By: J.M. 
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Human beings are the only species on earth equipped with highly developed brain and are capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving. A species which is uniquely adept at utilizing systems of communication for self-expression, the exchange of ideas, and organization, having all the features that provides ideal ground to make use of higher-level thought processes, such as self-awareness and rationality to comprehend nature and realize the importance of sustaining ecosystems as well as a sense of connection with other non-human life forms. However it is very unfortunate that despite having all these qualities and abilities, we have no conception of the importance of life, natural world and the ecosystems. Thinking in terms of power and profit, instead of ethics and compassion, we have adopted a life style based entirely on self-interest, therefore we see ourselves as conquerors of nature rather than the citizens of vast bio community. As a result, we have become a species that is technologically sophisticated but morally retarded, having no reverence for life, following a system of disregard and abuse and driving full speed into an evolutionary dead-end, yet overwhelmed by a constant state of denial.
Whether it’s food, whether education or whether healthcare, every aspect of our life has turned into commerce and consumerism. If you don’t have money to pay, you have no right to eat or to learn and you cannot expect to have a shelter or proper healthcare, however our cognitive dissonance never allows us to accept this reality. This conflicting cognition is one of the main reason behind the Normalcy bias as well as the optimism bias causing us to underestimate the possibility and effects of the disaster we are facing in form of an unjust society, where few are thriving while the majority is suffering. Living in a fantasy world of distraction, whereby we focus more on entertainment rather than the great challenges our species is facing in form of hunger, poverty and war. Using multiple justifications to disconnect ourselves and not to feel any guilt or remorse for the pain and suffering of many by the hands of the system we are supporting and nurturing. This attitude or this mental condition is also known as SEP (Somebody Else’s Problem) OR Diffusion of responsibility.
Of course the rich tell the poor that the system works … it works well for them …. unfortunately the poor just happen to be the big majority… and their hungers, injustices and pains are unethical ….
A concept of Utilitarianism (maximization of overall happiness by all means) whereby everyone is enjoying a shallow escapism and least bothered to look out of the window to see, that while billions are being spent on entertainment, sports, celebrities, movies, fashion, arts and religious rituals, six million children are dying each year from starvation. Everyone is looking for happiness, no matter how fake it is, and no one is interested to talk about the bitter realities. A deliberate act of dehumanization being carried out by the few against many, where large number of people are being deprived of basic human rights (e.g., physical autonomy, food, water, opportunities for self-sufficiency), but we are busy with our Bread and Circuses.
The logic is simple, albeit denied. An unjust system that envisions life as nothing but competition and constant fear for survival, has given rise to a mentality which revolves around self interest, where everything is being looked at as “mine and yours”. It is an undeniable fact that a competitive system will always create “winners” and “losers”, yet everyone is deluded into thinking and believing that they will be the winners. The concept of personal savings, properties, wealth or possessions, personal family, personal interests etc. combined with the idea of accepting and obeying authority of few, ignoring the fact that those few are also motivated with self-interest and fear for survival, has created a sense of insecurity among people who are living their lives end to end, looking for short term gains and ignoring long term consequences. Every relationship is based on vested interests and every concept revolves around maximization of personal happiness by all means, while happiness itself has lost all the meanings and has been replaced by images being advertised through media, promoting fear of inadequacy among the masses.
The images being bombarded by the media on our subconscious minds are all lies, yet we deceive ourselves and feel inadequate. The dreams and hope created in the minds with advertisement of luxury goods, jewelry, fast cars, etc. are capable of consuming a person to the point where they feel the desire to acquire these items in order to feel fulfilled or to have achieved something and if they don’t have the monetary means to acquire these goods in a ‘legal’ way, then they will take the illegal route. Likewise the status symbols created by the society are all fake, yet we deceive ourselves to judge people on what they own, what they wear, how they look like, what music they listen, who they hang around with and practically every other personal trait while any imperfection any inferiority is ridiculed and a person is made fun of, for being who he is.
The result is quite obvious. This system of disregard and abuse has converted us into a selfish, ignorant and careless species, constructing a culture and defining the purpose of life, which is summed up in these words by Dylan Charles;
“Hypnotic and entranced, following orders and obeying ridiculous rules, laws and regulations (forcing upon us a punitive system where all infractions are punishable by fines, imprisonment, death, or worse) getting deprived of all explicitly human qualities such as compassion, logic, awareness, self-preservation etc. The prison population balloons with non-violent ‘criminals’ while the wars, ‘collateral damage’ and ‘civilian casualties’ continue unabated, which clearly means that masses don’t seem to really care what happens to their fellowmen.”
“Individuality is being erased, as more and more people succumb to the hypnotic indulgences of a poisoned, consumer-driven, media-controlled way of life. Group think is at all time high and watching people cheer and whinny by the thousands over a political campaign or a sporting match is like nervously watching the advance of a drooling Zombie army. Perhaps we are all becoming zombies i.e. soulless animated human cadavers inhabited only by some of our lowest capacities and cravings, walking into peril with absolute disregard, willingly turning a blind eye to the injustices perpetrated by the system and least bothered to confront the big picture.”
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Why can’t we realize a simple fact that it is the same fear of survival, the same sense of inadequacy and insecurity, the same dreams of luxury goods, jewelry, fast cars, etc., that are making us to compete with others and win, are also forcing some of us towards theft, prostitution, fraud and murder?
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Why can’t we see that all these crimes are nothing as compared to the crimes that has been committed in the name of colonialism and imperialism?
