Edward Bernays' Propaganda

I've finally come round to read Edward Bernays' book on Propaganda. It's a short and well written book that can be read in about six hours, and I can highly recommend it. The author was a PR expert in his time, and his methods are still very much in use both in marketing and in politics. Reading his book, we get a good insight into the mechanisms used against us over the past two years.

This doesn't mean that the man was a sinister character himself. On the contrary, he points out that the methods used to persuade us in our beliefs and preferences can be used for good or evil. They are powerful weapons that exist independent of whether they are used or not. To ignore their existence, or to expect that these methods will only be used for good, is pointless and naïve.

He also cautions people from using his methods deliberately against people's best interests. Not least because the propagandist himself will be revealed to be untrustworthy, and will from then on be impotent in his work. Whenever propaganda is used, it should be used deliberately and candidly to favor a particular view or product. There's nothing dishonest in persuading someone to buy a piano instead of a car, or to persuade someone to vote Democrat rather than Republican.

However, there's most definitely something dishonest in persuading people to act against their best interests through fear-mongering. If Edward Bernays was alive today, he would have taken the job as propagandist for the establishment only if he himself had been duped into believing the stories told.

The methods that have been used against us are definitely those described by Edward Bernays in his book, but it is far from certain that he would have applied these himself if given the chance to do so. In fact, he points out that the methods can be used in reverse. There's nothing stopping us from turning the weapons against our adversaries.

With the establishment's credibility wearing thin after two years of constant misinformation, we're in a good position to launch some counter-propaganda, and we can get some insights into how this is done by reading Edward Bernays' book.

One thing to note is the importance of planting ideas into people's heads. Professional propagandists would contact influencers of various kinds. The more sway they hold the more important they are. But anyone is in fact an influencer to some degree, so we can get much of the same effect by simply letting people under our influence know what we think. Our ideas will in this way be absorbed and communicated further.

Our own personal success and integrity is important in this. If we weather the coming financial storm without too much loss, people will pay more attention to what we say. Similarly when it comes to other things, we get credit from being right. We also get credit from behaving like adults when faced with miscalculations and errors. Any kind of childish or immature response to victory or loss will weigh on our credibility, so we must be neither proud nor timid. We have to find that perfect balance associated with adult behavior.

As for the ongoing fight for our freedoms, I'm currently pointing out in modest language that nothing of note has come from all the measures hoisted upon us by our rulers. I intend to continue this going forward. My aim is to make everyone within my sphere of influence at least somewhat skeptical to what's going on. I want them to resist boosters, mask mandates and lockdowns. The idea I want to plant in their heads is that none of this works.

I think Edward Bernays would approve of this plan, given my situation. I have some influential people among my Facebook friends. I know that some of them read my posts. I also know that they are heavily influenced by professional propagandists. My job is therefore in part to subvert the efforts of the professionals, hopefully to the point that some of my most influential friends start talking openly about their skepticism.

My hope for my other friends is that they too express their thoughts in such a way that others pay attention. Once a thought arrives at people from more than one direction, things tend to happen. A person that sees an opinion expressed in multiple ways from multiple people will soon start to think that the idea has merit, and once this happens at a large enough scale, official narratives quickly unravel.

Guantanamo Bay detention camp

By Shane T. McCoy, U.S. Navy - (copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Camp_x-ray_detainees.jpg so that the image can be used on Wikinews.), Public Domain, Link