Dominant Social Theme

A dominant social theme is a belief system (usually concerning a purported social or natural problem) launched by the monetary elite that grows into an archetype or meme, usually after much repetition. The problem may be centered on people themselves (overpopulation) or caused by people (global warming).

Dominant social themes often are launched from the centers of the power elite's global architecture, including the United Nations, World Bank, World Trade Organization and World Health Organization, where the related problems are declared to be such. The themes are then rebroadcast by the mainstream media.

• The problem is presented as one that can be solved only by those in authority.

• The prescribed solution requires action by, and greater authority for, social and political institutions that are distant from the societies they pretend to benefit.

• Reminders of the problem persist no matter how much evidence appears that the problem is fictitious, trivial or irremediable.

• The problem may co-exist in the public's mind with other purported problems with which it is inconsistent.

The United Nations is an example of an authority-based solution to a problem proposed by a dominant social theme. The problem is international conflict, including war. The solution is for national governments to be made subject to a worldwide authority.

The European Union is the United Nations writ small. The problem is isolated national markets and a lack of economic cooperation. The solution is for the national governments of Europe to be made subject to a European authority.

Bird flu. Even though it is rarely communicable from human to human, the disease is promoted as an extraordinary problem by emphasizing the high rate of mortality among the few people infected. This encourages the militarization of health care, supports planning for a "state of emergency" in Western countries and makes quarantining entire populations acceptable to the public. It also enriches Big Pharma and its shareholders by creating demand for vaccines and other drugs.

Swine flu. This disease is the thematic complement of bird flu. Even though the mortality rate is unremarkable by the standard of seasonal flu, the disease is promoted as an extraordinary problem by emphasizing the ease with which it is communicated from human to human. This encourages the militarization of health care, supports planning for a "state of emergency" in Western countries and makes quarantining entire populations acceptable to the public. It also enriches Big Pharma and its shareholders by creating demand for vaccines and other drugs.

Peak oil: Belief that oil supplies are on the verge of exhaustion justifies rising oil prices, for the benefit of producers, and provides a rationale for energy-efficiency regulations (to the benefit of certain manufacturers) and for subsidies for companies involved with "alternative energy" (biodiesel, solar, wind power and others). It also supports the promotion of public companies associated with energy alternatives.

Central banking: The idea that depressions are caused by free markets and by constraints on the supply of money imposed by a redeemable currency support the necessity of giving unlimited discretionary power to central banks that preside over fiat currencies. The manipulation of the fiat currencies can generate enormous wealth for favored parties.

The creation and exploitation of dominant social themes has been aided by the growth of modern, centralized mass media. The Internet, which decentralizes the power for mass communication, threatens the ability to invent and control dominant social themes.

The Doors Of Perception:

Why Americans Will Believe Almost Anything

by Dr. Tim O'Shea

We are the most conditioned, programmed beings the world has ever known. Not only are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded; our very awareness of the whole design seems like it is being subtly and inexorably erased.

The doors of our perception are carefully and precisely regulated. Who cares, right?

It is an exhausting and endless task to keep explaining to people how most issues of conventional wisdom are scientifically implanted in the public consciousness by a thousand media clips per day. In an effort to save time, I would like to provide just a little background on the handling of information in this country.

Once the basic principles are illustrated about how our current system of media control arose historically, the reader might be more apt to question any given story in today's news.

If everybody believes something, it's probably wrong. We call that Conventional Wisdom.

In America, conventional wisdom that has mass acceptance is usually contrived: somebody paid for it. ...

How This Set-Up Got Started

In Trust Us We're Experts, Stauber and Rampton pull together some compelling data describing the science of creating public opinion in America.

They trace modern public influence back to the early part of the last century, highlighting the work of guys like Edward L. Bernays, the Father of Spin. From his own amazing chronicle Propaganda, we learn how Edward L. Bernays took the ideas of his famous uncle Sigmund Freud himself, and applied them to the emerging science of mass persuasion.

The only difference was that instead of using these principles to uncover hidden themes in the human unconscious, the way Freudian psychology does, Bernays used these same ideas to mask agendas and to create illusions that deceive and misrepresent, for marketing purposes.

The Father Of Spin

Bernays dominated the PR industry until the 1940s, and was a significant force for another 40 years after that. (Tye) During all that time, Bernays took on hundreds of diverse assignments to create a public perception about some idea or product. A few examples:

As a neophyte with the Committee on Public Information, one of Bernays' first assignments was to help sell the First World War to the American public with the idea to "Make the World Safe for Democracy." (Ewen)

A few years later, Bernays set up a stunt to popularize the notion of women smoking cigarettes. In organizing the 1929 Easter Parade in New York City, Bernays showed himself as a force to be reckoned with.

He organized the Torches of Liberty Brigade in which suffragettes marched in the parade smoking cigarettes as a mark of women's liberation. Such publicity followed from that one event that from then on women have felt secure about destroying their own lungs in public, the same way that men have always done.

Bernays popularized the idea of bacon for breakfast.

Not one to turn down a challenge, he set up the advertising format along with the AMA that lasted for nearly 50 years proving that cigarettes are beneficial to health. Just look at ads in issues of Life or Time from the 40s and 50s.

Smoke And Mirrors

Bernay's job was to reframe an issue; to create a desired image that would put a particular product or concept in a desirable light. Bernays described the public as a 'herd that needed to be led.' And this herdlike thinking makes people "susceptible to leadership."

Bernays never deviated from his fundamental axiom to "control the masses without their knowing it." The best PR happens with the people unaware that they are being manipulated.

Stauber describes Bernays' rationale like this:

"the scientific manipulation of public opinion was necessary to overcome chaos and conflict in a democratic society." Trust Us p 42

These early mass persuaders postured themselves as performing a moral service for humanity in general - democracy was too good for people; they needed to be told what to think, because they were incapable of rational thought by themselves. Here's a paragraph from Bernays' Propaganda:

"Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested largely by men we have never heard of.

This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.

In almost every act of our lives whether in the sphere of politics or business in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind." ...

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