Edward Bernays 3

De Amerikaan Edward Bernays, grondlegger van de public-relations industrie schreef voor de tweede wereldoorlog: '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. . . .. 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 . . . who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.'

Het zal niemand verbazen dat Bernays' ideologie bijzonder aansloeg bij de elite, zowel die in de VS als in Nazi-Duitsland. 'During Bernays' lifetime and since, propaganda has usually had dirty connotations, loaded and identified with the evils of Nazi PR genius Joseph Goebbels, or the oafish efforts of the Soviet Communists. In his memoirs, Bernays wrote that he was "shocked" to discover that Goebbels kept copies of Bernays' writings in his own personal library, and that his theories were therefore helping to "engineer" the rise of the Third Reich.'

'Bernays proudly referred to this all-important social process as the “engineering of consent.” All of this had little, if anything, to do with real democracy. The objective for Bernays was to provide government and media outlets with powerful tools for social persuasion and control. As a matter of fact, so impressed was he with Bernays’ early works Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923) and Propaganda (1928) that Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels relied heavily upon them for his own dubious inspiration in the 1930s.'

‘In his autobiography, titled Biography of an Idea, Bernays recalls a dinner at his home in 1933 where Karl von Weigand, foreign correspondent of the Hearst newspapers, an old hand at interpreting Europe and just returned from Germany, was telling us about Goebbels and his propaganda plans to consolidate Nazi power. Goebbels had shown Weigand his propaganda library, the best Weigand had ever seen. Goebbels, said Weigand, was using my book Crystallizing Public Opinion as a basis for his destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me. ... Obviously the attack on the Jews of Germany was no emotional outburst of the Nazis, but a deliberate, planned campaign.’

Pas in 1965 liet Bernays weten dat het hem schokkeerde een leermeester te zijn geweest voor de nazi's, maar desalniettemin heeft hij zijn ideologie nooit veranderd. De technieken van Bernays worden nog steeds op grote schaal gebruikt in de westerse reclame en de democratische politiek en natuurlijk de commerciele massamedia. Zo kon het laissez-faire kapitalisme van de jaren twintig weer terugkeren in de jaren negentig, en opnieuw met desastreus gevolg, want de perioden van crisis zijn onlosmakelijk verbonden met deze vorm van kapitalisme. Maar in tegenstelling tot de jaren dertig toen president Roosevelt met het alternatief van de New Deal kwam proberen politici als mininister Bos nu dit parasitaire kapitalisme te redden met gigantische overheidssteun, dus met belastinggeld.