«Как был потерян Запад»: четыре механизма, по которым, по версии автора, демонтируется западное общество

How The West Was Lost

Источник: https://tommytrouble.substack.com/p/how-the-west-was-lost

Introduction The American West has long been romanticized as a symbol of freedom, opportunity, and rugged individualism. The phrase “How the West Was Won” evokes images of pioneers conquering frontiers, taming wilderness, and building a nation through determination and grit (and genocide most unfortunately). Yet today, many wonder if the cultural West is being lost—not through military defeat, but through more insidious means that are eroding the very foundations of Western civilization.

This article explores the many wounds causing the decline of Western society through four critical lenses: financial control through foreign-owned central banking, the deliberate degradation of education systems, the manipulation of public consciousness through media control, and the corruption of political leadership through blackmail and influence peddling. These interconnected forces have gradually transformed societies that once prized liberty and individual sovereignty into populations increasingly controlled by unseen hands.

The loss has been a gradual process spanning more than a century and appears to be accelerating to breakneck speeds. Like the metaphorical frog in slowly heating water, Western populations have largely failed to recognize slow burn of their diminishing freedoms until those freedoms became mere shadows of their former selves. Understanding how this occurred is essential for anyone seeking to reverse course and reclaim the promise of what the West once represented.

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Foreign-Owned Central Banking: The Foundation of Control The story of how the West was lost begins not with armies or overt conquest, but with the quiet, subversive takeover of monetary systems. The establishment of central banking systems across Western nations represented perhaps the most significant transfer of power from elected governments to private interests in modern history. That is to assume elected officials ever had power.

In the United States, this process culminated with the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913—a privately-owned central bank masquerading as a federal institution. Despite its name, the Federal Reserve is no more “federal” than Federal Express. It is owned by private banking interests, with significant foreign ownership dating back to its founding. The Rothschild banking dynasty, with its centuries-long history of financing both sides of conflicts and manipulating markets from behind the scenes, played a crucial role in establishing this system of financial control.

The Warburg family, particularly Paul Warburg who immigrated to America from Germany, was instrumental in designing the Federal Reserve’s structure. Warburg, representing European banking interests, helped craft a system that would concentrate monetary power in the hands of a few private bankers rather than elected representatives. This allowed banking families like the Rothschilds and Warburgs to exert enormous influence over Western economies without any democratic accountability.

The mechanism of control is elegantly simple yet devastatingly effective: fiat currency. Unlike commodity-based money (such as gold or silver), fiat currency has no intrinsic value and derives its worth solely from government decree and public confidence. More importantly, it can be created out of thin air by central banks, allowing them to expand or contract the money supply at will. So how does such a Ponzi system survive without collapsing? Constant global subjugation of resource rich nation states through abject militarism.

This power to create money gives central bankers the ability to engineer economic cycles—ostensibly “Magick”. By expanding the money supply, they create artificial booms that encourage borrowing and spending. By contracting it, they trigger recessions that allow them to acquire assets at depressed prices. Each cycle transfers wealth from ordinary citizens to those with access to cheap money and advance knowledge of monetary policy changes. The bill for such behavior rolls down the pyramid of power where we pay it through inflation and endless labor.

The consequences of this system have been profound. The U.S. dollar has lost more than 97% of its purchasing power since the Federal Reserve’s creation. This invisible tax affects everyone, but particularly harms the poor and middle class who lack the financial sophistication to protect themselves from currency debasement, more about that in a later post. Meanwhile, those connected to the banking system benefit from first access to newly created money before its inflationary effects ripple through the economy. An anointed class.

Central banking has also enabled perpetual warfare by allowing governments to finance military operations through money creation rather than direct taxation. This has led to a century of constant conflict, with Western nations engaged in wars that serve banking interests rather than national security. The ability to create money without limit removes the natural constraint on government spending, leading to ever-expanding state power and corresponding erosion of civil liberties. But this practice severely erodes the public trust and creates despair around the world and at home.

Perhaps most insidiously, this financial control has created a debtor society. Western nations now operate under unsustainable debt loads, with governments, corporations, and individuals all trapped in a system that requires constant borrowing to function. This debt-based economy gives creditors enormous leverage over debtors, effectively turning entire nations into vassal states of banking interests.

The international dimension of this control cannot be overstated. Institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank extend this system globally, using debt as a tool to force policy decisions on sovereign nations. Countries that resist Western financial hegemony often find themselves targeted for regime change, economic sanctions, or military intervention. Iran is the most recent example of this policy but looking through history one notices a pattern. That all of the nations that ended up under American and allied bombers were those who resisted this foreign financial control. Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, and Libya among others. If you would like to learn more about this then I recommend the book “A History of Central Banking and the Enslavement of Mankind” by Stephen Mitford Goodson. Some absolute angel turned it into a YouTube video with photos, charts, and graphs.

The loss of monetary sovereignty represents perhaps the most fundamental loss of the West. Without control over their own currency, nations cannot truly control their destiny. The foreign ownership of central banks means that decisions about Western economies are made not in the interests of citizens but in service to a global financial elite whose loyalties transcend national boundaries.

If the citizens of the world don’t immediately wake up to this, then the time for resistance will have passed. The digital framework of this brave new world is being hurriedly constructed and ironically with the taxed labor of the people it will subjugate.

Defunct Education: The Dumbing Down of Western Minds If financial control represents the foundation of Western subjugation, the deliberate degradation of education systems has been the mechanism by which this control has been maintained and expanded. An educated population is the greatest threat to authoritarian control, which is why those seeking to dominate Western societies have systematically dismantled effective education.

The decline began in earnest in the early 20th century when industrialists and banking interests recognized that independent thinking threatened their control over the economy. John D. Rockefeller’s General Education Board, established in 1902, explicitly aimed to reshape education to produce compliant workers rather than critical thinkers. As Frederick T. Gates, Rockefeller’s advisor, stated: “In our dreams, we have limitless resources and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hand.”

Or as late, great comedian George Carlin put it

“Governments don’t want a population capable of critical thinking, they want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.”

The transformation of teaching from a respected profession to a low-wage job has been central to this project. By keeping teacher salaries artificially low, education systems struggle to attract and retain the most capable minds. Talented individuals who might have become exceptional teachers instead pursue more lucrative careers, leaving classrooms to be staffed increasingly by those with fewer options or those willing to accept diminished status and compensation. Kids from an ever-increasing number of broken homes sent to a public institution for nine hours per day to learn about Gay Pride and how racist their ancestors were.

This professional devaluation has been accompanied by systematic attacks on teacher autonomy. Standardized testing, rigid curricula, and administrative mandates have reduced teachers to mere implementers of predetermined content rather than facilitators of intellectual discovery. The most creative and independent-minded educators often find themselves pushed out of the profession, leaving behind those willing to follow prescribed scripts without deviation.

The corruption of educational materials represents another front in this assault on learning. Textbook companies like McMillan (now McGraw-Hill Education) have evolved from educational publishers to propaganda distributors, shaping historical narratives and scientific understanding to serve specific ideological agendas. These companies maintain cozy relationships with education bureaucrats who determine which texts will be adopted, creating a system where educational content reflects political considerations rather than academic merit.

The process of textbook selection has become deeply politicized, with content decisions often driven by committees representing special interests rather than educational experts. Historical events are reframed to serve contemporary narratives, scientific principles are simplified or omitted when they conflict with ideological positions, and critical thinking skills are systematically de-emphasized in favor of rote memorization of approved information.

Lowered academic standards and racialised student body admissions like Affirmative Action have accelerated this decline. The movement toward “equitable outcomes” has too often meant reducing expectations rather than elevating performance. When standardized test scores revealed declining achievement, the response was often to make tests easier or eliminate them altogether rather than address the underlying educational deficiencies. This created a vicious cycle where each generation becomes less knowledgeable than the last, yet receives increasingly inflated assessments of their abilities. The result is that more than half of all Americans can’t read above a 6th grade level. How can they even know how screwed they are if they can’t even understand basic English and math.

The consequences of this educational degradation are evident across Western societies. Civic knowledge has plummeted, with most citizens unable to identify basic constitutional principles or historical events that shaped their nations. Scientific literacy has declined despite unprecedented access to information. Critical thinking skills have been replaced by emotional responses and ideological conformity.

Higher education has suffered a similar fate. Universities once dedicated to the pursuit of truth have transformed into ideological indoctrination centers. Tenure, originally designed to protect academic freedom, now often shields mediocrity and enforces conformity. Departments that once encouraged robust debate now enforce ideological purity through speech codes, safe spaces, and cancellation of dissenting voices.

