Kevin Scott King
Truth Shock

“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.”

Edward Bernays. Propaganda (1928) First two paragraphs of Chapter 1.

I am tempted to begin every future article I create with the above quote. Read it again… slowly. Let it sink in, let it permeate your consciousness. Read it not as a disconnected third party, but read it with the realization that YOU, and everyone you know, are one of the ‘masses’. That we constitute the manipulated, the molded minds, the taste formed, and the ideas suggested. Read it with the understanding that it was not written by some idealistic, isolated academic but from someone who actually DID IT, and then literally wrote the book, the above book, on how to do it. I highly recommend reading the book. It’s a short book, fast read. Here is a free PDF.  Here it is for $9.50 at Powells.com*.

*Note: I refuse to do business with Amazon. Powells normally has what I’m looking for. I also recommend for harder to find manuscripts trying Abebooks and Alibris.

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