The Engineering of Consent
Continuing from Part I, the central theme of Adam Curtis‘ excellent BBC series is how the theories of Sigmund Freud have been appropriated by governments (propaganda) and business (marketing and ‘public relations’) to influence and control the behaviour of large groups of people.
Part II focuses on Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund. Anna Freud believed that people were fundamentally irrational, but that these irrational desires could be suppressed, controlled and managed. This perspective surged in popularity in the US during the inter-war period. Psychoanalysts such as Edward Bernays took this notion further, and propagated the view that democracy itself could only flourish as long as an Elite managed the irrational desires of the masses on their behalf.
The story of Guatemala, United Fruit, and an orchestrated coup d’état is invoked to graphically and chillingly illustrate this theory being put into practice.
Other highlights here are a succinctly brilliant speech by Arthur Miller, and an awesome piece of archive footage featuring Martin Luther King.
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