The student loan crisis represents another dimension of this educational corruption. By making higher education increasingly dependent on debt, financial interests have created another mechanism of control. Graduates enter the workforce burdened by substantial debt, making them more pliable employees and less likely to challenge systems that might jeopardize their ability to repay loans. This debt servitude subtly shapes career choices, political views, and life decisions. Our entire economy is just these debts being bought and sold while the infrastructure crumbles.

The international dimension of educational corruption cannot be ignored. Organizations like UNESCO and various philanthropic foundations have promoted standardized educational models across Western nations, ensuring that the same narratives and omissions appear in classrooms from America to Europe. This harmonization of education serves to create a Western population with a shared but distorted understanding of history and current events.

Perhaps most tragically, the defunct education system has robbed Western citizens of their cultural heritage. By minimizing or misrepresenting the philosophical foundations of Western civilization—classical liberalism, the Enlightenment, and the development of democratic institutions—educators have created populations that cannot recognize what has been lost. Without understanding the principles that once made their societies exceptional, they cannot effectively resist their erosion. I wrote about this here:

The deliberate degradation of education represents perhaps the most insidious aspect of how the West was lost because it attacks the very capacity to recognize and resist other forms of control. An uneducated or miseducated population cannot maintain liberty, which is why those seeking to dominate have made educational corruption a central pillar of their strategy.

Corrupt Media: Manufacturing Consent and Reality If financial control provides the foundation and educational degradation ensures compliance, media manipulation represents the most visible mechanism by which Western populations have been controlled. The transformation of media from independent watchdogs to propaganda instruments has been essential to maintaining the illusion of freedom while implementing systems of control.

Hollywood’s role in this transformation cannot be overstated. What began as an entertainment industry has evolved into one of the most powerful propaganda tools ever devised. Through carefully crafted narratives, films and television series shape public perception of history, current events, and social norms. The normalization of sexual deviance, drug use, surveillance, the glorification of warfare, the promotion of consumerism, and the framing of political debates all occur through seemingly innocuous entertainment content. That you are entertained is merely a side effect of this content, the goal is your unwitting acceptance of a decaying and colorless society stripped of its morals.

The mechanisms of Hollywood’s influence are both subtle and overt. Casting decisions shape perceptions of which groups are heroes and villains. Plot structures reinforce preferred narratives about history and current events. The omission of certain perspectives and the amplification of others create a distorted view of reality that serves specific interests. Perhaps most importantly, the emotional engagement that entertainment provides makes its messaging more effective than straightforward propaganda. Think about it, there are well over 400 movies about the holocaust and zero about Holodomor. If you don’t know what the latter is, then this cherry picking of history is working.

Advertising represents another dimension of media control. Beyond simply promoting products, modern advertising shapes values, aspirations, and identity. The constant bombardment of commercial messages creates a consumer culture where personal fulfillment is sought through purchasing rather than through community, intellectual pursuit, or spiritual development. This materialistic orientation keeps populations focused on acquisition rather than on questioning the systems that limit their freedom.

The godfather of this human emotional manipulation machine is Edward Bernays, nephew of the cocaine addicted psychopath Sigmund Freud. Here’s a great documentary that perfectly lays out the entire system. It’s several parts and you should watch ALL OF THEM! After finishing this read of course.

The psychological sophistication of modern advertising cannot be overstated. Drawing on decades of research into human motivation and behavior, advertisers create campaigns that bypass rational analysis and target emotional responses. The cumulative effect of this constant manipulation is a population whose desires and decisions are increasingly shaped by commercial interests rather than authentic preferences.

Corporate cable news has completed the transformation of journalism into propaganda. What once presented itself as objective reporting now openly acknowledges its ideological orientation. Networks like Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN don’t merely report events—they frame them according to predetermined narratives that serve specific political and economic interests.

The 24-hour news cycle has created an environment of constant agitation, with audiences kept in a state of perpetual anxiety about manufactured crises—climate change, terrorism, some virus, ‘scary’ brown migrants. This emotional exhaustion makes populations more susceptible to simplistic solutions and authoritarian promises. The focus on personality-driven conflict rather than substantive policy discussion ensures that citizens remain entertained but uninformed about issues that actually affect their lives. I’m going to write a paper on the Climate Change Psyop very soon but I like to be thorough and that one will take a lot of time, stay tuned.

The corruption of news extends beyond cable to virtually all forms of media. Billionaire-owned newspapers like The Washington Post (Jeff “penis rockets”Bezos) and The New York Times (Carlos Slim—cool name) serve the interests of their owners rather than the public. Alternative media outlets often receive funding from the same foundations that influence mainstream media, creating the appearance of diversity while maintaining narrative control.

The consolidation of media ownership has accelerated this problem. A handful of corporations now control the majority of news and entertainment production in Western countries. This concentration of power allows for unprecedented coordination of messaging across seemingly independent platforms. The same narratives, frames, and omissions appear across diverse media properties, creating the illusion of consensus while suppressing dissenting perspectives.

Textbooks, as mentioned in the education section, represent another crucial media component. By controlling what children learn about history, science, and civics, those who influence educational content shape future citizens’ understanding of their world. The intergenerational transmission of approved narratives ensures that each new population accepts the prevailing power structure as natural and inevitable. I assure you, it is not inevitable, we can already see major cracks in the foundation. The very fact that I am writing this and you are reading it proves this.

The emergence of social media represents both a challenge to and reinforcement of this media control. Initially hailed as democratizing information—and in some ways it has— social media platforms have increasingly become tools of surveillance and manipulation. The algorithms that determine what content users see are designed to maximize engagement rather than truth, creating filter bubbles that reinforce existing beliefs and prevent exposure to challenging perspectives.

The data collection capabilities of social media platforms have created unprecedented opportunities for manipulation. Detailed psychological profiles of entire populations allow for micro-targeted messaging that can influence opinions and behaviors with remarkable precision. The Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed just the tip of this iceberg, demonstrating how personal data can be weaponized for political purposes.

The censorship and narrative shaping capabilities of social media platforms represent perhaps their most dangerous feature. By controlling which information and opinions are allowed to circulate or be amplified, these platforms can effectively shape public discourse. The deplatforming of dissenting voices, the shadow banning of controversial content, and the algorithmic suppression of certain narratives all contribute to a manufactured consensus that serves established interests. “Freedom of speech isn’t freedom of reach”, just piss off.

The COVID-19 pandemic provided a case study in media control. Across Western nations, media outlets presented remarkably uniform narratives about the virus, its origins, and appropriate responses. Alternative perspectives were systematically suppressed, and scientific debate was replaced by appeals to authority. This coordination across diverse media properties demonstrated the extent to which centralized control can shape public perception during crises.

The media’s role in promoting division cannot be overstated. By constantly highlighting identity differences and framing political disagreements as existential conflicts between good and evil, media outlets keep populations fragmented and unable to unite against common threats. This divide-and-conquer strategy ensures that citizens blame each other rather than the systems that exploit them.

Perhaps most insidiously, the constant media stimulation has created a population with diminished capacity for critical thought. The rapid-fire presentation of information, the focus on emotional engagement, and the reduction of complex issues to simplistic soundbites have hijacked the brain’s orienting response and rewired how people, particularly Western youth, process information. This makes populations more susceptible to manipulation and less capable of recognizing when they are being deceived.

The corruption of media represents the coup de grâce in the loss of the West because it attacks the very ability to perceive reality accurately. When citizens cannot trust the information they receive about their world, they become unable to make informed decisions or hold power accountable. This manufactured reality is the prison in which Western minds now reside, often without recognizing its walls. I wrote about this last year.

The Corrupted Political Class: Blackmail as a Control Mechanism The final piece in understanding how the West was lost lies in the systematic corruption of political leadership. While financial control provides the foundation, educational degradation ensures compliance, and media manipulation shapes perception, the compromised political class implements the agenda of domination. This corruption operates not merely through traditional bribery but through more insidious mechanisms of blackmail and influence peddling.

The story of modern political blackmail begins with figures like Roy Cohn, whose career represents a masterclass in the weaponization of personal information for political gain. Cohn, who served as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare, later became a mentor to Donald Trump and an influential figure in Republican politics. His methods involved gathering compromising information on political figures and using it to ensure compliance rather than building consensus through legitimate political processes.

Cohn’s approach represented a departure from traditional political maneuvering. While politics has always involved compromise and negotiation, Cohn’s methods relied on threats and exposure rather than persuasion. This created a political environment where personal integrity became a liability and the most compromised individuals rose to positions of power precisely because they could be controlled.

The techniques Cohn pioneered have been refined and expanded over subsequent decades. Political operatives now systematically collect compromising information on rising figures, not necessarily for immediate use but as future leverage. This creates a political class where advancement often requires surrendering material that can be used for blackmail later, ensuring that even those who enter politics with idealistic intentions become compromised over time.

