GuidoWorld

There are certain personality types, human qualities and styles of living life which scare me, and have me feel threatened. The following discussion highlights some of the characteristics I find most frightening.

People who are ambitious scare me. Ambitious people “make things happen”, “will not let anything stand in their way”, and feel the end justifies the means. Ambitious people are never satisfied and never feel that they have accomplished enough, for the moment they feel they have fully accomplished their goal, they would no longer be ambitious.

The discontented rule the world, and a great many of the discontented are ambitious. A contented or satisfied person has no need or desire to control, own and dominate their fellow men. The ambitious on the other hand have no end to that which they can own and control, millions, billions and even trillions are not enough.

Nothing I have is ever truly safe from the ambitious. There is no object I possess or freedom I enjoy which the ambitious cannot take away. My money, my job, my house and my social standing are all vulnerable to the whims of the ambitious.

The quality of the air I breathe, the water I drink, the food I eat, and the landscape I see are all able to be altered and poisoned by the ambitious. Even my future access to food, water, clean air, and honest information is able to be robbed from me by those with ambition. My access to quality health care and the quality of life available to my children and grand children are fully in the hands of those who always feel the need to accumulate and own more and more.

Our society has been sold on the myth of ambition. We are told that without ambition there would be no progress and all advancement in the quality of life and standard of living are the direct result of ambition. Without ambition we would be little better than animals and our lives would never had advanced past the existence of the caveman.

We are often led to believe that there is no difference between ambition and qualities such as drive and determination. Yet, the world of inventors, creators, geniuses, engineers, discoverers, technicians and theoreticians which have given birth to the vast majority of changes and improvements in science, technology, agriculture and medicine which have positively impacted our quality of life and standard of living have not been particularly ambitious.

While some ambitious people have invented or popularized important and essential elements improving our quality of life through improvements in communication, transportation and agriculture, etc. , the vast majority of contributions have come from compassionate and relatively unambitious individuals. Those who use invention as a means to acquire wealth and power, seldom continue to invent and instead become devoted to forming a monopoly to maximize their power and do their best to inhibit future growth and change which would reduce their power and control.

The majority of our most gifted inventors and geniuses prefer to go from one contribution  to the next and have little interest on capitalizing on their accomplishments. The history of invention is filled with people who were never recognized or known for their ground breaking contributions and more often than not died poor or even destitute. Oftentimes the one recognized or known as the inventor stole or ran the true inventor out of business.

The vast majority of major and minor contributors to the advancement of human life were not motivated by or sought wealth and fame. Most of the advancements in our quality of life and standard of living have been done by people like Jonas Salk who chose not to capitalize on his discoveries and instead of patenting his vaccines preferred the option of improving the lives of others in a cost effective manner. Don’t let the ambitious try to convince you otherwise, people can and will be great without a need to control, own or exploit their fellow man.

The ambitious feel they deserve wealth and control, and expect and demand the respect and admiration of others. The dedicated and driven inventor on the other hand feels it an opportunity and privilege to have their talents and discoveries be utilized in a way to benefit their fellow man and have no need for wealth and fame.

Another group of people which make afraid and wary are the desperate. While the ambitious are often hailed and respected it is the rare person who doesn’t immediately fear and protect themselves from the desperate. It is not so important that a person actually be in a dire situation it is only necessary for them to feel desperate for them to be dangerous and harmful to others.

The ambitious and the desperate share a few similar characteristics. The ambitious and the desperate often exist with a sense of urgency which places their concerns, feelings and desires above all others. Both will righteously defend their selfish actions and minimize if not glorify the harm they do to others. Their sense of discontentment dominates all their feelings and actions, and pervades the way they view their world.

Much of my adult life has been spent helping those in desperate situations. I seldom blame or feel that the people I attempt to assist deserve what is happening to them. Yet, even while I care and have compassion for many of the desperate around the globe I realize it would be fool hardy to not realize the danger they pose to me and my existence.

Another group of people I fear are those that feel they have it all figured out. These people feel that absolute truth exists and that they are the fortunate custodians of it. It matters little to me of the source of this monopoly on Truth, it origin could be science, religion, mysticism or spiritualism. What only matters is that for them their is only one Truth for them and for all others.

