I just finished watching the four-part BBC series by Adam Curtis,
'The Century of the Self'. I'm floored by how good and comprehensive it is, not just as a history of media and pr, but of U.S. Political history.
Adam Curtis, who produced the fantastic 3-part BBC series 'The Power of Nightmares; the Rise of the Politics of Fear' last year in time for our elections, also made this piece, in 2002.
'The Century of the Self' covers the 80-year social history of the use of methodical psychological techniques in marketing and politics, from Coolidge through Clinton (and Tony Blair), and I think it's very important that everyone involved in politics see this, as part four covers the left's adoption of polling and focus groups.
George Lakoff fans will need to see this, and upon doing so will feel need to distribute it to their friends and family, just like what happened with 'The Power of Nightmares'.
I'll send anyone who emails me a copy.
More below the fold...
This documentary traces what we think of as a ubiquitous culture of manipulation to the work of one man, Sigmund Freud's American nephew,
Edward Bernays, who was behind most of the coercive corporate propaganda in the last century. From helping tobacco companies encourage women to smoke in the 20s to helping Woodrow Wilson promote World War, to helping Eisenhower, Nixon and United Fruit overthow a non-communist popular government in Guatemala, Bernays invented it.
'The Century of the Self' examines the philosophy of the 'self' in America as a corporate construct designed by specific individuals to harness our unconscious desires and fears for the fulfillment of private money and power.
People should do whatever it takes to see it, especially in light of what we are finding out about the Bush Junta's successful efforts to game journalism itself and launch an illegal war that sane people knew overtly would be a terrible disaster.
It makes sense of much of the false perception of a rightward political shift of the last 10 years, and the focus-grouped search for the 'swing' voter, and helps give an understanding of the roots of the 'brokenness' of our political system.
It has excellent archival footage of older political and marketing campaigns, a highly informative interview with Bernays himself, along with PR/Media historian Stuart Ewen, Robert Reich, Doug Schoen, Howard Hunt (in the Guatemala portion), Dick Morris, Philip Gould, and hosts of influential people from the fields of psychiatry, marketing, public relations and polling - the wizardly technicians of our reality-based reality.
Besides the engrossing interviews, it is the use of visual juxtaposition, using archival footage, that makes the story it tells so compelling. I truly believe this is how 20th Century American history must be experienced by future generations in the media-saturated world we live in. Understanding the history of media of the last century is the same as understanding political history.
It shows portions of a mindblowing video from 1978, made by the highly influential Stanford Research Institute, dramatizing for their corporate customers their nine newly 'discovered' 'lifestyle marketing' categories, so businesses could market to the 'individualistic' baby boomer market.
Like 'The Power of Nightmares', 'The Century of the Self' is so chock full of archival footage and music that licensing issues prevent it from ever seeing proper release in this country, in any way, shape or form.
However, the well-organized visual information it contains and the story it tells about politics, business and media in the last century is so comprehensively brilliant, that people should do whatever it takes to see it, especially in light of increasing media consolidation.
Anyone who wishes may email me for a copy.
From
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/century_of_the_self.shtml -
Episode One - "The Happiness Machines"
The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.
Episode Two: The Engineering of Consent
Explores how those in power in post-war America used Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses.
Politicians and planners came to believe Freud's underlying premise - that deep within all human beings were dangerous and irrational desires and fears. They were convinced that it was the unleashing of these instincts that had led to the barbarism of Nazi Germany. To stop it ever happening again they set out to find ways to control this hidden enemy within the human mind.
Episode Three: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Head: He Must Be Destroyed
The American corporations soon realised that the new self of the 'Me Generation' was not a threat but their greatest opportunity. It was in their interest to encourage people to feel they were unique individuals and then sell them ways to express that individuality. To do this they turned to techniques developed by Freudian psychoanalysts to read the inner desires of the new self.
Four -
This episode explains how politicians on the left, in both Britain and America, turned to the techniques developed by business to read and fulfil the inner desires of the self.