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Manipulation of The People
— The Rudiments of Propaganda
Andrew Paterson—09/2003
(updated 09/05) |
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Despite living in "the free
world", there are very few free men and women
walking around in our democracies. Very few indeed.
This is because some men and women have a human
failing that drives them to want to manipulate
others for the sake of power. That manipulation
has enslaved humanity throughout most of its history,
and still presents the most ominous threat to democracy.
Following is an outline to that manipulation, and
what we can do about it. |
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THINK WE LIVE in
a democracy, which is the type of society in which
ultimate power lies with the people. Our leaders are
supposed to be our servants, accountable to the people
and fulfilling the wishes of the people, making decisions
for the greater good of all. Of course, for the people
to exercise this power responsibly and wisely, they
need to have an accurate picture and understanding
of what is going on in the world, so that they are
able to steer society in the best direction. (Driving
with poor eyesight is a recipe for a crash!) The lifeblood
of democracies, therefore, is the free and undistorted
flow of information, and the transparency of society's
workings (except of course where those workings directly
endanger national security). |
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| The rate and density of information flow has been
rising exponentially since the end of the Second World
War. The arrival of television networks, electronic
printing presses, satellites, cheap data routers, the
computer and the internet have meant that information
flow and processing have never been faster, easier,
cheaper or more far-reaching. Whilst this potentially
increases news flow, diversity and opinion, in reality
the counter-pressures of market forces and corporate
conglomeration, which has led to a virtual media monopoly
where only a handful of multinationals now own and
control the vast majority of mainstream media outlets,
have meant that there has actually been an overall
contraction in information diversity and opinion. Mainstream
media is now almost invariably mass-produced, corporate-friendly,
nationalistic and unchallenging, hooking the audience
with a riveting milieu of banality, fear, violence,
hatred, and sex. |
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| With control over the West's mass media falling into
the hands of a small group of multinationals (only
5 control just about all the US media), the potential
for information flow to be spun by the interests of
big business (and governments, which have a symbiotic
relationship with big business) has never been greater.
In fact, research directly demonstrates that news stories
or opinions which are anti-capitalist, anti-nationalistic
or anti-government are far less likely to make it into
print or be covered by television than those that support
capitalism, nationalism and our present governments.
And reporters who do not tow the line with the media
owner's opinions are likely to find themselves quickly
out of a job! |
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| So we know that the information channels that most
people use in our democratic societies are becoming
less free and undistorted, a process that is eroding
the heart of democracy itself — the people's
power. In fact, you could say that the level of democracy
is inversely proportional to the extent to which information
is controlled and spun. One positive thing that has
come out of the recent US/UK illegal invasion of Iraq,
and the murder of a hundred thousand of its civilians,
is that people (at least outside the US) are beginning
to wake up to the level of public manipulation. In
the US, for example, 70% of people recently polled
believed that Saddam Hussein was directly responsible
for the World Trade Centre disaster. This is undeniably
false and even Bush eventually and begrudgingly admitted
that there was no connection, but this was only after
stringing the people along on this one because the
government needed public support. |
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| Here in the UK, mass media has more diversity and
so the people were not so obedient to their masters'
wishes. That said, the lack of public support, party
support, intelligence support and even Cabinet support,
was not enough to stop Tony Blair from dragging
this country into an illegal war alongside the US.
With the UK's media diversity, the government was
forced to do all the spinning itself, putting out lie
after lie to the British public and the news agencies.
