ORGANIZING CHAOS

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. This is a logical result of
the way in which our democratic society is organized.
Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in
this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly
functioning society.

Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware
of the identity of their fellow members in the
inner cabinet.

They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership,
their ability to supply needed ideas and by their
key position in the social structure. Whatever attitude
one chooses to take toward this condition, it
remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily
lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business,
in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are
dominated by the relatively small number of persons-
a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty
million-who understand the mental processes and
social patterns of the masses.

It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world......... PDF

Edward Bernays

 
His name was Edward L. Bernays. He was Sigmund Freud's Nephew. He was born in
Vienna on November 22, 1891 and died in his home at Cambridge, Massachusetts on
March 9, 1995 at the age of 103.
Before the early twentieth century, marketers thought of people as being rational beings.
They figured all they had to do was reason with the public logically if they wanted to sell their product. Freud's theories pointed out that everyone also possessed an unconscious mind filled with instincts and hidden emotions as sex, security, aggression, and survival. This unconscious mind greatly influences how people as a whole behave.