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Why can’t we see that these crimes are nothing as compared to mass murders being committed in the name of foreign policy?
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Why can’t we see that the damages resulting from petty crimes are nothing as compared to the collateral damage occurring from wars?
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Ask these people;
- why the world is more unjust, if goodness exist?
- why more people are poor and few are rich, or why few haves and many have-nots?
- why few are thriving, while more are starving and suffering?
- why wealth is circulating in few hands while majority is deprived?
- why there is more miseries than happiness?
- Why everyone tries to see goodness and happiness, while turning blind eye towards miseries and misfortunes?
- why education, healthcare and justice is only available for those who have money?
- why the corrupt people sitting in the seats of authority are untouched while common man stealing for survival gets punished?
- why those banks robbing most of our earning and hard-work through inflation, price hikes, bailouts always gets away with it?
- why gambling is crime but derivatives, options and speculation is legal?
- why there is death penalty for killing one person, but no punishment for killing thousands in the name of foreign policy?
- Why these big criminals are not even seen as criminals, while jails are full of petty thieves?
- why no one feels uncomfortable with this extreme level of inequality and injustice?
- why everything revolves around production and consumption when resources on this planet are finite?
- what will happen when these resources will eventually get depleted?
The answer, perhaps is not that simple. It requires a complete analysis of human psyche, personality trait as well as psychoanalysis of personality development, forming a collective approach (also known as crowd psychology and Herd Behavior) in order to identify the true factors behind this persistent ignorance, a constant state of denial (or in technical language SEP and Diffusion of Responsibility).
The human mind is a system within the human body (which itself is a system). These systems work according to certain predictable, pre-set rules, neurological pathways, chemical responses of which the origins/source is able to be traced back to either a genetic hereditary code and/or an expression/experience that is copied from the environment. The whole point of the Study of Psychology is to map out and investigate just how the Human SYSTEM of the Mind as thoughts, feelings and emotions works, and thus not simply take thoughts, feelings and emotional experiences for granted.
The concept of psychoanalysis was conceived by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud who identified that Human mind is equipped with a built in defense mechanism based on unconscious psychological strategies to cope with reality, to maintain self-image and to form a collective mentality.
Freud proposed three structures of the psyche or personality:
- Id: a selfish, childish, pleasure-oriented part of the personality with no ability to delay gratification.
- Superego: internalized societal and parental standards of “good” and “bad”, “right” and “wrong” behaviour.
- Ego: the moderator between the id and superego which seeks compromises to pacify both. It can be viewed as our “sense of time and place”,
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The structural Id can be seen in a behavior of a two year old child, discovering the sense of “I“. It all becomes “me” and even to the detriment of other people if not kept in check by the parents. Apparently the personality traits are more inclined towards Id and a sort of malevolence by default, whereas morality needs to be taught to humans, just like taming a wild animal. As a matter of fact, the early childhood provides a complete picture of all the positive and negative emotions, existing within the human mind. Negative emotions such as ego, envy, anger, selfishness etc. Positive emotions such as empathy, compassion, helpfulness, cooperation etc. and it’s the environment or the surroundings in which the human child is being brought up, that builds the overall character. Unfortunately most of us miss out on this unpleasant fact, allowing Id to go unchecked, empathy and compassion unnoticed, leaving ourselves to get shaped up according to the social and cultural norms.
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Denial as a defense mechanism is also called abnegation, reflecting a condition in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence.
The subject may use:
- simple denial: deny the reality of the unpleasant fact altogether
- minimization: admit the fact but deny its seriousness (a combination of denial and rationalization)
- projection: admit both the fact and seriousness but deny responsibility.
Denial can also be a part of coping techniques i.e. “constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing” OR “exceeding the resources of the person”. Coping is thus expending conscious effort to solve personal and interpersonal problems, and seeking to master, minimize or tolerate stress or conflict.
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There are various internal and external factors that effect the human psyche, personality traits and personality development. In simple words, these external and internal factors, shape up our minds and convert us into what we are;
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INTERNAL FACTORS
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Framing
A frame in social theory consists of a schema of interpretation, a collection of anecdotes and stereotypes, that individuals rely on to understand and respond to events. In other words, people build a series of mental filters through biological and cultural influences. They use these filters to make sense of the world. The choices they then make are influenced by their creation of a frame. Framing effect can also be seen as a sort of cognitive bias which is evident when presenting the same option in different formats alters people’s decisions. Specifically, individuals have a tendency to select inconsistent choices, depending on whether the question is framed to concentrate on losses or gains. On collective level, framing refers to the construction of a social phenomenon by mass media sources or specific political or social movements or organizations. It is an inevitable process of selective influence over the individual’s perception of the meanings attributed to words or phrases. A frame defines the packaging of an element of rhetoric in such a way as to encourage certain interpretations and to discourage others.
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Narcissism
The foremost concept in terms of personality trait as well as psychoanalytic theory is narcissism, which denotes egoism, vanity, conceit or selfishness and when applied to a social group, it is used to denote elitism. Narcissism plays an important role in how people relate to the world by acquiring and using things (assimilation) and by relating to self and others (socialization). At times narcissism is used to describe some kind of problem in a person or group’s relationships with self and others.
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Cognitive bias
Cognitive bias is a pattern of deviation in judgment that occurs in particular situations, leading to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, illogical interpretation, or what is broadly called irrationality. Cognitive biases are instances of evolved mental behavior. Some are presumably adaptive, for example, because they lead to more effective actions in given contexts or enable faster decisions when faster decisions are of greater value (heuristics). Others presumably result from a lack of appropriate mental mechanisms (bounded rationality), or simply from mental noise and distortions.
