Business evangelism and the search for social harmony: 1891–1916

Human Nature Is Not a Machine: On Liberty, Attention Engineering, and Learning Analytics

“…through the power of attracting, holding, and organizing the attention and the vision of men" (Gerald Stanley Lee in personal correspondence, quoted in Bush 1991, 113, 150). A preacher-turned-essayist and social reformer who promoted advertising and other emerging forms of mass communication as means of achieving social progress, Lee observed the attention scarcity that resulted from information overload engendered by new media and communication technologies of the time (Bush 1991(Bush , 1992Kazi 2012). Lee's brand of attention engineering is characterized by elitism and economic paternalism in which "certain 'good' people had the right to 'interrupt' the public" and influence mass culture through beliefs, values, and behaviors (Bush 1991, 147).…”

“…Lee was influential in developing the concepts of a mass public, crowd psychology, market society, and consumer culture (Bush 1991(Bush , 1992Emerson 1946a). He thought that the "mystical powers of technology had revealed 'psychic currents'" (Bush 1992, 303) and that social and moral progress could be achieved through advertising, mass persuasion, and emotional appeals (Bush 1991). His own advertising campaigns often exploited social comparison and individuals' sensitivity to social surveillance (Bush 1991).…”

“…He thought that the "mystical powers of technology had revealed 'psychic currents'" (Bush 1992, 303) and that social and moral progress could be achieved through advertising, mass persuasion, and emotional appeals (Bush 1991). His own advertising campaigns often exploited social comparison and individuals' sensitivity to social surveillance (Bush 1991). Lee advocated "steering people's heads inside" (Lee 1913, 147) by "employing forces that can be made extremely small, invisible, personal, penetrating, and spiritual" (224).…”

“…Lee advocated "steering people's heads inside" (Lee 1913, 147) by "employing forces that can be made extremely small, invisible, personal, penetrating, and spiritual" (224). In Lee's worldview, influencing the public en masse was more important than understanding citizens as individuals (Bush 1991).…”

“…Lee's theory of attention engineering arose in the midst of the communication revolution wrought by industrialization, urbanization, commercialization, and the emergence of a mass press, concurrent with a rise in technocratic mechanization and scientific management (Bush 1991). The classical liberalism established in works by Emerson and John Stuart Mill express concern for the state of individuality in the context of emerging techniques to manipulate mass sentiment (Emerson 1946a;Mill [1859] library trends/summer 2019 2004).…”