/lit/ - Literature

>>16155193
It is in essence a back-sliding towards an elite-dominated system that the revolutions were meant to dispose of. I am still a bit of a Kantian at heart, so i think using another simply as a means to an end degrades their position as a rational moral agent, and i further agree in with his point in 'what is enlightenment' that, if we're ever going to get close to the democratic ideal, people need to learn to use their own reason, not the reason of another, in their understanding. That alone wont fix things, but is at least a necessary precondition for a functional demos. Democracy is a long-term project that hasn't been achieved and maybe will never be achieved, but it definitely will never be achieved under the ministration of Bernays and his ilk. It didn't require all this to say it, but Bernays' position is elite self-interest masquerading as a public necessity. But propaganda still has its place, just no Bernaysean propaganda.
In my view, this minimal mechanical solidarity needs to be axiomatic, not specific. Hayek has a concept called 'spontaneous order', which essentially just Smith's invisible hand applied more broadly to society. The major point is that much of society is merely a natural outcome of cooperative individuals, not created, shaped, and directed from above. I don't follow him in suggesting that self-interest is the only force that provides this, but rather that any axiomatic foundation will create its own spontaneous order. In essence, the political education of the state should be limited to setting up the foundations upon which people will naturally reason towards a united goal.The role of propaganda is continuing that. Rather than retarding the functioning of the citizenry, you are promoting it.
So the problem with Bernays comes in telling people what to think instead of on what basis to think for themselves. An odd distinction, but an important one. In any popular system, the citizens shape the government and the government shape the citizens in a reflexive cycle. But the former propaganda method puts inordinate power in the top while the latter empowers the bottom. Putting the power of direction in the hands of a self-interested elite is a disaster, and blurs the line between servant and master.
All of which is why Bernays deserves to be rightly spat on and hated.