The linking of the subconscious to commodities and, the spawning of what Karl Marx described as “commodity fetishism” in the 20th century, can be traced back to one Edward Bernays. A nephew of Sigmund Freud, Bernays was responsible for financing some of the earliest translations of Freud into English. During WWI, Edward began work for the Committee on Public Information, a vast propaganda machine commissioned by President Woodrow Wilson to sway American support for the war. It should be noted that at this time the U.S had no offensive army and the majority of the population was pacifistic.
Away from the political sphere Bernays is also known for promoting cigarettes to women. Most notably during a stunt he pulled at the 1929 New york Easter parade; when he spread rumours about how a few debutantes that he had paid were actually suffragettes, that were lighting their “torches of freedom”.
In 1954, he was largely successful in creating a media atmosphere in which the United Fruit/CIA overthrow of the democratically elected Arbenz government in Guatemala was seen as acceptable.
Guatemala overthrow and the U.S war mindset:
Jacobo Arbenz, was a colonel and a reformist leader that progressed from the army to become a democratically elected president in Guatemala. Much like his predecessor, Juan Jose Arevalo, Arbenz was enthusiastic about tackling a vast array of social and economic problems that plagued Guatemala. Arbenz broadened voting rights, established a minimum wage, promoted literacy, health care programs and above all, distributed land to peasant workers to alleviate their distress. The United States recognized such government initiated measures to spread social and economic equality as “communistic and un-American”. Thus, the C.I.A, with the help of Edward Bernays passed psychological warfare, backed by a naval blockade and air support. These actions resulted in a successful coup’de’tat that toppled the Arbenz government. The justification for this: “Guatemala was on the verge of a proverbial Soviet takeover”, was further supplemented by the “Monroe Doctrine”. A doctrine promulgated by President James Monroe in 1823 as a warning to the European powers of the era, that any expansionist activity within the Americas would be regarded as a direct threat to the United States- extended since, by President Theodore Roosevelt and used several times to justify US interventions in Latin America. Bernays’ role from the public relations perspective was to use the “Red scare” or the communist threat to conquer public support.
The American cultural belief in a divine ordinance to free the world, upholding the countries sacrosanct theosophical belief in “Manifest Destiny” was then upheld in this instance. Historian William E. Weeks describes three key themes touched upon by advocates of Manifest Destiny:
1) The virtue of the American people and their institutions;
2) The mission to spread these institutions, thereby redeeming and remaking the world in the image of the U.S.;
3) And, the destiny under God to accomplish this work.
The role of the media has been to propagate against the “terrorist threat” in the 21st century: as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are being extensively instigated by it. Ironically, however, the scourging and pillaging of third world countries has served the U.S quite well and in many ways, it has been the epitome of that nation’s hegemonic stature. Without the use of cleverly placed rhetoric in the news, movies and other sources of misinformation, this would not have been possible. The mass Medias negative impacts are quite evident from this example given by multi award winning journalist and humanitarian, John Pilger (relating to the “Gulf of Tonkin incident” that launched the Vietnam war):
“The CIA...loaded up a junk, a North Vietnamese junk, with communist weapons - the Agency maintains communist arsenals in the United States and around the world. They floated this junk off the coast of central Vietnam. Then they shot it up and made it look like a fire fight had taken place, and they brought in the American press. Based on this evidence, two Marine landing teams went into Danang and a week after that the American air force began regular bombing of North Vietnam.” An invasion that took three million lives was under way.” (Source)
In Pakistan and previously India, a bearded chap by the name of “Syed Abul A'ala Maududi” is credited with a lot of negative cultural influence- most of which was achieved via the print media. Maududi was the founder of the ultra-right-conservative party known as Jammat-e-Islami which originated in pre partition British India. Before the formation of Pakistan, Maududi was fervently against the establishment of the State that was the secular fantasy of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. After the independence of Pakistan Maududi aptly moved his party head quarters to Lahore. The Jammat-e-Islami then proceeded to push with all its bearded might to promote a clause in the upcoming and maiden constitution of the State of Pakistan: “the objectives resolution”. The passing of this clause lamented the future of this State as an “Islamic” republic; making the 25% non-muslims of East and West Pakistan, second class citizens.
However, Maududi wasn’t quite done with the minorities of Pakistan yet. The cantankerous “saint” that he was, he made it his duty to spread vast propaganda against the Ahmadiyyah sect. Starting with the pamphlet “qadiyani masla (the qadiyani problem)”, Maududi began convincing muslims of other sects to take up arms against what he deemed the despisers of the last prophet of the Quran: the Ahmadiyyah Muslims. Maududi was sentenced to death after the resulting violence that he had instigated during the 1953 Lahore riots (about 2000 Ahmadi’s were killed in these riots). This punishment was commuted and then later pardoned altogether.
Maududi was an admirer of Shariah law and believed that a society could not be Islamic without it. He promoted active Jihad to bring about Shariah governance the world over:
“- It must now be obvious that the objective of the Islamic jihad is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system, and establish in its place an Islamic system of state rule. Islam does not intend to confine his rule to a single state or a hand full of countries. The aim of Islam is to bring about a universal revolution. Although in the initial stages, it is incumbent upon members of the party of Islam to carry out a revolution in the state system of the countries to which they belong; their ultimate objective is none other than world revolution. “Source.
Various commentators have alleged that the intellectual ancestor of “the muslim brotherhood”: Syed Qutb of Egypt (coincidentally another international country where Ahmadis are persecuted as in Pakistan) was radicalized after reading Maududi. This radical and very violent cultural tenet still permeates in Pakistani society today, with the latest of these incidents taking place on the 28th of May 2010, when an Ahmadis worship place was attacked by terrorists (most likely radicalized by the ideas of Maududi). 98 people were killed in the attack.
The truth is that the Ahmadiyyah community is still widely viewed by a majority of muslim coalition parties as wajib-ul-qatl (deserving death). Using this sort of propaganda earns politicians competing for election with these parties easy votes; simply because Maududi’s thought is embedded in much of the Pakistani mindset, and he himself, is venerated as a hero. The Pakistani media has however, seldom given the voices against this theocratic mindset any limelight. The status-quo it seems here is to be maintained, and it is most likely that sooner or later; if anything were to try and change this, then they could be dealt with by either the cultural reinforcement of the media or the terrorists that define vice and virtue. However, rest assured that even still, history will see these times through the same lenses that it views the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.