The Jeffrey Epstein case represents perhaps the most blatant example of this blackmail system in action. Epstein, a convicted sex offender, maintained connections to numerous powerful figures across politics, business, and academia. His suspicious wealth, despite no obvious source of income, and his lenient treatment by the justice system suggest that he was operating as part of an intelligence or blackmail operation rather than as a mere criminal.

Epstein’s method involved gathering compromising material—particularly sexual material involving minors—on powerful individuals. His properties were equipped with extensive surveillance systems, and he was known to record his guests’ activities. This material could then be used to ensure compliance with specific agendas or to remove individuals who threatened established interests.

The protection Epstein enjoyed from powerful figures, including prosecutors, judges, and intelligence officials, suggests that his operation served interests beyond his personal gratification. The selective release of information about his connections has been used to advance specific narratives while protecting other powerful figures, demonstrating how blackmail operations can be deployed strategically rather than indiscriminately.

The implications of this blackmail system extend beyond individual politicians to the functioning of democratic institutions. When political leaders are compromised, they cannot represent their constituents’ interests but must instead serve those who control their compromising material. This creates a gap between the will of the people and government actions that grows wider over time.

The effect on policy-making has been profound. Issues that might threaten established interests—such as financial reform, media decentralization, or educational restructuring—receive little serious attention regardless of public support. Meanwhile, policies that benefit those controlling the blackmail material advance regardless of their popularity or effectiveness. This creates a political system that appears democratic but functions as oligarchy.

The international dimension of this political corruption cannot be ignored. Intelligence agencies from various nations have long engaged in blackmail operations against foreign politicians. The Mossad’s capture of compromising material on President Bill Clinton via Monica Lewinsky, for example, potentially influenced U.S. policy in the Middle East. When political leaders in one country are compromised by another nation’s intelligence services, national sovereignty becomes merely an illusion. But as I stated before, that illusion is cracking.

The effect on political culture has been devastating. The most capable and principled individuals often avoid politics altogether, recognizing that the personal cost of participation outweighs any potential good they might accomplish. This leaves the field to those who are either already compromised or willing to become so. The resulting political class lacks both competence and integrity, leading to increasingly poor governance. Those people who have a moral compass and leadership skills are shunned for a more ‘pliable’ candidate.

The corruption of the political class has also affected the judicial system. Judges and prosecutors who might otherwise hold political figures accountable are themselves often compromised or subject to pressure from those who are. This creates a system of selective justice where some figures face severe consequences for minor infractions while others engage in egregious misconduct with impunity.

The media’s role in this political corruption cannot be overstated. Rather than exposing blackmail operations, media outlets often participate in cover-ups or use selective reporting to advance specific agendas. The coordinated attacks on some political figures combined with the protection of others demonstrates how media control works in concert with political blackmail to shape outcomes. The corporate media in America is just the public relations arm of the intelligence community.

The effect on public trust has been catastrophic. When citizens recognize that their political leaders are compromised and acting against their interests, faith in democratic institutions erodes. This cynicism, while justified, paradoxically makes populations more susceptible to authoritarian solutions that promise to “drain the swamp” while actually consolidating power in fewer hands.

The intergenerational nature of this corruption ensures its persistence. Political dynasties often maintain power through inherited compromising material and established networks of control. The Bush and Clinton families in America, for example, have maintained political influence across decades despite changing public sentiments, suggesting that forces beyond electoral politics determine their continued relevance.

The psychological impact on compromised politicians cannot be ignored. Living with the constant threat of exposure creates cognitive dissonance that affects decision-making. Compromised leaders often adopt extreme positions to prove their loyalty to those controlling them, leading to increasingly radical policies that further erode democratic norms. This is why the Israeli genocide is enthusiastically accepted and funded by our political class. They are not allowed to tacitly accept it with their heads down, they must appear to their handlers to be fervently in favor of it. This is how far down the gutter our politik is.

The ultimate consequence of this political corruption is the loss of self-governance. When citizens cannot trust their elected representatives to act in their interests, democracy becomes merely performative. Elections continue to occur, but the outcomes largely serve those controlling the political class through blackmail rather than the voting public.

But perhaps this was always the plan. Nuke the public trust in our leadership and self governance and then literally beg the predator class for a solution in the form of digital surveillance grid and full Technocracy. The thought of this makes me feel things that are indescribable using words.

Conclusion: Reclaiming the West The loss of the West has been a comprehensive process, attacking every pillar of free societies: financial independence through central banking control, intellectual independence through educational degradation, perceptual independence through media manipulation, and political independence through compromised leadership. These interconnected systems of control have created populations that appear free but increasingly live in invisible prisons of debt, ignorance, misinformation, and unrepresentative governance.

Understanding how this occurred is the first step toward reversal. The mechanisms of control, while sophisticated, are not invincible. Each relies on the compliance of ordinary citizens who have been manipulated into participating in their own subjugation. Breaking this compliance requires recognizing the systems of control and consciously withdrawing support from them. Disengage from the whole thing.

Financial independence begins with understanding the nature of money and banking. Supporting alternative currencies, banking with local institutions rather than global conglomerates, minimizing debt, and demanding transparency from central banking institutions can all help reclaim monetary sovereignty. When enough people opt out of the debt-based financial system, alternatives will emerge. But we will need each other’s help and the systems mentioned in this article have worked tirelessly to divide, isolate, and atomize us. Reach out to others in a meaningful way, offer to trade your skills for something that you want.

Educational reclamation requires taking responsibility for one’s own learning and that of one’s children. Supplementing formal education with independent study, teaching critical thinking skills, supporting educational alternatives, and demanding transparency from educational institutions can help counter the deliberate dumbing down of Western populations. An educated citizenry is the greatest defense against manipulation. You can share pieces like this and others to parents so they can teach their kids how to navigate this information space.

Media literacy has become essential for navigating the modern information environment. Diversifying news sources, supporting independent journalists, fact-checking claims, and recognizing emotional manipulation techniques can help individuals break free from manufactured realities. When enough people demand accurate information, market forces will create alternatives to corrupt media.

Political reform requires supporting candidates with demonstrated integrity, demanding transparency from government institutions, and creating systems of accountability that transcend traditional political processes. Term limits, citizen oversight committees, and protection for whistleblowers can help reduce opportunities for blackmail and corruption. However, with the amount of political detritus in DC now, we will need a full gut renovation of our halls of power and more importantly finance.

Cultural renewal, perhaps most importantly, is necessary to reclaim what has been lost. Reconnecting with the philosophical foundations of Western civilization—classical liberalism, individual rights, and limited government—can provide the intellectual framework for rebuilding free societies. Cultural institutions that promote these values rather than undermining them must be supported and expanded.

The loss of the West was not inevitable but resulted from deliberate actions by specific interests seeking power and control—the very things the US was presumably against. Recognizing this agency is empowering because it suggests that different choices can produce different outcomes. The same ingenuity and determination that once built Western civilization can be directed toward its renewal. That spark of ingenuity, revolution, and grit lives inside most of us. Find it inside you.

The phrase “How the West Was Won” once evoked images of pioneers conquering frontiers through courage and determination. Perhaps it’s time to reconquer the frontier of freedom with similar determination. The stakes could not be higher, for what is lost is not merely territory or wealth but the very possibility of human flourishing in societies that value individual dignity and freedom.

The West was lost through sophisticated and imperceptible systems of control, but it can be reclaimed by awakened citizens who recognize these systems and refuse to comply with them. The future of human—not simply Western—civilization hangs in the balance. It is high time we declared 'enough is enough' and began the arduous task of rebuilding what has been systematically dismantled. The question is no longer whether we will be remembered for standing by as liberty died, but whether we will be known as those who refused to let it be buried—at least not without a fight.

As always, be well.

