The Big Lie Technique in Action

From the Ramparts

Junious Ricardo Stanton

The Big Lie Technique In Action

            “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”-  Joseph Goebbels Head of Nazi Propaganda

            We are witnessing the application of tried and true propaganda techniques espoused by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbles who studied and applied the mind control tactics of US PR and advertising guru Edward Bernays. Bernays was the nephew of Sigmund Freud and he applied many of his uncle’s ideas about the unconscious with the crowd psychology theories of Wilford Trotter and Gustove LeBon to develop a successful advertising, PR and propaganda career.

            Bernays, like Goebbles, was about manipulating the masses, getting them to do what he and his clients such as cigarette companies and the US government wanted them to do, unbeknownst to the people.  In order to accomplish this, Bernays developed techniques to influence people on the subconscious level. He believed it was imperative for the masses to be manipulated and controlled by a certain segment of society. He wrote, “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind…”

http://theconversation.com/the-manipulation-of-the-american-mind-edward-bernays-and-the-birth-of-public-relations-44393 

Bernays used the term “democratic society” despite the fact what he was espousing is the exact opposite of “democracy”.

            As a writer, Bernays was successful at getting the public to go along with Woodrow Wilson’s entry into WWI. Afterwards he surmised those same techniques could be used to sell products as well. Of course his advertising campaigns for products like cigarettes, soap and appliances involved telling lies and creating perceptions that were not true or real.

            In 1920 Joseph Goebbles discovered Bernays and became a fan despite the fact Bernays was Jewish. When Hitler came to power through deception and subterfuge (The Reichstag Fire, and the lie Poland attacked Germany), Goebbles, as Hitler’s head of propaganda employed Bernays’ techniques, tactics and strategies to create a fanatical imperialist movement with mindless obedience to its leader.

            Today Bernays’ attitudes about controlling the masses, his techniques and tactics are pervasive. They are all around us, we are bombarded with them twenty four hours a day! The ruling class were Bernays’ primary clients and they keep his legacy of lies, publicity stunts, contrived fake events and perception management alive and thriving today. Remember, Bernays was about mass manipulation in order to control people’s minds, their worldview and behavior! Do you see any similarities in today’s current events?

            Here are several examples of how Bernays’ and Goebbles techniques have been applied in recent years. In 1990 the Washington D.C. PR firm Hill and Knowlton created a multi-million dollar propaganda campaign to convince the world Saddam Hussein was an evil man to justify the first Gulf War, despite the fact prior to his invasion of Kuwait he was a US ally! They created a front group called Citizens for A Free Kuwait, to spread lies about alleged rapes and Iraqi soldiers killing Kuwaiti infants. Hill and Knowlton even staged a bogus hearing on Capital Hill to simulate a Congressional Hearing where the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador posed as a witness to atrocities committed by Iraqi soldiers. The corporate media covered and promoted the fake Hearing using them to create Anti-Iraq sentiment. (Read Weapons of Mass Deception The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq by Sheldon Rampton nd John Stauber).

            On September 11, 2001, the corporate media broadcast round the clock pictures of smoldering, collapsing twin towers with the caption America Under Attack. These images, the screen captions and constant rhetoric prepared our psyches for the first leg of their bogus War on Terror the US invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001. This invasion was planned many months before 9-11 against a country that neither attacked the US nor had anything to do with 9-11!

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2001/11/afgh-n20.html

            President Bu$h demanded the Taliban turn Osama bin-Laden over to the US. The Taliban asked, as any reasonable person or group would, for evidence proving Osama bin-Laden was responsible for 9-11 (They knew a man living in a cave in Afghanistan could not have pulled off such an attack!). Bu$h told them we don’t have to give you any evidence, proceeded to launch the invasion, and told us, “You are either with us or with the enemy.”

             The corporate media uncritically echoed the charges against bin-Laden although no evidence has ever been produced to prove he was the culprit. In fact the FBI’s own Website doesn’t mention him in connection with 9-11!!! Nevertheless we have been at war around the world for sixteen years over bogus propaganda and lies!

            There are more recent examples but let these marinate, I’m sure you will come up with more on your own (hint, the Russia Did It narrative). Don’t believe the hype and don’t fall for the Big Lie.

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