On Corporate Control of the Public Mind
from Class Warfare: Interviews of Noam Chomsky by David Barsamian
(Copyright 1996 Common Courage Press)Alex Cary did the pioneering work in an extremely important field which in fact has yet to be investigated. That's the field of corporate propaganda, which is a major phenomenon in the modern world and almost unstudied. His most important essay "Changing Public Opinion: The Corporate Offensive," which has been circulating underground for years, … was never published in his lifetime.
It opens by pointing out - he says it better than this - that there have been three major phenomena in the twentieth century with regard to democracy. One is the extension of the franchise, which was broad. The second was the growth of corporations. The third was the growth of corporate propaganda to undermine democracy. And he's exactly right. That's why we have a public relations industry. It was established approximately at the time that corporations reached their current form early in the century. It was created in order, as they put it, to "control the public mind," because they recognized that the public mind would be the greatest hazard facing industrialists, and they understood that democracy is a real threat to private tyranny, just as it's a threat to state tyranny. Now, we are in a system of private tyranny, which was being established early in the century, and very consciously so. In fact it was consciously established as an attack on individual liberty. That's a part of corporate law which is only known in scholarly circles.
Part of this was to ensure that democracy couldn't function. And since you have some degree of state violence, but limited degrees, especially with the increase in the franchise and participation, it was understood right off that you have to control opinion. That led to the huge public relations industry and massive propaganda campaigns, efforts to sell Americanism and harmony and to sell American capitalism.
Noam Chomsky