Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power

Chomsky describes how states and elites must manufacture consent to maintain power. He argues in tandem with political philosopher David Hume that true power lies in the people’s hands: If they come together, they can challenge the elite.

To prevent people from escaping their control, the elite created an extensive public relations industry. Led by Edward Bernays, this initiative is based on the Madisonian principle of the “intelligent minority.” In other words, a small group of enlightened elites lead the clueless population, who can’t know what’s best for them. In his book Propaganda, Bernays argues that a functional society must “engineer” consent through public relations to prevent the people from challenging the wishes of the elite.

One of the best ways to keep people in line is through “fabricating consumers,” a term coined by political economist Thorstein Veblen. By making people desire things just within their reach, corporate interests trap them in a vicious cycle of consumerism. Prevailing marketing strategy is based on controlling the needs of the consumer. Businesses strive to create a system in which the consumer and the product form an inseparable dyad, without which life would be meaningless. Chomsky points out that this is the reason younger people feel powerless unless they “have another electronic gadget” (126).

In addition, Chomsky emphasizes the dissonance between economic theory and practice. Whereas textbooks presuppose that consumers make rational and informed decisions, in reality, public relations and marketing strategies are based on withholding information and encouraging irrational impulses. An example is the “psychology of nagging” to target children, a category of consumers previously considered unprofitable due to its lack of purchasing power. However, businesses—collaborating with psychologists and advertisers—realized that manufacturing “wants” in children could become lucrative if they nag their parents enough that the adults spend money.

Chomsky warns of the dangers of corporate interests applying this principle to politics by engineering an “uninformed electorate that will make irrational choices, often against their own interests” (129). Similarly, businesses can work to produce an uninformed public, thereby significantly undermining the democratic process. For example, Chomsky argues that Barak Obama’s victory in 2008 better indicated marketing industry successes than the will of the people. His reasoning is simple: Obama didn’t promise to implement any policy the people demanded, a harbinger for his lack of progress during the four-year term. In other words, policy increasingly caters to the elites who fund campaigns and detaches from public opinion. Chomsky points out that because rational decisions would effectively dismantle corporate power, elites continue to pour billions into advertising.