Since they know the Truth, the only option available to you is to agree with their perspective and conclusions. Any “resistance” to their viewpoint is a sign of stupidity, evil, lostness or danger. The custodians of Truth believe the rights and freedoms of the non-believers are not to be respected, and often times punishment of the non-believers is thought of as being the truly noble and right thing to do.

In the world of belief and Truth, their is no room for discussion, tolerance or divergent viewpoints for either one knows and accepts or one is a problem and a heathen.  As I mentioned earlier it matters little if the source of this inflexible righteousness be science, philosophy, psychology or religion, what is scary is the intolerance shown to all those who question or do not openly agree.

These people scare me not only because they can label me as evil and forbid me to live differently then them, but also because their righteousness and certainty often bar them from seeing the world as it really is and thereby preventing solutions to problems which are causing so much unnecessary suffering in the world.

This does not mean I claim any insight into any competing ultimate truth, but only to recognize that sometimes immediate problems have real solutions that can be shown to work in the here and now. Truth mongers often freeze life into some ideal state which prevents them from seeing the  uniqueness of a situation or how some action or intervention may be beneficial now, but not be suitable in a different time or situation.

The last group of people I’ll address today which frighten me are the deceivers such as con men, propagandists and spin doctors. Now, I am comfortable with the fact that most people have difficulty getting through the day without engaging in some form of lie or exaggeration, yet it is the professional deceiver that scares me. Such professionals don’t have to be perceptual mangers or propagandists, but even salesman, politicians, and businessmen who use deception as a standard means of interacting with others are extremely frightening to me.

I base the majority of my actions, decisions and emotional attachments on the information I have at hand. I try to be sensitive to others and do the right thing, but how can I make a good and caring decision if the information I’m basing that decision on is bogus or dishonest?

Those who deceive can convince me to act in ways which are not in my best interests or in the best interests of others. They can convince or encourage me to do things which harm me or others. They can deceive me into giving away my freedoms or to over estimate perceived dangers. In a world populated by professional deceivers it is hard to feel safe and to trust your instincts. When you are lied to and manipulated it is easy to become depressed, untrusting, cynical and/or disillusioned.

I feel threatened by the deceivers because they put into doubt and rob from me my sense of reality. In a world of deception I lose all sense of perspective, and have no idea if my thoughts and actions are valid or beneficial, or if my accomplishments are real or imagined.

In any relationship or communication in which I tell the truth and the other lies, they have  all the power and control. When I’m honest and they are not, they become the sole possessors of reality, and can use that to their advantage. I’m afraid of those with power because they rob me of reality, and make it unwise for me to trust others.

All four types of people I’ve discussed have a tendency to unnecessarily intrude themselves into my life often with the goal to take from me, change me, exploit me, or have me serve their purposes. I must admit that I do myself have a desire to help, give to and benefit from the talents and lives or those around me. Yet, I try only to give to people what they want and not what I think they should want.

The most disheartening aspect of this post is the fact that our society encourages, fosters and rewards the existence and proliferation of all four of these types of people. I can envision and have often in many other posts outlined the type of changes which we could easily introduce into our social structure which would encourage and foster more noble aspects of human nature. Yet, it is in the selfish exploitative interests of the above mentioned four personality types to have us believe that this is the best of all worlds and that it is human nature for the ambitious and discontented to rule the world.

I have spent over 30 years working with families and individuals trying to improve the quality of their life and their relationships with others and themselves. I have seen how small structural and systematic adjustments can have powerful and lasting impact on the quality of one’s life and personal experience.
I hope you will visit guidoworld often to hear a voice of realistic optimism. There are many of us out there, but we definitely do not have the forum given to the ambitious deceivers who claim absolute certainty. Being generally content we just don’t have the need and sense of urgency similar to the control oriented discontents who currently aspire to and rule the world.

Here is a lyric that fits well into this discussion. I should have a mix for this song on the Zephyr CD within a week or so.