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A History of Central Banking and the Enslavement of Mankind by Stephen Mitford Goodson Chapter 1 How Usury Destroyed the Roman Empire Money, being naturally barren, to make it breed money is preposterous and a perversion from the end of its institution, which was only to serve the purpose of exchange and not of increase. Men called bankers we shall hate, for they enrich themselves while doing nothing. Aristotle, Politics The monetary systems of the Roman era, 753 BC to 565 AD, may be divided into three distinct periods where units of three different metals were used as the means of exchanging goods and services. Although there is evidence of modern human occupation, Homo sapiens sapiens, in the Rome area going back 14,000 years, with Neanderthals having lived there approximately 140,000 years ago, Rome as a city is traditionally said to have been founded by Romulus and Remus in 753 BC in a region surrounding the Palatine Hills, also known as Latium. According to the legend, Romulus, who killed his brother Remus, became its first king, but later shared the throne with Titus Titus, the ruler of the Savines. Around 600 BC, Latium came under the control of the Etruscans. This lasted until the last king, Tarquin the Proud, was expelled in 509 BC and the Roman Republic was established. The Etruscans, a people of Arian origin, created one of the most advanced civilizations of that period and built roads, temples, and numerous public buildings in Rome. The first money used in Rome was the cow. This was not true money, but a barter system. Many early peoples used cattle as a medium of exchange. According to the legend of Heracles in the Aegean stables, the cattle kept there, over 3,000 in number, represented the treasury of King Aegeus. The Copper Age, 753-267 BC. As time went on, the Romans took to using, instead of cattle, irregular lumps of copper or bronze. These lumps were called aeus rudae, rough metal, and had to be weighed for each transaction. There was an increase in trade and Rome became one of the most prosperous cities in the ancient world. This prosperity was based on uncoined copper, later bronze, metal which was measured by weight according to a fixed system of units. It was issued by the Roman treasury in the form of ingots weighing 3.5 pounds, 1.6 kilograms, with the full backing of the state and was known as aeus signatum, stamped metal, because it was stamped by the government with a cow, eagle, or elephant, or other image. Sometimes they were made to resemble a scallop shell. In 289 BC, these ingots were replaced by discoidal, cast-leaded bronze coins, aeus grave, heavy metal. They represented national money and were paid into circulation by the state and each was only of value inasmuch as the symbols on which its numbers were recorded were scarce or otherwise. This money was thus based on law, rather than the metallic content, although that content was standardized and the coin did have some intrinsic value, unlike most coins today. This can be considered as an early example of the successful use of fiat money. While fiat money is much criticized in some quarters, for example by the followers of Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, there is nothing wrong with it as long as it is issued by government, not by private bankers, and is carefully protected against counterfeiters. Non-fiat money, in contrast, has the serious drawback that whoever sets the prices of gold and silver, i.e. private bankers, can control the nation's economy. Up to 300 BC, there was an unsurpassed increase in public and private wealth of the Romans. This may be measured in the gain of land. After the conclusion of the Second Latin War in 338 BC and the defeat of the Etruscans, the Roman Republic increased in size from 2,135 square miles, 5,525 square kilometers, to 10,350 square miles, 26,805 square kilometers, or 20% of peninsular Italy. In tandem with the expansion of its land area, the population rose from about 750,000 to 1 million, with 150,000 persons living in Rome itself. A partnership was formed between the Senate and the people known as Senatus Populusque Romanus, SPQR, the Senate and people of Rome. The political leaders were renowned for their frugality and honest virtue. The means of exchange was strictly regulated in accordance with the increase in population and trade and there was zero inflation. Debt bondage nexum, whereby a free man offered his services as security for a loan plus interest, and where in cases of non-payment the debt had to be worked off, was abolished after plebeian agitation by the Lex Potelia in 326 BC. The silver age, 267 to 27 BC. The traditional money system was destroyed in 267 BC when the patrician elite attained the privilege to mint silver coinage. This change was typified by a patrician who went to the temple of Juno Moneta, from which the word money is derived, and converted a sack full of silver denarii to five times its original value by the simple expedient of stamping a new value on the coins. He thus pocketed a very substantial difference in signorage for his own private account. The early Roman silver coin was known as the drachma, and was modeled on a coin used in the Greek south of the peninsula. It was later replaced with the smaller and lighter denarius.

There was also a half denarius, called the quinarius, and a quarter unit, called the serstertius. Still later, the system was supplemented with the victoriatus, somewhat lighter than the denarius, and probably intended to facilitate trade with Rome's Greek neighbors. There were very few deposits of silver in the Italian peninsula, and as a consequence the Roman army had to be expanded in order to conquer territories to obtain supplies. The Roman peasants, who had provided the republic with food independence, were drafted in increasing numbers into the army. Agricultural production, especially corn, declined, and the peasant farms were replaced by latifundia, which were large estates worked by slaves. Wheat also had to be imported from North Africa. Tensions about granting citizenship and enfranchisement between Rome and her Italic allies resulted in the Social War, from 90 to 89 BC. This lack of enfranchisement had led to the fragmentation of Roman society and the alienation of the working-class citizens, who were treated as chattel and who had no responsibilities, and therefore no commitment towards the state. Until as late as the Second Punic War, from 218 to 201 BC, they were not allowed to serve in the army. This was a classic example of a society which had been monetized. The republic was weakened, and there was increasing despotism. Piracy became a major problem, with raids taking place on the coast, villas being sacked, and travelers kidnapped. Violence became endemic, and gangsters and terrorists were active in Rome, as there was no police force to maintain law and order. These are inevitable consequences of a society in which money had become the highest ethos. There was also political intrigue amongst the elite. Economic deprivation caused discontent amongst the poor, who were increasingly slaves from North Africa, and social unrest. This turmoil culminated in the revolt led by Spartacus in 73 to 71 BC. The first and second revolts were in 135 to 132 BC, and in 104 to 100 BC. The Jewish role in the collapse The first known Jews who arrived in Rome in 161 BC were Yehuda and Maccabee. These early Roman Jews employed themselves as craftsmen, peddlers, and shopkeepers. In the last occupation, they also indulged in money lending. As a community, they lived separately in apartments. They governed themselves according to their own laws and were exempt from military service. In 139 BC, the Jews, who were not Roman citizens, were expelled by Praetor Hispanus for proselytizing, but they soon returned. In 19 AD, by means of a Sonatus Consultum, Emperor Tiberius expelled 4,000 Jews, who had been involved in various scandals, but none of these expulsions was properly enforced, and their continued presence, in particular as usurers, would play a significant role in the decline and collapse of the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar Julius Caesar, 100 to 44 BC, was born into an aristocratic family on July 12, 100 BC. He was tall and fair-headed and practiced briefly as a lawyer before becoming a brilliant military commander who conquered Gaul, France, in 59 to 52 BC. After his defeat of Pompey the Great in 48 BC at Pharsalus, Caesar became the undisputed leader of the Roman Republic. On his return to Italy in September 45 BC, Caesar found the streets and cities crowded with homeless people who had been forced off the land by usurers and land monopolists. 300,000 people had to be fed daily at the public granary. Usury was flourishing with disastrous consequences. The principal usurers, many of whom were Jewish, were charging interest rates as high as 48% per annum. As Lucius Aneus Seneca, 4 BC to 65 AD, the philosopher, would later remark in De Superstitione, the customs of that most criminal nation have gained such strength that they have now been received in all lands. The conquered have given laws to the conqueror. At that time, there were two main political parties, the Optimates, centered around the nobility, the senate and the privileged few, and the Populares, who represented the citizens. Caesar immediately assumed leadership of the latter. Caesar fully understood the evils of usury and how to counter them. He recognized the profound truth that money is a national agent, created by law for a national purpose, and that no classes of men should withhold it from circulation so as to cause panics, in order that speculators could advance the rates of interest, or could buy up property at ruinous prices after such panic. Caesar introduced the following social reforms.

1. Restoration of property was done at the much lower valuations which held prior to the Civil War, 49-45 BC. 2. Several remissions of rents were granted. 3. Large numbers of poor citizens and discharged veterans were settled on allotments. 4. Free housing was provided to 80,000 impoverished families. 5. Soldiers' pay was increased from 123 to 225 denarii. 6. The corn dole was regulated. 7. Provincial communities were enfranchised. 8. Confusion in the calendar was removed by fixing it at 365 and one-quarter days from the 1st of January, 44 BC. His monetary reforms were as follows. 1. State debt levels were immediately reduced by 25%. 2. Control of the mint was transferred from the patricians, users, to government. 3. Cheap metal coins were issued as the means of exchange. 4. It was ruled that interest could not be levied at more than 1% per month. 5. It was decreed that interest could not be charged on interest, and that the total interest charge could never exceed the capital loaned, the in-duplum rule. 6. Slavery was abolished as a means of settling debt. 7.

