Americans will believe almost Anything

[Guest guest]

> >From LewRockwell.com:

> http://mercola.com/2001/aug/15/perception.htm

>

> The Doors Of Perception: Why Americans Will

> Believe Almost Anything

> Page 1 of 2 (Page 2, References)

>

> by Dr. Tim O'Shea (www.thedoctorwithin.com)

>

> We are the most conditioned, programmed beings

> the world has ever known.

> Not

> only are our thoughts and attitudes continually

> being shaped and molded;

> our

> very awareness of the whole design seems like

> it is being subtly and

> inexorably erased.

>

> The doors of our perception are carefully and

> precisely regulated. Who

> cares, right?

>

>

> It is an exhausting and endless task to keep

> explaining to people how

> most

> issues of conventional wisdom are

> scientifically implanted in the public

> consciousness by a thousand media clips per

> day. In an effort to save

> time,

> I would like to provide just a little

> background on the handling of

> information in this country.

>

> Once the basic principles are illustrated about

> how our current system

> of

> media control arose historically, the reader

> might be more apt to

> question

> any given story in today's news.

>

> If everybody believes something, it's probably

> wrong. We call that

> Conventional Wisdom.

>

> In America, conventional wisdom that has mass

> acceptance is usually

> contrived: somebody paid for it. Examples:

>

> Pharmaceuticals restore health

>

> Vaccination brings immunity

>

> The cure for cancer is just around the corner

>

> When a child is sick, he needs immediate

> antibiotics

>

> When a child has a fever he needs Tylenol

>

> Hospitals are safe and clean.

>

> America has the best health care in the world.

>

> And many many more

> This is a list of illusions, that have cost

> billions and billions to

> conjure

> up. Did you ever wonder why you never see the

> President speaking

> publicly

> unless he is reading? Or why most people in

> this country think generally

> the

> same about most of the above issues?

>

> How This Set-Up Got Started

>

> In Trust Us We're Experts, Stauber and Rampton

> pull together some

> compelling

> data describing the science of creating public

> opinion in America.

>

> They trace modern public influence back to the

> early part of the last

> century, highlighting the work of guys like

> Edward L. Bernays, the

> Father of

> Spin. From his own amazing chronicle

> Propaganda, we learn how Edward L.

> Bernays took the ideas of his famous uncle

> Sigmund Freud himself, and

> applied them to the emerging science of mass

> persuasion.

>

> The only difference was that instead of using

> these principles to

> uncover

> hidden themes in the human unconscious, the way

> Freudian psychology

> does,

> Bernays used these same ideas to mask agendas

> and to create illusions

> that

> deceive and misrepresent, for marketing

> purposes.

>

> 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.

>

> Stauber describes Bernays' rationale like this:

>

> " the scientific manipulation of public opinion

> was necessary to overcome

> chaos and conflict in a democratic society. "

> Trust Us p 42

>

> These early mass persuaders postured themselves

> as performing a moral

> service for humanity in general - democracy was

> too good for people;

> they

> needed to be told what to think, because they

> were incapable of rational

> thought by themselves. Here's a paragraph from

> Bernays' Propaganda:

>

> " Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of

> society constitute an

> invisible government which is the true ruling

> power of our country. We

> are

> governed, our minds 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.

>

> In almost every act of our 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 that

> control the public mind. "

>

> Here Comes The Money

>

> Once the possibilities of applying Freudian

> psychology to mass media

> were

> glimpsed, Bernays soon had more corporate

> clients than he could handle.

> Global corporations fell all over themselves

> courting the new Image

> Makers.

> There were dozens of goods and services and

> ideas to be sold to a

> susceptible public. Over the years, these

> players have had the money to

> make

> their images happen. A few examples:

>

> Philip Morris Pfizer Union Carbide

> Allstate Monsanto Eli Lilly

> tobacco industry Ciba Geigy lead industry

> Coors DuPont Chlorox

> Shell Oil Standard Oil Procter & Gamble

> Boeing General Motors Dow Chemical

> General Mills Goodyear

>

> The Players

>

> Though world-famous within the PR industry, the

> companies have names we

> don't know, and for good reason.

>

> The best PR goes unnoticed.

>

> For decades they have created the opinions that

> most of us were raised

> with,

> on virtually any issue which has the remotest

> commercial value,

> including:

>

> pharmaceutical drugs vaccines

> medicine as a profession alternative medicine

> fluoridation of city water chlorine

> household cleaning products tobacco

> dioxin global warming

> leaded gasoline cancer research and treatment

> pollution of the oceans forests and lumber

> images of celebrities, including damage control

> crisis and disaster

> management

> genetically modified foods aspartame

> food additives; processed foods dental amalgams

>

> Lesson #1

>

> Bernays learned early on that the most

> effective way to create

> credibility

> for a product or an image was by " independent

> third-party " endorsement.

>

> For example, if General Motors were to come out

> and say that global

> warming

> is a hoax thought up by some liberal

> tree-huggers, people would suspect

> GM's

> motives, since GM's fortune is made by selling

> automobiles.