Discovery

Seeking a language of will
That fosters shared reality
The goal be to sate and fulfill
To walk this earth in harmony

The restless hijack society
Into an endless battle for supremacy
Some gird their loins while others flee
Taking refuge in faith, myth and fantasy

Anger and fear block their way
Turn humane thoughts into blasphemy
The empty keep the caring at bay
With tabloid lies and innuendo

Let’s sing our loud life’s sweet rhapsody
Celebrate where we’ve been, and where we will be
We are all passengers of mystery,
Every thought we have, every sense we feel
Is full of discovery

The closer we get the louder they’ll scream
Sages we respect they’ll insult and demean
I respect your life, I revere this life
I’ll comfort you, support all the good you do

Let’s sing our loud life’s sweet rhapsody
Celebrate where we’ve been, and where we will be
We are all passengers of mystery,
Every thought we have, every sense we feel
Is full of discovery

Jim Guido

The entire quality of a human life can change in an instant. A life of relative joy, comfort and happiness can be replaced by hardship, pain and suffering with little or no warning. Everyday lives are impaired, altered and rendered joyless due to a sudden accident, fire, disease or trauma. In most cases there is little reason for the misfortune, and its woes can be indiscriminate and random.

Human beings are often amazing in their ability to adapt and be resilient. Some people can endure the greatest hardships and still emerge with an optimism and energy that defies logic. Yet, this does not make others pain, suffering or depression any less real or compelling. While in one sense people can be resilient, in another sense human life is a very fragile and precious thing.

Sometimes tragic events happen which change or damage many lives at once. Floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, plagues, epidemics can wreak havoc on entire communities or peoples. Often times innocent bystanders can be the victims of war, politics and military aggressions that they have no role or even say in its occurring.

Next to atomic war and plague little matches the devastation that can be rendered by volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis. The people of Japan are currently enduring one of the most hideous forms of tragedy that one can imagine. In just a few moments an entire predictable life and personal history can be washed away by a huge wave, or come collapsing down around you in a traumatic quake.

The comforts and needs it took civilizations thousands of years of sustained growth to acquire can be suddenly taken from you. While some “needs” we are culturally dependent on like electricity and communication devices, others we are truly dependent on such as food, shelter and water.

Both social and mainstream media are event driven. In this respect it should be no surprise that natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, volcanoes and hurricanes instantly capture our attention. The rapid explosion of social media is changing the way we see and receive mews. The vividness of the events unfolding in Japan are so much more enthralling and compelling due to the rise and pervasiveness of social networking technology. The relatively recent events such as Katrina and Haiti pale in comparison  due to their relative lack of on the scene personal coverage and real time processing of personal experiences of those in the midst of the event as it occurs.

While our hearts go out to all those suffering in Japan, we should not forget those all throughout the world who are suffering from man made political and social tragedies. The real suffering and devastation of Japan should not preclude us from the stories and struggles of those fighting for political freedom, or who are starving due to the political policies or power plays of their or our governments.

Life is indeed both precious and fragile, and no ones security is beyond being taken from them.  We have so little control over the natural events and natural phenomena which can injure and destroy our quality of life and sense of safety.  Yet, we do have the ability to have some control over the political, governmental and military policies and actions which impact on the quality and tenor of our lives.

People hungry, homeless, sick, or traumatized are not in need of our cultural arrogance or ideology.  They are not in immediate need of our military, or our system of economy or government, but rather they are in need of the basics of life to ease they pain and insure their survival.

In respect for human dignity we need to offer assistance in the way that those in need want to be helped. It is their needs and survival currently at stake, not ours. Someday in the blink of an eye we may need someone’s help, and it would be nice to get help from someone who respected and insured our sense of dignity and way of life.

Jim Guido

Recently I saw the Michael Moore documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story” and was shocked to see footage of FDR outlining a Second Bill of Rights during his State of the Union Address in 1944. How could a president have proposed this and I never heard of it?
Here is Wikipedia’s summary of this proposed legislation.

