Summary Of Edward Bernays 'Propaganda'

In his writing on “Propaganda” Edward Bernays redefines the term propaganda in attempts to get western society to think of it as not only something that is positive but also as a necessity to maintain a functioning democratic society. Bernays argues that propaganda is needed as a base of a functioning society. His argument lies in his belief that when people get together in large groups, they are unruly, undisciplined, and unable to make rational decisions, as they are more prone to acting on emotion rather than reason. As an alternative, to avoid the chaos of having each member of society voice their opinion on social or political issues, Bernays suggests having a set of institutions of practices that serve to regulate these crowds so they can behave within the framework of a democracy. Bernays advises on a system where experts develop systems within a democratic society to communicate the correct responses individuals should have on various issues.
What needs to be problematized from this way of thinking is not only it’s objective to control the public mind but also the fact that it ostracizes the notion of self-expression within a democratic society. The key should then be encouraging education and creating more dialogue about individuals doing more research on current issues from different sources, to be able to formulate their own ideas about these issues. By accepting the filtered information that is fed to us by the fourth estate, we are creating and information void and into that void comes propaganda. To move away from being a propagandized “democratic” society as suggested by Berynay we must begin to question everything we see or read for the rest of our lives, as essentially asking questions is the antidote to