The result is that Blair is the least trusted Prime
Minister in recent British history, with his grin (that
so many Americans seem to find endearing) synonymous
with deceit. Blair's whole edifice of deception is
looking more and more fragile, but that does not mean
that he is necessarily out of government. A bit of
PR, the sacrifice of a few scapegoats, photo-opportunities
with world leaders, an adoring kiss from his wife on
camera, and he will probably hold on to his job… such
is politics. |
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| Our leaders don't care about democracy. Why should
they? After all, being accountable to the people only
reduces their power, and as George Orwell said, "no
one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing
it. Power is not a means, it is an end. The object
of power is power." The same holds for corporations… why
would corporations care about people when their bottom
line is the maximisation of profit? Sure, there are
many instances when caring about people does maximise
profits, but rest assured that when the two clash,
and they often do behind the scenes, profits ALWAYS
come before people, unless prevented from doing so
by legislation. However, as government
and big business are bedfellows, with ex-politicians
often sitting on the boards of big companies, the
business community is able to unduly and undemocratically
influence that legislative process, steering our legal
system towards a corporate and controlled state. Governments
and corporations work hand in
hand to erode democracy because that is in their interest.
That is their nature. But for how long can democracy
be eroded before it becomes a dictatorship? How much
democratic savings do we have left in the bank before
we wake up to the fact that we are merely a pseudo-democracy?
(Some might argue that we are this already.) |
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| If we want to live in societies that are democracies
only in name, bearing all the attributes of dictatorships,
then we only need to carry on in the direction we are
headed: trust the government, wave our flags, support
our boys and girls murdering in far-off countries,
read the newspapers, watch the television, and vote
every few years. Then we can congratulate ourselves
that we are the "free world", looking with
scorn on the barbarity of dictatorships in many developing
countries. If that is what we want, then we will
have it soon, sooner than we can possibly imagine.
(There are huge military programs underway in the US
for mass civilian control for when the people finally
realize that they no longer have the freedoms of a
democracy… but
by that time it will probably be too late.) |
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| If we the people decide that democracy is not worth
giving up, that power is safest in our hands rather
than in those who have the pathology to be
driven towards power in the first place, then we need
to be more proactive. First of all, we need to fully
realize that whenever any group of people has a disproportionate
influence over government policy, democracy has suffered
a severe blow, period. There are no exceptions. If
criticism of government or corporate activity in the
US, for example, is automatically labeled"unpatriotic" or "un-American",
then the America that is being defended is decidedly
not a democracy and therefore not worth defending.
Secondly, we need to understand exactly how the people
are manipulated into doing the bidding of their leaders
and the multinationals, so glaringly against their
own interest. We need to understand the methods of
manipulation. (I deliberately use the term propaganda
sparingly as it is more difficult to define and understand.) |
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| METHODS OF MANIPULATION |
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| 1. |
Control The Media: This is
the first and most important step in the control
of information. Media ownership is central to
the manipulation of the people. Manipulate the
people, and you manipulate their vote. You either
control the media by owning it or by doing favours
to those who own it. In the United States, large
corporations own the media and these, in turn,
receive favours from the Government in the form
of influence over legislation and special tax
breaks. Worryingly, only five mega-media corporations
now control almost all of the US media, which
is why the American people are among the most
ignorant and brainwashed in the world. |
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| 2. |
Television: Television has
done more harm to society than any other medium.
It has shrunk attention spans with its 5 second
sound bites, presenting us with a diet of dissociated
facts and trivialities, completely out of any
historical or sociological context, usually with
an emotional charge to keep us watching. In its
fairground approach, serious questions and reasoning
is replaced by slick emotional imagery, discussion
is reduced to a screaming match between two opposing
extremists in a ludicrously polarized debate,
and the reality of even serious matters such
as war is reduced to entertainment. It would
not be an exaggeration to say that television,
in its present form, is the nemesis of true democracy.
(Although it has the potential to be something
far different.) |
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| 3. |
Perpetual War: A country at
war with an enemy (external or internal) is generally
a country that is united in fear, and one in
which the people are happy to hand over power
to their leaders. As Orwell wrote: "The consciousness
of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes
the handing-over of all power to a small caste
seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival." Until
recently, the Soviet Union and communism represented
this danger for us in the West. Upon its collapsed,
however, there was a rise in civil liberties
until the US was able to start a new war to camouflage
its imperialist and dictatorial ambitions: The
War Against Terror. Since the start of this
war, huge swathes of freedoms have been taken
back from the people under the guise of "national
security" and "protection". The
War on Terror has the added advantage of being
unwinnable and therefore perpetually serves those
who want power. Herman Goering said at the Nuremberg
Trials: "The
people can always be brought to the bidding of
the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do
is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce
the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing
the country to danger. It works the same in any
country." |
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| 4. |
Language: Orwell knew better
than most the power of language in defining our
reality and our behaviour. He wrote in Nineteen
Eighty Four, "War is Peace"; doublespeak
ominously mirrored by Bush during the Iraq war
when he said, "The war in Iraq is really
about peace." The assault on Iraq was continually
referred to as "liberation", and the
US military called it "Operation Iraqi Freedom".
