Friday, December 19, 2008

Crowd Control & Human Relations

I was pleased to find a couple of old classics that I've been meaning to read for years available free online:
http://jollyroger.com/library1/TheCrowdbyGustaveleBonebook.html

http://www.geocities.com/danielmacryan/oldbooks.html#bcrowds

Looking into these authors led me onward to 'Human Relations' and 'Public Relations' pioneers such as Sigmund Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays who wrote Propaganda from which comes this excerpt: "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, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind." --Edward L. Bernays

criticism by Stephen Bender: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/bender2.html

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