Leaders were looking at ways to employ social psychology for manipulating the mass mind, and they were moving in that direction even before Bernays's appearance on the historical stage. In large part, yes. In a democratic society, the interests of powerand the interests of the public are often at odds. The rise of publicrelations is testimony to the ways that institutions of vested power,over the course of the twentieth century, have been compelled to justify and package their interests in order to make them appear compatible with the common good. I think that there's a great deal of opposition to public relations.
People rightfully feel used.
The problem is that most of us don't have the tools to counteract public relations. Our educations don't provide us with an in-depth picture of the PR apparatus and how it works, nor does it teach us to use the tools that are necessary for engaging in public discussion and debate in today's world. Literacy is never just about reading, it's is also about writing. A lot of hype can be sniffed out in a minute. Good hype, however, is fairly invisible.