Of course, liberation and freedom had little
to do with the real reason that the US and UK
invaded that country, but the rhetoric at least
allows concerned citizens an excuse to deceive
themselves into supporting blatant imperialism.
Other doublespeak terms used by the military
include "collateral damage" for civilian
casualties and "the axis of evil" which
gives the impression that countries with different
ideologies to that of the US are somehow plotting
together to hurt the US (when in fact most of
these countries have almost no diplomatic relationships
with each other). Control language and you control
people's thoughts. In 1984, Orwell asserts
that the control of language (and the elimination
of selected vocabulary) is a prerequisite
for the control of the People: "Don't you
see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow
the range of thought? In the end, we shall make
thoughtcrime literally impossible because there
will be no words in which to express it… The
whole climate of thought will be different. In
fact, there will be no thought as we understand
it now." |
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| 5. |
Patriotism: At first patriotism
might seem a show of solidarity of people and
country, but it is actually one of the main methods
that people are manipulated into serving their
government in ways that may not be in their best
interest. Tolstoy wrote: "…the subjection
of men to government will always continue as
long as patriotism exists, for every ruling power
rests on patriotism — on the readiness
of men to submit to power… " As long
as people are patriotic, they will overlook the
sins of their government, both towards their
own people, and towards other those in other
countries. When Blair is questioned whether he
has any regrets over Iraq, for example, he avoids
the question and appeals to patriotism, "I
think our boys have done a fantastic job," implying
that anyone who questions the legitimacy of the
Iraqi invasion questions the legitimacy of "our
boys". This tendency for evil policy to ride
through on a wave of patriotism is particularly
prevalent in the US. |
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| 6. |
Dissociation of the Facts: This
is a classic method used by governments and the
media to maintain the fantasies that they use
to control the thought of their people. For example,
the Blair government insisted that the London
bombings were the result of irrational religious
fanatics, period, because that gets them off
the far more likely hook that they were an evil
and direct consequence of its murderous foreign
policy. In this way, "blow back" from
its actions denied. Dissociation of facts is
particularly easy with a media source like TV
(see 2 above). |
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| 7. |
Religions and Cults: The promise
of eternal life and the threat of hell (the carrot
and the stick) approach of most religions and
cults has led to more murder, misery, torture,
sexual abuse, child abuse, suicide, guilt, shame,
anger, perversion, hostility and slavery than
any other form of manipulation in history. The
Roman Catholic Church has even apologised recently
for its abusive past (not that this
will have much effect on its behaviour).
The rise in Christian Fundamentalism in the US
is certainly correlated by its rise
to being the leading terrorist country and bully
on the world stage. (Anything "fundamentalist" just
means that ideology is being put in front of
people… a recipe for individual and mass
abuse.) |
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| 8. |
Robotic Education: It is a
fallacy to believe that only the uneducated can
be manipulated. Some believe that the educated
are actually the easiest to manipulate because
they have been trained to to process
so much information that they often become less
critical. The educated also tend to need an opinion
on everything. Educational today is tailored
to manufacturer individuals to support government
propaganda. Whereas students in the
past were revolutionary and questioned society,
today it would seem that that revolutionary edge
has been tempered by an acceptance of the corporatisation
of society, the poison of patriotism, and the
soporific effect of institutionalised entertainment
and titillation. |
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| 9. |
Corporate Slavery: Corporations
are mini dictatorships that force people to work
long hours for relatively little of the overall
profits. Today, most people work for corporations,
and so most people are used to dictatorial environments
and are left with little time to concern themselves
with the state of society and the world. This
makes people very susceptible to government manipulation
because they are so used to being manipulated
at work, and to being slaves to a system. Some
believe that the ethos of working long and intense
hours, something that even slaves in former times
were not subject to, is a good thing for society
as it raises everybody's standard of living.