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Cognitive Dissonance
A discomfort caused by holding conflicting cognition (ideas, beliefs, values, emotional reactions) and social cognition. The set of beliefs and ideas are so strong that a conflict always causes discomfort, resulting in a condition known as cognitive dissonance , where people try to rationalize, ignore or even deny anything that doesn’t fit with their core belief. The same theory when applied to collective level, forms an approach (crowd psychology or social psychology) based on motivational drive to reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions, adding new ones to create a consistent belief system, or alternatively by reducing the importance of any one of the dissonant elements. (In this particular case, the motivational drive of self-interest such as profit, growth, consumerism, entertainment, along with a fake image of goodness and positiveness for example social/cultural/religious rituals, charity/philanthropy and social/community services are the distractions being used to turn a blind eye towards real issues leading us towards a dead end).
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Optimism bias
An unrealistic or comparative optimism, a self serving bias that causes a person to believe that they are less at risk of experiencing a negative event compared to others. There are four factors that cause a person to be optimistically biased: their desired end state, their cognitive mechanisms, the information they have about themselves versus others, and overall mood. The optimistic bias is seen in a number of situations, including people believing that they are less at risk of being a crime victim, smokers believing that they are less likely to contract lung cancer or disease than other smokers, and first-time bungee jumpers believing that they are less at risk of an injury than other jumpers. The factors leading to the optimistic bias can be categorized into four different groups i.e. desired end states of comparative judgment, cognitive mechanisms, information about the self versus a target, and underlying affect.
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Normalcy bias
The normalcy bias, or normality bias, refers to a mental state people enter when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster. The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation.
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Somebody Else’s Problem (SEP)
It is a condition where individuals/populations of individuals choose to decentralize themselves from an issue that may be in critical need of recognition. Such issues may be of large concern to the population as a whole but can easily be a choice of ignorance at an individualistic level. In terms of psychology and philosophy of perception, SEP can be seen as a condition where multiple individuals simultaneously experience the same stimulus, diffusion of responsibility and/or the bystander effect may release individuals from the need to act, and if no-one from the group is seen to act, each individual may be further inhibited by conformity.
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Diffusion of responsibility
Diffusion of responsibility is a sociopsychological phenomenon whereby a person is less likely to take responsibility for an action or inaction when others are present. Considered a form of attribution, the individual assumes that either others are responsible for taking action or have already done so. The phenomenon tends to occur in groups of people above a certain critical size and when responsibility is not explicitly assigned. It rarely occurs when the person is alone and diffusion increases with groups of three or more.
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Bystander effect
The bystander effect or Genovese syndrome is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases where individuals do not offer any means of help in an emergency situation to the victim when other people are present. The probability of help has often appeared to be inversely related to the number of bystanders; in other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help. The mere presence of other bystanders greatly decreases intervention. In general, this is believed to happen because as the number of bystanders increases, any given bystander is less likely to notice the situation, interpret the incident as a problem, and less likely to assume responsibility for taking action.
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Moral disengagement
Moral disengagement is a term from social psychology for the process of convincing the self that ethical standards do not apply to oneself in a particular context, by separating moral reactions from inhumane conduct by disabling the mechanism of self-condemnation. Moral disengagement can be classified into four different categories:
Reconstructing conduct:
Portraying inhumane behavior as though it has a moral purpose in order to make it socially acceptable. For example, torture, in order to obtain information necessary to protect the nation’s citizens, may be seen as acceptable
Displacing or diffusing responsibility:
Displacement of responsibility, operates by distorting the relationship between actions and the effects they cause. People behave in ways they would normally oppose if a legitimate authority accepts responsibility for the consequences of that behavior. Under conditions of displaced responsibility, people view their actions as the dictates of authorities rather than their own actions.
Disregarding or misrepresenting injurious consequences:
Disengagement through disregard or misrepresentation of the consequences of action. When someone pursues an activity harmful to others for personal gain they generally either minimize the harm they have caused or attempt to avoid facing it. Instead, they will recall prior information given to them about the potential benefits of the behavior. People are especially prone to minimize harmful effects when they act alone. It is relatively easy to hurt others when the detrimental results of one’s conduct are ignored.
Dehumanization:
Dehumanization, is applied to the targets of violent acts and depends on how the perpetrator views the people toward whom the harmful behavior is directed. Once dehumanized, divested of human qualities, people are no longer viewed as persons with feelings, hopes, and concerns but as subhuman objects which do not evoke feelings of empathy from the perpetrator and can be subjected to horrendous treatment.
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Group think
This is a psychological phenomenon within groups or people. It is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints. The primary socially negative cost of groupthink is the loss of individual creativity, uniqueness, and independent thinking.
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EXTERNAL FACTORS
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The British surgeon Wilfred Trotter popularized the phrase “herd behavior” in his book, Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War (1914), while Gustave Le Bon expounded the theories of herd behavior and crowd psychology during 19th century. The ideas of Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter on crowd psychology and the psychoanalytical ideas Sigmund Freud were later on used by various social engineers, who mastered the art of social engineering, social constructionism and social control through directing collective behavior towards desired goals, using modern scientific methods such as Propaganda, Persuasion, Behavior modification, Framing and Paternalism. The most significant social engineer of 20th century was Edward Louis Bernays, who founded the practice of Modern Public Relations and impression management which has proven to be the most effective form of public persuasion.