Aristocrats were forced to employ their capital and not hoard it. These measures enraged the aristocrats and plutocrats whose livelihood was now severely restricted. They therefore conspired to murder Caesar, the hero of the people. On that fateful morning of the 15th of March, 44 BC, only four years after assuming power, he arrived at the Senate building unarmed, having dismissed his military guard, who had previously been in constant attendance. Surrounded by 60 conspirators, he was stabbed to death and received 23 wounds. The Gold Age, 27 BC to 476 AD In 27 BC, shortly after Caesar's death and his deification, the Romans adopted the gold standard, which would have far-reaching implications for the financial stability of the empire and lead directly to its demise. Previously, during the days of the Roman Republic, gold coins were issued only in times of great need, such as during the Second Punic War or the campaign of Lucius Cornelius Sulla. There were very few gold mines in Europe, except in remote places like Wales, Transylvania, and Spain, and therefore most of the supplies could only be secured from the East. This in turn required a large and expensive army, which became engaged in constant conflict at the empire's fringes. The gold coin was known as an arius. Also in circulation were the silver denarius and the copper coins, the cesartius, dupondius, and the as. The scarcity of gold or commodity money frequently induced periods of deflation as a result of the lack of a circulating means of exchange. In 13 BC, a measure of relief was provided when the weight of the gold arius was reduced from 122 to 72 grains, and this remained the standard weight until 310 AD. However, metals continued to flow eastwards in order to pay for luxury items, religious dues, and usury payments. Furthermore, wear and tear resulted in the loss of one-third of total coinage in circulation over a 100-year period. As gold was treated as a commodity, its debasement was not tolerated. Emperor Constantine, 275 to 337 AD, personally ordered death for counterfeiting, and the burning of public minters who committed falsification. Money changers who did not report a counterfeit gold Byzant, solidus, were immediately flogged, enslaved, and exiled. These regulations were effective for the Byzant, which weighed 70 grains and was slightly more than the Byzant, which was still circulating in 1025 AD and weighed 68 grains. In 313 AD, Christianity was tolerated by the Edict of Milan, and from 380 AD was established as the official religion by Emperor Theodosius I, from 347 to 395 AD. From this time, monetary power resided in the religious authority of the Pontifex Maximus. A feature of the imperial era was social injustice and the undermining of the middle classes through excessive taxation.

The Roman businessman was not a trader, but a looter of the provinces, as the homeland had a weak industrial production base, which was incapable of providing the required manufactured goods. As the monetarization of society continued, with the rich parasitizing the common man, the plebeians became more like slaves. The abolition of the jury system was symptomatic of the declining respect and importance for the common man in Roman society, role of the church in the decline and fall. The tax that Emperor Constantine decreed, viz., that one-tenth of all income had to be tithed to the Christian church, hastens the destruction of the empire. Eventually, the church held one-third to one-half of all lands and accumulated wealth. This concentration of wealth produced a great scarcity of coinage. Money existed, but there was no circulation or distribution of goods and services. Instead of recycling the tithed money by means of investment in the community or charitable works such as construction of hospitals, schools, and libraries, Vast hordes of gold were concentrated behind the 20-foot, 6.1-meter, thick walls of the fortress city of Constantinople and the Vatican Fortress in Rome. In its last years in the 5th and 6th centuries, the Roman Empire had become a parasitic organism, subject to alternating phases of inflation and deflation. Its economic ruination preceded its political ruination. There was no industrial production, almost all food had to be imported, and usury was practiced on an unprecedented scale. The wealth of the empire that was not held by the church was controlled by 2,000 Roman families.

The rest of the population lived in poverty. The implosion of the western half of the empire in 476 AD, after repeated military incursions by the Goths and Vandals, resulted in the Dark Ages. A punishing multi-century deflationary depression followed. According to the United States Silver Commission of 1876, the metallic money of the Roman Empire at its height amounted to $1.8 billion, but by the end of the Dark Ages, it had shrunk to $200 million. Agriculture was reduced to subsistence level. Large sailing vessels vanished as there was no trade. Commerce stagnated. Arts and sciences were lost, and the knowledge of cement-making disappeared. Major factors in the decline of the Roman Empire were the concentration of wealth, the absence of mining deposits for industrial production, and the vast importation of non-white slaves with the resultant degradation of the genetic value of the nation. By the 4th century AD, as a result of the continuing decline in Roman female fertility, slaves outnumbered citizens by 5 to 1. The most important economic reason was an inadequate supply of an inexpensive circulating medium of money and the false notion that money should be a commodity. Thus, from an economic perspective, the lessons from the fall of Rome are that of a dishonest economic system will inevitably contribute to the forces of dissolution. No society can survive a false economic system.

For any society to function and prosper, it is absolutely fundamental that the means of exchange be issued free of debt and interest by the legal authority of the state as representatives of the people in perpetuity.

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He hated it. He said he wanted this stuff. A hundred years ago, a new theory about human nature was put forward by Sigmund Freud. He had discovered, he said, primitive sexual and aggressive forces hidden deep inside the minds of all human beings. Forces which, if not controlled, led individuals and societies to chaos and destruction. CHIRPING This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy. At the heart of the story is not just Sigmund Freud, but other members of the Freud family. When we're the will of course... This episode is about Freud's American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays is almost completely unknown today, but his influence on the 20th century was nearly as great as his uncle's. Because Bernays was the first person to take Freud's ideas about human beings and use them to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations for the first time how they could make people want things they didn't need by linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires. Out of this would come a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying people's inner, selfish desires, one made them happy and thus docile. It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate our world today. Freud's ideas about how the human mind works have now become an accepted part of society, as have psychoanalysts. Every year, the psychotherapist ball is held in a grand palace in Vienna. This is the psychotherapy ball. Psychotherapists come, some advanced patients come, former patients come, and many other people. Friends, but also people from the Viennese society who like to go to a nice, elegant, comfortable boy. But it was not always so. A hundred years ago, Freud's ideas were hated by Viennese society. At that time, Vienna was the centre of a vast empire ruling Central Europe. And to the powerful nobility of the Habsburg court, Freud's ideas were not only embarrassing, but the very idea of examining and analysing one's inner feelings was a threat to their absolute control. You see, at that time, these people had the power. And of course, you just were not allowed to show your bloody feelings. I mean, you just couldn't. You know, I mean, you couldn't. If you were unhappy, can you imagine? You, for instance, you sit somewhere in the country in a castle, you are deeply unhappy, you are a woman. And you couldn't go to your maid and cry on her shoulders, or you couldn't go into the village and complain, you know, about your feelings. I mean, you couldn't. It was like selling yourself to somebody. You just couldn't.

You know? Because they had to respect you. Now, of course, Freud, you see, put that thought very much into question. Because you, you see, to examine yourself, you would have to put a lot of other things into question. Your society, everything that surrounds you. And that wasn't a good thing at that time. Why not? Because your self-created empire, to a certain extent, would have fallen into bits much earlier already. But what frightened the rulers of the empire even more was Freud's idea that hidden inside all human beings were dangerous, instinctual drives. Freud had devised a method he called psychoanalysis. By analysing dreams and free association, he had unearthed, he said, powerful sexual and aggressive forces, which were the remnants of our animal past. Feelings we repressed because they were too dangerous. Freud devised a method for exploring a hidden part of the mind, which we nowadays call the unconscious, which is a part that is totally unknown to our consciousness. That there exists a barrier in all our minds which prevents these hidden and unwelcome impulses of the unconscious from emerging. Good night. In 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Empire led Europe into war. As the horror mounted, Freud saw it as terrible evidence of the truth of his findings. The saddest thing, he wrote, is that this is exactly the way we should have expected people to behave, from our knowledge of psychoanalysis. Governments had unleashed the primitive forces in human beings, and no-one seemed to know how to stop them. At that time, Freud's young nephew, Edward Bernays, was working as a press agent in America. His main client was the world-famous opera singer Caruso, who was touring the United States. Bernays' parents had emigrated to America 20 years before, but he kept in touch with his uncle and joined him for holidays in the Alps. But Bernays was now about to return to Europe for a very different reason. On the night that Caruso opened in Toledo, Ohio, America announced it was entering the war against Germany and Austria. As a part of the war effort, the U.S. government set up a committee on public information. And Bernays was employed to promote America's war aims in the press. The president, Woodrow Wilson, had announced that the United States would fight not to restore the old empires, but to bring democracy to all of Europe. Bernays proved extremely skilful in promoting this idea, both at home and abroad. And at the end of the war, he was asked to accompany the president to the Paris Peace Conference. Then, to my surprise, they asked me to go over with Woodrow Wilson to the Peace Conference. And at the age of 1926, I was in Paris for the entire time of the Peace Conference that was held in the suburb of Paris and we worked to make the world safe for democracy. That was a big slogan.

