Propaganda

Bernays is skeptical of the “voice of the people” in a democracy and views political leaders as ineffectual because they focus so much on serving the public interest that they neglect their duty to lead (92). For Bernays, the voice of the people is not particularly relevant because the “mind of the people is made up for it” by people who “understand the manipulation of public opinion” (92). In other words, the mind of the people is composed of prejudices, clichés, and “verbal formulas” supplied to them by their leaders. Bernays advocates for political leaders who are capable of forming the will of the people through propaganda.

Even though propaganda was first used in the political realm, the methods of Bernays’s political contemporaries are inadequate and outdated. The business community has adapted to the “changing conditions of the public mind” and improved its methods through competition (93). Bernays argues that the political apathy of the typical voter is caused by the inadequacy of political leaders who fail to contend effectively with the public mind. Instead of catering to the votes of the masses, political leaders need to learn the effective uses of propaganda.

Bernays sees political campaigns as bombastic sideshows unrelated to the primary task of studying the public, providing the public with a party and platform, and then selling this platform to the public. Just as big business prepares its policies carefully and follows a broad strategy in courting the public, so should politicians proceed with campaigns that are developed according to similarly expansive plans. Bernays writes, “Platforms, planks, pledges, budgets, activities, personalities must be as carefully studied, apportioned and used as they are when big business desires to get what it wants from the public” (96-97).

The first step for a political campaign is to determine the objectives and present them in terms of a platform. To prepare the platform, the politician will need to analyze the public and the public’s needs. As in the field of business, the expenses of a political campaign must be carefully budgeted and then decisions will be made about how the money is spent.

Bernays suggests that politicians should follow the tactics of big business in appealing to the public through as “many of the basic emotions as possible” and through various means (100), especially since politicians typically rely on words exclusively. Bernays lists three indispensable tactics for appealing to the public’s emotions: The emotional content must “coincide in every way with the broad basic plans of the campaign and all its minor details”; “be adapted to the many groups of the public at which it is to be aimed;” and “conform to the media of the distribution of ideas” (100).

Because people are disinterested in politics, Bernays recommends matching issues to the personal interests of possible voters: “It is not necessary for the politician to be the slave of the public's group prejudices if he can learn how to mold the mind of the voters in conformity with his own ideas of public welfare and public service” (103). It’s not a matter of pleasing the public but a necessity of swaying the public’s opinion, and this is done through pushing certain trains of thought, dramatizing personalities, and reaching out to group leaders who “control the opinions of their publics” (104-05).

A political leader needs to be “a creator of circumstances” to appeal to the public and sell good government just like any other commodity (105). Bernays maintains that the President of the United States is stage-managed in the sense that they must perform and “dramatize the man in his function as representative of the people” (111). The political leader must also have an ear to the ground to assess the reverberations of the public. The function of the propagandist extends beyond disseminating information. Bernays advocates for including a Secretary of Public Relations in the president’s cabinet so that the aims of America could be communicated to the world. In Bernays’s terms, the propagandist would “interpret the people to the government and the government to the people” (114). Such an official would be an expert in propaganda who is trained to analyze the public mind, its prejudices, and trends, and to create circumstances through high-spotting events and dramatizing issues. Bernays calls for a “leadership democracy administered by the intelligent minority” (114), who have the skills to regiment and guide the masses.

Bernays maintains that while women in the United States have achieved legal equality with men, they differ in terms of their special interests, and these interests are most successfully pursued through the use of propaganda. Women are most influential when they are, in Bernays’s terms, “organized and armed with the weapon of propaganda” (117). The fact that they have wielded this influence in state legislatures and on city councils is a testament to the importance of propaganda.

Bernays lists a number of organizations and clubs utilized by women, including the National League of Women Voters, which typifies the social welfare work conducted by these organizations. Their principles are propagandized through a variety of means, from bulletins and calendars to general election information.

Bernays attributes the achievements of women’s organizations to two strategic movements, beginning with the “training of a professional class of executive secretaries or legislative secretaries during the suffrage campaigns” (117). In this phase, they used all the instruments of the propagandist to influence an intractable majority. Secondly, many of the women in suffrage campaigns also devoted themselves to propaganda drives during the war, and they employed these skills in peacetime.

