Controlling the Masses

2. For both (or either) Adam Curtis and Sigmund Freud, can we be trusted to take care of ourselves?

Can we be trusted to take care of ourselves? Of course we can! We do it on a daily basis. Most people do a fine job of not only taking care of themselves, but also taking care of others. This would be a common answer among most to such a question. But how much control do we really have?

Sigmund Freud appears to have had very upfront opinions about human beings. It is my opinion after reading Civilization and its Discontents that Freud was rather sinister in the sense that when discussing people, he seemed negative and pessimistic. It appears as though this sort of outlook was common in the family however. After watching Century of the Self by Adam Curtis, we learn about Freud’s nephew Edward Bernays. The man who singlehandedly developed a way to create consumerism, all the while calling anyone that fell into his trap stupid. Between the two of them, it becomes evident that both have very strong opinions about human beings and feel that we cannot be trusted to take care of ourselves. Right in the first twenty seconds of the film, Curtis states what Freud believed; that because of the sexual and aggressive forces deep within humans, we need to be controlled. If not, chaos and destruction would soon ensue. This idea has since been used by people in power to attempt to control groups of people. One of first people to use this theory was Bernays. He took what Freud thought and then used it to control American citizens and get them to buy unnecessary products.

Keeping this in mind then, let’s return to one of my original questions: How much control do we really have? After watching Century of the Self I no longer feel confident answering such a question. I believe that thanks to Freud and Bernays we are being so easily controlled; but not only are we just being controlled, we are being controlled well because many of us don’t even realize what is going on.

Side note: Wouldn't it be interesting, if Bernays was still alive today, to hear what he think of the mess he created (mass consumerism, debt, etc)? I think so.