Page 114 - Dragon Flood

a trifling fraction... who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the
masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social
forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.

It is not usually realized how necessary these invisible governors are to the orderly
functioning of our group life. In theory, every citizen may vote for whom he pleases...

In theory, every citizen makes up his own mind on public questions and matters of private
conduct. In practice, if all men had to study for themselves the abstruse economic,
political, and ethical data involved in every question, they would find it impossible to
come to a conclusion about anything. We have voluntarily agreed to let an invisible
government sift the data and high-spot the outstanding issue so that our field of choice is
narrowed to practical proportions. From our leaders and the media they use to reach the
public, we accept the evidence and the demarcation of issues bearing upon public
question...

Bernays was very much in agreement with Manly Hall’s premise that the ideal government
was one of philosopher kings, a group of elite men who had the wisdom and understanding
to govern. Just one page over from where the preceding quote was taken, Bernays states the
following.

It might be better to have, instead of propaganda and special pleading, committees of
wise men who would choose our rulers, dictate our conduct, private and public, and
decide upon the best types of clothes for us to wear and the best kinds of food for us to eat.
But we have chosen the opposite method, that of open competition.
[Source: Ibid]

Perhaps you are appalled, as I am, at the hubris of such statements. Bernays is not being
insincere. He is setting forth what he believes to be a reasonable conclusion. Edward
Bernays believed that the mass of men would be better off to have an elite group of “wise
men” to dictate their conduct, both private and public. Bernays would certainly have
considered himself to be among that cabal of wise men. He believed that he understood the
group mind, as well as the dangers of granting the rabble any power to direct societal and
world events.

I have come to understand that this is actually the mindset of a global elite who exist at this
time, wealthy men and women of privilege who control world commerce, finance, and
politics, and constitute an unseen government that guides the affairs of nations. These
people sincerely believe that they are divinely appointed, and uniquely qualified, to make
decisions for all of mankind.

It has always been necessary for a ruling elite to control public opinion. Bernays in the book
Propaganda states:

Governments, whether they are monarchical, constitutional, democratic or communist,
depend upon acquiescent public opinion for the success of their efforts and, in fact,
government is government only by virtue of public acquiescence.