>

> If however some independent research institute

> with a very credible

> sounding

> name like the Global Climate Coalition comes

> out with a scientific

> report

> that says global warming is really a fiction,

> people begin to get

> confused

> and to have doubts about the original issue.

>

> So that's exactly what Bernays did. With a

> policy inspired by genius, he

> set

> up " more institutes and foundations than

> Rockefeller and Carnegie

> combined. "

> (Stauber p 45)

>

> Quietly financed by the industries whose

> products were being evaluated,

> these " independent " research agencies would

> churn out " scientific "

> studies

> and press materials that could create any image

> their handlers wanted.

> Such

> front groups are given high-sounding names

> like:

>

> Temperature Research Foundation Manhattan

> Institute

> International Food Information Council Center

> for Produce Quality

> Consumer Alert Tobacco Institute Research

> Council

> The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition Cato

> Institute

> Air Hygiene Foundation

> American Council on Science and Health

> Industrial Health Federation Global Climate

> Coalition

> International Food Information Council Alliance

> for Better Foods

>

> Sound pretty legit don't they?

>

> Canned News Releases

>

> As Stauber explains, these organizations and

> hundreds of others like

> them

> are front groups whose sole mission is to

> advance the image of the

> global

> corporations who fund them, like those listed

> on page 2 above.

>

> This is accomplished in part by an endless

> stream of 'press releases'

> announcing " breakthrough " research to every

> radio station and newspaper

> in

> the country. (Robbins) Many of these canned

> reports read like straight

> news,

> and indeed are purposely molded in the news

> format.

>

> This saves journalists the trouble of

> researching the subjects on their

> own,

> especially on topics about which they know very

> little. Entire sections

> of

> the release or in the case of video news

> releases, the whole thing can

> be

> just lifted intact, with no editing, given the

> byline of the reporter or

> newspaper or TV station - and voilá! Instant

> news - copy and paste.

> Written

> by corporate PR firms.

>

> Does this really happen? Every single day,

> since the 1920s when the idea

> of

> the News Release was first invented by Ivy Lee.

> (Stauber, p 22)

> Sometimes as

> many as half the stories appearing in an issue

> of the Wall St. Journal

> are

> based solely on such PR press releases.. (22)

>

> These types of stories are mixed right in with

> legitimately researched

> stories. Unless you have done the research

> yourself, you won't be able

> to

> tell the difference.

>

> The Language Of Spin

>

> As 1920s spin pioneers like Ivy Lee and Edward

> Bernays gained more

> experience, they began to formulate rules and

> guidelines for creating

> public

> opinion. They learned quickly that mob

> psychology must focus on emotion,

> not

> facts. Since the mob is incapable of rational

> thought, motivation must

> be

> based not on logic but on presentation. Here

> are some of the axioms of

> the

> new science of PR:

>

> technology is a religion unto itself

>

> if people are incapable of rational thought,

> real democracy is dangerous

>

> important decisions should be left to experts

>

> when reframing issues, stay away from

> substance; create images

>

> never state a clearly demonstrable lie

> Words are very carefully chosen for their

> emotional impact. Here's an

> example. A front group called the International

> Food Information Council

> handles the public's natural aversion to

> genetically modified foods.

>

> Trigger words are repeated all through the

> text. Now in the case of GM

> foods, the public is instinctively afraid of

> these experimental new

> creations which have suddenly popped up on our

> grocery shelves which are

> said to have DNA alterations. The IFIC wants to

> reassure the public of

> the

> safety of GM foods, so it avoids words like:

>

> Frankenfoods Hitler biotech

> chemical DNA experiments

> manipulate money safety

> scientists radiation roulette

> gene-splicing gene gun random

>

> Instead, good PR for GM foods contains words

> like:

>

>

> hybrids natural order beauty

> choice bounty cross-breeding

> diversity earth farmer

> organic wholesome

>

> It's basic Freudian/Tony Robbins word

> association. The fact that GM

> foods

> are not hybrids that have been subjected to the

> slow and careful

> scientific

> methods of real crossbreeding doesn't really

> matter. This is

> pseudoscience,

> not science. Form is everything and substance

> just a passing myth.

> (Trevanian)

>

> Who do you think funds the International Food

> Information Council? Take

> a

> wild guess. Right - Monsanto, DuPont,

> Frito-Lay, Coca Cola, Nutrasweet -

> those in a position to make fortunes from GM

> foods. (Stauber p 20)

>

> Characteristics Of Good Propaganda

>

> As the science of mass control evolved, PR

> firms developed further

> guidelines for effective copy. Here are some of

> the gems:

>

> dehumanize the attacked party by labeling and

> name calling

>

> speak in glittering generalities using

> emotionally positive words

>

> when covering something up, don't use plain

> English; stall for time;

> distract

>

> get endorsements from celebrities, churches,

> sports figures, street

> people -

> anyone who has no expertise in the subject at

> hand

>

> the 'plain folks' ruse: us billionaires are

> just like you

>

> when minimizing outrage, don't say anything

> memorable, point out the

> benefits of what just happened, and avoid moral

> issues

>

> Keep this list. Start watching for these

> techniques. Not hard to find -

> look

> at today's paper or tonight's TV news. See what

> they're doing; these

> guys

> are good!

> >>