Propaganda by Edward Bernays Essay Example

style="text-align: justify">Edward after several incidents, he defines propaganda as “propaganda is simply the establishing of reciprocal understanding between an individual and a group” (Edward, 1930, pg 161). Edward knew that he had given a wrong definition of the word propaganda since he had worked as a propagandist in the Committee on public information and defines the work in his book as “the manipulators [i. e. Bernays, Walter Lippmann, etc. ] of patriotic opinion made use of the mental clinches and the emotional habits of the public to produce mass reactions against the alleged atrocities, the terror, and the tyranny of the enemy. (Edward, 1930, pg 54) this becomes his thesis statement for it means that propaganda is an avenue to manipulate the feelings and the thoughts of people to accept policies that they could otherwise reject but not to publicize the goods of a firm so as to improve the sales. Below is a statement from the book that is used to focus on the main thesis statement. “It will be objected, of course, that propaganda will tend to defeat itself as its mechanism becomes obvious to the public. My opinion is that it will not.

The only propaganda which will ever tend to weaken itself as the world becomes more sophisticated and intelligent, is propaganda that is untrue or unsocial (Edward, 1930, pg122)" Edward believed that the news and propaganda were legally accepted tools to manipulate the business. In the two essays he wrote, The Business of Propaganda (1928) and A Public Relations Counsel States (1927), he clearly shows that advertising men are meant to be serious pleaders simply paid to plead customers

to accept a commodity or an idea. His main idea was that everyone’s energy could be channeled and harnessed by the corporate leaders for economic benefits.

By employment of mass production, the large firms could satisfy the unchanging crave of the naturally desire driven and irrational masses and thereby secure the role played by economy characterized by mass production. Edward could use his philosophical and magisterial touch and this aided in manipulating the public opinion in 1928 and therefore he wrote “This is an age of mass production. In the mass production of materials a broad technique has been developed and applied to their distribution. In this age, too, there must be a technique for the mass distribution of ideas” (Edward, 1930, pg75)

The intellectual and mindful manipulation of the opinions and organized of masses is very essential as Edward put it. The people manipulating the masses form a government that is invisible and it is that government that is truly ruling; this is where he further put across that though the people are governed, their tastes are formed, minds molded, ideas suggested by a clique of people they don’t know or they have never heard of. That is how the human race has to live together if at all there will be existence of a truly functioning community/ society.

Edward acknowledged that in every society, may it be in the political arena, business fields or the people ethical thinking, there exist people who understand social trends and mental processes and use propaganda to manipulate them. The above evidence supports the author’s thesis statement since he puts across how the social, political

and business sectors are influenced by propaganda, he also puts across a number of years of reference when he was working as a propagandist in the US public opinion council. The evidence used by Edward is sufficient though he could have also used materials from other movements that existed in US and used propaganda during his time.

Bernays probably believed his own words when he first wrote the book back in 1928. After seeing the advent of the television, satellite and the early theories of the Internet, Bernay's understandably changed his mind.

The book captures Bernay's early theories of propaganda as a tool to better productivity. The book is a good source of history in the US since it explains the mechanisms employed by some individuals to manipulate its society in the business, public relations, political and in the social arena. The book does not have anything that is controversial since it’s a historical document that’s valid and used to date and is recommended for all the US students and citizens.