Manipulating the Irrational Masses: Trumpian Propaganda and Bernaysian Theory

• In Event: The Politics of Information in American Political Thought

Abstract

This paper responds to calls for the revival of the scholarly study of propaganda (that is, “propaganda studies”) in critical political science, particularly with respect to the rise of Trumpism. I suggest that Trumpian propaganda is the latest incarnation of something that has been part of American politics and business for over a century. I locate the roots of American propaganda in the political theory and business practices of Edward Bernays (1891-1995) and his wife and business partner Doris Fleischman Bernays (1891-1980). The Bernays’ theory and practice of propaganda was influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud (Edward’s uncle) on the relationship between individual, family, and larger group psychology. I contend that the Bernays’ theory of propaganda—that is, as a necessary control from above by an authoritarian father-substitute who keeps the irrational masses from descending into the chaos of democracy—was operationalized by the Bernays’ in the past and by Trump and Trumpism more recently. In the case of both Edward Bernays and Donald Trump, their individual authoritarian dysfunctions were translated into national political dysfunctions. In order to make this argument, I will draw upon my extensive archival research on Bernays and Fleischman Bernays, my interview with their daughter Anne Bernays, and my analysis of Mary Trump’s writings on her uncle. This paper is important for two reasons: first, it highlights the degree to which the American authoritarianism underpinning Trumpism is not new; and second, it introduces a framework (that is, Bernaysian theory) that is largely unknown in the discipline of political science and useful to those in critical political science who study the political right.

Author

• Julie E. Dowsett, York University