It's All Freud's Fault!

It's been said that the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy - the power has finally been transferred to the people. But how can the power we hold be defined? We vote, though the 2000 and 2004 elections were suspect, and with good reason. We live to pursue happiness, and that is found through making a family (either traditional or non-traditional) owning a home or a car, perhaps. Happiness may result from watching the big game on a wide screen TV, from purchasing and sporting a new item of clothing, or buying the latest toy for a child. Some people are very happy when their lawn looks nicer than anyone else's lawn on the block. Young women buy happiness in the form of a new lipstick, purse, lash curler or pair of shoes. Boys are usually very happy to receive a video game, their favorite sports team's jersey or even a particular box of cereal.

The point is, we are a nation of consumers. If you think about it, this conspicuous consumption was not anything the Founding Fathers considered. It's certainly not a cornerstone of democracy, and nor is capitalism. A free market - laissez faire - works well with democracy, except for one major problem: greed. It would follow that Americans, tough and smart as we are, would find a way to embrace the honest and reject the greedy. But we've been hoodwinked! Now, in September of 2008, we are faced with an economy on the brink of depression, regular folks are in debt up to their shoulders and about to drown, people are losing their homes, and lenders are no longer willing to lend.

I watched the most informative documentary recently - "Century of the Self" - about Freud and his family's role in creating our consumer society.  Who knew? How did we miss this massive manipulation of our day to day lives? How different would our lives be if Sigmund Freud, his daughter Anna, and his nephew, Edward Bernays, had opened a cheese boutique instead of going on to root through our subconcious and using it to ruin lives both in Great Britain and the United States? 

Let's limit the discussion of Freud to one of his most pivotal theories - the unconscious mind and its secret desires.  In fact, let's just move right along to the second generation: Edward and Anna. During the 1920's, Edward Bernays, then living in America, had a "lightbulb moment." What if businesspeople (merchants, particularly) used Uncle Freud's theories to increase sales? What if American society could be manipulated to believe that the pursuit of happiness is the number one goal in life, and certain merchants (and later, politicians) were instrumental in achieving that happiness? 

Bernays had little trouble convincing American corporations to commit themselves to making people want things they really didn't need by linking their goods to unconscious desires. Kind of scary, you say? I'd go so far as to call it downright terrifying! Mass manipulation of the masses; the creation of the "consumer society" by appealing to our most base desires? The complicity - indeed the enthusiasm - of the government, decade after decade, is probably the most frightening aspect of the whole lousy but tremendously successful experiment.

Bernays' first big project was to convince women to smoke. With the belief that the cigarette represented the penis somehow (?! - I do not consider myself a Freudophile), he was hired by the cigarette companies to design an ad campaign that featured women who were independent, unafraid of criticism, lovers of freedom. Manly, if you will. Revolutionaries! New cigarette sales to women were impressive indeed. Bernays even managed to eroticize large hunks of steel and glass - the automobile. Cars weren't to be seen as practical any longer. Now they were...purrrrrrr, sex-ay! The trend took hold like gangbusters. Mass-producing manufacturers began to see advertising in a whole new light. Create a need, then supply it. Keep up with the Jones for gawd's sake!

As if that weren't disastrous enough for a society, Bernays considered how effective his method would be in the realm of politics. President Hoover was the first to introduce "consumerism" as a way of life. Manufacturers could first create a desire, and then satiate that desire. Hoover considered it a means of economic development. Why, the masses could be veritably controlled by brainwashing them via their unconscious desires! Brilliant! By satisfying these inner irrational needs, people could be made into sheeple - dumb, greedy, and most importantly, docile. "Happiness machines," was the term used by Bernays himself. 

Bernays, and later Anna Freud, became the de facto creators of public relations. That's such a nice, gentle term, isn't it? Sounds like something beneficial, right? Turning the American public into consumer-driven zombies, concerned only with keeping up with every trend and what's on TV tonight, is helpful to those who would like to rule us. Maybe picking rice in synchronization in China might be preferable at this point? Considering the state of the country, are we not ALL Bernay's victims, to one extent or another? First we had religion as the opiate of the masses, and now we have the purchase of useless things to lull us into compliance. Combine this with the introduction of credit cards and we've got a free-for-all (only not) of happy spending.

Bernays is now referred to as the father of propaganda. President Coolidge hired Bernays to "sex him up," which marked the first collision of government and "human needs." (Coolidge, by the way, had a mechanical bull in his bedroom. At the time it was thought to promote weight loss.) Bernays went on to work closely with the government for decades to come. He introduced the idea of a "new elite" meant to "guide" the ignorant masses. This was the first time - during the 1920's - when public control became policy. The most useful weapon for this new policy? Fear. Goebbels was an enthusiastic student of Bernays. I'm sure Karl Rove is a big fan, too.

There is more to this story of Bernays, but I shall include it in another entry, lest this gets too long and dry. Suffice it to say that Bernays (and Freud, too, as it was his theories that Bernays was manipulating) may be the OG of tearing this American society up. To be fair, Freud was beyond disturbed by how his nephew had corrupted his work, though his daughter, Anna, jumped right on the propaganda bandwagon.

If everyone was confused yesterday about this $700 billion bailout? today they are dumbfounded. McCain has been called out for his stunt and Barbie Bitch Palin keeps on giving bizarre and wrong answers to the few reporters allowed access to her. We, the blue team, have been up and down so many times in the last 24 hours, we've simply fallen quiet...and docile?

Democracy is all about power relationships. A Democracy ought to be characterized by a stable system of power sharing. Consumerism, however, is very useful in shifting these power relationships so that the "new elite" (the folks with the money) enjoy more power than regular old citizens. When we are bamboozled by people who know they can sway us via our desires, we have been robbed of our decision making powers. We are the sheeple.

Tomorrow? I think I'll tackle the ways our voting powers have been stolen right out from under us. I'll try to make it as funny as possible.