Wilson's reception in Paris astounded Bernays and the other American propagandists. Their propaganda had portrayed Wilson as a liberator of the people, a man who would create a new world in which the individual would be free. They had made him a hero of the masses. And as he watched the crowd surge around Wilson, Bernays began to wonder whether it would be possible to do the same type of mass persuasion, but in peacetime. When I came back to the United States, I decided that if you could use propaganda for war, you could certainly use it for peace. And propaganda got to be a bad word because of the Germans using it. So what I did was to try to find some other words. So we found the word council on public relations. Bernays returned to New York and set up as a public relations council in a small office off Broadway. It was the first time the term had ever been used. Since the end of the 19th century, America had become a mass industrial society, with millions clustered together in the cities. Bernays was determined to find a way to manage and alter the way these new crowds thought and felt. To do this, he turned to the writings of his uncle, Sigmund. While in Paris, Bernays had sent his uncle a gift of some Havana cigars. In return, Freud had sent him a copy of his general introduction to psychoanalysis. Bernays read it, and the picture of hidden irrational forces inside human beings fascinated him. He wondered whether he might make money by manipulating the unconscious. What Eddie got from Freud was indeed this idea that there is a lot more going on in human decision making. Not only among individuals, but even more importantly among groups than this idea that information drives behavior. And so, Eddie began to formulate this idea that you had to look at things that would play to people's irrational emotions. And you see, that moved Eddie immediately into a different category from other people in his field and most government officials and managers of the day who thought, if you just hit people with all this factual information, they would look at that and say, oh, of course. And Eddie knew that was not the way the world worked.

Bernays set out to experiment with the minds of the popular classes. His most dramatic experiment was to persuade women to smoke. At that time, there was a taboo against women smoking, and one of his early clients, George Hill, the president of the American Tobacco Corporation, asked Bernays to find a way of breaking it. He said, we're losing half of our market because men have invoked a taboo against women smoking in public. Can you know anything about that? I said, let me think about it. And then I said, have I your permission to see a psychoanalyst to find out what cigarettes mean to women? He said, what'll it cost? So I called up Dr. Brill, A.A. Brill, who was a leading psychoanalyst in New York at that time. How come you didn't call your uncle? Why didn't you call your uncle? Because he was in Vienna. A.A. Brill was one of the first psychoanalysts in America, and for a large fee, he told Bernays that cigarettes were a symbol of the penis and of male sexual power. He told Bernays that if he could find a way to connect cigarettes with the idea of challenging male power, then women would smoke because then they would have their own penises. Every year, New York held an Easter Day parade to which thousands came, and Bernays decided to stage an event there. He persuaded a group of rich debutantes to hide cigarettes under their clothes. Then, they should join the parade, and at a given signal from him, they were to light up the cigarettes dramatically.

Bernays then informed the press that he had heard that a group of suffragettes were preparing to protest by lighting up what they called torches of freedom. He knew this would be an outcry, and he knew that all of the photographers would be there to capture this moment, and so he was ready with a phrase which was torches of freedom. And so here you have a symbol, women, young women, debutantes, smoking a cigarette in public with a phrase that means anybody who believes in this kind of equality pretty much has to support them in the ensuing debate about this because torches of freedom. I mean, what's on all American coins? it's liberty. She's holding up the torch, you see? And so all of this is there together. There's emotion, there's memory, there's a rational phrase, even though it's using a lot of emotional elements, it's a phrase that works in a rational sense. All of this is together. And so the next day, this was not just in all of the New York papers, it was across the United States and around the world. And from that point forward, the sale of cigarettes to women began to rise. He had made them socially acceptable with a single symbolic act. What Bernays had created was the idea that if a woman smoked, it made her more powerful and independent, an idea that still persists today. it made him realise that it was possible to persuade people to behave irrationally if you link products to their emotional desires and feelings. The idea that smoking actually made women freer was completely irrational, but it made them feel more independent. It meant that irrelevant objects could become powerful emotional symbols of how you wanted to be seen by others. Eddie Bernays saw the way to sell product was not to sell it to your intellect, that you ought to buy an automobile, but that you will feel better about it if you have this automobile.

I think he originated that idea that they weren't just purchasing something, but they were engaging themselves, emotionally or personally, in the product or service. That it's not you think you need a new piece of clothing, but you'll feel better with the piece of clothing. That was his contribution in a very real sense. We see it all over the place today, but I think he originated the idea of the emotional connect to a product or service. What Bernays was doing fascinated America's corporations. They had come out of the war rich and powerful, but they had a growing worry. The system of mass production had flourished during the war, and now millions of goods were pouring off production lines. What they were frightened of was the danger of overproduction, that there would come a point when people had enough goods and would simply stop buying. up until that point, the majority of products were still sold to the masses on the basis of need.

While the rich had long been used to luxury goods, for the millions of working-class Americans, most products were still advertised as necessities. Goods like shoes, stockings, even cars, were promoted in functional terms for their durability. The aim of the advertisements was simply to show people the product's practical virtues. Nothing more. What the corporations realised they had to do was transform the way the majority of Americans thought about products. One leading Wall Street banker, Paul Mazur of Lehman Brothers, was clear about what was necessary. We must shift America, he wrote, from a needs-to-desires culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. We must shape a new mentality in America. Man's desires must overshadow his needs. Prior to that time, there was no American consumer. There was the American worker, and there was the American owner. And they manufactured and they saved and they ate what they had to and the people shopped for what they needed. And while the very rich may have bought things they didn't need, most people did not. And Mazur envisioned a break with that where you would have things that you didn't actually need, but you wanted, as opposed to needed. And the man who would be at the centre of changing that mentality for the corporations was Edward Bernays. Bernays really is the guy within the United States more than anybody else who sort of brings to the table psychological theory as something that is an essential part of how, from the corporate side, of how we are going to appeal to the masses effectively. And the whole sort of merchandising establishment and sales establishment is ready for Sigmund Freud. I mean, they are ready for understanding what motivates the human mind. And so that there's this real openness to Bernays' techniques being used to sell products to the masses.

