happiness machines journal entry

Adam Curtis gradually and carefully shows us how the teachings of Freud and his theories influenced and were employed by corporations and governments to manage society. The story is 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 control the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by scientifically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires. Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticizing the motorcar. His most infamous achievement was on women smoking and persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational emotions that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and as a result disciplined. It was the start of the all-consuming person who has come to dominate today's world.