The Century of the Self - Part 2 "The Engineering of Consent"

Learn the history of propaganda in America.
This four part series puts focus on propaganda and consumerism in Western society. An in-depth look into the minds of certain figures like Edward Bernays the self proclaimed "Wizard of Propaganda". Known today in the academic and political world as the "Father of Public Relations" which really is just a form of open propaganda. Bernays also just so happens to be the nephew of psycho analyst Sigmund Freud. Find how deep our history goes and how many lies have been piled on top of lies to keep the "Big Lie" alive.

Adam Curtis' acclaimed series examines the rise of the all-consuming self against the backdrop of the Freud dynasty.

To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?

Episode Two: The Engineering of Consent

The program explores how those in power in post-war America used Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses.

Politicians and planners came to believe Freud's underlying premise - that deep within all human beings were dangerous and irrational desires and fears. They were convinced that it was the unleashing of these instincts that had led to the barbarism of Nazi Germany. To stop it ever happening again they set out to find ways to control this hidden enemy within the human mind.

Sigmund Freud's daughter, Anna, and his nephew, Edward Bernays, provided the centerpiece philosophy. The US government, big business, and the CIA used their ideas to develop techniques to manage and control the minds of the American people. But this was not a cynical exercise in manipulation. Those in power believed that the only way to make democracy work and create a stable society was to repress the savage barbarism that lurked just under the surface of normal American life.

Episodes:

1. Happiness Machines
2. The Engineering of Consent
3. There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed
4. Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering

https://cosmolearning.org/documentaries/the-century-of-self-2002/2/