Public Relations, Freud and evil
The Century Of Self Part 1 (of 4) 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.
The American (2010) – IMDb (PS Hollis Henry)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1440728/
Looking forward to this movie. Love Corbijn’s Control and his photos. He took one of Hollis Henry!
Can’t find it in this search though
PS
Poems Read by Ted Hughes
I listened to that poem in the previous post, over and over. I got to like it. I had a tape, on my pre-ipod walkman. I must find it and put it on my phone.
By Heart: 101 Poems to Remember – Ted Hughes
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
That line would resonate well as I listened while walking deep in the New Zealand bush.
Picking up quite late in life what I imagine American kids learn at school.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening – Robert Frost
Poetry
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
Been posting more poetry. It may be not so much the poems as the way they are snapshots of my education.
Those lines remind me of a teacher at Port Hacking High who taught us that poem over weeks, explaining the theme, and also every confusing (to me then) line. I learnt what alliteration meant from that verse.
I was, like the wedding guest, grabbed by the poem. It was great to have that bit of deep work done as a teenager, later I enjoyed learning about the Romantics as a movement. But I needed that base. In fact I am sorry there was not more of a basis. My early education was so disrupted and really badly done, I am envious of people who are more fully steeped in the culture.
Perhaps there are positives. The nationalistic and sentimental enculturation I did get (see here) was not so deep that I can’t easily go beyond Australian art, and enjoy, say Robert Frost. (coming up).
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Kubla Khan
Great little portraits
Wonderful use of the tools by Eric Molinsky New York
Thursday, October 21, 2010 R Train.