The Second Bill of Rights was a list of rights proposed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the then President of the United States, during his State of the Union Address on January 11, 1944. In his address Roosevelt suggested that the nation had come to recognize, and should now implement, a second “bill of rights”. Roosevelt’s argument was that the “political rights” guaranteed by the constitution and the Bill of Rights had “proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.” Roosevelt’s remedy was to declare an “economic bill of rights” which would guarantee:

Employment, with a living wage,
Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies,
Housing,
Medical care,
Education, and,
Social security

Excerpt from President Roosevelt’s January 11, 1944 message to the Congress of the United States on the State of the Union[1]:““It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.”[2] People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
Americas own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.
For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.”

If you go to You Tube you can see the footage and hear the address for yourself. This footage was supposedly lost for a number of years and was only recovered in 2008.

In my last post I discussed the significant role perceptual management has played in the US over the last 100 years. The desire of our government and corporations to persuade us to act and think in ways which preserves and enhances their power and wealth may help explain the fact that though I was born a little more than 11 years after this address, I never once heard of it during all my years of education.  Anyone saying these words today would be labeled a socialist or communist and could easily be labeled a terrorist and an enemy of the state.

Our perceptual managers lead us to believe that the American middle class has been the envy of the world for generations. Yet, the reality of the fact is that the American middle class is (was) a short lived phenomena with the bulk of American economic history having almost all of its wealth hoarded by a privileged few. Our current disparity of wealth and the destruction of the middle class has been the norm and not just a recent occurrence.

Here is an excerpt from, “The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century” by Andrew Gavin Marshall which I read today @ the Global Research on line at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c….

Throughout much of the 1800s and into the 1900s, the United States suffered several economic crises, one of the most significant of which was the Great Depression of 1873. As Howard Zinn explained:

The crisis was built into a system which was chaotic in its nature, in which only the very rich were secure. It was a system of periodic crises – 1837, 1857, 1873 (and later: 1893, 1907, 1919, 1929) – that wiped out small businesses and brought cold, hunger, and death to working people while the fortunes of the Astors, Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Morgans, kept growing through war and peace, crisis and recovery. During the 1873 crisis, Carnegie was capturing the steel market, Rockefeller was wiping out his competitors in oil.[32]
Massive industrial consolidation by a few oligarchic elites was the rule of the day, as J.P. Morgan expanded total control over railroad and banking interests, and John D. Rockefeller took control of the oil market, and expanded into banking. Zinn explained:
The imperial leader of the new oligarchy was the House of Morgan. In its operations it was ably assisted by the First National Bank of New York (directed by George F. Baker) and the National City Bank of New York (presided over by James Stillman, agent of the Rockefeller interests). Among them, these three men and their financial associates occupied 341 directorships in 112 corporations. The total resources of these corporations in 1912 was $22,245,000,000, more than the assessed value of all property in the twenty-two states and territories west of the Mississippi River.[33]
In the early 20th century, European and American banking interests achieved what they had desired for over a century within America, the creation of a privately owned central bank. It was created through collaboration of American and European bankers, primarily the Morgans, Rockefellers, Kuhn, Loebs and Warburgs.[34]

US history shows a marked tendency towards the systematic fleecing of all wealth from its citizenry to the economic elite than towards a spreading of the wealth and standard of living for a growing middle class. The short lived gains in the standard of living enjoyed by a burgeoning middle class can be explained by two factors.

Initially the middle class was formed as a beneficiary of the incredible wealth and power the US acquired as a result of the two World Wars. A temporary rise in wealth, opportunity and education engendered the necessary loyalty and productivity required to build the most powerful empire the planet has ever known. Second, the creation of a consumer class was needed to fuel the continued growth of industry and technology allowing the military/industrial complex to thrive and police the entire globe.

Yet, the actions and decisions of both the government and corporations shows that they never truly planned on honoring their contracts with the American middle class (i.e.: pension funds, social security). The role and need of the consumer age is on the decline. In its current phase the role of the American consumer is being diminished as the role of the global consumer increases. Yet, in a nanotechnological global economy dominated by artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and increasingly abstract financial instruments the need for actual consumption becomes less important to power and wealth.

