Who are your heroes? Whom do you admire? Who is your inspiration?

I'd have to say Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and Edward Bernays (listed in order of my discovery of them in my life) are the three who've always captivated me since I learned of them. Building on the work of Sigmund Freud et al, they pioneered modern methods of propaganda and mass control. Few have been so able to manipulate the perception, thoughts, and will of the masses so effectively. These men were masters of making the masses believe and want anything they wanted them to, tapping into a basic human desire for control and authority once only so masterfully used by the best engineers of organized religion and faith. Bernays totally redefined democracy and proved once and for all that the best way to sustain 'democracy' is to destroy its heart while maintaining its facade and that the best way to sustain tyranny and the rule of the elites is to convince the masses that they desire exactly that which you wish to inflict upon them. He engineered the emergence of consumptionism, which paved the way for corporatism as we know it. Sure, others have built upon their work and continue to do so, and other preceded them, but these men were the pioneers who built the foundations of the modern world and the existing order.