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Stop The Underground Internet Madness!
You might enjoy this:
We all know about brainwashing, right? Although only used since around 1950, or so, the term generally applies to coercive, though often subtle, techniques applied in an attempt to modify a person’s thoughts or behavior.
Various methods have been tried, and continue to be used effectively, especially in closed, tightly controlled societies. Ah, but that’s politics, really.
Probably the most common and widely accepted form of “brainwashing� in current, and ever-expanding use is that of advertising. The best advertising can convince us we must have what we don’t need; everything old really is new again; and there is only one best of anything.
This is the kind of brainwashing on my mind today (or is it really my mind?) Anyway, as earlier reported, or later if you read top to bottom :-P, companies are endeavoring to convince us to buy products they already know we want at prices they already know we’ll pay. It’s the latest twist on behavior modification, and we must remain vigilant!
Now, where did this insidious idea have its genesis, I wondered. I looked in the clues closet, recently vacated by several ex-Congressmen, and lo and behold, what did I find?
Karl Rove.
Yes. “The Architect� (notwithstanding his ugly failures last Tuesday) is behind today’s modern brainwashing phenomenon. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, global corporations have simply applied the remarkably successful methodologies pioneered by the CIA, and honed to perfection by Karl Rove.
It all centers on the concept of “spoon-feeding� information. Whereas traditional brainwashing, or advertising, focuses on repeating the same mantra over and over again, Rove realized the most effective use of information combined meaningless repetition with carefully parsed data.
Researches and scientists have always taken great care to insure their data was as unbiased as humanly possible in order to procure “honest� results, whatever they might be. Rove turned this ethic on its head, for his goal was not to discover “honest� results, but to reach the conclusion he envisioned at the start. Rather than conducting “blind vote tests,� he preferred “blind voter tests.�
It was in this way he created President George W. Bush.
He picked young George for many reasons. Money. Political connections. Name recognition. Young George was also a viable conduit for brainwashing himself. A test subject, if you will. Terribly unsuccessful in business (until friends bought him a baseball team), a proud “C� student, and notorious party boy, he was also ready for a change.
Rove took young George Bush under his wing, and taught him the value of “acting as if.� A recognized psychological technique, it wasn’t too long before Dubya began to exhibit a veneer of intelligence, hint at depths his recently vapid past made all but impossible, and found God in Jesus and Karl Rove.
Before you can say “digital dossier,� young George is governing Texas, raising money, and learning all about the concept of conservatism, neo, ultra, traditional and otherwise. After a time, he took the carefully crafted doctrine he was being spoon fed to heart, until he believed it all, through and through. A bit raw, perhaps, but he now seemed genuine.
As luck would have it, most of the worthwhile political opponents he would face in a race for the highest office in the land had died, peaked, or retired by the year 2000. It was ridiculously close; some say too close, if you know what I mean, but with the constantly re-brainwashed right wing, Karl Rove and God on his side, George W. Bush beat the cardboard cutout, now sometimes called the “former next President of the United States,� he ran against and captured the prize for himself.
Even The Architect needed help to keep moving ahead, however. After only six or seven months as Commander-In-Chief, it seemed 43 might wind up sharing 41’s fate as a one-term president. September 11, 2001 changed history in many ways. For one, it made George W. Bush look as he had rarely looked before, decisive, courageous and intelligent. This was accomplished largely through over-simplification.
Advertising at work again.
In short order, the enemies behind the terrible attacks were identified, pinpointed, and almost annihilated. Only the mastermind, Public Enemy #1, seemed to get away.
Had that focus remained, and the network been dismantled piece by piece with the assistance of a world fully on our side for a change, Bush might have won reelection in 2004 by acclamation (instead of barely besting yet another pitiful opponent), and perhaps earned a cherished place in American history. In addition, a whole lot of people would still be alive, civil war in the Middle East would not be imminent, and the Republicans might have retained control of the U.S. government for a generation or more.
20-20 hindsight? How could we have known all these things in advance? Well, that’s easy. Any time you decide to make the facts fit the premise, you’re destined for trouble; the bigger the issue, the bigger the trouble. Just because a technique proves effective in one arena, doesn’t mean it can be replicated in another. If it’s essentially disingenuous, it should probably be jettisoned before application. Even honest success does not always breed success.
Brainwashing, or the very best advertising, doesn’t actually alter reality. Some things are what they are, and cannot be readily changed. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, but as Benjamin Franklin once said, “He that lives upon hope will die fasting.�
Sometimes techniques should not be applied. Some ideas should not hold sway. Companies, because they believe what’s best is what’s best for business, should not be allowed to use unfair practices to further “brainwash� the public. Presidents should not be able to pursue unauthorized crusades by any means necessary, regardless of how much they themselves have come to believe in the righteousness of their actions.
Karl Rove may indeed be a political genius.
Amazon.com may indeed be a brilliantly run business.
The ideas they employ to realize their desires, unfortunately, may only bring corruption and misfortune in the final, “blind� analysis.