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Social Control
Social control refers generally to societal and political mechanisms or processes that regulate individual and group behavior, leading to conformity and compliance to the rules of a given society, state, or social group. Social control can be internal of external. Internal Control means Internalisation of norms and values through socialization i.e. the process by which an individual, born with behavioral potentialities of enormously wide range, is led to develop actual behavior which is confined to the narrower range of what is acceptable for him by the group standards. External Control or external sanctions, which can be either positive (rewards) or negative (punishment). These sanctions come from either formal or informal control.
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Indoctrination
Cognition can also be developed artificially through indoctrination, a process whereby ideas, attitudes and cognitive strategies are asserted, while the individuals or groups are expected not to question or critically examine a particular doctrine being taught to them. A simple example of Indoctrination could be the religious ideologies, built on the foundations of myths and superstitions, promoting the concept of reward and punishment for every act or deed and gradually eliminating the sense of personal responsibility in individuals or groups. Such ideologies also provide motivational drives in form of rituals, family or community service, charity etc. as alternate means of maintaining self image of goodness and positiveness, reducing emotional strains while ignoring real issues such as poverty, aggression, suppression, injustice and inequality. Another example of indoctrination is military indoctrination.
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Paternalism
Paternalism (or parentalism) most typically refers to behavior, by a person, organization or state, which limits some person’s liberty or autonomy for their good, or the liberty or autonomy of some group of people for their good. Some definitions of paternalism require in addition that the behavior is against the will of this person or persons, or that it is undertaken regardless of that will. Paternalism is sometimes thought appropriate towards children and paternalism towards adults is sometimes thought to treat them as if they were children. Examples of paternalism include laws requiring the use of motorcycle helmets, a parent forbidding their children to engage in dangerous activities, and a psychiatrist confiscating sharp objects from someone who is suicidally depressed.
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Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. Propaganda is usually repeated and dispersed over a wide variety of media in order to create the chosen result in audience attitudes.
As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda, in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda. Propaganda can be used as a form of political warfare.
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Persuasion
Persuasion is the influence of beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviors. A process aimed at changing a person’s or a group’s attitude or behavior toward some event, idea, object, or people, by using written or spoken words to convey information, feelings, or reasoning, or a combination of them
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In the modern era of internet, the art of social engineering has evolved further. Disinformation has been introduced as an additional component into the existing set of tools i.e. propaganda and persuasion. Unlike traditional propaganda techniques designed to engage emotional support, disinformation is designed to manipulate the audience at the rational level by either discrediting conflicting information or supporting false conclusions. A common disinformation tactic is to mix some truth and observation with false conclusions and lies, or to reveal part of the truth while presenting it as the whole (a limited hangout).
Modern Social engineers are master of altering perceptions through disinformation, revealing part of truth and misguiding public to false conclusions, providing a bit of true information, while mixing it with fiction, directing public anger towards invisible, secret societies, fictitious covert satanic organizations or shifting all the blame towards entities. These individuals or groups operate mostly as so called “truthers”, while they are actually working for various foundations and think tank, trying to gain public attention through claims that cannot be proven. A successful attempt to prevent people from seeing or realizing that each and every single person living in the society and following social, cultural, economic norms, is equally responsible for nurturing the system based on injustice and inequality.
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Social engineering
This concept reflects efforts to influence popular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale, whether by governments or private groups. In the political arena, the counterpart of social engineering is political engineering. Law and governance has the effect of seeking to change behavior and could be considered “social engineering” to some extent. In most societies, changing public attitudes about a behaviour is accepted as one of the key functions of laws prohibiting it. Governments also influence behavior more subtly through incentives and disincentives built into economic policy and tax policy, for instance, and have done so for centuries.
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Public Relations
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the flow of information between an individual or an organization and the public. Public relations is the deliberate, planned, and sustained effort to establish and maintain a preferred point of view. Public relations provides an organization or individual exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. The aim of public relations by a company often is to persuade the public, investors, partners, employees, and other stakeholders to maintain a certain point of view about it, its leadership, products, or of political decisions. Common activities include speaking at conferences, winning industry awards, working with the press, and employee communication. Edward Louis Bernays, who is considered the founding father of modern public relations along with Ivy Lee, in the early 1900s defined public relations as “a management function which tabulates public attitudes, defines the policies, procedures, and interests of an organization… followed by executing a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.”
Edward Barneys named his scientific technique of opinion-molding “the engineering of consent” and this art has successfully been adopted by primary agencies of power i.e. the state, the banking system, corporations, universities, foundations and think tank.
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FOUNDATIONS AND THINK TANK
The idea of control through foundations and think tank dates back to Greek and Roman times, however from the early 20th century, with the founding of the Carnegie Corporation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and later on the Ford Foundation (among several others), these foundations have acted as “engines of social engineering.” Their purpose is firstly to establish consensus among the elite and their subordinate classes (through the construction and dissemination of ideology), and secondly, their purpose is to create consent among the governed. This is referred to as the “engineering of consent,” and it is achieved through several ways ways:
- shaping the educational system and the construction of knowledge itself, so that the true nature of the system remains largely elusive from the ‘educated’ class.
- the development and dissemination of the consumer society ideology which altered the population from that of citizen to consumer;
- the funding and development of social alleviation programs and services, designed in fashion with the missionary system of the formal colonial period, whereby ‘missions’ (or in the case of foundations, Non-governmental organizations – NGOs) seek to alleviate the symptoms of the brutality of the global system (promoting human rights, poverty reduction, educational services, health care) without challenging the system itself, thereby having the effect of quelling and stifling dissent and resistance against the system by making the most needy complacent and dependent upon it for the very minimal basic means of survival.
