Citizenship - "Add an Egg"

With the arrival of the Cold War in the 1950s, a dark cloud appeared to hover over western democracies. Everything became a giant chess game between the Soviets, China and the West. Sigmund Freud’s ideas about the troublesome nature of humankind once again gained traction, but this time there was a difference.In the U.S. and Canada, hundreds of thousands of troops had come home from World War Two and for the first time significant research of war trauma was being conducted. It was revealed that 42% of soldiers evacuated from conflict had high levels of psychological difficulties. This only lent credence to Freud’s earlier conclusions that people had some kind of inner demon that could quickly break out if there was no great social control. The research appeared to prove that there were irrational and violent forces at work in the human subconscious. Some of the horrors of conflict practiced by the Germans and the Japanese only lent further evidence.To study and to control these evil tendencies within modern democracies governments recruited an entirely new generation of psychoanalysts. In 1946, President Harry Truman signed into law the “National Mental Health Act” because he had been informed that American citizens were suffering from hidden anxieties. Citizens, of course, knew none of this. Freud’s daughter, Anna, had convinced American officials that psychoanalysis was required for a healthier and more contented society; in other words, more control over the citizenry. If people could be persuaded to conform, then their more violent side could be stopped. And the road to happiness was to be created by creating safer environments. Given the fear engendered by the communist threat, Anna’s theories found a ready audience.But – and this is vital – leaders of all stripes never questioned in significant numbers whether this was actually the correct way to treat citizens or to develop policies. That lack of scrutiny once again led to the link between the “secret self” and consumerism and politics. America’s big corporations established the “Institute of Motivational Research,” and pretended that it was a kind of independent institution, which it wasn’t. With government seeking to control the masses, big business reasoned that the best way to do so was by linking citizens with products they desired. This would lead to the double benefit of stimulating the economy while at the same time keeping citizens docile.But how to do it? A breakthrough came when a focus group studied Betty Crocker instant cake mixes. Despite the ease with which baking could be accomplished with the new mixes, sales sagged. The focus group discovered that women actually felt guilty at failing to undertake the time-consuming labour necessary to bake cakes in the traditional way for their spouses. When Edward Bernays heard about this he simply uttered, “add an egg.” It was brilliant. The egg, of course, wasn’t required, but it made the women in the focus groups feel better and suddenly Betty Crocker sales went through the roof. It was an object lesson that might make us smile today, but which was pivotal in the time at driving the American economy in a new direction.Suddenly businesses started hiring psychoanalysts (called the “depth boys”) and the theory mushroomed that you could control citizen-buying habits – in the process creating a stable society. Governments loved it and corporations obliged. So did the arts and culture community, as movie stars and famous writers peddled products. A new elite was emerging from this context in business, politics, and social planning. That’s when Washington came calling.Edward Bernays convinced President Eisenhower that to keep the public from their hidden violent subconscious he had to stimulate a new economy of consumerism. If Eisenhower knew that Bernays was hired by the major corporations, he never showed it. In ironic fashion what emerged from this were actions that were anti-democratic. In Guatemala, a strong democratic movement had emerged determined to overthrow its dictator president and his blind support for the United Fruit Company (American). The company brought in Bernays, who devised a troublesome plan – convince the U.S. administration that the new democratic movement was, in fact, communist. It wasn’t true, but it worked. He arranged a special trip to Guatemala for select journalists and they assisted (likely unknowingly) with the fabrication. Eisenhower backed an American-led coup and cooperated with the United Fruit Company to train a rebel army, led by Howard Hunt of Watergate fame. Soon airplanes flown by CIA pilots bombed Guatemala City while Bernays worked in America to convince citizens it was struggle against communism. Again it was a collusion to deceive citizens. The brief video of Vice-President Richard Nixon’s press conference in Guatemala, displaying the past relics of the communist uprising (flown in from the U.S.), is particularly galling, seen in this light.It only got worse. In America and Canada the CIA started funding psychology departments in universities and hospitals, in which to conduct experiments like shock therapy. At Montreal’s Allen Memorial Hospital (since closed), tests were conducted on patients to completely erase their memories in hopes of starting anew. What they got was literally nothing: the patients wasted away.This is a particularly troubling portion of the path that has led citizens to our present day. Again, they were viewed as dangerous but malleable, in the process about ready to become the great consumer/citizens of today. But as we shall see in the next two posts, more designed manipulation was on the way.