Why do you buy the products you buy? Or even more scary, why do you think the thoughts you think? Socrates' famous proverb that the unexamined life is not worth living is just as true today as it was when he said it millennia ago. 

We are products of our culture in ways we do not even realize. That culture is a construct of each of us, but yet we are also constructs of our culture. The "powers that be" use various techniques to influence society. Maybe I am amused easily, but I find it funny that these same "powers" are just as much a victim of their own propaganda as everyone else. That is the power of culture and of propaganda and its sister advertising. 

As the quote from Socrates shows this has always been a problem. But with modern media the problem for modern society is more acute. 

This YouTube video examines these issues by talking about the father of modern PR, Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud. I will post other parts over the next few days.