- through the co-optation and patronage of social movements and activism, whereby foundations fund different movements and activists (from civil rights, to anti-apartheid, environmental, feminist, anti-globalization, etc. organizations) so that the movements are steered into avenues safe for the ruling elite.
“The maniacal lunatics in control of our society know exactly how human beings tick and they are masters at manipulation.” – Bruce McDonald
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This was an attempt to identify the amount of influence on our thoughts and perceptions, as well as the extent of programming, our minds are going through, in the current world of 21st century. However it is necessary to understand that these scientific practices of influencing thoughts and minds are quite recent, whereas the process of regulating individual and group behavior, leading to conformity and compliance to the rules of a given society, state, or social group, has been a part of human life throughout the history in one form or another. The idea of the Control of Many by the Few is nothing new for humanity, rather it’s a common concept in almost every era and every civilization, while our ignorance and apathy has played the most important role in it’s success. The origin of Democracy as well as communism goes back to Ancient Greece, whereas the concepts of diversion, distraction such as Bread and Circuses goes back to Ancient Rome. These social, political and economic ideas emerged into a completely different shape after the emergence of mercantilism and the colonial period (an era from the 1550s to, arguably, the 1990s) when several European powers (Spain, Portugal, Britain, and France especially) established colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. At first the countries followed mercantilist policies designed to strengthen the home economy at the expense of rivals, so the colonies were usually allowed to trade only with the mother country. By the mid-19th century, however, the powerful British Empire gave up mercantilism and trade restrictions and introduced the principle of free trade, with few restrictions or tariffs.
A very important point to be noted here is, that people and nations have accepted the political and economic ideas of Colonialism, as if these concepts were set in stone, without questioning or arguing.
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Lets see what this ridiculous ideas stands for;
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony, and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by colonizers from the metropole. Colonialism is a set of unequal relationships between the metropole and the colony and between the colonists and the indigenous population.
Likewise the masses have accepted the post 2001 neomercantilism and the economic policies that has been enforced by IMF, World Bank and the bank’s 51% owner, the US treasury, i.e. stripping away the national assets and destroying the economies in the name of privatization, liberalization and free trade, along with the political concept of spreading democracy and freedom through bombing.
What next?
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Fear of Survival
The way our world works, has been defined, enforced, accepted and passed on through by generations. Our history (which has been corrupted purposely and distorted intentionally) shows us the same pattern throughout, whereby the system is based on fear of survival that has been programmed as the Prominent Point of Life on Earth. An image that has been accepted and transferred from parents to their children, generations after generations.
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Parenting
Parenting has played an important role in programming children’s minds. We normally see our children as a personal commodity to be conditioned and controlled, to reproduce exactly as told. A conditioning that starts at home and later on enhanced by various other agencies of social control such as family, neighborhood, church, religion, the school, Law, Administration, public opinion, use of force, propaganda and persuasion.
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Schooling
A concept of sophism i.e. The practice of charging money for education and providing wisdom only to those who could pay. This concept reflects the exact idea of current education which has turned into a business, having money as the sole motive. The children are taught meaningless things, no one wants to learn, no one needs to know , what seldom apply to the practical life, and all is done to earn money. The most significant aspect of schooling is erasure of individuality by judging every child at the same level while enforcing of obedience to authoritative figures. The schools are mostly run as businesses owned by few rich so called “philanthropists”, or as institutions owned by the governments, while the policies and curriculum, in either case reflects the view point of the owners. In short, schooling is a huge waste of time, energy, talent and creativity. Schools are nothing but the centers of teaching servitude and conformity, conditioning children to accept ridiculous rules of the system and to obey authorities.
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Here is a video in which John Tylor Gatto speaks about the current education system. Please note that John Gatto is a retired American school teacher with nearly 30 years experience in the classroom, and author of several books on education.
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Alienation
The most important tool of social control and one of the most important factor behind our current state of denial is alienation. A kind of estrangement (quite prominent in our behavior now) which has been created by distancing people from what is important or meaningful to them. In terms of objectivity, alienation reflects a state of social isolation, for denying conformity or opposing common opinion. In normal situation, an individual faces mild opposition such as getting ridiculed by masses, while in extreme situations an individual ends up getting diagnosed as psycho or insane.
In subjective terms, alienation means distancing an individual from his own self, turning him hostile and unsympathetic, a kind of desensitization diminishing emotional responsiveness to negative or aversive stimulus after repeated exposure to it. The best way to suppress feelings and emotions through repetitive exposure is TV and movies where sad, emotional and aggressive scenes are repeatedly fed to our brains, repressing our emotional responsiveness in real life.
The same objective of repressing emotional responsiveness was achieved through news papers in the past, while in ancient times, the objective was achieved though inducing myths and stories, making them a subject of public and social discussions.
A state of denial, a fear to face the reality, enforced upon us through alienation and desensitization, prevents us to think, investigate or question the norms governing our lives, rather we normally surrender to public opinion or views expressed and enforced by some authority which is normally nothing but sophism, creating double think.
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An excellent video showing how we conform to a common yet baseless pattern:
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No one is interested to know why he is not allowed to grab the banana and no one seems to be interested to stop and think, why he is beating the crap out of the person climbing the ladder. That’s us, the humans, the members of a so called civilized society, living in a state of conformity to the society and unthinking obedience to the authority without realizing that the masses are following nothing but hearsay while those sitting on the seats of authority have reached there through impression management, Propaganda and Persuasion. These people were selected and not elected, while public had no real choice rather they were given an illusion of choice, allowing them to chose the lessor of two evils.
