(04-27-2016, 09:00 PM)olschoolsteel Wrote: (04-25-2016, 10:37 PM)Uzi Wrote: Nephew of Freud, and the person who turned public opinion of his uncle from the fraud crackpot that he was into the primary theorist in psychology for the next few decades, using his techniques for influencing public opinion.
He realized that words, beyond their definitions, gain true power when instead of mere words, they become symbols and stereotypes. Hence, looking for a definition of artisan is not useful. If you will notice it is their use as symbols and the stereotypes associated with the word that is the true subject of most of the discussion taking place here.
Who created the symbols and stereotypes associated with "artisan"? Men you've never heard of, who work in the marketing and public relations fields. Paraphrasing Humpty Dumpty: It means whatever they want it to mean.
If you want to know how they do it, don't take the quick YouTube tour of Bernays. Read his book. Except, be warned that after you've read it you'll be able to see the matrix.
Ok. My one meaningful and purposeful addition to kick this thread even more sideways than it already is. Uzi, you seem well educated so I will address your points in this post. I'm sure you wont be offended because this would be a wonderful discussion if it were face to face over a cup of coffee and not on a shaving forum with the topic 'What is the definition of Artisan?"
I think you may be blurring the lines between psychology, sociology, and social psychology just a little. First off, Bernay, coming from a well educated family and being well educated himself would have been employing social psychology tools to mold the public to get what he wanted, or what he was paid to do. Yes, propaganda, or now we can call it marketing. (does "lift and cut ring a bell?) Even if it wasnt called that at the time and he didnt know thats the tool he was employing as social psychology is a relatively new field.
I dont think Freud was a fraud, but his methods sure could never stand scrutiny. Thats why everyone, including his own daughter disavowed every part of his therapies, except the actual discussion with a therapist. I destest the fact that every psychology class must start the first chapter on psychodynamic theory when it is a dead and disproven method of treatment.
So, where I think you may be going is the sociology route. One of the 3 tenets of sociology is Symbolic Interactionism. (think of the American flag) The roots of Symbolic Interactionism reside in pragmatism and it assumes that humans act in terms of the meanings they assign to objects in their environments. This also assumes that the meanings are imputed to an object are socially constructed.
So that means different groups (and people) will often assign different meanings to the same object (artisan) and established meanings and definitions are always subject to change, (and thus are and important feature of social change).
Artisan means different things to different people. Depends on the person's own construct of the term. (subjectivity)
Class dismissed. Go have a Coors Light. It tastes better.
I was not offended by anything in your post. I also realize that we are now far afield from defining "artisan." However:
When Bernays wrote the book "Propaganda," the word had no negative connotations. The term took on its current sinister overtones due to the activities of people such as Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda, who kept Bernays book prominently displayed in his bookcase and who had devotedly studied it and efficiently employed the methodologies contained therein. Thereafter, the term, in the United States, was replaced with "public relations," which sounds completely harmless even now.
If one studies Bernays, known as the "father of public relations," along with "Public Opinion," by Walter Lippman, known as the "father of modern journalism" and a contemporary of Bernays, one has a complete blueprint for how the public can be manipulated for purposes, both good or ill, without their slightest awareness that it is happening. These works, were the blueprint for the creation of what sociologists and others, in the early 20th century, called, "Consumerism." Its effects can be viewed in sociological, psychological, philosophical and political terms, since the art of influencing public opinion is applicable across all aspects of human activity.
Therefore, people form what they believe are their own opinions, their own tastes, their own preferences for philosophy, politics, products and leisure activities, yet this is rarely the case. Bernays shows how to manipulate words into symbols and stereotypes for shaping public opinion, while Lippman explains in detail how to use mass media to reach millions of people and to convey the symbols, stereotypes and ideas, in a way that seems like fact and is then adopted and incorporated into everyday, "common sense" belief.
To put us back on topic, I'm now stepping down off of my very excellent artisan soap box, as I can see by looking at my watch, set in it's Navajo artisan made band, that it is time to go feed my dog some very tasty and nutritious gourmet dog food, while I myself eat some small-batch artisan cheese and sip some local artisanal beer.