My read of history is that the American middle class was largely created and exploited for the purposes of empire building. My read is also that the American and European middle class has largely served its purpose and is no longer necessary. No longer needed as consumers we are being prepared to return to our historical role as serfs and slaves.
If my gut is right on this, we should be very close to the next Great Depression which will attempt to ring the middle class out of all societies throughput the globe and consolidate all international wealth and ownership to a frighteningly small number of individuals.

Perceptual management is a science and a fact of modern life. Yet, the gift of perceptual managers is their ability to divert people’s attention from what is really going on. The talents of perceptual managers and propagandists is evident in the fact that most people still believe in the American dream and the integrity and honesty of government and business.
In our perceptually managed society anyone asking questions or making logical conclusions that pose a threat to the heart of their deception will successfully be labeled a conspiracist or an extremists. Yes, I know extremists and conspiracists are real, but so are spin doctors, propagandists and perceptual managers.

Jim Guido

The tricks of a skilled magician take advantage of the natural tendency of the mind and couples that with additional elements of ‘the not seen”. Our minds are gifted at reaching practical conclusions while using the minimum amount of perceptual data, this is not only efficient, but highly necessary in maximizing our ability to survive.

We never truly see the world we functionally see. Most of the objects in the living room we navigate or the road on which we drive are only partially given to our vision. We don’t see the backs, or even a major portion of everything we perceive and know. The bulk of the lamp, couch and even friend we’re talking to are hidden from our view. So, is well over 50% of the car, building, telephone pole, curb and pedestrian which make up my perceptual field while driving. Add on to this the fact that our attention drifts and we execute most of our actions on auto pilot and our ability to live relatively blind is astounding.

Our mind is forever filling in huge gaps of perceptual data allowing us to successfully move about quickly and with little difficulty. We are so accustomed to this way of being in the world that we are generally blind to how little we actually see, and how much our mind fills in giving us the illusion of actually having a perceptual field and immediately seeing the world around us. As our eyes quickly scan our environment we have the illusion of seeing the entire room at once when it truth we are only seeing a fraction of the room (environment) at each focused moment.

Magicians take advantage of our limited vision and focus and trick us into making conclusions which are proven wrong in the end. By distracting our attention, encouraging us to make false conclusions, and doing actions in spaces we only think we see, the magician is able to trick or baffle us. The hand isn’t only quicker than the eye, but the mind is also often more involved in vision than the eye.

Vision isn’t the only aspect of our perception which uses the minimum amount of data to make an on-the-fly functional assessment of a given situation. Just as we can recognize someone by only seeing their hand we name a song after hearing just a few notes, or realize we are touching a couch on an initial bump in a darkened room.

Misleading people, and getting to think, feel and believe in things that they wouldn’t otherwise do is not just a magicians skill. Other long standing professions such as acting and the con man have long exploited the tendency of people to reach conclusions based on minimal evidence.
While magicians and actors have used this talent more to entertain and in some ways enlighten their audiences, con men have exploited our natural tendencies of mind for personal gain and control. Con men are famous for gaining one’s trust, for once you trust them you will accept and not question their tricks and motivations.

Yet, the desire to deceive, manipulate, and con has never been more common and pronounced as in the birth of the capitalistic consumer culture. The entire field of public relations was founded on the idea of how to influence people into seeing things the way you want them to. Good public relations allowed a company to retain a positive public image despite the fact that its success was dependent on your buying things you don’t need. Public relations became the science of propaganda and perceptual management.

In a free democracy funded by a capitalistic industrial consumer culture the role of public relations became increasingly important. In business the trust and loyalty of your client base was essential in ensuring your long term success. In politics the ability to convince voters to trust you and view you in a positive light was essential to your getting elected and staying in office.

Since the early 20th century the science of propaganda and perceptual management has been as important to business and government as any other science or discipline. The growth and importance of psychology in general and social psychology in particular has been powered by its essential role in both politics and business.