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Due to a programmed state of denial, no one dares to question some very basic dogmas and quite prominent flaws in our social as well as economic activities.
- Who was the first person to claim a piece of land on earth as his personal property , who assigned him the right to do so and when did it happen?
- Who was the first person to exploit the fruits of other’s labor? Who was the first person to enslave other human? Who assigned him the right to do so and when?
- Who was the first individual to have claimed the right to subjugate and rule other human beings? When did this happen?
- Who were the first people to define the invisible boundaries on earth, declaring a certain region on the planet as their personal state/country? When did this happen?
- Who were the first people to have claimed themselves as a nation formed on the basis of religious, social or political ideologies, declaring others as aliens or infidels due to difference of faith or ideologies and when?
Instead of focusing on these questions, we are blindly following the same patterns, generations after generations, claiming personal rights on land, assigned by fictitious entities such as governments, fighting other human beings in the name of national, social, religious and political ideologies, without realizing that these are the biggest factors behind exploitation, crimes, wars and murders, horrors and misfortunes on earth.
An important point to be noted here is, that no religious, political or social ideology ever challenged the very basic act of transgression committed by man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying “This is mine”, rather this act was encouraged by giving those men the right to keep what they “claimed as their”, declaring it as God’s will. Another act of transgression where a man claims another man to be his slave, his property, declaring himself as master and the owner. What a ridiculous claim, but unfortunately no social or religious doctrine in the past, has condemned this act or challenged this mindset. Rather Slavery has been mentioned in almost every religious doctrine as an authentic concept accepted and regularized through God’s will. Most of these ideologies also encourages the followers to fight against those who differ and do not comply, again declaring it as God’s will. The reason why we see so many examples of State-organized dehumanization that has historically been directed against perceived racial, ethnic, national, or religious “Others”.
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OUR ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Our Economic System is clear example of a state of constant denial and normalcy bias. A system, based on production, which is the act of creating output, a good or service having value and contributes to the utility of individuals (consumption). These two factors i.e. production and consumption calculated for a specific period, refers to the GDP and GNP, which in turn determine the economic growth of a country or nation. It is quite obvious that when economic growth depends on of production, it requires constant extraction of natural resources, converting them into consumer goods or utilities measured in terms of price through the mechanism of exchange determined as monetary value.
Money having no intrinsic value of it’s own, is created as debt through fractional reserve banking using money multiplier, a process whereby private banks LEGALLY create money out of thin air expanding broad money supply. This unlimited money supply in form of interest based debt (including government debt as well as treasury bills, treasury bonds, deficit spending etc.) is bound to create inflation which is considered as an important factor on economic growth. What exactly is this money multiplier? How the multiplication works? Does it really makes sense? Perhaps people don’t have time to think about it!
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This video explains the process of money creation in simple words;
Disclaimer: This video has been made by Positive Money UK and the writer has no affiliation with this campaign. The video has been selected only because it explains everything in simple and easy words.
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Here is a LINK that will provide some useful information regarding money creation for those who are interested in a deeper understanding.
Disclaimer: This Information has been provided by Chris Martenson and the writer has no affiliation with him or his website.
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These scales of determining economic growth automatically creates a competitive environment, where people and entities compete with each other to earn more profit through reduction of costs, while nations compete in order to produce more goods, therefore raising their GDP/GNP. In this competitive environment, greed has become the most dominant factor.
However, it is not just greed that is the only problem with the global financial system. The other problem is the mentality of investment derived from a particular logic and language. Both of these aspects operate in a market system that perceives consumption as limitless. The nature of economics demands positive growth i.e. growth on top of growth. This means that businesses are expected to not just make a profit, but to make a larger profit every period. If a company makes lessprofit than before, it is perceived as a loss. It is this mentality of investment that gives modern economics this nature of having an insatiable thirst for growth.
The first aspect of investment is the logic held by investors. For most people, it is fair to say that they want to do the least amount of work for the maximum amount of return. This means investment of Capital to gain maximum return using all means i.e. If the capital is going to be in the market anyways, why not have it in a more profitable venture? This has created an environment where companies are striving to make themselves as profitable as possible in order to attract and maintain investors. If a company becomes less profitable, investors are likely to engage in “capital flight” and move to a more profitable venture.
Probably that is the reason why banks and corporations (apart from using leverage as means to multiply returns), have created new ways to multiply wealth artificially through derivatives, options, speculation, obligations (such as CMO, CDO, CBO and CLO), subprime loans, subprime mortgages, mortgage backed securities (through securitization) and Credit default swaps.
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This video explains the credit crisis in detail;
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Now think for a moment!
We have accepted this system of production, consumption and growth as a sort of divine concept, carved in stone. The question is, when thirst for growth is unlimited, when there is no limit on money supply, when money is created as interest based debt, when inflation denotes economic growth, which itself depends on constant production of goods, therefore requiring constant extraction of natural resources, which are being exploited through commodity speculation and other artificial means of wealth expansion, where will it all end?
A point to be noted here is, that our economic system works in such a way that each and every activity depends on money which is being supplied by the banks, having power to create money out of thin air and charging interest against it. A clear indication that the principal that is used for investment, business activities or government spending, can be paid back but the interest being charged, requires further lending, since aggregate amount of money in an economy (owed by government, corporations and businesses) in a given period is always equal to the money created by the banks.
