Propa-Gate
- September 10, 2023
- By Josh Watterud
Words have meaning. Words have power. With the right words, a crowd will cheer and hug, or be incited to violence. What does it mean to propagate a belief? Your tongue possesses the power of life and death. But how is this power wielded? Can it be honed, directed, controlled? Whichever you focus on, life or death, you will partake in.
Propagate (v.) “set forward, extend, spread, increase; multiply plants by layers, breed.”
When you consider a term like “propagate”, what could such a concept be used for? Can you breed more than just plants animals and humans? What about spirits? Ideas? What would that look like?
In 1622 the office of “Propaganda Fide” was established in Rome by the Catholic Church.
The realities and practices of WW1 and 2 put a strongly negative stigma on the word. Therefore, the “Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith” changed the word “propaganda” to “evangelism”. This office is what began the process of developing what we know today as propaganda into somewhat of a science.
Re-invention
In 1891 a child was born in Austria who, raised in New York, would grow up to become a journalist. Before too long he would play a key role in developing this method of the propagation of ideas further into something we see all around us today. This child was Edward Bernays, “the father of spin” and one of the founders of Public Relations. Edward Bernays was the nephew of Sigmund Freud, the man who created psychoanalysis and made known the theory of the subconscious.
Bernays was hired to the Creel Commission, or Committee on Public Information (CPI) by the US government in World War 1. The Purpose of the CPI was to generate public support for America’s ambitions at war. After returning to private life, he realized that the things he learned on this committee could be used during peace time to help drive business and steer society through what he called “the engineering of consent.”
Bernays postulated that, when kings lost their rule, the masses swore to become king. As a reaction, small groups of people found something that wielded them great power and influence. It is inevitable that few will rise to the top and the masses will fall in line IF the few learn how to use what he calls “the executive arm of the invisible government”. (Propaganda; Bernays, 1928: 47,48)
Govern-ment
Here is a good time to take a short break from the subject matter and go over some brief etymology. Have you ever thought of the word Government? Where does the term come from and why do we use this word in our every day conversation?
The definition of the world today is something like the “act of governing or ruling” but things get interesting once you begin to pick the word apart. There are two root words which make up the concept of the word we use today. First is “govern” meaning “to rule with authority” the second word is “mentalis” which is where we get the word mind or mental from.
Anecdotal Practice
With all of that being said, Bernays did indeed come across something interesting and effective. One star dancer got a bob haircut and millions of women across the country wanted to follow suit. This caused a huge problem in industrial society. Short hair means less demand for hair pins, combs, and hair nets. Venida, and other hair net, pin, and comb manufacturing companies had already invested heavily in machinery and materials to produce these products. They likely had a surplus of product already made in anticipation for their sales trajectories. This upheaval caused massive panic as the industry was in danger of collapse.
Upon hiring him to save them from this seeming inevitable doom, Bernays acted quickly to arrange for safety experts to go into detail warning exactly what could happen if your hair gets caught in a machine. He brought health experts forward to parlay the horrific possibilities of contaminations that could take place if hairnets were not used. This powerful and robust campaign resulted in a handful of states passing legislation which, in turn, secured these companies’ position in society.
All American Breakfast
Companies that hired Bernays have also changed the American way of life and what we choose to like.
The Imperial Packing Company (renamed to Beech-Nut Packing Company) sold a wide variety of products, but their main one was pork. American’s natural tendency was to only eat what they needed back then. Therefore, if they were not working heavy labor-intensive jobs, they would typically start the day off with small breakfasts.
Beech-Nut hired Bernays to help them sell more pork, so he contacted doctors. He got word back that many of them support the idea that a gluttonous… -{hold on, Americans don’t react positively to that word. Let’s use another one}- a.. large or “hearty” breakfast may increase health. “4,500 physicians urge Americans to eat heavy breakfasts to improve their health.” So read the resulting headline. This created a social trend across the country that is still largely in effect today. As is diabetes, high cholesterol, and heart disease. All of which the medical industry benefits from. So, everyone wins! Well, except the buyer, but as Mike Pence says, “it’s not my concern“.
Uranium: A Superfood
So Predicts Dr. C. Everett Field, Director of Institute in West 70th Street.
SUCCESS SEEN IN TESTS
Radioactive treatment Already Adds Full Decade to the Human Span.”
In his book Crystallizing Public Opinion, Bernays points out that the United states Radium Corporation founded the First National Radium Bank “in order to create and crystallize the impression that radium is and should be available to all physicians who treat cancer sufferers.” (Bernays, 1923: 46)
The United States Radium Corp was most known for lawsuits over an incident where their workers known as the Radium Girls were instructed to lick the paint brushes in order to do a more detailed job as they spread glow in the dark paint onto watches and other things. Unbeknown to the ladies, this paint was so radioactive that Geiger counters can still detect the radiation at their graves today! These women died of a slew of diseases from the exposure. Including cancer, especially bone cancer, for which they pushed the material as medical treatment. The methods of propaganda used were so effective that we still use Radium in cancer treatment today.
B.A.N.A.N.A.S.
Then there was the infamous United Fruit Company. This company went above and beyond. Not only to increase banana sales, but also in order to prevent an uprising, they pitted their employees against each other. Oh yeah, they also owned multiple Central American countries.
United Fruit would sow racial politics into the workplace where they had a mix of different ethnic groups pointing out differences between Hispanics and West Indians. They would provide privileges and punishments to specific ethnic groups and say that they worked harder even if it wasn’t true.
The story of the United Fruit company is riveting for many reasons as it is the story of a private American corporation attempting to replace multiple growing governments. However, the most notable part of the story in relation to Bernays and the mystical powers of communication is as follows:
Jacabo Arbenz (president of Guatemala) saw that this company had been buying up a lot of land in their country which had very little to spare. They bought out farmers and built plantations on what was once their land. Now the common people had nothing to live on.
Pawns of Governments and Corporations
In response, Arbenz initiated an “agrarian reform” in order to take agricultural land from the company and give it back to the… less financially fortunate farmers.
This was unacceptable for United Fruit. They stole that land fair and square. So, they hired Bernay’s team to launch add campaigns claiming that Arbenz was a communist dictator trying to attack the US economy. One New York Times article allegedly said, “operating under increasingly sever Communist-inspired pressure to rid the country of United States companies” 1953. This was during the Cold War, mind you.
The men working at the great CIA went along with Bernays’ propaganda. In fact they hired “civilian militias” paramilitary from Honduras to invade Guatemala starting a hot war against the president. But they didn’t stop there. The CIA mislead President Eisenhower who threatened Arbenz. Fearing assassination, Arbenz stepped down from presidency.
This is only one of the many skeletons in this company’s basement. The monopoly that made United Fruit Company was forced to disperse later. However most of those companies have merged again and are behaving the same way with better technology. The two biggest of these companies is Chiquita and Fyffes….
And the power of speech was given to him, speaking loud and blasphemous things, and authority was given to him to do miracles during forty-two months, and his mouth opened in blasphemies to god to revile His name and His Tabernacle, those who live in his tabernacle in heaven. ~Revelation 13:6 (One New Man Bible)
To Be Continued…
For a list of links used in this post, click here.