Beginning in the early 20s, the New York banks funded the creation of chains of department stores across America. They were to be the outlets for the mass-produced goods and Bernays' job was to produce the new type of customer. Bernays began to create many of the techniques of mass-consumer persuasion that we now live with. He was employed by William Randolph Hearst to promote his new women's magazines and Bernays glamorised them by placing articles and advertisements that linked products made by others of his clients to famous film stars like Clara Bow, who was also his client. Bernays also began the practice of product placement in the movies and he dressed the stars at the film's premieres with clothes and jewellery from other firms he represented. He was, he claimed, the first person to tell car companies they could sell cars as symbols of male sexuality. He employed psychologists to issue reports that said products were good for you and then pretended they were independent studies. He organised fashion shows in the department stores and paid celebrities to repeat the new and essential message. You bought things not just for need but to express your inner sense of yourself to others. There's a psychology of dress have you ever thought about it? How it can express your character? You all have interesting characters but some of them are all hidden. I wonder why you all want a dress always the same with the same hats and the same coats. I'm sure all of you are interesting and have wonderful things about you but looking at you in the street you all look so much the same and that's why I'm talking to you about the psychology of dress. Try and express yourselves better in your dress. Bring out certain things that you think are hidden. I wonder if you've thought of this angle of your personality. I'd like to ask you some questions. Why do you like short skates? Oh, because there's more to see. More to see, eh? What good does that do you? It makes you more attractive. It does? In 1927 an American journalist wrote a change has come over our democracy. It is called consumptionism. The American citizen's first importance to his country is now no longer that of citizen but that of consumer. The growing wave of consumerism helped in turn to create a stock market boom and yet again Edward Bernays became involved promoting the novel idea that ordinary people should buy shares borrowing money from banks he also represented and yet again millions followed his advice. he was uniquely knowledgeable about how people in large numbers are going to react to products and ideas and so on but in political terms if he were to go outside I can't imagine that he could get three people to stand and listen. Wasn't particularly articulate was kind of funny looking and didn't have any sense of reaching out for people one-on-one none at all he didn't talk about didn't think about people in groups of one thought about people in groups of thousands. Bernays soon became famous as the man who understood the mind of the crowd and in 1924 the president contacted him. President Coolidge was a quiet taciturn man and had become a national joke. The press portrayed him as a dull humorless figure. Bernays' solution was to do exactly the same as he had done with products. He persuaded 34 famous film stars to visit the White House and for the first time politics became involved with public relations. And I lined up these 34 people and I'd say what's your name? He'd say Al Jolson and I'd say Mr. President Al Jolson next day every newspaper in the United States had a front page story President Coolidge entertains actors at White House and the Times had a headline which said President Nearly Laughed and everybody was happy. But while Bernays became rich and powerful in America in Vienna his uncle was facing disaster. Like much of Europe Vienna was suffering an economic crisis and massive inflation which wiped out all of Freud's savings. Facing bankruptcy he wrote to his nephew for help. Bernays responded by arranging for Freud's works to be published for the first time in America and began to send his uncle precious dollars which Freud kept secretly in a foreign bank account. he was Freud's agent if you will to get his books published. Well of course once the books were being published Eddie couldn't help himself but promote these books see that everybody read them make them controversial emphasize the fact that do you know what Freud says about sex and what he says cigarettes are a symbol of and so on and so forth how do you suppose all those stories got out? Certainly the academics weren't spreading these around the country Eddie Bernays was. then when Freud became accepted well then of course to go to a client and say well Uncle Siggy see then that had some cachet but notice there first Eddie created Uncle Siggy in the US made him acceptable secondly and thirdly then capitalized on Uncle Siggy typical Bernays performance. Bernays also suggested that Freud promote himself in the United States. He proposed his uncle write an article for Cosmopolitan a magazine that Bernays represented entitled A Woman's Mental Place in the Home Freud was furious such an idea he said was unthinkable it was vulgar and anyway he hated America Freud was now becoming increasingly pessimistic about human beings in the mid-twenties he retreated in the summers to the Alps sometimes staying in an old hotel the Pension Moritz in Berchtesgaden it is now a ruin Freud began to write about group behavior about how easily the unconscious aggressive forces in human beings could be triggered when they were in crowds Freud believed he had underestimated the aggressive instincts in human beings they were far more dangerous than he had originally thought after World War I Freud was basically a pessimist he felt that man is an impossible creature a very, very sadistic and bad species and did not believe that man can be improved man is a ferocious animal the most ferocious animal that exists they enjoy torturing and killing and he didn't like man the publication of Freud's works in America had an extraordinary effect on journalists and intellectuals in the 1920s what fascinated and frightened them was the picture Freud painted of submerged dangerous forces lurking just under the surface of modern society forces that could erupt easily to produce the frenzied mob which had the power to destroy even governments it was this they believed had happened in Russia to many this meant that one of the guiding principles of mass democracy was wrong the belief that human beings could be trusted to make decisions on a rational basis the leading political writer Walter Lipman argued that if human beings were in reality were in reality driven by unconscious irrational forces then it was necessary to rethink democracy what was needed was a new elite who could manage what he called the bewildered herd this would be done through psychological techniques that would control the unconscious feelings of the masses and so here you have Walter Lipman probably the most influential political thinker in the United States who is essentially saying that the basic mechanism of the mass mind is unreason is irrationality is animality he believes that the mob in the street which is how he sees ordinary people are people who are driven not by their minds but by their spinal cords the notion of kind of animal drives unconscious instinctual drives lurking beneath the surface of civilization and so they started looking towards psychological science as a way of understanding the mechanisms by which the popular mind works specifically with the goal of figuring out how to understand how to apply those mechanisms to strategies for social control Edward Bernays was fascinated by Lipman's arguments and also saw a way to promote himself by using them in the 1920s he began to write a series of books which argued that he had developed the very techniques Lipman was calling for by stimulating people's inner desires and then sating them with consumer products he was creating a new way to manage the irrational force of the masses he called it the engineering of consent democracy to my father was a wonderful concept but I don't think he felt that all those publics out there would have reliable judgment and not that that they could that they very easily might vote for the wrong man or want the wrong thing so that they had to be guided from above it's enlightened despotism in a sense you appeal to their desires and their unrecognized longings that sort of thing that you can tap into their deepest desires or their deepest fears and use that to your own purposes and then and then in 1928 a president came to power who agreed with Bernays President Hoover was the first politician to articulate the idea that consumerism had become the central motor of American life after his election after his election he told a group of advertisers and public relations men you have taken over the job of creating desire and have transformed people into constantly moving happiness machines machines which have become the key to economic progress what was beginning to emerge in the 1920s was a new idea of how to run mass democracy at its heart was the consuming self which not only made the economy work but was happy and docile and so created a stable society both Bernays and Littman's concept of managing the masses takes the idea of democracy and it turns it into a palliative it turns it into giving people some kind of feel-good medication that will respond to an immediate pain or immediate yearning but will not alter the objective circumstances one iota I mean democracy really the idea of democracy at its heart was about changing the relations of power that had governed the world for so long and Bernays concept of democracy was one of maintaining the relations of power even if it meant that one needed to sort of stimulate the psychological lives of the public and in fact in his mind that was what was necessary that if you can keep stimulating the irrational self then leadership can basically go on doing what it wants to do it means it means Bernays now became one of the central figures in a business elite that dominated American society and politics in the 1920s he also became extremely rich and lived in a suite of rooms in one of New York's most expensive hotels where he gave frequent parties Oh my goodness he had a home in the corner suite of the Sherry Netherland Hotel and here's this wonderful suite with all these windows looking out on Central Park and across at the plaza and on the square and he would use this place to hold a soiree the mayor would come all the media leaders would come the political leaders the business leaders the people in the arts I mean it was a who's who people wanted to know Eddie Bernays because you know he himself became a sort of a famous man a sort of a magician who could make these things happen he knows everybody he knows the mayor and he knows the senator and he calls politicians on the telephone as if he did get literally a high or a bang out of doing what he did and that's fine but it can be a little hard on the people around you especially when you make other people feel stupid people who worked for him were stupid and children were stupid and if people did things in a way that he didn't that he wouldn't have done them they were stupid it was a word that he used over and over and over dope and stupid and the masses they were stupid but Bernays' power was about to be destroyed dramatically and by a type of human irrationality he could do nothing to control at the end at the end of October 1929 Bernays organized a huge national event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the invention of the light bulb President Hoover the leaders of major corporations and bankers like John D Rockefeller were all summoned by Bernays to celebrate the power of American business but even as they gathered news came through that shares on the New York Stock Exchange were beginning to fall catastrophically Throughout the 1920s speculators had borrowed billions of dollars the banks had promoted the idea that this was a new era where market crashes were a thing of the past but they were wrong what was about to happen was the biggest stock market crash in history investors had panicked and begun to sell in a blind relentless fury that no reassurance by bankers or politicians could halt and on the 29th of October 1929 the market collapsed the effect of the crash on the American economy was disastrous faced with recession and unemployment millions of American workers stopped buying goods they didn't need the consumer boom that Bernays had done so much to engineer disappeared and he and the profession of public relations fell from favor Bernays his brief moment of power seemed to be over the effect of the Wall Wall Street crash on Europe was also catastrophic it intensified the growing economic and political crisis in the new democracies in both Germany and Austria there were violent street battles between the armed wings of different political parties against this backdrop Freud who was suffering from cancer of the jaw retreated yet again to the Alps he wrote a book called Civilization and its Discontents it was a powerful attack on the idea that civilization was an expression of human progress instead Freud argued civilization had actually been constructed to control the dangerous animal forces inside human beings what was implicit in Freud's argument was that the ideal of individual freedom which was at the heart of democracy was impossible human beings could never be allowed to truly express themselves because it was too dangerous they must always be controlled and would thus always be discontent man doesn't want to be civilized and he is civilization brings discontent but it's necessary to survive otherwise he couldn't survive so he must be discontent because this would be the only way to keep him within limits but what did Freud think about the idea of the equality of man he didn't believe in it we had 32 parties and Hitler said before those parties don't vanish there is no Germany that's true you can't have 32 parties and so they felt this one person will put an end to this comedy Freud was not alone in his pessimism politicians like Adolf Hitler emerged from a growing despair in the 1920s about democracy the Nazis were convinced that democracy was dangerous because it unleashed a selfish individualism but didn't have the means to control it Hitler's party the National Socialists stood in elections promising in their propaganda that they would abandon democracy because of the chaos and unemployment it led to in March 1933 the National Socialists were elected to power in Germany and they set out to create a society that would control human beings in a different way one of their first acts was to take control of business the planning of production would in future be done by the state the free market was too unstable as the crash in America had proved workers' leisure time was also planned by the state through a new organisation called Strength Through Joy one of its mottos was service not self but the Nazis did not see this as a return to an old form of autocratic control it was a new alternative to democracy in which the feelings and the desires of the masses would still be central but they would be channeled in such a way as to bind the nation together the chief exponents of this was Joseph Goebbels the minister of propaganda it may be good to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power to have power Goebbels organized huge rallies whose function he said was to forge the mind of the nation into a unity of thinking feeling and desire One of his inspirations he told an American journalist was the writings of Freud's nephew Edward Bernays In his work on crowd psychology Freud had described how the frightening irrationality inside human beings could emerge in such groups The deep what he called libidinal forces of desire are given up to the leader while the aggressive instincts are unleashed on those outside the group Freud wrote that this is a warning but the Nazis were deliberately encouraging these forces because they believed they could master and control them well Freud was saying that masses are bound by by libidinal forces they love each other and delegate their ideas and their things to the chap on top What are libidinal forces? What are libidinal forces? Well forces of love Not hate? Hate is delegated to the others outside I could see from afar looking up how those hundred thousand of people when they passed Hitler they just became completely delirious they began to shout these tries I will never get out of my ear Heil Sieg Heil that is demented and here I got confirmation how those irrational forces uncontrollable forces in Germany in the Germans had erupted had broken out were running riot were the path marching marching on and here we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going we are going And in America too democracy was under threat from the force of the angry mob the effect of the stock market crash had been disastrous there was growing violence as an angry population took out their frustration on the corporations who were seen to have caused this disaster then in 1932 a new president was elected who was also going to use the power of the state to control the free market but his aim was not to destroy democracy but to strengthen it and to do this he was going to develop a new way of dealing with the masses I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require but in the event that the national emergency is still critical I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me I shall ask the congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis broad executive power it was the start of what would become known as the new deal Roosevelt assembled a group of young technocrats and planners in Washington he told them that their job was to plan and run giant new industrial projects for the good of the nation Roosevelt was convinced that the stock market crash had shown that laissez-faire capitalism could no longer run modern industrial economies it had become the job of government big business was horrified but the new deal attracted the admiration of the nazis especially joseph goebbels we have seen the economic development in the Americas with the most positive interest and we are there confident there that President Roosevelt and his advisors are on the right way it is indeed the biggest economic and social problem of all the time the many millions of workers who lost their places on the machines and in the stores and lost their lives and lost their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives and their lives But although Roosevelt like the Nazis was trying to organize society in a different way unlike the Nazis he believed that human beings were rational and could be trusted to take an active part in government Roosevelt believed it was possible to explain his policies to ordinary Americans and take into account their opinions To do this he was helped by the new ideas of an American social scientist called George Gallop Favourite reading of New Deal Washington The Survey of U.S. Public Opinion From officers at Princeton, New Jersey a famed statistician Dr George Gallop tells Washington from week to week what the nation is thinking And in New York Fortune magazine's analyst Elmo Roper compiles for publication a continuous record of the nation's approval or disapproval of how the country is being run Gallop and Roper rejected Bernaysi's view that human beings were at the mercy of unconscious forces and so needed to be controlled Their system of opinion polling was based on the idea that people could be trusted to know what they wanted They argued that one could measure and predict the opinions and behaviour of the public if one asked strictly factual questions and avoided manipulating their emotions Well how about this one Do you think Franklin D. Roosevelt's new deal has been bad for the nation in general?

