Marketing, advertising ruining what we thought was democracy

ACHTUNG: The following is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorical by the editor.

“…Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…” — Sir Winston Churchill

Though there has been a long-standing war of semantics about whether the United States is a democracy or a republic, it is generally accepted that we elect our leaders and they govern with our consent.

Yet I have slowly come to believe our form of government has deteriorated so badly over the last 40 years that public statements about the will of the people, for the people, by the people and of the people are just pretty, but empty words.

Too many folks nowadays seem to believe that if America can somehow retire President Donald Trump from public life, we can get back to the serious business of being the leader of the “Free World.”

I believe our democracy, or republic if you prefer, is just a shell of its former self mostly because of the power of marketing, public relations and advertising. When two sides compete for the most votes, it seems they are motivated by what they can sell to the unwashed masses, who are not stupid, but painfully and easily misled.

My earliest recollection of this phenomenon was the Wayland High School student council president race in the fall of 1964 between Terry Parks and Tom Tarnutzer. I heard tell by more than a few observers that Tarnutzer made a huge mistake telling the student body, “This is not a popularity contest.” Sorry, Tom. It was and still is.

I was told many students were put off by his comment because they felt he was scolding them like misbehaving children. I also understood that both candidates, who were introduced to Vice President Hubert Humphrey on a whistle stop, were capable of handling the position because it really didn’t have any real power. Five years later I read Joe McGinnis’ “The Selling of the President,” in which the author suggested Richard M. Nixon was sold to the American public like a pack of cigarettes.

Yet the best examples of this troubling were Adam Curtis’ documentary “The Century of the Self” and the many psychology films demonstrating alarming experiments by B.F. Skinner in getting animals to do what humans wanted them to do. Curtis showed how the discipline of psychology really is more about the power of manipulating human emotions than healing sick people. It’s more about getting unwary common everyday folks to buy something they don’t need or even want. In this case, a political candidate or philosophy.

Those who work in marketing and advertising are well schooled in the art of being “The Hidden Persuaders,” as Vance Packard called them 60 years ago. These guys are good. They have conducted many experiments to determine what works and what doesn’t in the arena of public opinion. And many of these advertising giants use their skills as well-paid consultants in political campaigns.

Though we like to think we select our candidates and public officials on the basis of the issues, we don’t. Too many of us are easily misled and misinformed by an industry that cares not a whit about truth or the health of democracy, but rather wants to make a lot of money doing what they do well. They push our emotional buttons and avoid our ability for critical thinking.

So America in the 21^st century is seeing a house divided by two parties that care more about beating their opponent than making this a better place for you and me to live and breed. It’s like what I see so often on Facebook, encouragement to do something just because it pisses off the other side.

I’ve been told that eventually democracy and the free market place break down because of the constant drive to beat the other guy. As professional sports has shown us, when the stakes are high, somebody is even willing to cheat.

So now I’m left with the question as to whether a democracy or a republic is the best way to govern modern society in an age when the truth is so hard to find. Plato scoffed at democracy as a political system almost 2,500 years ago, contending it was nothing more than mob rule. History also suggests just how vulnerable such institutions are, such as the Wiemer Republic in 1933 in Germany.

I don’t remember who said it, but I once read a quote that if you give people in democratic society enough time, they eventually will vote away all their freedoms. Forgive them for they know not what they do.