This may be true to some extent, but it is still
an underhanded manipulation of society, and in
a democracy the people should be at least conscious
of this fact. |
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| 10. |
Fear: This is one of the best
ways to control people… fear of violence,
destitution, disapproval, ridicule, change etc.
Fear is used to manipulate people into receiving
dangerous and expensive medical treatments, into
buying 4x4 vehicles, into buying expensive cosmetics
and clothes so that we are loved for being beautiful
(and not hated for being old and ugly), into
giving money to cancer charities (most of which
squander it on chemotherapy poisons that can
be statistically worse than no treatment at all),
into attending church so we don't go to hell
and into being a corporate slave so that we don't
find ourselves thrown out on the street by our
mortgage company. In fact, fear is the best motivation
in governmental, corporate and religious manipulation.
(see also 27). |
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| 11. |
Repeat A Lie: Joseph Goebbels
said: "Never admit a lie - simply keep repeating
it." This works wonders for governments intent
on misleading its citizens. This is the reason
why 70% of Americans believe that Iraq was behind
9-11 despite all evidence to the contrary. The
Bush propaganda machine just keeps repeating
it over and over. And over here in the UK, Blair
just keeps repeating that weapons of mass destruction
exist and that it was a "good thing" to
illegally invade a sovereign state. When no WMD
were discovered in Iraq, Blair just started repeating
another lie that the world is safer as a result
of his disastrous Iraq invasion. |
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| 12. |
Hide Truth in a Barrage of Lies: This
is a very useful method of not getting caught
making a lie. The lies that go along with the
truthful piece of information spin that truth
so that it is no longer any use. When questioned
on this method, governments can always hold up
their hands in mocked surprise telling us that
they give us the truth all along. During the
Iraqi war, for example, truth and fiction were
deliberately mixed together by the US and UK
governments in a very confusing way, with innuendos
of fictitious Iraqi military capacity. The government
here in the UK is trying to contend that the
45-minute claim in the intelligence dossier actually
referred to more conventional weapons, and therefore
everyone was telling the truth. |
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| 13. |
Unnecessary Secrecy: Every
government needs to have some level of secrecy
in military matters to protect its boarders and
its people. But when this is used to withhold
information from the people which is not necessary
for national security then the position of governments
to classify information is being abused. This
is now happening on a daily basis in so called
democracies as governments take a dim view of
the people's right to know. This focus on secrecy,
often justified by war, is also extending into
the corporate world where big business is demanding
the right, for reasons ranging from terrorism
to competitive edge, to keep its policies and
workings secret from the public. When the public
is kept in the dark, democracy itself is dimmed. |
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| 14. |
Vilifying Our Enemies: This
is the classic method of manipulation that
justifies hash treatment for both internal
enemies and external enemies. Drug dealers,
murderers, foreign dictators, asylum seekers
and people in other countries are often dehumanized
to justify their inhumane treatment and often
murder at the hands of our governments, society
and ourselves. Iraqi soldiers in the Kuwait
war, for example, were falsely accused of mass
murder of babies on incubators, which justified
their mass murder at the hands of the American
military. Dehumanization also blocks us making
any attempt to try to understand the motives
and feelings of our perceived enemies, something
that if we did might reveal our own and/or
our government's complicity in our enemy's
actions. There is a pernicious assumption in
our society that trying to understand the motives
of someone who has performed an evil act or
wants to perform an evil act is the same as
condoning that act. Those who wish to manipulate
us would far rather we label all acts in response
to our society's control mechanisms, either
here or abroad, as acts perpetrated by evil
and irrational people, rather than evil and
irrational acts perpetrated by desperate people.