The reason Bernays focuses primarily on the accomplishments of women in politics is because it is a striking use of propaganda to secure the acceptance of “minority ideas.” However, he also references a host of non-political fields in which women have taken part. Bernays refers to women’s clubs that adhere to “efforts that are not ordinarily covered by existing agencies” and contribute significantly to the community (119). He mentions a music club that is a service to the community, an art club that facilitates loan exhibitions for the city, and a literary club that appeals to the educational life of the community. The “newly acquired freedom” of women is “mold[ing] the world into a better place,” and they can have this influence because they are “organized and conscious of their power” (120).

Bernays maintains that the public does not recognize the real value of education, as evidenced by the fact that schools are not properly supported materially and financially. One reason that this condition persists is that educators are trained to stimulate thought in individual students in the classroom, but they are not “trained as an educator at large of the public” (121). Bernays maintains that “in a democracy,” an educator should have a significant relationship with the general public. Even while the public does not “come within the immediate scope of his academic duties,” the educator still depends on the public for his livelihood in terms of “moral support” and the “general cultural tone” on which the educator’s work is based (122). Just as in the realm of business and politics, the “evolution of the practitioner of the profession has not kept pace with the social evolution around him” (122). The educator isn’t aware of what Bernays calls the “instruments for the dissemination of ideas” that have been developed in modern society (122). Bernays advocates for educators to consider their jobs as “twofold,” that is, as a teacher and as a propagandist.

The situation could be improved if people in the teaching profession become conscious not just of the individual relationship with the pupil but also of the social relationship with the public. Propaganda is needed “with a view to enlightening the public and asserting its intimate relation to the society which it serves” (123). In addition, propaganda should be used to raise a general appreciation for the teaching profession itself: “It is possible, by means of an intelligent appeal predicated upon the actual present composition of the public mind to modify the general attitude toward the teaching profession” (124). This is especially important because the degree of support a public university receives is related to the “degree of acceptance accorded” by the voters (124). Bernays argues that the university can only prosper if it sells itself to the public.

The “endowed college or university” is situated in a similarly perplexing situation because these schools rely on the financial support of “key men,” many of whom are successful businessmen whose concrete economic objectives are at variance with the “pursuit of abstract knowledge” (125). If potential donors are apathetic then propaganda could facilitate a better understanding of the relationship between both the academic and endowed elements. The college must gain the support of the public. Bernays points to many colleges that have developed “intelligent propaganda” that results in an “active and continuous relation” with the public (127).

The National Education Association is one such institution carrying out a propaganda campaign to promote education. The propaganda aims at the improvement of material support for educators and the improvement of college courses. Bernays also notes the desire of educators that their scholarly research should not only be presented in libraries and “learned publications” but be provided to the public, albeit in “dramatic form which the public can understand” (129).

Bernays argues that the president of a university should concern himself with the sort of “mental picture” the institution has on the public mind, even if this isn’t typically the role of the president. However, the president of a university should “work to see that his university takes its proper place in the community” (131), both in cultural and financial terms. If the institution fails to produce that mental picture, then either the public is wrong, or the institution is at fault. In either case, the university needs to create an impression on the public that is compatible with the standards of the university.

Bernays argues that social service was among the first institutions to employ propaganda in the modern sense of the term. As social service continues primarily through the voluntary support of the wealthy the social service must use propaganda continuously. Bernays remarks on the tendency of people to continue to promote attitudes and prejudices handed down from previous generations, which he refers to as “inertia.” To oppose this “traditional acceptance of existing ideas” is to move consciously against this inertia (135). For Bernays, the fact that people can have the privilege of swaying public opinion is a hallmark of democracy. The new ideas and the setting of new precedents, especially altruistic activities like campaigns against disease, are facilitated only through the “knowledge of the public mind and mass psychology” (136).

To illustrate the techniques of social service propaganda, Bernays uses the example of the struggle against “Jim Crowism” in the South conducted by the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People. First, they decided to dramatize the campaign at an annual convention and thus bring attention to the issue. The question of location became relevant because the purpose was to affect the entire nation, and it was recommended that they hold the conference in the South because the propagandist said the South “would have greater authority on this southern question” (136). The third tactic was to include people in the conference who fulfilled stereotypes of diverse groups to seek out multiple points of view. This technical decision would also emphasize that the conference was meant for the entire public. Because the event was created with various important elements, the conference awakened interest throughout the country.