In 1917 the US government formed its official initial sanctioned body to assist in the new and important realm of perceptual management called the Committee on Public Information, also known as the CPI or the Creel Committee. As explained in Wikipedia CPI “was an independent agency of the government of the United States created to influence U.S. public opinion regarding American participation in World War I. Over just 28 months, from April 13, 1917, to August 21, 1919, it used every medium available to create enthusiasm for the war effort and enlist public support against foreign attempts to undercut America’s war aims.”

The techniques spawned by this rather successful venture in perceptual management helped social psychology and Public Relations become entrenched and cherished sciences of all capitalistic and democratic societies. Obviously propaganda techniques of deception and influence work best on people who are unaware of the exact areas their perceptions are being manipulated. This resulted in the avowed termination of the use of political propaganda being used domestically on US citizens and only being used as psychological warfare on foreign agents and governments.

In the political sphere the recognized usage of propaganda became relegated to the realm of psychological warfare and our stated desire to promote freedom and democracy throughout the globe. Wikipedia states that the U.S. Department of Defense (currently)defines psychological warfare as:

“The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives.”[2]

While this definition states the primary purpose is on foreign groups it is logical that domestic groups and citizens can be the targets and recipients of propaganda if their views are contrary or not in support of our government’s national objectives. In this way it only makes sense that perceptual management techniques are used to raise capitalistic status quo sentiments and quell any ideologies or values which go against the grain.

In the area of commerce we have been able to be a little more honest about the pervasive use of perceptual management in the arena of advertising and corporate Public Relations. The blatant aspects of commercial advertising is admitted and embraced as a form of entertainment by business and the public alike. Every small business owner, tradesman and professional uses and is aware of others use of the art of selling one’s product.

While the more sophisticated and subtle forms of “marketing” and perceptual management are left unarticulated or examined, the general feeling is that most of modern advertising and perceptual influence is above board and benign. This has resulted in many people considering themselves advertising savvy and generally impervious to the techniques and influence of advertising.

It is common knowledge that our intelligence agencies spend a great deal of time, money and effort on improving the techniques of influence and propaganda in the whole spy world. Our ability to create, extinguish and direct insurgency and counterinsurgency movements in foreign nations is considered to be quite sophisticated. Our intelligence agencies have been credited with successfully using propaganda campaigns to incite a foreign coup, overthrowing enemy governments, and creating democratic movements in oppressed societies.

While the focus and ownership of Psychological Operations is on influencing foreign lands and peoples, throughout the years a number of government sponsored domestically targeted propaganda campaigns have come to light. Yet, their existence is quickly put in the past tense and their objective and influence is minimized whereby within a short time an agency of disinformation or brain washing is but a faint memory in the mass consciousness.

To me it doesn’t make any sense that our use of perceptual management is being relegated to the areas of advertising, foreign policy, and political campaigns. Obviously it would be counterproductive for our domestic propaganda and perceptual management programs to be popularized and admitted. Therefore, it is probably safe to assume that we are constantly being subjected to the latest and most sophisticated of social management and influence techniques.

No nation in history has devoted more of its intellectual and monetary resources in its military and related war industries. Our military research and expenditures are not just devoted to arms, bombs, planes and missiles. Modern warfare is not just about hardware and troops, but involves chemical, germ, biological, economic and psychological warfare.

During WWII the US recruited the greatest minds in physics to help build the first nuclear bombs. Likewise our space program of the 60’s also congregated the most advanced rocket scientists in order to insure the US won the “race to space”. Of course, the race to outer space was as much a defense department project as anything else. The push of the satellite boom came from a desire to control and monitor and communications as well as have a strategic advantage in standard warfare with the “eye in the sky”.

Most defense and war project have a tendency to filter down some of its technology for commercial and civilian use the satellite technology gave us huge improvements in meteorological information and prediction, as well as the birth of cable and satellite TV, as well as surveillance and GPS technology. Much of computer technology and the internet were originally defense projects.

During the two official years of the Committee on Public Information (CPI) great strides were made in the field of perceptual management similar to the success of the Manhattan Project. Propagandist’s learned just a few of the ways language and images could be used to elicit specific emotions and how to foster support for government policies and actions.

