MODR 1770 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Crowd Psychology, Elite Theory, Consumer Capitalism
14 Jun 2019
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Notes for century of the self (parts i & ii) Time period of early 20th c dominated by elite fear of democracy and the new freedom of large groups of people (immigrants, working class people, ethnic minorities) A major issue is about what democracy means. Democracy is not a system of self-rule, it is a palliative , about making people feel better rather than being in charge. Bernays and lippmann advocated the elite view of democracy: the people are seen as basically irrational (drawing on psychology, particularly crowd psychology). They have to be managed because there"s no way they could ever be in charge or power could be distributed more evenly in society. The public relations specialist is to engineer the masses" consent by giving them what they want, channelling their desires into consumer capitalism (consumption) and away from politics.
