HackerTube / Video
The Century of the Self - Part 1: "Happiness Machines"
JustAdamCurtis
The first part of Adam Curtis' documentary series on Sigmund Freud and his nephew Edward Bernays, who invented public relations. It shows how Bernays used Freud's ideas to link mass-produced goods to unconscious desires and create modern consumer persuasion.
HN commenters recommend it constantly in threads about advertising, propaganda and manipulation as the origin story of the consumer society.
20 Hacker News mentions · 2017–2025