I wish to point out something painfully apparent, something swirling all about us but to which all seem oblivious. It is this: Campaign rhetoric does not translate into public policy. During election cycles politicians hire public relations and advertising firms, and these are the ones who craft the talking points. They poll, research attitudes, use focus groups and psychology. But none of this is done with any notion that the result might be a new law or citizen initiative. As soon as the election is over, it all vaporizes.
Advertising, to be cost-effective, cannot dwell on individual traits. Rather, it must focus on groups. Let’s go back to Edward Bernays and his book on advertising, “Propaganda” (about advertising, and not what we now call propaganda, an offshoot. The word “propaganda in his time was not tainted as it is now.):
The systematic study of mass psychology revealed to students the potentialities of invisible manipulation of motives which actuate man in the group. Trotter* and Le Bon**, who approached the subject in a scientific manner, and Graham Wallas***, Walter Lippmann****, and others who continued with searching study of the group mind, established that the group has mental characteristics distinct from those of the individual, and is motivated by impulses and emotions which cannot be explained on the basis of what we know of individual psychology. So the question naturally arose: If we understood the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it?[Footnotes are mine.]
It’s the group, baby. Just the group. That’s all that matters – move groups into voting blocs.
The ad agencies are looking for ways to group us so that their ads are effective. So recently Steve Bullock put up a YouTube regarding Citizens United, aimed at Montana progressives. He needs that wing of the party to win, even though he will ignore it once elected. In the same manner, when you hear that candidates are going after “soccer Moms” and “NASCAR dads,” a similar process has taken place.
This general principle that men are very largely actuated by motives which they conceal from themselves is as true of mass as of individual psychology. It is evident that the successful propagandist must understand the true motives and not be content to accept the reasons that men give for what they do.
I notice this in my readings and even in travel around the blogs – most political “opinions” are planted in people by means of group psychology. People have not thought these matters through, even though they swear, when cornered, that each belief is the result of painstaking research. Where do they get their opinions, then?
No serious sociologist any longer believes that the voice of the people expresses any divine or specially wise and lofty idea. The voice of the people expresses the mind of the people, and that mind is made up for it by group leaders in who it believes and by those persons who understand the manipulation of public opinion. It is composed of inherited prejudices and symbols and clichés and verbal formulas supplied to them by the leaders.
Again, advertising rules.
Political campaigns today are all side shows, all honors, all bombast, glitter and speeches. These are for the most part unrelated to the main business of studying the public scientifically, or supplying the public with party, candidate, platform and performance, and selling the public these ideas and practices.
His book was published in 1928.
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* Wilfred Trotter (1872-1939) studied social psychology, developed the concept of the herd instinct.
**Gustav LeBon, (1841-1931), a French social psychologist and sociologist, expounded theories of herd behavior and crowd psychology.
*** Wallas (1858-1932) studied classic nature vs nurture during the time of Freud
**** Lippmann (1889-1974) wrote “Public Opinion” in 1922, asserting that voters were largely ignorant and lacked the competence to participate in public life. He relied instead on the “governing class”, relegating the role of journalism to the management of public opinion in such a manner that does not interfere with actual governance.
Piece of Mindful 