And Just When You Thought....

...Propaganda doesn't happen in the USA...

Allow me to introduce Edward Bernays.

AKA "The Father of PR," "The Father of Spin"

Edward Bernays is the nephew of another promoter of despicable ideas, Sigmund Freud. If you have ever heard of the "Herd Mentality" or "Crowd Psychology," you should definitely read up on him.

Life Magazine named him "one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century," and we have him to thank for many of the tactics used in the advertising, politics, and marketing of today's world. Bernays was a huge promoter of propaganda and the use of the subconscious as a means to manipulate public opinion, and even wrote a book entitled "The Manufacturing of Consent." Oh yeah, and one entitled simply "Propaganda."

If you think that he couldn't possibly influence anyone in high places, realize that he worked hand in hand with many large companies and leaders.

 After all, he himself stated:

"If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway."

Perhaps you feel that his tactics were benign in intent...you are of course, entitled to your opinion, but I for one find it insulting. I know, shame on me.

Here are some other quotes from the friend and adviser to the American Tobacco Company, Procter & Gamble, The American Dental Association, Chiquita Brands International, Cartier Inc. Best Foods, CBS

Cartier SA

, General Electric, Dodge Motors, and the fluoridationists of the Public Health Service. In fact, he's even the reason that bacon and eggs became a popular breakfast...

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society." Edward Bernays

"If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it." Edward Bernays

"It is not necessary for the politician to be the slave to the public's group prejudices, if he can learn how to mold the mind of the voters in conformity with his own ideas of public welfare and public service. The important thing for the statesman of our age is not so much to know how to please the public, but know how to sway the public." Edward Bernays

And there is this creepy admission:

"In the ethical sense, propaganda bears the same relation to education as to business or politics. It may be abused. It may be used to over-advertise an institution and to create in the public mind artificial values. There can be no absolute guarantee against its misuse." Edward Bernays

"Artificial values"...what is he talking about??? Any ideas? But it was okay to create his "values" in the public mind, right?

Just one example of modern propaganda would be the "Obey" campaign by Shepard Fairey. 

Shepard Fairey's website even calls it propaganda, and claims that it has been "Manufacturing Quality Dissent since 1989." Ironic...wouldn't it actually be more accurate to say that they were Manufacturing Assent? How exactly are they manufacturing dissent, and calling it propaganda at the same time? After all, don't they want people to buy their clothes? Notice that this is also a play on words of Bernays' book "Manufacturing of Consent." 

Propaganda definitions: 

"Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist."

(Garth Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, Propaganda and Persuasion, 4th ed. Sage Publications, p. 7)

"Propaganda is neutrally defined as a systematic form of purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of specified target audiences for ideological, political or commercial purposes through the controlled transmission of one-sided messages (which may or may not be factual) via mass and direct media channels. A propaganda organization employs propagandists who engage in propagandism—the applied creation and distribution of such forms of persuasion."

(Richard Alan Nelson, A Chronology and Glossary of Propaganda in the United States (1996) pp. 232-233)

Wikipedia states that "Propaganda is generally an appeal to emotion, not intellect. It shares techniques with advertising and public relations, each of which can be thought of as propaganda that promotes a commercial product or shapes the perception of an organization, person, or brand."

The Saks 5th Ave. new Spring Ad Campaign "empowers" women buy urging them to buy ridiculously expensive purses...

...and demands that you "Want It."

There is a documentary put out by the BBC called "The Century of the Self" concerning this very topic that may interest you if you would like to learn more. You can watch it free in its entirety here or here. Keep in mind that it is not for the faint of heart...

How about you? Do you feel like you have been or are being "persuaded" or "manipulated" into giving consent in your everyday life? Remember, Ivan Pavlov proved that a reward system can be quite powerful...whether the reward is real or imaginary. Are you reacting, or thinking?

And just when you thought....

....therefore you were....

 Meditations by Rene Descartes

Rene Descartes did not just arbitrarily come up with the phrase "I think, therefore I am." Or for you Latin buffs "cogito ergo sum."  
Many people, however, may not realize the lengths to which Descartes went in order to arrive at this assertion. You may be quite amazed at his process...

 --  Although he believes in creation himself, he wants to prove to others that God and the soul exist, and to do so he starts from the complete opposite end - think of it as a kind of process of elimination...but backwards. Descartes first has to prove that he himself exists, in some form. He is attempting to honestly and truly approach the problem, and establish first what it is that he can be certain of. --

Meditation I: Establish the things that are in doubt. The question of Perception...what can be proven as "real." In effect, nothing except the mind. 

• The senses are deceiving. We may have all been tricked by our senses.
• We may be dreaming. In a dream, we have no way of knowing that we are dreaming until we awake. Is it not plausible then that we are in an elaborate dream, but we merely think that we are awake?

  ---Question: If everything is doubtful to exist, and we may be in a state of deception, is God so deceiving that he would trick us into believing that things are real when they are not?

