I would love to see Bernay and Lippmann in a debate. Bernays puts his confidence in the people. He talks about the organization of small groups to influence the whole: "Looked at from the broadest standpoint, it is the power of the group to sway the larger public in its attitude toward ideas." Though Lippmann may agree that it takes a handful of people to influence the masses, "their opinions do not execute these acts." The public opinion may define the acts of man, but it is the individuals that make the decisions that affect the masses.
In the case of George Bush, public opinion gets tossed in the fire with women's rights and Katrina victims. He has actually admitted that he doesn't read the papers. His cabinet is staffed, not by people that are capable of doing a good job, but people who are his long time chums. This is called cronyism. These people are not advising, but merely confirming the ideologies that Bush wants to spread across our nation like Country Crock onto a stale bagel shaped like the U.S. Even as his poll numbers plummet, this man continues to defy the public and do what he thinks is right. This is called totalitarianism. Lippmann quotes Robert Michels as saying "the majority is permanently incapable of government." Lippmann says that he is underburdening himself, but I think he merely stating an observation that he has seen develop in any government. Bernays outlines how propaganda is initiated, and Lippmann describes the affects on the people, no matter what their intellectual status. When applied to the United State's Machiavellian government, the only way to fight propaganda is with propaganda.
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