“The engineering of consent” as the early propagandists and Public Relations described their task has now been the commercial and political focus of the best social psychological minds for near a century. Perceptual management has received as much attention from our defense department as any other aspect of modern warfare. It is not only how we influence the decisions and policies of foreign nations, but it is also how we make sure our own nation stays stable and adapts and accepts the decisions of our leaders.

Though specific forms of subliminal messaging have been banned, we also know that violations of this ban have and do occur. We know about spin, and smear campaigns, and how our government through the media uses words to color and influence our thoughts and feelings. Yet, by and large we trust that our government is generally honest and well intentioned.

The success and effectiveness of propaganda and perceptual management is on its ability for its operation to remain hidden and secret. A popular magician can only let us in on how he did his trick if he no longer plans on doing that specific trick in that manner. His success at creating magic is dependent on our not knowing how he does it. Likewise, good perceptual management and propaganda is effective to the degree that those targeted to be influenced are ignorant of the exact techniques being used. The exception to this is if the audience finds the techniques entertaining and wants to be influences as this is the case with much of modern advertising such as most TV commercials.

We are peripherally aware that a lot of research has been done studying flocks, swarms and herds of birds, insects, and animals. We’ve not only studied the social behavior of living things but also studied the “group” behavior of things and events such as waves, sand piles, meteorological fronts, and various other “collectives” to understand, and predict group reaction. In both living and non-living collectives we are learning not only how to better predict when and what is about to happen, but in many cases are learning how we can influence and alter the actions of collectives.

By understanding the intricacies of a bee or ant colony we can influence and control much of the behavior of the group. The migration pattern of birds as well as the progression of wind patterns can be redirected and altered. The exact way in which this knowledge can be used in its application of human groups and herds is the stuff of modern research and science fiction. Yet, it is obvious that usages do and will exist for the purposed of perceptual management and social psychology.

The successful con man taught us years ago that their most effective psychological tool was to gain a person’s trust. Once a person trusted you they were easy prey to your confidence game. Even after the facts came to light many people were unwilling to believe that the con man wasn’t who he said he was, and that there had to be some mistake because he was such a good guy.

Yet, in the early years of social psychology other emotional tools than gaining trust were found to be just as effective. Two other successful emotional strategies are too create dependency or instigate fear. A fearful or dependent person will gladly hand over all power to someone who can protect them or act on their behalf.
Evidence of this method’s use in the US since the 1930’s is not hard to find. Fear mongering has been a staple of getting public support for most wars and military action. Likewise, fear of communism, socialism and terrorism have been used to blunt social change and well as have people relinquish their rights and privacies to insure their safety.

Our research and use of torture has likewise been used to teach us more on how to influence and control human behavior. The standard Hollywood version of the good cop bad cop strategy was born from the early studies of the psychology of torture. We also learned that a person being tortured often becomes dependent on their abuser. Since their very survival depends on the whims of their abuser they will often become attached to their abuser, and inside of that relationship became oddly loyal to their abuser.

Much of the early research into the science of propaganda was done by the Third Reich under Hitler’s Germany. One of their discoveries was that if you repeated a lie often enough, it would become accepted as truth by the majority of people. Over the last century this technique has still been a favorite of political propagandists around the globe.

While fear mongering and demonizing your opponent is still a pervasive tool of perceptual managers their are less blatant ways to discredit your opponent and thereby gain support for your position or agenda. It is rare that a single political race can be run in the US that does not involve some form of a smear campaign in which one candidates stock rises due to the lowering of credibility of the recipient of the smear campaign.

Discrediting or ruining the popularity of your opponent can be done is far subtler ways such as placing a bumper sticker for your opponent on a car and then having the driver of that car cut people off in traffic, swear at other motorists etc., all to have people associate the opposing candidate and their supporters as being jerks.

When peaceful demonstrators start to shift public favor against the war, the FBI and pro-war groups can infiltrate the demonstrations and try to incite the demonstrations to become violent while posing themselves as being anti-war demonstrators. Or if you’re a corporation whose profit margins are being threatened by ecological group you can turn public opinion against the ecologists by forming an ecological group that is extreme or has illegal practices thereby despoiling the popularity of ecological groups and their causes.