  ---Answer: God is all good by definition, then it cannot be He that is deceiving us.

Therefore it must be an evil demon possessing us all, and convincing us that this is real. 

"I will suppose, then ...that some malignant demon, who is at once exceedingly potent and deceitful, has employed all his artifice to deceive me; I will suppose that...all external things, are nothing better than the illusions of dreams, by means of which this being has laid snares for my credulity; I will consider myself as without hands, eyes, flesh, blood, or any of the senses, and as falsely believing that I am possessed of these; I will continue resolutely fixed in this belief, and if indeed by this means it be not in my power to arrive at the knowledge of truth, I shall at least do what is in my power, and guard with settled purpose against giving my assent to what is false, and being imposed upon by this deceiver, whatever be his power and artifice."

This really freaks him out...the next part sounds somewhat like "The Matrix."

"...this undertaking is arduous, and a certain indolence insensibly leads me back to my ordinary course of life; and just as the captive, who, perchance, was enjoying in his dreams an imaginary liberty, when he begins to suspect that it is but a vision, dreads awakening, and conspires with the agreeable illusions that the deception may be prolonged."

He's wondering if he should have taken the blue pill, but continues the next day.

Meditation II: Descartes realizes that all things are perceived in effect through the mind. In other words, despite all else, he is established as a thinking entity. He cannot be convinced, persuaded or deceived that he does or does not exist, without existing in the first place.

"I had the persuasion that there was absolutely nothing in the world, that there was no sky and no earth, neither minds nor bodies; was I not, therefore, at the same time, persuaded that I did not exist? Far from it; I assuredly existed, since I was persuaded. But there is I know not what being, who is possessed at once of the highest power and the deepest cunning, who is constantly employing all his ingenuity in deceiving me. Doubtless, then, I exist, since I am deceived; and, let him deceive me as he may, he can never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I shall be conscious that I am something. So that it must, in fine, be maintained, all things being maturely and carefully considered, that this proposition I am, I exist, is necessarily true each time it is expressed by me, or conceived in my mind."

Then he shows that we know more of the mind than we do the body...

       "...there is nothing more easily or clearly apprehended than my own mind...I am a thinking (conscious) thing, that is, a being who doubts, affirms, denies, knows a few objects, and is ignorant of many,-- [who loves, hates], wills, refuses, who imagines likewise, and perceives; for, as I before remarked, although the things which I perceive or imagine are perhaps Nothing at all apart from me [and in themselves], I am nevertheless assured that those modes of consciousness which I call perceptions and imaginations, in as far only as they are modes of consciousness, exist in me."

This is how Descartes comes to the conclusion that has become legendary, "I think, therefore I am." He goes on with four more Meditations after this, and I invite you to read them if you liked this sample.
Rene Descartes really has a way with words...and thoughts.

Source: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/descartes/meditations/meditations.html

And just when you thought.....

....Your parents had issues...

Those of you who feel like you were neglected or that your parents didn't pay you enough attention as a child, and those who are constantly getting hell for playing video games from your friends or said guardians....this one's for you. All you need to do is to 1. Remind yourself that your parents were (most likely) never as bad as these, and 2. Point this out to any gaming naysayers and tell them "At least I'm not that bad."
After all, there is a vast difference between a healthy escape from reality, and an abandonment of reality altogether for an addiction to another non-existent world.

Cases in point:
(These are only two examples, but unfortunately there are plenty more if you so wish to find them.)
March 3, 2010 - A couple in Korea is arrested for child neglect due to their online gaming. Their 3 month old baby starves to death while they are out all night at an internet cafe playing a virtual world game called "PRIUS" for 12 hours. The darkest irony of this story is that the couple was faithfully raising a "virtual daughter" in the game, while their real daughter was dying of starvation and malnutrition.
This past Friday - A woman has been charged with the death of her 13 month old seizure-prone son. Apparently she left her child in the bathtub by himself and he drowned as a consequence. Why did she leave him alone in the bath? To be in the more important world of Facebook.

The main point  - - When simulacra takes over a person's life, it can be a dangerous illusion to maintain, to say the very least.
This leads one to wonder, why does everyone (including yours truly) ultimately need some form of reality escape in the first place?

Important Note: While some would erroneously call this "gaming addiction," I would call this "illusion addiction." Or even more palatable, "Simulacrum Addiction."
Also of import: These "gaming" examples are made public because it is socially acceptable to point out, or demonize even, this particular form of simulacrum addiction. The world of gaming is obviously not the only form of simulacra that has the ability to cause people to be so absorbed that they disregard their everyday responsibilities and reality...

Sources: http://abcnews.go.com/International/TheLaw/baby-death-alleged-result-parents-online-games-addiction/story?id=10007040

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41079606/ns/us_news

                          This is not a pipe.                               Rene Magritte 1928