The Engineering of Consent: The Century of Self Part 2
The Smoking Argus
“The Century of Self: The Engineering of Consent” is the second part of the award winning documentary by British documentarian Adam Curtis. Whereas he first episode provided insight to the origin of consumerism, this second installment illustrates how in post-WWII America, many came to believe that the basic animal instincts, as theorized by Sigmund Freud, were the root cause behind the rise of Nazism. Thus, in order to prevent the “animal” ever being unleashed in the future; academics, corporations and governments sought a way to manipulate and “domesticate” the human animal.
Sigmund Freud’s daughter, Anna, and his nephew, Edward Bernays, provided the centrepiece philosophy. The United States government, corporations, as well as the C.I.A. used their ideas to develop techniques to manage and control the minds of the American people. However these were not merely a cynical exercises in manipulation, as those in with the reigns of power believed that the only way to make the world “safe for democracy” and create a stable society was to repress basic human instincts that simmered just under the surface of post-war suburbia.
