote]

Yeah, it’s not like there are terrorists in the whole world or anything.

Always be wary of short men with neatly trimmed mustaches.

Except for that Charlie Chaplin, he was pretty alright.

Excellent thread! Its interesting to see the manipulations that go on behind the scenes.

Skipping the manipulations, I’d have to side with United Fruit, though. If they owned and developed the banana plantations, it would be unjust to take away their property, just because its in Guatemala.

Imagine if you bought a piece of raw land in Mexico, built a nice home there (all legal and stuff), then the government confiscated it in the name of Mexico. “Well, this land is in Mexico so it belongs to us!”

[quote]Molotov_Coktease wrote:
Except for that Charlie Chaplin, he was pretty alright.[/quote]

Wasn’t his mustache a stage prop that he glued on before his performance?

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Imagine if you bought a piece of raw land in Mexico, built a nice home there (all legal and stuff), then the government confiscated it in the name of Mexico. “Well, this land is in Mexico so it belongs to us!”[/quote]

But what if I stage a coup, install a puppet regime who then owes me big, so it gives me half a national park for free and doesn’t tax me as long as I send a few bribes over from time to time…

The people then notice that I’m basically stealing their resources, polluting their environment, using sweat shop labor as much as I can… basically taking as much as I can, for as little as I can.

Maybe they get pissed and revolt, overthrow my puppets and install a more or less savory figure as long as he promises to take back their resources from me.

Could you really complain about all your stuff “being stolen” by the evil dictator/ruler/despot/etc when you were basically doing the same thing to them before?

[quote]pookie wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
Imagine if you bought a piece of raw land in Mexico, built a nice home there (all legal and stuff), then the government confiscated it in the name of Mexico. “Well, this land is in Mexico so it belongs to us!”

But what if I stage a coup, install a puppet regime who then owes me big, so it gives me half a national park for free and doesn’t tax me as long as I send a few bribes over from time to time…

The people then notice that I’m basically stealing their resources, polluting their environment, using sweat shop labor as much as I can… basically taking as much as I can, for as little as I can.

Maybe they get pissed and revolt, overthrow my puppets and install a more or less savory figure as long as he promises to take back their resources from me.

Could you really complain about all your stuff “being stolen” by the evil dictator/ruler/despot/etc when you were basically doing the same thing to them before?

[/quote]

Yes, he could.

The whole point of his and Zaps logic is that history starts when the US are reasonably upset.

WWII without WWI, Iran now, without Mossadegh and operation Ajax, 9-11, without a century of intervention in the ME…

It is hard enough to shoulder the white mans burden, without too much historical knowledge to drag you down.

[quote]pookie wrote:
Always be wary of short men with neatly trimmed mustaches.
[/quote]

LOL! Are you discriminating against short, well-groomed men? Sorry couldn’t resist, just got out of the racsism thread.

24 hr news…That’s 24 hours of brainwashing…I’d get better moral instruction from the Jenna channel or XTacy than cnn, fox, or msnbc.

[quote]orion wrote:
It is hard enough to shoulder the white mans burden, without too much historical knowledge to drag you down.[/quote]

You need to look at history yourself. US history did not happen in a vacuum. There were other forces at work in the world which effected the way things were done. To ignore those issues can drag you down as well.

[quote]Gkhan wrote:
orion wrote:
It is hard enough to shoulder the white mans burden, without too much historical knowledge to drag you down.

You need to look at history yourself. US history did not happen in a vacuum. There were other forces at work in the world which effected the way things were done. To ignore those issues can drag you down as well. [/quote]

Of course. Ignoring the boogeyman du jour is quite unfair.

[quote]pookie wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
Imagine if you bought a piece of raw land in Mexico, built a nice home there (all legal and stuff), then the government confiscated it in the name of Mexico. “Well, this land is in Mexico so it belongs to us!”

But what if I stage a coup, install a puppet regime who then owes me big, so it gives me half a national park for free and doesn’t tax me as long as I send a few bribes over from time to time…

The people then notice that I’m basically stealing their resources, polluting their environment, using sweat shop labor as much as I can… basically taking as much as I can, for as little as I can.

Maybe they get pissed and revolt, overthrow my puppets and install a more or less savory figure as long as he promises to take back their resources from me.

Could you really complain about all your stuff “being stolen” by the evil dictator/ruler/despot/etc when you were basically doing the same thing to them before?

[/quote]

If I had done everything legal and above board, and then some tinpot idiot began denouncing me, telling the people that the plantations were really theirs and that they were being robbed (how turning a swamp into a functioning business is robbery I’ll never understand), I’d probably feel justified in doing exactly as you describe.

They allowed me to build the plantations, wait until they’re all set up, then want to say 'Get lost, Yankee Imperialist Exploiter!!"

Even if all this ‘exploitation’ were true, the people are still better off under United Fruit. Look what happens when locals begin running things. Look at Zimbabwe, where Mugabe kicked out the white farmers and turned all the farms over to his cronies — rampant starvation.

Mugabe is forcing businesses to give 51% ownership to his cronies — 70% unemployment and destitution. Now, no one will invest in Zimbabwe.

Do you advocate Guatemala in the 1950’s being turned into a Zimbabwe?

When will you social planners and collectivists ever learn…

[quote]lixy wrote:
Gkhan wrote:
orion wrote:
It is hard enough to shoulder the white mans burden, without too much historical knowledge to drag you down.

You need to look at history yourself. US history did not happen in a vacuum. There were other forces at work in the world which effected the way things were done. To ignore those issues can drag you down as well.

Of course. Ignoring the boogeyman du jour is quite unfair.[/quote]

This is exactly what I was talking about. Not knowing about history.

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Do you advocate Guatemala in the 1950’s being turned into a Zimbabwe?

When will you social planners and collectivists ever learn…

[/quote]

Hell, the people in Zimbabwae got what they deserve.

[quote]Gkhan wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
Do you advocate Guatemala in the 1950’s being turned into a Zimbabwe?

When will you social planners and collectivists ever learn…

Hell, the people in Zimbabwae got what they deserve. [/quote]

Really?

Sure, what do you want us to do, invade and throw their leader out?

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
If I had done everything legal and above board,[/quote]

If you install a puppet regime, then “legal” is whatever they want legal to be. Selling out to Exxon (purely fictional example, of course) in exchange for fat checks and thin whores is all legal.

Come on, don’t be naive.

If the swamp is set over billions of barrels of oil?

It’s not usually the same people who let you set up and then kick you out. For example, you set up in Iran under the friendly shah regime (because you helped put him there) and are kicked out under the ayatollahs.

You do sometimes get the rogue ungrateful asshole, like Saddam, who begins to believe his own bullshit, but that’s rather rare.

Not really. Look at Ecuador when Bechtel tried setting up a water bottling company. The water became privately owned and a large portion of the people couldn’t afford it no more. Explain to me how a large portion of the population unable to afford water makes them “better off” in your eyes.

And how was it before?

Why? Do you have a time machine? I really doubt we’ll be changing anything from the 50s’.

Don’t give me that crap. The corporations could still make billions without having to exploit the people and rape the environment. But just because they can add a few billions to the balance sheet, they do.

Stop pretending that having a huge multinational install itself in your third world nation is a boon the local people.

[quote]Gkhan wrote:
Sure, what do you want us to do, invade and throw their leader out? [/quote]

and because you are incapable of doing that you have to say they deserve it?
I’m just wondering your choice of words.