Ayn Rand - First Interview 1959 (Full)

Steve Kinney admin at pilobilus.net
Wed Apr 18 16:09:03 PDT 2018



On 04/18/2018 09:21 AM, John Newman wrote:
> 
> 
> On April 14, 2018 2:47:30 PM CDT, Steve Kinney <admin at pilobilus.net> wrote:
>>

>> Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ayn Rand.
>>
>> The propaganda poster to go with is on my to-do list...
>>
>> :o)
> 
> Lol ;). American and Western propaganda has tended to be
> more subtle than that of the good ol' Wolf, which is probably
> a bad thing - hard to say. Zero Dark Thirty has artistic merit
> but is pure propaganda garage, for instance. I think the fact
> that it's well made and not an obvious "Triumph of the Will" 
> has to make it more insidious.

I forget who to attribute this quote to:

"Aim low, they might be crawling."

When Bernays brought Freudian theory into the propaganda biz, the idea
was to bypass conscious thought processes by speaking directly to the
subconscious mind with primitive, elemental symbolism.  This was the
beginning of advertising as a science, or at least a technology of
psychological manipulation with a sound theoretical basis.

When tasked to sell more cigarettes to women, he found that the big
barrier to consumption was a social taboo against women smoking in
public. Bernays and his consultants decided that the cigarette was a
phallic symbol smoking in defiance of social convention could represent
women acquiring 'male' social dominance.

Bernays' "Torches Of Freedom" campaign linking smoking in public with
the Sufferagette image and was kicked off with a publicity stunt
featuring young, fashionable females boldly lighting up as an act of
public rebellion.  Thanks to Bernays' press contacts and stage
management skills, it cost nearly nothing to get newspaper coverage,
with photos, from coast to coast - and cigarette sales skyrocketed.

Edward Bernays:  Mass murderer or cultural hero?  Why not both!  I
hesitate to advise people to "live like him," but everyone should know
his name and more importantly, the persuasion strategies he introduced
to the field of Public Relations (his family-friendly name for
Propaganda).

I have only seen bits and pieces of 0 Dark 30, but it looked to me like
a rather mundane and naive sales pitch:  A long dreary argument that
/might/ reinforce already favorable opinions, or backfire by disgusting
the fence-sitters in the audience; not the kind of short, sharp shock
that can create or change attitudes and opinions per client
specifications.








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