Sex and Psychological Operations

[BingoTheClowno]

This is why Internet keeps amazing me all the time, the amount of information that one can find seems to be infinite. I never knew this happened during the war.

To the average person, the connotations of the word "Pornography" have always brought forth a mental picture of a depraved person leering at filthy pictures. To the scholar, the word meant simply "The description of prostitutes and their trade". Later other definitions were added, attempting to encompass the term "obscene". We now consider Webster's "Writing and pictures intended to arouse sexual desire" as an appropriate statement of meaning. Would it surprise you to know that all the major combatants involved in World War II used pornography as part of their psychological operations (PSYOP) strategy?



Both the Axis and the Allies printed aerial propaganda leaflets using sexual themes in an attempt to demoralize enemy soldiers at the front. Did these leaflets work? Did the finders become emotionally crippled and unable to carry on their duties and responsibilities? Just the opposite occurred. The "pin-up" pictures became collectors items sought after by the troops who greedily collected and swapped them. If anything, the leaflets raised morale. There is no doubt that they were the most heartily appreciated propaganda leaflets used in World War 2. We can probably state that they were the most widely read and circulated enemy documents of any war.

[Zer]

Hey Bingo, are you feeling like you are in spring Hey girls - give this buddy at least a blow job otherwise he`ll get mad as hell

[BingoTheClowno]

Hey Bingo, are you feeling like you are in spring Hey girls - give this buddy at least a blow job otherwise he`ll get mad as hell

Yes, thanks. It only prooves how effective this propaganda is, no?

[Zer]

well...err---I suppose so

[kensuguro]

that's interesting.

I always thought that if you could infiltrate a country's education system, and simply send in bad teachers for 3 generations, you could easily ruin a country.

[Zer]

you can infiltrate everything if you are skilled enough

[BingoTheClowno]

that's interesting.

I always thought that if you could infiltrate a country's education system, and simply send in bad teachers for 3 generations, you could easily ruin a country.

I agree, the education during the formative years of children is crucial in their development. However, today, I think mass media can do a lot more damage.

[garyb]

freud's nephew Edward L. Bernays is responsible for all of this pr stuff. read his books and weep...

[BingoTheClowno]

That Bernays guy is something else:

The belief that propaganda and news were legitimate tools of his business, and his ability to offer philosophical justifications for these beliefs that ultimately embraced the whole democratic way of life, in Bernays' mind set his work in public relations apart from what ad men did. The Bernays essays A Public Relations Counsel States His Views (1927) and This Business of Propaganda (1928) show that Bernays regarded advertising men as special pleaders, merely paid to persuade people to accept an idea or commodity. The public relations counsel, on the other hand, he saw as an Emersonian-like creator of events that dramatized new concepts and perceptions, and even influenced the actions of leaders and groups in society.

Bernays' vision was of a utopian society in which the dangerous libidinal energies that lurked just below the surface of every individual could be harnessed and channeled by a corporate elite for economic benefit. Through the use of mass production, big business could fulfill constant craving of the inherently irrational and desire driven masses, simultaneously securing the niche of a mass production economy (even in peacetime), as well as sating the dangerous animal urges that threatened to tear society apart if left unquelled.



In Propaganda (1928), his most important book, Bernays argued that the manipulation of public opinion was a necessary part of democracy:

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this 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 daily 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 which control the public mind.

Wow!