Soma so good
Here is the big irony to bring this section about truth decay to a close. In the first half of the 20th century, and in the aftermath of the World Wars, the US government was anxious to curb the evidently violent and irrational instincts of human beings and sought to bring about something placid and constructive. One World War was bad enough, but having to bludgeon our way through a Second World War really did pose some uncomfortable questions about human nature. The US turned to the psychiatric insights of Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays to help them understand the chaotic and destructive forces that must be at work under the surface of things. Apart from leading the push for the establishment of legal frameworks for peace through the United Nations, they also invested millions of dollars in mollifying our primal instincts through the soft comforts of consumerism. The details of this sub-plot to American culture can be found in “Arendt Tackles Climate Change”.
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