*** Re-Posted for CoronaMania ***
by Mike King
Edward Bernays (cough cough) was one of those relatively unknown characters of history who, from "behind the scenes" helped to shape American society -- and, by logical extension, the world in general -- more so than any president could have. A nephew of the famed sex-mad quack Sigmund Fraud (cough cough), Bernays understood the science / art of manufacturing "public opinion" better than anyone.
During World War I, Woodrow Wilson called upon the services of the legendary ad man who would later train women to become smokers by linking the dirty habit with the women's suffrage movement (here) -- and who also trained many of us to crave "Bacon & Eggs" for breakfast (here). Under Bernays' influence, the wartime Committee on Public Information instantly and successfully transformed the public image of the cultured peace-loving Germans into one of marauding, blood-thirsty, warmongering "Huns." Reflecting upon his success with psychological manipulation during wartime, Bernays later described how the same tactics could be used to control the masses during peacetime.
Bernays:
"There was one basic lesson I learned in the CPI—that efforts comparable to those applied by the CPI to affect the attitudes of the enemy, of neutrals, and people of this country could be applied with equal facility to peacetime pursuits. In other words, what could be done for a nation at war could be done for organizations and people in a nation at peace."
At the behest of his government paymasters, Bernays and his gang of Society Shapers got Americans to suddenly hating Germans.
In 1928, Bernays, in his book titled, "Propaganda," really "let the cat out of the bag" for us