Only the second perspective gives a chance
to reconcile with
our enemy, something that our controllers would
certainly not want (see 3 above). |
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| 15. |
Evasion of Responsibility: Leading
politicians know exactly how to duck and dive
their way out of sticky situations by setting
up a string of fall guys and girls. Nobody is
as expert at this as Blair who has survived several
disasters of his prime ministership, any one
of which could have terminated his appointment.
Master manipulators are great at throwing up
smokescreens; at being evasive. The people, therefore,
are continually manipulated into thinking the
problem is everyone except the leader or corporation
involved. |
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| 16. |
Control Reporters: One of
the simplest ways to control the information
going to the media is to control which reporters
have access to the source of information. You
can be sure, for example, that no pacifists were
invited along with the military to report on
the invasion of Iraq. Another way that reporters
where psychologically manipulated during recent
middle-east conflicts was by having them imbedded
— in other words completely dependent and
therefore grateful to the US/UK forces for protecting
them in hostile environments. You hardly criticism
the hand the feeds and protects you! |
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| 17. |
Advertising/PR: When we live
in an environment saturated with corporate advertising
and PR, we grow used to their presence. We almost
expect to be manipulated into purchasing or consuming
something or other. The way that most advertising
is conducted is to hook us on an emotional response
rather than employing our cerebral cortex — the
idea being that more primitive responses of the
brain are more predictable and so the outcome
of the advertising/PR is more assured. What we
don't realize is that these techniques are being
used to sell us more than just products or services.
They are being used by governments and corporations
to sell us ideas and worldviews that support
those governments and corporations aims. (Hundreds
of millions of dollars were spent in the build
up of the Iraqi war by the Bush government to
manipulate the American people into supporting
him — but few people realize this.) |
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| 18. |
Debt: A people and a nation
in debt is far easier to manipulate than one
that isn't because its members are so busy paying
off their mortgages and rents that they don't
have the time, the energy or the inclination
to challenge the status quo. The average person
is deliberately kept just short of bankruptcy
so that he remains a slave to the system. (Slaves
only question the system if they can imagine
freedom; a slave who has no concept of freedom
does not need much control or cohesion.) Manipulation
via debt also applies to nations where it is
used ruthlessly by the developed countries to
enslave undeveloped countries and steal their
resources. |
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| 19. |
Consumerism: Strange how shopping
has become the favourite pastime for most young
people these days. Hook people on consumerism
and they will believe that the dissatisfaction
that they feel is because they don't have the
latest car or mobile phone. The pursuit of materialism
blunts the democratic process for two reasons:
firstly, the corporate model becomes the predominant
model in society; and secondly, rampant consumerism
is unecological and destructive to communities
both in here and abroad — something that
if people freely thought about they would realize
is not in their interest (which is why advertising
has to engage them emotionally). Consumerism
has become such a pillar of modern social control
that it is hardly even questioned any more. |
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| 20. |
Fantasy and Entertainment: Almost
everyone is glued to their televisions many hours
each day, and many young people play an inordinate
amount of computer games. Film and pop stars
are now our main role models, with a level of
decadence and excess that only very few of the
people could and ever will match. Entertainment
has become Huxley's soma of the people,
dulling their desire to challenge the status
quo and giving those who would manipulate us
a far easier task. The main way to keep ratings
high on national television is to appeal to the
primitive emotions of fear and anger. This sensationalism
is one of the main reasons for the negative effect
of this medium on the people and to its alarming
distortion of reality. |
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| 21. |
Drugs and Alcohol: An extension
of entertainment, drugs and alcohol give the
people an "outlet" for their dissatisfaction
and unhappiness, often sublimating their desire
to democratically make changes in the society
in which they live. The consumption of excessive
alcohol, painkillers and anti-depressants has
reached epidemic proportions. Some drugs, such
as hallucinogens, can heighten our
perception of what is going on in the world provided
they are taken in the right context and not as
an escape, but by far the majority of people
are taking recreational drugs to cloud
their perception of reality. A
population that uses these sorts of escape valves
is far less likely to challenge the status quo. |
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| 22. |
Romance / Sex Fixation: Romance
and sex have always had a huge and healthy part
to play in society. But when these two desires
are railroaded by corporations then our natural
instincts are being used to powerfully manipulate
our behaviour into supporting the designs of
others. There is nothing romantic about murder,
but that has not stopped even war, which is mass
murder, from becoming romanticized in our popular
media. |
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| 23. |
Assumed Authority: Most people
have an unhealthy respect for those in authority.