This means that the banks need to print more money, lending it out to settle the previously owed interest and the cycle goes on. Keeping in mind that all these banks are linked with each other through central bank system (within the country) whereas through BIS (worldwide), the interest amount owed to these banks (or the few shareholders who own these banks) is getting bigger and bigger every passing day, what is the limit of this expansion?
How the global economies are going to pay all the interest owed to these banks and where will the funds come from?
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Limited Resources
What we completely fail to realize is that Earth’s resources such as oil, forests, water, minerals etc., are finite. They do not exist in infinite quantities. Of course, many of Earth’s resources can be either regenerated or recycled, but that only happens over time (usually a long time). In the case of oil, it’s hundreds of thousands of years. For fossil water it’s much the same. The rate at which modern human civilization is using up these resources is much faster than the rate at which they can be naturally regenerated. This holds true for oil, water, topsoil, forests and more.
It is quite obvious that Each person living in modern civilization consumes some amount of the Earth’s limited resources. When we drive our car, we are obviously consuming limited natural resources. When we buy a car, we are consuming many other natural resources (all the elements that went into making a car), too. This is true even when we buy a solar panel. Every time we turn on a light switch, or open a package of food, or swallow a piece of food, we are consuming some amount of the Earth’s limited resources.
The sum of our consumption is called our “ecological footprint,” which is getting bigger and bigger every passing day. What will happen eventually? Here comes the Normalcy bias into play. A state of denial where we are least concerned about self-evident facts, and hiding behind self created distractions.
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HUMAN HAND IN ALTERING ENVIRONMENT
Another example of normalcy bias is the denial to accept the fact that humans are altering the environment. We can’t argue with this (although some people ridiculously try) that human activity is altering our environment in a huge way, from the massive deforestation of the planet to the release of gases into the atmosphere. We have poisoned the rivers, destroyed natural habitat, polluted the oceans and altered the chemical composition of the atmosphere. These are undeniable scientific truths and no sane person can reasonably argue that human beings have not radically altered the environment of our planet over the last 200 years.
Most important factor that is causing a huge change in our environment is population growth. Before this so called Industrial revolution, human population on earth was a bit less than 1 billion, which multiplied rapidly and has crossed 7 billion today. This enormous growth in population reflects a clear flaw in the system we have adopted, and has caused much damage to the environment.
With the transition away from an agricultural-based economy and towards machine-based manufacturing came a great influx of population from the countryside and into the towns and cities, which swelled in population. This resulted in massive expansion of cities, causing huge deforestation, while toxic materials and gases as byproduct of manufacturing resulted in contamination of waters, destruction of natural habitat and altering chemical composition of atmosphere.
As mentioned earlier that the concept of current economics is based on unlimited production and unlimited growth. A competitive environment, having profit as the ultimate goal, is bound to produce an unjust system of exploitation where entrepreneurs and corporations try to minimize the production cost in order to maximize profits. As a result, labor is forced to work on bare minimum wages and despite putting in enormous amount of hard-work, they usually fail to improve their financial conditions.
This scenario is quite apparent in third world countries, where working class living in urban industrial regions, being unable to meet their financial requirements, sees procreation as a means to add up helping hands in order to increase the income and to maintain the family budget. There is a common misconception that in third world countries people are irresponsible and full of sexual desires, which is the reason behind population growth. In fact a lot of people, having no idea regarding ground realities, come up with such ridiculous statements. Actually there is a simple logic behind population growth. Working class, earning minimum wages needs more helping hands, therefore they prefer to have more children, and this is the main reason behind two serious problems i.e. population growth and child labor.
Please stop and think for a moment. Who is responsible for the problems we are facing in form of population growth and child labor? Is it the poor people? OR is it the system based on the concept of maximizing profit through reducing wages?
History tells us that the economic system being followed today, is a direct result of colonialism when several European powers (Spain, Portugal, Britain, and France especially) established colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, adopting mercantilist policies designed to strengthen the home economy at the expense of rivals. The basic idea behind setting up these policies was to gain maximum advantage through maximum exploitation of the colonies which were to trade only with the mother country. Later on the British Empire introduced a new concept of free trade (commonly known as Opium Wars era). This policy was designed to open up the markets for third world countries, forcing them to import more goods while barricading their own markets, for products being produced by those countries. Please note that the natural resources in these countries and colonies were already owned by the British corporations. The same policy is now being enforced through IMF and World bank in such a way that Europeans and Americans today are kicking down barriers to sales in Asia, Latin American and Africa while barricading their own markets against the Third World ‘s agriculture.
It is self evident that the system being followed today, is a continuation of imperialism, while the British empire has been replaced by IMF, World Bank and their 51% shareholder, the US treasury. In this particular system, the poor and deprived population of third world countries is seen as cheap human resources required to produce goods at minimum cost. These poor people, having been pushed to the limits, finding no other means to increase their income, are bound to use the only available option i.e. procreation, in order to improve their financial conditions. However this idea of using natural reproduction to earn more money doesn’t seems to be working either. Despite many children are being born and forced into child labor, the constantly rising inflation and price hikes in third world countries is keeping the families under the bare minimum income limit.
