Why Americans Will Believe Almost Anything. Part 1.

[Guest guest]

http://www.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 MorrisPfizerUnion CarbideAllstateMonsantoEli Lillytobacco industryCiba

Geigylead industryCoorsDuPontChloroxShell OilStandard OilProcter &

GambleBoeingGeneral MotorsDow Chemical General MillsGoodyear

 

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 drugsvaccinesmedicine as a professionalternative

medicinefluoridation of city waterchlorinehousehold cleaning

productstobaccodioxinglobal warmingleaded gasolinecancer research and

treatmentpollution of the oceansforests and lumberimages of celebrities,

including damage controlcrisis and disaster managementgenetically modified

foodsaspartamefood additives; processed foodsdental 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 FoundationManhattan Institute International Food

Information CouncilCenter for Produce QualityConsumer AlertTobacco Institute

Research CouncilThe Advancement of Sound Science CoalitionCato InstituteAir

Hygiene Foundation

American Council on Science and HealthIndustrial Health FederationGlobal Climate

CoalitionInternational Food Information CouncilAlliance 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:

 

FrankenfoodsHitlerbiotechchemicalDNAexperimentsmanipulatemoneysafetyscientistsra\

diationroulettegene-splicinggene gunrandom

 

Instead, good PR for GM foods contains words like:

 

 

hybridsnatural

orderbeautychoicebountycross-breedingdiversityearthfarmerorganicwholesome

 

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!

 

PAGE 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

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