patrick.net

Edward Bernays is perhaps the most important, and, influential person in American history that few people have heard of. Governments, revolutionaries and corporations all hired him to help them achieve their goals. His methods of mind control on a massive scale are still being studied and used.

A nephew of Sigmund Freud, Bernays is considered to be the father of public relations. He believed, and built his long career on the premise that the masses were irrational and subject to herd instinct—and he outlined how skilled practitioners could use crowd psychology and psychoanalysis to control them in desired ways. He applied his techniques to effectively sell the masses on everything from smoking cigarettes to eating bacon with your eggs to overthrowing governments and to rallying the the unwilling masses to go to war.

Just a sample: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.” - Edward Bernays, Crystallizing Public Opinion

If you haven't already, consider taking the time to read these relatively small books. Both are considered classics and are still being read and studied. If you do read these, you'll never look at the world the same again. Free download in a number of different formats here: (I usually download as a PDF)

Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923)
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.1607/page/n3/mode/2up

Propaganda (1929)
https://archive.org/details/Propaganda_Edward_L_Bernays_1928.pdf