In short, the problems we are facing in form of population growth, child labor, domestic violence, frustration etc. are all direct outputs of our economic system. Unfortunately the modern social engineers are using disinformation to divert our attention from the profit based system, transferring blames to ordinary people, declaring them irresponsible, while on the other hand they are keeping us busy discussing the non-issues such as secret activities by elites regarding depopulation. In fact the Foundations and think tank are also spending their funds to promote usage of contraceptives and birth control, which is indeed a total wastage of time as well as money. These people living in third world do not need contraceptive and birth control, they only need more wages. Increase their wages and they wont see procreation as added means of income. This will automatically slow down the birth rate and child labor will be reduced too.
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Modern social engineers
The modern social engineers are playing a very significant role in diverting our attentions, shifting the blame towards invisible, unknown groups, secret societies, hidden entities etc. These people or groups operate in the name of so called “truthers” OR “skeptics”, who normally gain public attention on internet through claims that cannot be proven. Mostly these individuals or groups are either directly working for the foundations and think tank or they operate for promoting their personal agendas.
What they are actually doing is, that they are creating a sort of mental discomfort or Cognitive dissonance, for example by making us think that there are some evil worshiping eugenistics on the planet, trying to kill people through various means . An attempt to confuse masses who starts seeing population growth, not as a problem, rather a conspiracy of few elites who majority to die. By diverting our attention and our anger towards invisible, unknown, unreachable entities, they are not letting us understand that we are living in a consumption, production, competition and profit based economic paradigm and that the whole humanity is responsible for this situation. Everyone is taking part in this competition. Those who can afford, are using leverage to earn more profit in order to increase what they already have. Those who cannot afford leverage, are using all possible means (including hoarding, cheating, fraud, exploitation, adulteration etc.) to increase their income. Finally those who are poor and cannot afford to invest capital, are producing more children (as helping hands), forcing them into child labor in order to survive or exist in this system. In such an environment, what difference could some hidden Satan worshipers make? The global economic and social paradigm would remain the same, even if we somehow manage to find these hidden, unknown individuals and eradicate them.
Another example of disinformation is quite common these days. These “truthers” are constantly trying to tell us that these rich, invisible, unknown Satan worshipers want a One world Government. Just think for a moment and look at the facts. Think about an ordinary businessman who is aiming to get profit in order to exist in the market. That ordinary businessman is bound to to things that do not fit into the scales of morality and it’s nothing strange when we talk in terms of competition. We are living in a competition based consumer economy which is moving towards globalization. In such environment, where everyone is competing for profit, the corporations have all the right to move their manufacturing business, wherever they could find cheap labor. This is nothing special and globalization itself is not some secret sort of agenda, rather it’s an outcome of our social and economic paradigm. With advancement of technology, the world was bound to move towards such thing. These individuals or groups of “truthers” are not letting us to critically examine the fact that in a competitive economic paradigm, which is entirely based on unlimited consumption, production and growth, everyone (including the giant corporations) has the right to find suitable means of reducing costs in order to increase profit. Likewise when everyone is competing with each other, only few could win, therefore it’s bound to produce a huge number of losers.
What we need to understand is that all of us indulging in a poisoned, consumer-driven, media-controlled way of life, competing with each other, following orders and obeying ridiculous rules, laws and regulations are actually nurturing the system of disregard and abuse through our participation.
It is quite easy to understand that if some secret societies or elites inclined towards Antinatalism, are working on depopulation agenda, they have failed miserably to achieve the desired results (at least the current population stats says so). Also we can use our common sense to understand that if corporations, banks and governments are the only entities responsible for perpetrating greed and thirst for growth, then why the common individuals, as employers and entrepreneurs are behaving exactly in the same way? … Why the common individuals, as employees are pushing each other downwards to climb up the ladder? … Why the common individuals, as investors are going after maximum returns? … Why the common individuals, as doctors or lawyers, working to protect and promote the interests of wealthy, while completely ignoring the poor? … Why the common individuals, as criminals are committing cheating, frauds and deceptions? … Isn’t it clearly evident that all who are participating in these dogmas are contributing to promote the system and least bothered to change?
It is to remind once again that we are living in a competitive economic paradigm, where everyone is following dreams and hopes, fighting their own war, using all the possible means to earn profit, even to the detriment of others, in order to survive or to maintain the status-quo. It’s all of us as a society, as a civilization who have accepted and adopted the idea of unlimited growth using fictitious entities known as limited liability corporations. Now if these corporations are doing what we all are doing, i.e. trying to compete, using all available means, we just can’t simply shift all the blame towards them and walk away. More importantly it is us who have surrendered our rights to politicians and bureaucrats, running establishments and governments, giving them unlimited powers. It is the same politicians and bureaucrats that are happily accepting favors in form of bribes from these corporations and in return defining rules and regulations to protect their activities. The same politicians we vote for, in every election!
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How long can we stay away from the reality?
How long can we stay in a state of denial?
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The fact is that we all are so injured, so hopelessly dependent on the system that we are fighting unintentionally to protect it.
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We serve no one by withholding information. We do not serve ourselves by refusing to investigate. Lack of information never assisted anyone. Accurate information allows us options; we can choose to take action based upon it or choose to ignore it, but not knowing does not assist us. So put aside your preconceived notions, your psychological defence mechanisms, and your prejudices. Take a chance on remembering what could well grant you complete economic, emotional, and spiritual freedom. Any “Logics” course will teach that we can have a completely logical system which reaches a logical conclusion yet it is not true because it is based upon a false premise. The mind seems not to care if it reacts from something that is untrue as long as it feels certainty. So, the best position from which to learn is from ‘uncertainty’ – ‘being in the question’.
Can we afford to be so arrogant as to pretend we know something we don’t know the knowing of which could transform our lives – Werner Erhard
BITTER REALITIES 
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