This makes them controllable by those who assume
that authority. Many young people today dislike
people in authority, but this is usually only
a psychological stage through which they are
going to being adult members of society. In fact,
hatred for authority is little different to love
for it. We have to realize that in a democracy,
anybody in "authority" is just a human
being acting as a particular servant to the people.
(Authority in corporations is a different matter
as these are not democratic institutions.) Blindly
following authority, however, can have devastating
consequences. Each year in the United States,
for example, 113,000 people die from the side-effects
of medical drugs or errors in medication, but
still most are unwilling to challenge their doctor's
opinions because they are not only afraid of
challenging authority, they love to acquiesce
in it. |
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| 24. |
National Self-Centeredness: It
is very easy for us in the West to be blind to
the reason why "foreigners" get so upset
about our military expansion and intervention
in world affairs. We forget that if another country,
say China, behaved in the way the US behaves
internationally, we would be preparing for war.
Nations are naturally self-centered, and what
we might label as "defence" or a "war
on terrorism" is very likely to be labeled
as "attack" and "imperialist expansion" by
those outside our borders. If, for example, Iran
insisted on having a military base in Mexico,
there would be national outcry in the US (and
no doubt the rest of the Americas) and yet the
US does not understand a similar response from
other countries to the copious US military bases
worldwide. In this way, people, corporations
and governments are blind to their own actions
because they have a short-sighted perspective.
The people are thus manipulated into supporting "defence" when
it is really offence. Denial is also involved
with those with a strong sense of nationalism.
George Orwell once wrote, "The nationalist
not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed
by his own side. He has a remarkable capacity
for not even hearing about them." |
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| 25. |
Bogus History: George Orwell
said "He who controls the past commands the
future." History is being rewritten at every
available opportunity by governments, corporations,
religions and filmmakers in order to manipulate
the worldview of the people. From the holocaust
deniers to those that try to justify the dropping
of atomic bombs on Japan at the end of WWII (despite
the fact that Japan has already surrendered),
history is continually rewritten to support particular
ideological frameworks and of course national
triumphantism. Today, few understand the hatred
of the Middle-Eastern countries towards the West,
conveniently attributing it to something as irrational
as Islamic Fundamentalism. In reality, the West
and especially the US was shamelessly manipulating
this region of the world for most of the 20th
Century and entirely out of self-interest. If
anyone needs to understand this hatred, the irrationality
of religious fundamentalism is most certainly
not the place to start. |
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| 26. |
Insults: It is remarkable
that in the 21st century, name calling is still
one of the major techniques of political "discussion" at
the highest level. Branding someone as a "communist" or
a "socialist" is still considered a terrible
slur, especially in the US. Like appeals to patriotism,
insulting someone in this way is used ad nausea
by government, corporate and other fascist representatives
who have been presented with undeniable facts
for their wrongdoing against the people. The
Founding Fathers of the US would no doubt be
liable to this insult if they were alive today
for their people-oriented constitution. |
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| 27. |
Physical Intimidation: Of
course, if none of the above techniques are working, "democracies" can
resort to physical intimidation. I have a friend
who was beaten by police in the US for just being
on the street during a political protest… she
wasn't taking part and was just watching the
marchers pass. In the United Police State of
America intimidation of the people is used to
keep society in line, and it is absolutely incorrect
to believe that physical abuse of captives only
happens in far off dictatorships and socialist
countries. The US illegally holds and tortures
Afghan prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in
direct contravention of the Geneva Convention.
