Modern Moron Book Review

The supreme manipulation of government leaders and their lies feed the frenzy of unwarranted wars, and the demonic implications of propaganda continue to blind the masses, while big business continues to flourish amid all the ballyhoo.

The lords of industry reap the profits of poison, via cigarettes, wars, insurance scandals and countless other atrocities. Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays book “Propaganda” was published in 1928 and has more then withstood the ultimate test, that which is time. More then 90 years ago, Bernays was advocating against the cigarette companies and illustrating the toxic effects of smoking.   

Think, say, or believe anything you want about smoking cigarettes, but the simple facts remain, more then 8 million people die each year because they smoked, and more then 1.2 non-smokers die each year from secondhand smoke. (The World Health Organization, July 2019.)  

Some smokers defend their habit with the same old talk; we are going to die anyway, my great granddaddy or my friends 99-year-old mother smokes 12 packs a day, and her lungs are perfect, meanwhile, 20-year-olds who never smoked a cigarette a day in their lives, die of lung cancer. Yes, statements like these are sometimes true, but older people who smoke and have no smoke related illnesses are the exception and not the rule. Half of the population that smokes cigarettes on a regular basis will die because of their habit.

Personally, I honestly do not care whether or not people smoke, I’m only glad I never acquired such a costly habit. The point I am making is that even as I’m typing this very second, there are lots of people and organizations advocating for a smoke free world and are livid how the tobacco industry’s target’s the youth.

Let’s face it, most people who start smoking start long before they finish high school. If your 20-years-old or older and you haven’t started smoking, chances are, you won’t ever start, so naturally, the smoking industry has to target the youth. Bernays futilely fought the big business of tabaco several decades before it was trendy, I found that interesting.

The 1928 book “Propaganda” would be a required read in my class if I was an English teacher. It’s short, to the point and relates to all the politics and propaganda going on today, as I’m sure it did more than 90-years-ago.

When I was still in high school in the early 1980s, Russia was the evil empire, now it’s North Korea, or so our government dictates to us. World leaders across the globe juke the youth into wars while making insane profits by sending other people’s children to die. In World War I, America was the light of the world, and were nothing but good, while the Germans were an evil race of demonic souls eager to destroy all that is holy and pure, or so the American government said, as I’m sure Germany told their youth the same about Americans.

America always tells the truth, Germany always lies, was the message the U.S. government propagated (Bernays wrote) in the 1920s and of course before World War I, which ended in 1918.  

J.P. Morgan has been involved in a lot of unethical and even illegal stock market practices Bernays said in this book. To this day, J.P. Morgan continues to make headlines because of shady business practices to say the least.

African Americans are still being lynched in the U.S. and they continue to suffer grave injustices Bernays said. Sound familiar? “Propaganda” is a vital piece in the literature puzzle.

In 1928, Bernays wrote how the media hypes things too quickly and sometimes without the facts. In case you don’t remember or have heard, the main source of news in the 1920s was from the news papers or the radio.   

The political sphere is still a viable source and necessary to the media, yet its evils are difficult to overlook. While I myself perceive the government as an evil entity, I am learning that government is also positive and needed in society. I learned this from Bernays wisdom of 1928.

As Bernays said, we all need to eat, crave amusement, long for beauty and respond to leadership. Without media propaganda, the good and necessary words and products would not reach a lot of the population.

Our minds are molded, and ideas are suggested by people we have never heard of.

“Propaganda will never die out. Intelligent people must realize that propaganda is the modern instrument by which they can fight for productive ends, and help to bring order out of chaos,” Bernays said.   

Mark Izzy Schurr