Newsletter  -  August 2024

Freedom! What do we mean by freedom?  Do we refer to freedom of activity?  Do we refer to freedom of choice?  Do we refer to freedom of thought?  Obviously, there are all kinds of freedom.  There are some freedoms that we cannot control.  If we are overtaken by bad weather we may not have the choice of what we are going to do.  If we live in a totalitarian society our freedom of choice may be very limited or not even exist.  Have you noticed that history has been a chronicle of the constant battle for freedom whether physical, mental or spiritual?

The battle for freedom has ramped up considerably every since the appearance of technology.  The many ways to attain or restrict freedom has become more organized since the world of tv, internet, radio and television.  Now comes the danger.  There will always be those who want to control the freedom of others because it is worth money, feels good and gives power.

For example, throughout the history of the United States, tens of thousands of federal laws, rules, regulations and executive orders have been created.  Americans constantly hear that all of these laws are going to provide a good life for all citizens.  Question:  Is your life better because you have to keep track of a multitude of laws and regulations?

If you are a devotee of films of the 40’s and 50’s (you might have been living) you will know there were many films that depicted the obnoxious, persistent reporter who never gave up on the story and who did whatever it took to get the truth.  Take a look at the “journalist” of today.  So many of them are totally predicable as to what they are going to write.  You know immediately what their story will be.  Real journalists are not predictable.  They are looking for the truth.  Predictable writers are not truth seekers.  They are the owners of anonymous sources.  Certain news outlets always slant the news a certain way.  If you look at the name of the news outlet you know immediately which way the story will be slanted.  All of these writers limit the opportunity for the reader to obtain facts instead of opinions.  Freedom has been limited.

Here is another way that freedom has been limited.  What is going on in our schools?  If you are a serious observer of the educational system, you will know that today’s student is being taught what to think and how to think a certain way.  The process of independent thinking seems to be missing.  How to think is an alien concept.  Too many students today have no background in philosophy that will be sufficient to give them the mental acuity necessary to identify and reject propaganda.  Too many students also have no background in history so they cannot identify ideas that have been around before and were destructive.  So much of an excellent education should be having the goal of learning how to think not what to think.

Finally, the internet has contributed some good things and some very negative things.  The negative factors are the manipulation of the mind and particularly in this article, the American mind.  A person most people have never heard of is responsible for all of the advertising that has become a factor in daily life.  Edward Bernays, born in 1891 and a nephew of Sigmund Freud, applied the principles of propaganda to marketing.  As a journalist he helped the Woodrow Wilson administration promote the idea that United States efforts in World War I were intended to bring democracy to Europe.   

Bernays had seen how effective propaganda was during war time.  He wondered if it could be useful during peacetime.  He developed an approach he called “the engineering of consent.”  He gave leaders the means to “control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it.”  To accomplish this he determined that it was necessary to appeal not to the rational part of the mind, but the unconscious. 

In 1928, Bernays wrote a book titled Propaganda in which he argued that public relations is not a gimmick but a necessity.

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 and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind. 

Bernays noted in his 1965 autobiography that he learned that the Nazis used his work in 1933.  He noted in his book the following:

They were using my books as the basis for a destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany.  This shocked me, but I knew any human activity can be used for social purposes or misused for antisocial ones.

What is the message for thinking, involved citizens today?  Caution! Caution! Caution!

In today’s world there are people and forces working hard to manipulate everything from the financial world to the political world to every aspect of a person’s daily life.  It is up to the individual person to pay attention, stay focused and not give up against the forces that wish to limit freedom, control the narrative, ultimately control an entire country and then the world. The underlying purpose of this manipulation is in large part to make money.  Bernays wanted to turn citizens into consumers who would use their purchasing power to move on down the road to happiness. Other forces today have motives well beyond making money.  The goal of controlling people, a country and ultimately the world is a driving force for some people.

Responsible citizens must make the effort to read, listen and discuss the issues that could end up affecting the daily life of every person in our country. Your freedom is on the line.