This is an astonishing example by the so called
flagship of democracy to set to the rest of the
world and to its own population. The message
to the world is Might is Right (and so is torture). |
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| All these methods and situations are
used to manipulate society. Of course, it has been
argued that some manipulation is necessary in order
to have people fulfil their "function" or "role" in
society: give their life to the corporate world, have
2.2 children, obediently pay off their mortgage, and
silently go off to war like lambs to the slaughter
to "defend" their country. Otherwise, God Forbid,
the corporate world would crumble, people might have
no children… or 10 out of wedlock, the banks
might lose the interest that they charge on imaginary
money (fractional reserve banking) and a lot less innocent
women, men and children might be murdered in far off
countries (or by state-sponsored medical poisons).
What some call the positive or essential role of this
manipulation or propaganda still takes away power from
the people and puts it into a societal structure that
benefits the few at the expense of the many. This clearly
contravenes the ideals of democracy in which the people
hold the power and make the decisions. |
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| If democracy is something worth preserving (it might
not be ideal but history bears testimony to the disasters
and terrible suffering that inevitably happen when
the people do not hold the power) then we have to reduce
the level of manipulation on our lives so that we begin
to act consciously in our interests rather than unconsciously
in the interests of the few (politicians, big business,
the military, banks etc.) |
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| BREAKING FREE |
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| Reducing our susceptibility to manipulation is actually
relatively easy, although it does take effort. Part
of it is just becoming conscious of the methods of
manipulation above by thinking deeply about them, but
this must be accompanied by an effort to push against
the norm, against what everybody else does. However,
it is a small price to pay when one considers that
democracy itself and the freedom of our children is
at stake. Manipulation may well be endemic in society,
but the following steps will be more than enough to
immunise us against its influence: |
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| 1) |
Stop Watching Television: Throw
it out! There is no other medium that causes
more distortion and manipulation than television.
With its neuron-numbing sound bites, dissociated
facts and images, its huge susceptibility to
government and corporate propaganda due to almost
100% big business ownership, its distortion of
the most serious situations like war into entertainment,
and its ominous presence in every home, television
has become the number one tool for manipulating
society. |
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| 2) |
Stop Mainstream Newspapers, Magazines & Radio: These
also present a highly distorted picture of the
world, especially in the United States where
media diversity is almost nonexistent. (There
are a still a few good national newspapers here
in UK such as The Guardian and The Independent.)
Alternative press is very strong in magazine
department and it is easy to find very good alternative
magazines, often in your local health shop. |
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| 3) |
Get Your News Online: The
internet is a great place to learn about what
is going on in the world due to the very small
setup costs that allow a huge diversity of opinion.
Sites that are worth getting your basic news
from might include YearZero.org, IndyMedia.org, AlterNet.org, MotherJones.com, Greenpeace.org, CorpWatch.org, YellowTimes.org, TomPaine.com, DisInfo.com WorkingforChange.com, GuerrillaNews.com, GlobalResearch.ca, InformationClearingHouse.info, CorporateWatch.org.uk, PositiveNews.org.uk and OneWorld.net.
These will also give a much more democracy-friendly,
global, accurate and less nationalistic perspective.
