The Dudeism Forum

Miscellaneous What-Have-You => That's interesting, man. That's fucking interesting => Topic started by: BikerDude on March 31, 2015, 08:53:20 AM

Title: Pagan stateism?
Post by: BikerDude on March 31, 2015, 08:53:20 AM
That's what they called it.
http://www.npr.org/2015/03/30/396365659/how-one-nation-didnt-become-under-god-until-the-50s-religious-revival (http://www.npr.org/2015/03/30/396365659/how-one-nation-didnt-become-under-god-until-the-50s-religious-revival)

MP3
http://pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2015/03/20150330_fa_01.mp3 (http://pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2015/03/20150330_fa_01.mp3)

Quote
The New Deal had passed a large number of measures that were regulating business in some ways for the first time, and it [had] empowered labor unions and given them a voice in the affairs of business. Corporate leaders resented both of these moves and so they launched a massive campaign of public relations designed to sell the values of free enterprise. The problem was that their naked appeals to the merits of capitalism were largely dismissed by the public.

The most famous of these organizations was called The American Liberty League and it was heavily financed by leaders at DuPont, General Motors and other corporations. The problem was that it seemed like very obvious corporate propaganda. As Jim Farley, the head of the Democratic Party at the time, said: "They ought to call it The American Cellophane League, because No. 1: It's a DuPont product, and No. 2: You can see right through it."

So when they realized that making this direct case for free enterprise was ineffective, they decided to find another way to do it. They decided to outsource the job. As they noted in their private correspondence, ministers were the most trusted men in America at the time, so who better to make the case to the American people than ministers?