The industrial interests can furnish to the schools, the colleges and the postgraduate university courses the exact truth concerning the scientific progress of our age. They not only can do so; they are under obligation to do so. Propaganda as an instrument of commercial competition has opened opportunities to the inventor and given great stimulus to the research scientist. In the last five or ten years, the successes of some of the larger corporations have been so outstanding that the whole field of science has received a tremendous impetus.
Edward Bernays, “Propaganda”, p. 148
Again: that quote is now almost a century old. Yet today a vast majority of industrial leaders hold such truths to be just as exact as Edward Bernays seems to have held them to be exact a century ago.
The motion picture can standardize the ideas and habits of a nation. Because pictures are made to meet market demands, they reflect, emphasize and even exaggerate broad popular tendencies, rather than stimulate new ideas and opinions. The motion picture avails itself only of ideas and facts which are in vogue. As the newspaper seeks to purvey news, it seeks to purvey entertainment.
Edward Bernays, “Propaganda”, p. 156
Perhaps Edward Bernays was one of the most influential pioneers to introduce the term “mainstream” as a verb. As shown here, Adam Smith’s notion of an invisible hand, which motivates the main streams of public consciousness to gravitate towards whatever is in vogue, is apparently worthy of utmost respect — a force to be reckond with (and not against). In this vein, propaganda succeeds if (and only if) the propagandist’s message successfully aligns with prevailing natural market forces.
