Public relations was founded on the premise that unseen elites shape public minds
Evidence
In 1923, Edward Bernays published Crystallizing Public Opinion, the foundational text of public relations — written when he was twenty-two years old. The book’s opening argument, stated without apology: “We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.” … The book was a public document that functioned as a private manual. Its readers divided into two groups: those who read it as a warning and those who read it as an instruction manual. The latter group won. — Jamal Awil, The Whispering Archive, 140
Categorization
- XREF: Echoes themes of knowledge-as-weapon in Troubling Transparency and the morally ambiguous nature of PR. — connects to: Advertising executives openly framed their trade as controlling public minds — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 200