Edward Bernays and Wallpaper

Glenn Beck did a program tonight on the original spin doctor, Edward Bernays, a double nephew of Sigmund Freud. He's the guy who decided the word propaganda needed to be changed to "public relations." He's the guy who invented a healthy breakfast for a company that wanted to sell more bacon and got us eating bacon for breakfast (which is odd since he was a Jew). He helped President Woodrow Wilson gin up the public sentiment for WWI (after being against war in his campaign).

So I think his followers must be working for HGTV, one of my favorite cable channels. Virtually every home buyer or apartment hunter on their "reality" shows 1) hates wall paper, 2) hates formica counter tops, 3) hates wall to wall carpeting, and 4) wants to have hard wood floors and granite counters. And the comments are suspiciously consistent in every show. If there are nice hard wood floors they rave; if there is carpet, they talk about the cost of replacement with wood. If there is wallpaper in the kitchen or bath, it's "Oh yuk, this is so dated."

Today I stopped at Lowes which used to have a fabulous wall paper department with a huge selection of books, and at least some in stock, particularly borders. No longer. The section is now tiny--I had to ask how to find it--maybe 20 books. I happen to like wallpaper, and carpeting. I think tile and hardwood floors are cold and difficult to keep clean with a pet (carpets get dirty too, but you just don't see the dust bunnies).

Think of all the self-employed guys who used to lay carpet or clean carpets or hang wallpaper, now out of business.

The American public didn't decide on their own that they preferred wood floors to carpeting--it came about through decorating and women's magazines, and TV shows like we see on HGTV. Someone has already picked out the popular colors for 2015--we just don't know it yet. Dark woods are coming back for kitchen cabinets after about 20 years of popularity of white and blonde. Afterall, how else would they convince people to remodel and replace perfectly good cabinetry?