STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES USED FOR THE MANIPULATION OF PUBLIC OPINION AND SOCIETY.
mauricemigambi@yahoo.com
- The strategy of diversion An essential element of social control, the strategy of diversion consists in diverting the attention of the public from the important problems and the changes decided by the political and economic elites, thanks to a continual deluge of distractions and insignificant information. The strategy of diversion is also essential to prevent the public from being interested in essential knowledge, in the fields of science, economics, psychology, neurobiology, and cybernetics. “Keep the public’s attention distracted, away from real social issues, captivated by matters of no real importance. Keeping the audience busy, busy, busy, with no time to think; back to the farm with the other animals. (from “Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars”) 2. Create problems, then offer solutions This method is also called “problem-react-solution”. We first create a problem, a “situation” intended to provoke a certain reaction from the public, so that the latter is itself asking for the measures that we want them to accept. For example: allowing urban violence to develop, or organizing bloody attacks, so that the public demands security laws to the detriment of freedom. Or: create an economic crisis to make the rollback of social rights and the dismantling of public services accepted as a necessary evil. 3. The gradient strategy To get an unacceptable measure accepted, all you have to do is apply it gradually, in a “gradient”, over a period of 10 years. It was in this way that radically new socio[1]economic conditions were imposed during the 1980s to 1990s. a revolution if they had been applied brutally. 4. The delayed strategy Another way to get an unpopular decision accepted is to present it as “painful but necessary”, by obtaining the public’s agreement in the present for an application in the future. It is always easier to accept a future sacrifice than an immediate one. Firstly because the effort is not to be provided right away. Then because the public always tends to naively hope that “everything will be better tomorrow” and that the sacrifice demanded can be avoided. Finally, it allows time for the audience to get used to the idea of change and accept it with resignation when the time is right. Recent example: the transition to the Euro and the loss of monetary and economic sovereignty were accepted by European countries in 1994-95 for application in 2001. Another example: the FTAA multilateral agreements that the USA imposed in 2001 to the countries of the American continent, however reluctant, by conceding a deferred application until 2005. and a particularly infantilizing tone, often bordering on the debilitating, as if the viewer were a toddler or mentally handicapped. Typical example: the French TV campaign for the changeover to the Euro (“the euro days”). The more we try to deceive the viewer, the more we adopt an infantilizing tone. Why ? “If a person is addressed as if they were 12 years old, then, because of suggestibility, they will, with some probability, have a response or reaction as uncritical as a person 12 years old. » (cf. « Silent weapons for quiet wars ») 6. Appealing to the emotional rather than to the reflection Appealing to the emotional is a classic technique for bypassing rational analysis, and therefore the critical sense individuals. In addition, the use of the emotional register opens the door to the unconscious to implant ideas, desires, fears, impulses, or behaviors… 7. Keeping the public in the dark and stupidity Making the public incapable of understanding the technologies and methods used for its control and slavery. “The quality of education given to the lower classes should be of the poorest kind, so that the gap of ignorance which isolates the lower classes from the upper classes is and remains incomprehensible to the lower classes. (cf. “Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars”) 8. Encourage the public to indulge in mediocrity Encourage the public to find it “cool” to be stupid, vulgar, and uneducated… 9. Replace rebellion with guilt Make the individual believe that he is solely responsible for his misfortune, because of the insufficiency of his intelligence, his capacities, or his efforts