is a paid shill with a medical degree. He happens to be one of thousands who are paid rather well to abuse the authority of a medical doctors position for the benefit of some corporation or consortium. This particular brand of propaganda was the hallmark of Edward Bernays, the most infamous American propagandist of all time. With it, he managed to topple the democracy in Guatamala and double the number of tobacco users in the United States. This is one of several methods by which he claimed that the exercise thereof would constitute "a shadow government" by which these companies can "manufacture consent" for the will of their clients.

You are quite right, Chairman Conyers, that we don't need this kind of propaganda coming from the top medical spot in America. Nor should we want such an obvious shill to occupy it. We should all work together to prevent this and all other shills from obtaining any more authority courtesy of the government. But this is only an example of the wider problem.

We really should not stop there, Chairman Conyers. Today, we have a multi billion dollar industry that deliberately abuses the first amendment to subordinate democracy to their clients will. I'm sure you know to what I'm referring. The modern propaganda machine has been growing in both size and effectiveness all through your life. And you are the target not just as voting citizen, but also as a lawmaker who should vote according to the will of those you represent. No conspiracy is neccessary, but the end result is the same. With over 100 years of formal research and experience behind them, these PR companies are now able to penetrate nearly every aspect of our information without detection. Today, the average person has neither the time, nor the skill to sort out fact from fiction; truth from propaganda. The end result is a population that really cannot tell fact from fiction anymore. Not because of their own mentality, but because the information they receive is so corrupted and twisted that it is nearly impossible to tell the two apart.

These companies must be forced to reveal their clients and their activities to the public. There is no constitutional right to anonymity either for the individual nor for the corporation. And their efforts are changing the way people think, act, and vote. This is clearly a matter of national security since these companies are capable of using lies, deceit, half truths, cherry picking, sophistry, and as you highlighted, borrowed authority to change the outcome of the democratic process.

Democracy only works when each of its participants vote according to his or her own best interests. But today, the vast majority of people hold at least one ideal that is contrary to their own best interest - and they vote accordingly. Why do so many poor people vote against things that would benefit them? Why do people give up liberty when it is clearly not in their best interests? Why do people pressure their representative to vote for things that are clearly not what's best for themselves or their Nation? The answer is most often because they were suckered into thinking it by the lies, deceit, and sophistry, etc.. that they saw, or heard, or read. And that propaganda came from one industry.

If I have not convinced you, then perhaps the very founder of this industry, in his own chillingly presient words, might.

Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our lives whether in the sphere of politics or business in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.

Edward Bernays, Propaganda 1928,
Double nephew of Sigmond Freud
Founder of the modern PR industry

It's time to regulate the PR industry for the sake of democracy.
Please introduce legislation to force these companies to publicly reveal their clients and activities.

I posted a letter, three pages back, just as I promised to do ten days ago.

It's kinda important, Yeah. It might serve as a debate changer.

http://www.johnconyers.com/node/295#comment-9049

If anyone doesn't care, then let's think about how to make sure it doesn't happen to you. That would necessarily include making sure it doesn't happen to me. I'd be fine with that.

I appreciate this forum.
Frosted Flake

Post script : Direct link to Comment referred to above, Re : Sanjay Gupta.