(Most mainstream news is a complete waste of
attention.) |
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| 4) |
Stop Waving The Flag: A human
being is a human being no matter what country
he or she happens to be born into. If we truly
love and care about humanity, we accept people
no matter what their country of origin. For too
long countries like the America and the United
Kingdom (and many others) have hidden behind
a wall of patriotism, a wall that serves only
to dehumanise those that we exploit in our imperialism. |
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| 5) |
Become Politically Involved: Although
this means more than a vote every few years,
a vote is a good place to start as voting turnouts
have never been as low due to the increasing
insignificance that people feel. Being politically
active also means lobbying your local MP or senator
over injustice in society and the environment
(both in your own country and abroad), protesting
against corporate behaviour that is at odds with
the interests of society and humanity, and discussing
matters over with friends and associates. Orchestrating
purchasing power in a community is a very powerful
way to rein in governments and corporations. |
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| 6) |
Read Recommended Books: Read
some of the books that have been recommended
on this site. These will give detail, the context
and understanding that the mass media cannot
even begin to cover. |
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| 7) |
Get Out Of Debt: It's easy
to say and impossible for many, but if one can,
even if sacrifices are needed to do so, it is
better not to be in debt as the contract of a
debt (mortgage, borrowing etc.) manipulates you
into being a slave. Whilst many unfortunately
have no choice as their very survival has created
debt, it is concerning that there are a huge
and growing number of people who are in debt
not because they can't afford food and shelter,
but because they have bought into the propaganda
that they "need" a faster car, that bigger
house and the latest flat-screen television. |
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| 8) |
Use Alternative Money Systems: Money
is the currency of power. By using alternative
money systems like LETTS, those that set up the
official money systems (the few) can no longer
drain power from the people. A money system is
a contractual arrangement between two entities,
and ideally one should use a system that only
serves the interests of the people and the community. |
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| 9) |
Free The Mind: This is the
hardest and most profound of all the steps to
stop manipulation, and comes from a combination
of self-education, focus and self-belief. A mind
that knows itself knows how to be free and knows
when it is being manipulated. It is a fact that
those who have substantially practiced meditation
or conscious introspection find it far easier
to know when another person is lying or trying
to manipulate them. Whether mediation means sitting
cross-legged in front of an altar or walking
out in the wilderness, practicing freedom of
the mind — self-knowledge — makes
us much more aware of the processes of enslavement.
Timothy Leary, for example, was one of the freest
men around, even when he was in jail, because
he was free where it counted, in his mind. Whilst
he used a lot of psychedelics to help him reach
that level of self-knowledge, it can be achieved
by anybody with non-drug methods such as meditation
or other spiritual practices. Another technique
that works wonders on the mind is to stop wearing
a watch as often as possible… time synchronizes
our mind energy with society's control systems. |
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| 10) |
Defend human rights and freedoms: If
those in authority violate our human rights and
freedoms, it is our duty to fight back for them
in the courts. Increasingly, this is one of the
only remaining places that we can challenge the
system — mass protests don't seem to be
as effective as they used to be. Do not let those
in authority walk over you. If you do, you just
make it easier for them to do the same thing
to others, and the whole effect snowballs to
Big Brother catastrophe. |
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| 11) |
Protest at every opportunity: Even
though protests seem less effective these days,
they serve the important purpose of uniting the
people protesting. There is nothing more inspiring
then physically marching with others for the
common good of society. |
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| 12) |
Network, network, network: When
we first start to question our assumptions about
reality, our map of reality, it is natural to
withdraw from the world whilst we re-evaluate
ourselves. Often such a process can be quite
emotional because we realize that the whole edifice
of our lives has been based on lies (or at least
on wildly inaccurate maps of reality). This process
of doing the inner work is necessary for each
individual to go through; each has to have his
or her own dark night of the soul. But that process
does not last forever: provided that we do not
resist anything, we naturally move through to
liberation, realizing that we no longer need
society's template against which to measure ourselves.
We become free, and it is natural to then want
to go back into society and network with others
like ourselves who are working for the liberation
of humanity. Community is very important to help
us stay awake, for mutual inspiration, and because
we are much more effective when we work as a
team. Each of us undertaking this journey has
been helped by others who came before us, and
we can express our gratitude to them and to the
whole grand process of awakening by expressing
that freedom in each situation and to every person
that we meet (it could be just a simple smile
to a stranger). That is our soul responsibility. |
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| * * * |
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Anyone who follows all twelve steps above
will be immunised from 95% of all societal manipulation.
If a critical mass of people follows them (perhaps
no more than 5%), power will gradually begin to return
to the people and democracy will be restored. Otherwise,
we will continue to unconsciously squander the democracy
our forebears literally died for (THAT is the value
of democracy), and we will wake up one day, sooner
than we think, in a dictatorship. The choice is ours.  |
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| To see
what is in front of one's nose requires
constant struggle. |
| George
Orwell |
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