The Century of the Self: The Untold History of Controlling the Masses Through the Manipulation of Unconscious Desires-gctid73640

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The Century of the SelfThe Untold History of Controlling the Masses Through the Manipulation of Unconscious Desires

"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." - Edward Bernays

THE CENTURY OF THE SELF

Adam Curtis' acclaimed series examines the rise of the all-consuming self against the backdrop of the Freud dynasty.

To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the  ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the  people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they  really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes  controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in  Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created,  by whom, and in whose interests?

The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history.  Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who invented  public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund's devoted daughter; and  present-day PR guru and Sigmund's great grandson, Matthew Freud.

Sigmund Freud's work into the bubbling and murky world of the  subconscious changed the world. By introducing a technique to probe the  unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding the  secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the  precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls,  and society's belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is  man's ultimate goal.
                                                                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                                                   Please Note: Viewers should be sure to read Ludwig Von Mises' 'The Anti-Capitalist Mentality' to balance the socialistic elements of this film.  

This film was produced by BBC which is Britain's government run news  channel, therefor it downplays the evils of government and plays up the  vices of business.  The enemy is not capitalism or 'consumption' but  government and its insidious propaganda.  Mass produced goods enrich  society because they reduce the amount of time a person has to work to  satisfy one's essential needs.  Government propaganda debases society  because it is used as an excuse for everything from murderous wars of  aggression to oppressive economy killing taxation and regulation.  When a  business sells you something voluntarily you will only buy it if you  think the product is worth more than the price you have to pay for it.   When the government propagandizes you they are merely giving you excuses  to submit to their use of force which will be bearing down on you  whether you like it or not.  The two are very different and this film  does a disservice by confusing them.  That said, it's important to  understand the propagandists who serve to justify the crimes of the  state.  Selling someone a product they don't truly need hurts no one,  selling people on a war they don't need gets millions of people murdered  and destroys entire societies. - Chris, InformationLiberation

Happiness Machines
Part One
 

       
One: Happiness Machines

The story 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  manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could  make people want things they didn't need by systematically 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 eroticising the motorcar.

His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by  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 desires that his uncle  had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile.

It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate today's world.

See  Ludwig von Mises "The Noneconomic Objections to Capitalism" and "The  Argument of Happiness" to balance the propaganda in this section.

The Engineering of Consent
Part Two

       
Two: The Engineering of Consent

The programme explores how those in power in post-war America used  Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses.

Politicians and planners came to believe Freud's underlying premise -  that deep within all human beings were dangerous and irrational desires  and fears. They were convinced that it was the unleashing of these  instincts that had led to the barbarism of Nazi Germany. To stop it ever  happening again they set out to find ways to control this hidden enemy  within the human mind.

Sigmund Freud's daughter, Anna, and his nephew, Edward Bernays, provided  the centrepiece philosophy. The US government, big business, and the  CIA used their ideas to develop techniques to manage and control the  minds of the American people. But this was not a cynical exercise in  manipulation. Those in power believed that the only way to make  democracy work and create a stable society was to repress the savage  barbarism that lurked just under the surface of normal American life.

There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads:
He Must Be Destroyed
Part Three

       
Three: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed

In the 1960s, a radical group of psychotherapists challenged the  influence of Freudian ideas in America. They were inspired by the ideas  of Wilhelm Reich, a pupil of Freud's, who had turned against him and was  hated by the Freud family. He believed that the inner self did not need  to be repressed and controlled. It should be encouraged to express  itself.

Out of this came a political movement that sought to create new beings  free of the psychological conformity that had been implanted in people's  minds by business and politics.

This programme shows how this rapidly developed in America through  self-help movements like Werber Erhard's Erhard Seminar Training - into  the irresistible rise of the expressive self: the Me Generation.

But the American corporations soon realised that this new self was not a  threat but their greatest opportunity. It was in their interest to  encourage people to feel they were unique individuals and then sell them  ways to express that individuality. To do this they turned to  techniques developed by Freudian psychoanalysts to read the inner  desires of the new self.

Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering
Part Four

       
Four: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering

This episode explains how politicians on the left, in both Britain and  America, turned to the techniques developed by business to read and  fulfil the inner desires of the self.

Both New Labour, under Tony Blair, and the Democrats, led by Bill  Clinton, used the focus group, which had been invented by  psychoanalysts, in order to regain power. They set out to mould their  policies to people's inner desires and feelings, just as capitalism had  learnt to do with products.

Out of this grew a new culture of public relations and marketing in  politics, business and journalism. One of its stars in Britain was  Matthew Freud who followed in the footsteps of his relation, Edward  Bernays, the inventor of public relations in the 1920s.

The politicians believed they were creating a new and better form of  democracy, one that truly responded to the inner feelings of individual.  But what they didn't realise was that the aim of those who had  originally created these techniques had not been to liberate the people  but to develop a new way of controlling them.

 Other options to view the film:

1. Click here to watch it instantly in Real Media Format

2. Click here to get to Archive.org and download it for free

3. Download it directly from the following links, right click and choose "save as".  

The Century of the Self -- Part 1--Part 2--Part 3--Part 4
(right click, save as)

There are four parts.  Each part is around 160 MB.  The video is in MP4 format which requires VLC Media Player (http://www.videolan.org).

Media Lens critiques aspects of the film

The Unspoken Rule of Media Reporting: The BBC's The Century of the Self - Part 2 - Part 3

[Agya Kwaku]

What that movie speaks about is still in full effect.
Lyrics, Lil Wayne and corporate hypocrisy