Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, worked with the corporations to create a “democracity”: a democracy where people were, and say themselves, as consumers and their every desires were catered to, while the elites of the corporations, and ultimately government, used this to control (tame) them through a perceived democracy.
Freud’s insight Bernays used was that people were not driven by rational thought, but by “primitive unconscious desires and feelings” and that this could be used by the corporations to turn the society into a consumption machine.
The whole documentary is pretty profound I’d say. It makes one think about the ways in which one is making decisions not out of insight and judgement, but out of this primitive place that’s being manipulated by those with more power and information. This is not, necessarily, a conspiracy of the Shadowy Figures in a Dark Room, but more a question of, Do I want what I want because I want it or because I’ve been guided towards wanting it? One might first want to know what one wants.
Active Citizens: Roosevelt – people (rational) are in charge, so you call upon them to act in the interest of the group which will ultimately be the interest of the most
Passive Consumers: Bernase – people’s (irrational, Freud, hidden aggressive behaviors) desires are in charge, so we take advantage of that
In part 3, from the Reich psycoanalyst movement and the hippies becoming individuals and focusing on self-expression and the inner self, the corporations were told (Daniel Yankelovich) that the kids (new college graduate aged) were still consumers, but they wanted things that highlighted their individuality rather than things that conformed them to the group which had been their parents generation. But this was difficult with the mass production machine that corporations were used to, and could produce domestically. Werner Earhard and EST. Makes me wonder if we started to offshore and import everything we’ve started to import, and increase the number of things, and therefore a far greater consumerism that Bernase and the ’40s & ’50s corporations could’ve imagined, because of this pivot to focusing on the self. This major pivot to self-actualization and the self, as seen in the EST phenomenon, really makes you wonder if the boomers have carried this prioritization of the self (and really the Boomers collectively as they’re aware of maintaining for one and all what they have) has permanently stuck with them in the form of their concern for the next generations, or unconcern as we see it.
The corporation’s transitions to sell to this group was Lifestyles and Lifestyle Marketing.
The market went from limited needs concerned about oversupply to a market that created and fanned unlimited needs and had no concern with unlimited supply and could shift manufacturing to be more precise to these unlimited needs.