Torches of Freedom

Mimetic Rivalry and the Desire to Smoke—Even Unto Death

On April 6, 1917, the same day America declared war on Germany, twenty-five-year-old Edward Bernays began the process of enlisting in the U.S. Army. According to Larry Tye’s book about him, Bernays, a 5’4” Austrian-born Jew who was the nephew of Sigmund Freud, was eager to show his patriotism and defend his adopted country. But flat feet and defective vision disqualified him.[i]

The rejection only motivated Bernays to excel in other ways. He was a sly observer of human nature who had a natural talent for rallying people to causes. He began to wonder how he could exploit that gift.

Four years earlier, as a twenty-one year old editor of a small medical reviews magazine, he saw opportunities where others saw obstacles. Given the magazine’s medical focus and the need to generate more interest and readers, Bernays decided to promote the controversial play Damaged Lives by the playwright Eugène Brieux. The play was about a man with syphilis who fathers a child with the disease. It had been b…