Recommendation "The Century of the Self"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Shannon McElyea <shannonm () gmail com>
Date: March 18, 2009 11:20:30 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>, Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com 
>, "Robert J. Berger" <rberger () ibd com>, Michael J Kleeman <mkleeman () UCSD edu 
>
Subject: Recommendation "The Century of the Self"


Although this is an award winning BBC documentary from 2002, it sheds  
light on how the financial crises today, as well as the great  
depression in the 30's, came about.
it starts with Edward Bernays, the father of public relations and the  
nephew of Sigmund Freud, who has discovered new ways to use psychology  
to manipulate the masses, in peacetime vs. wartime.

You can also find this on YouTube in 4 parts.


  "The Century of the Self"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self

it's quite amazing and sheds light on the current financial crises and  
political climate.
"...
Along these general themes, The Century of the Self asks deeper  
questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism,  
representative democracy and its implications. It also questions the  
modern way we see ourselves, the attitude to fashion and superficiality.
The business and, increasingly, the political world uses PR to read  
and fulfill our desires, to make their products or speeches as  
pleasing as possible to us. Curtis raises the question of the  
intentions and roots of this fact. Where once the political process  
was about engaging people's rational, conscious minds, as well as  
facilitating their needs as a society, the documentary shows how by  
employing the tactics of psychoanalysis, politicians appeal to  
irrational, primitive impulses that have little apparent bearing on  
issues outside of the narrow self-interest of a consumer population.  
He cites Paul Mazer, a Wall Street banker working for Lehman Brothers  
in the 1930s, as saying "We must shift America from a needs- to a  
desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things,  
even before the old have been entirely consumed. [...] Man's desires  
must overshadow his needs."
..."




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