No, that question's loaded It automatically suggests an answer Well, how about this Is your present feeling toward President Roosevelt one of general approval or general disapproval? That's better Prior to scientific polling the view of many people was that you couldn't trust public opinion it was irrational that it was ill-informed chaotic unruly and so forth and so that opinion should be dismissed but with scientific polling I think it established very clearly that people do are rational that they do make good decisions and this offers democracy a chance to be truly informed by the public giving everybody a voice in the way the country is run I know my father wouldn't necessarily say the voice of the public is the voice of God but he did feel very much that the voice of the people is a rational voice and should be heard What Roosevelt was doing was forging a new connection between the masses and politicians No longer were they irrational consumers who were managed by sating their desires instead they were sensible citizens who could take part in the governing of the country In 1936 Roosevelt stood for re-election he promised further control over big business to the corporations it was the beginning of a dictatorship Roosevelt interferes with private enterprise and is running the country into debt for generations to come the way to get recovery is to let business alone But Roosevelt was triumphantly re-elected It looked my friends like a real landslide this time So please let me let me thank you again and tell you that I hope to see you all very soon and bid you an affectionate good night face with this business now decided to fight back to regain power in America At the heart of the battle would be Edward Bernays and the profession he had invented public relations Following that election business people start to get together and start to carry on discussions primarily in private and they start talking to each other about the need to sort of carry on ideological warfare against the new deal and to sort of reassert the sort of connectedness between the idea of democracy on the one hand and the idea of privately owned business on the other and so under the umbrella of an organization which still exists which is called the National Association of Manufacturers and whose membership included all of the major corporations of the United States a campaign is launched explicitly designed to create emotional attachments between the public and big business it's Bernays' techniques being used on a grand scale I mean totally The General Motors parade of progress traveling the high roads and by roads of America bringing to millions of Americans in their own hometown the fascinating story behind modern industry showing... The campaign set out to show dramatically that it was business, not politicians who had created modern America ...a better mode of living for all of us Bernays was an advisor to General Motors but he was no longer alone The industry he had founded now flourished as hundreds of public relations advisors organized a vast campaign They not only used advertisements and billboards but managed to insinuate their message into the editorial pages of the newspapers It became a bitter fight In response to the campaign, the government made films that warned of the unscrupulous manipulation of the press by big business and the central villain was the new figure of the public relations man They tried to achieve their ends by working entirely behind the scenes corrupting and deceiving the public The aims of such groups may be either good or bad so far as the public interest is concerned but their methods are a grave danger to democratic institutions The films also showed how the responsible citizen could monitor the press themselves They could create a chart that analyzed the reporting for signs of hidden bias But such earnest instruction was to be no match for the powerful imagination of Edward Bernays He was about to help create a vision of the utopia that free market capitalism would build in America if it was unleashed In 1939, New York hosted the World's Fair Edward Bernays was a central advisor He insisted that the theme be the link between democracy and American business At the heart of the fair was a giant white dome that Bernays named Democra City And the central exhibit was a vast working model of America's future constructed by the General Motors Corporation To my father, the World's Fair was an opportunity To keep the status quo That is, capitalism In a democracy Democracy and capitalism That marriage Linking, just like that He did that by manipulating people And getting them to think That you couldn't have real democracy In anything but a capitalist society Which was capable Of doing anything Of creating these wonderful highways Of making, you know, moving pictures inside everybody's house Of telephones that didn't need cords Of sleek roadsters I mean, it was It was consumerist But at the same time You inferred that in a funny way Democracy and capitalism went together The World's Fair was an extraordinary success And captured America's imagination The vision it portrayed was of a new form of democracy In which business responded to people's innermost desires In a way politicians could never do But it was a form of democracy That depended on treating people Not as active citizens as Roosevelt did But as passive consumers Because this, Bernays believed Was the key to control In a mass democracy It's not that the people are in charge But that the people's desires are in charge The people are not in charge The people exercise no decision-making power Within this environment So democracy is reduced from something Which assumes an active citizenry To the idea of the public as passive consumers Driven primarily by instinctual or unconscious desires And that if you can, in fact, trigger those needs and desires You can get what you want from them But this struggle between the two views of human beings As to whether they were rational or irrational Was about to be dramatically affected by events in Europe Events that would also change the fortunes of the Freud family In March 1938, the Nazis annexed Austria It was called the Anschluss Hitler arrived in Vienna To an extraordinary outpouring of mass adulation But even as he drove through the city Behind the scenes, the Nazis were systematically whipping up And unleashing the hatred of the crowd Against the enemies of the new, greater Germany The Anschluss was a kind of explosion Of terrible hatred against the enemies The so-called enemies Or whatever they considered enemies Against the Jews totally And also against a lot of very distant Austrians Who had opposed the Nazis in Austria They said it's legitimate Now you can do what you want So they did it Stealing, robbing and killing I can't say it otherwise And human depravity, of course This is always very near to normal behaviour It can change very quickly As the violence and assassinations raged in Vienna Freud decided he had to leave His aim was to go to Britain But he knew that Britain, like many countries Was refusing entry to most Jewish refugees But help came from the leading psychoanalyst in Britain Ernest Jones He was in the same ice skating club As the Home Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare And Jones persuaded Hoare To issue Freud a British work permit And in May 1938 And in May 1938 Freud, his daughter Anna And other members of his family Set off for London Freud arrived in London As Britain was preparing for war And he settled with his daughter Anna In a house in Hampstead But Freud's cancer was now far advanced And in September 1939 Just three weeks after the outbreak of war He died The Second World War The Second World War would utterly transform The way governments saw democracy And the people they governed Next week's programme will show how the American government As a result of the war Became convinced there were savage, dangerous forces Hidden inside all human beings Forces that needed to be controlled The terrible evidence from the death camps Seemed to show what happened When these forces were unleashed And politicians and planners in post-war America Would come to believe that Hidden under the surface of their own population Were the same dangerous forces And they would turn to the Freud family To help control this enemy within And ever adaptable Edward Bernays would work Not just for the American government But the CIA And Sigmund Freud's daughter Anna Would also become powerful in the United States Because she believed that people could be taught To control the irrational forces within them Out of this would come vast government programmes To manage the inner psychological life of the masses piano plays softly piano plays softly piano plays softly