Most of the propaganda strategies I’ve listed in this post are pretty basic and would be taught in any basic course in Public Relations or Social Psychology. Yet, just as our government only sells relatively outdated weapons to our enemies, likewise, the latest generation of perceptual management techniques are not available for public knowledge.

Now, I’m a person with many interests, and trying to identify the ways in which my perceptions and actions are being influenced, managed and altered by professional propagandists does occupy my attention. Yet, people far smarter than myself, and very motivated and financially rewarded for developing methods and techniques to out fox even the savviest citizen, are working full time. Thousands of our best minds in social psychology are working directly and indirectly for our defense department in efforts to win wars fought on all fronts. All wars include not only physical wars, but psychological, chemical, biological, germ and ideological.

The fact is that trillions of dollars (mostly tax payer) are being funneled into defense department research insuring that our empire continues to rule the globe. The monitoring and winning of the hearts, minds and actions of people here and abroad is a practical and not just theoretical goal. We are being handled, monitored, influenced and coerced by the best financed and most intelligent army of perceptual engineers the world has ever known.

A successful corporation gives substantial campaign contributions to both candidates, to insure that whoever wins the election is grateful for, beholding to and dependent on their support. A skilled perceptual manager is ready and prepared for various outcomes. Even when a situation goes in an initially undesirable direction they stand poised to find a way to co-opt, exploit or redirect the matter in a profitable manner.

The current political turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East is a perfect example. The US has created, supported and maintained most of the despots whose future careers are in jeopardy. Yet, while exploiting the economic and political stability gained by dictatorships, we also have been funding and creating “democracy movements” in these very nations. The following is an except from an article I recently read in The Global Researcher on line by Andrew Gavin Marshall who is a Research Associate with the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). 

As the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force Report emphasized, “America’s goal in the Middle East should be to encourage democratic evolution, not revolution.”[26] Engineering, co-opting and controlling revolutionary movements or “democratic regime change”…..In a 2008 article in the New York Times, Brzezinski emphasized a multi-faceted strategy for dealing with this ‘threat’ to elite structures and interests, explaining that, “the monumental task facing the new president is to regain U.S. global legitimacy by spearheading a collective effort for a more inclusive system of global management.” Thus, Brzezinski’s strategy rests on better securing and institutionally expanding the process of ‘globalization’ into the evolution of ‘global governance,’ or as he termed it, “global management.” Brzezinski unveiled a four-point strategy of response: “unify, enlarge, engage and pacify.”[18]

The man alluded to is the article is geostrategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, an intellectual architect of ‘globalization who has been very influential in US foreign policy and strategy. As you can see he advocates that our government needs to “engineer”, “co-opt”, and “control” revolutionary movements.
I invite you to read more of his thoughts. In sum, Mr. Brzezinski goal is to help the US maintain its role as world leader. He feels that without our governments control the US and the world would fall into complete chaos.

Yet, Mr. Brzezinski is a true perceptual manager. He doesn’t want people in the US or abroad to truly have choice or a say in the government. He only wants them to think they have a choice and feel free.

He believes that our government has done a good job of stripping American’s of most of their rights (and wealth) while having them retain the perception of freedom. He feels that with our governments guidance despots can be removed and replaced with pseudo-Democracies keeping the basic power structure in place. This would diffuse anger and discontentment while maintaining fiscal stability and a hoarding of the wealth in its current hands. This is consistent with the idea of the New World Order version of Globalization first publicly trumpeted by George Bush I in the late 80’s.

So, while you read newspapers which have over 70% of their articles written and placed by special interest groups and listen to scripted TV and radio interview dialogue you just hold on to the idea that you are the master of your domain and the author of your viewpoints. While you are busy following the debate between liberals and conservatives and Republicans and Democrats I will try my best to watch the magicians hands while knowing I’m missing more than I’m catching.

Do you believe in magic?

Jim Guido

PS I have some songs which address some of the ideas raised by this post (i.e.: Svengali, Mob Rule, Say Boys, Lies, Demonic Democracy, Making Money, Someone Will Die Tonight)