Bernays contends that, in a general sense, all social service activities are propaganda activities. Each campaign is designed to alter people’s habits or opinions about an issue, whether this has to do with the preservation of teeth, the design of parks, or infant mortality. Social service, Bernays maintains, is identical to propaganda.

Bernays view propaganda as an important factor in the endeavor to educate the American public “toward greater art appreciation” (141). He advocates for art galleries to “create public acceptance” for an artist’s work before launching the canvasses in a gallery. Public acceptance and general appreciation of art are promoted through deliberate propaganda: “In art as in politics the minority rules, but it can rule only by going out to meet the public on its own ground, by understanding the anatomy of public opinion and utilizing it” (141).

Propaganda has created new opportunities for artists in the realm of applied or commercial art. Mass production has created a competitive deadlock that is resolved by the competition of aesthetic values. Businesses also capitalize on this commercial art in service to increase markets, and artists now collaborate with industry “in such a way as to improve the public taste” (141).

Bernays maintains that big business benefits from the mass production of commercial art and helps to “raise the level of American culture” as propaganda points out what is beautiful and what is not (142). Propaganda also makes use of the “authority of group leaders” whose opinions about art are recognized by the public (142). Bernays argues that the “public must be interested by means of associational values and dramatic incidents” (141), especially if the new art is abstract or technical. The appreciation and acceptance of new art are facilitated by associating the work with values recognized by the public.

Bernays suggests that most commercial products are susceptible to beautiful design, including products used daily, such as clothes, lamps, and book jackets. In the United States, Bernays argues, “whole departments of production are being changed through propaganda to fill an economic as well as an esthetic need” (144). Bernays cites the example of department stores collaborating with artists to present art to the public that is related to the retail industry. The museum is also in a position to use propaganda and utilize the department store to promote art appreciation. Bernays views the museum as an institution that can resemble a sort of sanctuary and thus would benefit from propaganda to interpret the “treasures of beauty” to the public (146).

Bernays describes the way that both art and science were once guarded by learned associations and societies, whereas now “pure science finds support and encouragement in industry” (148). Laboratories are often connected to large corporations willing to invest money in scientific research. Propaganda is pivotal in marketing new inventions and interpreting “new scientific ideas and inventions to the public” (149), making the public more receptive to change and progress.

The media through which “special pleaders” transmit their propaganda to the public include all the technology used by people on a daily basis. Bernays maintains that “there is no means of human communication which may not also be a means of deliberate propaganda” because propaganda is simply the act of establishing a “reciprocal understanding between an individual and a group” (150). The important point to the propagandist is that the various mechanisms of propaganda and how they relate to the masses are constantly changing, and the propagandist must make use of these shifts when they occur.

Bernays explains that there is not a “single item in any daily paper, the publication of which does not, or might not, profit or injure somebody” (151), and this interests the propagandist. Whether an item could be considered propaganda is irrelevant, as a newspaper brooks no censorship. Magazines, for Bernays, are very different in that instead of being an “organ of public opinion” like a newspaper, the magazine tends to be “a propagandist organ, propagandizing for a particular idea” (153), typically the subject matter of the magazine.

The lecture was once a considerable means for influencing public opinion but that has changed. For Bernays, the importance of the lecture is that it be delivered. If it is important, it will be broadcast, possibly printed in the newspapers, and this will stimulate discussion. From the perspective of the propagandist, the repercussion of the lecture in the public domain is its true source of value.

Bernays considers film to be the “greatest unconscious carrier of propaganda” in the modern world (156). Film distributes ideas and opinions and tends to “standardize the ideas and habits of a nation” (156). Bernays argues that films are made strictly to meet the demands of the market and thus reflect popular tendencies rather than provoke new ideas.

Finally, the personality itself is an instrument of propaganda. The exploitation of a personality can be made ridiculous with the “misuse of the very mechanism which helped create it” (157). Regardless, Bernays claims that the dramatization of a personality will always remain a principal function of the public relations counsel. For propaganda, a public figure should regard themselves “objectively” and “present an outward picture” that corresponds to the character he seeks to portray (157).

Bernays concludes by stating that if the public becomes more intelligent with regard to commercial demands, then commercial firms will adjust to the new standards. If the public becomes apathetic to old methods of persuasion, then the leaders will present their appeals “more intelligently.” He notes that “propaganda will never die out. Intelligent men must realize that propaganda is the modern instrument by which they can fight for productive ends and help to bring order out of chaos” (159).