A colleague sent the
following to me in an email today.
His interest is
principally in political sociology, and currently, "fake news" (see
Guess et al). But mine being (in part, anyway) in cultic mind control, I was
instantly transported back to several experiences I'd had since the mid-1970s.
These occurred in large group awareness trainings and new religious movements
that used intense, emotion-provoking, multi-media presentations to influence
(as per Arendt, Bernays, Cialdini, Lippman, and Woodward & Denton in the References at the end hereof) the
belief construction (see Berger & Luckman, Burrow, Cooley, and Gergen, as
well as Arendt, Asch, Ewen, Grunberger, Haslam et al, Hoffer, Hook, LeBon,
McDougall, McLuhan & Fiore, Parsons, and Weber & Parsons) among newer
members at the first through five levels on their cultic pyramids.
If multi-media
presentations were "contorted" in the era before Photoshop, Illustrator
and other technologies enabling the construction of a digital (pseudo-)reality
(see Postrel, and Ries & Trout), how much more influential
("flue" = "flow," so in-flow-ential) could such
presentations be made to be in the modern age?
I saw crude evidence of such
tactics in a multi-media show at a large (about 1500 people) tent ("revival")
meeting, and, later, far more sophisticated use thereof at a large,
"high-tech," evangelical, ostensibly Christian church about a decade
ago. That particular church was itself considerably in-flue-nced by the apocalyptic beliefs (think Marshall Applewhite & Heaven's Gate and David
Koresh & the Branch Davidians, as well as Jim Jones & the People's
Temple) (but also see Pagels) of the two sizeable collections of what I will
call "semi"-Christians (Latter Day Saints and Seventh Day Adventists) in the surrounding area... including the
very same "semi"-Christian sect that had put on the tent
meeting (SDAs).
The mixing of actual -- or
"real" -- imagery with emotionally provocative images and music did
not include the fakery used in the samples in the article cited at the
beginning of this piece. But, looking back, it's easy to see how the more
modern technology could be employed to convince the unsuspecting (and
conspiracy-oriented) that cynically evil forces are conspiring to bring
damnation down on the innocent and God-fearing.
The fake photo of Barrack Obama
with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the title article here is a good example. But suppose one concocts a fake
video or audio recording of several, well-known and highly respected
"environmental scientists" asserting that "millions will die in
monstrous, apocalyptic storms before 2050"... or a group of equally renown
and respected psychologists and psychiatrists joking about how the "frauds of psychiatry and psychotherapy we've been selling to the suckers"
have made them all wealthy. (One who's into cult studies doesn't need to think very hard about which
organizations might be tempted to try such things.)
Further ("toothier") examples might include placing the guru and/or others near the top of the cultic pyramid in positions they've never been in (and never will be) like hanging out with respected political, sports or entertainment figures they have no connection with whatsoever. Or lecturing enormous crowds of devoted followers in foreign lands. Or even placing the guru at the site of some concocted "miracle" with which he or she had nothing whatsoever to do. Or even purporting to show the guru and his or her upper-level followers visiting the "other dimension" to which they will return when the apocalypse arrives.
The use of imagery and group dynamic
manipulations to induce "thought reform" was well-described in Robert
Lifton's work. But the systematic creation of a different reality in the minds
of the masses goes back at least as far as the development of parable- and/or
myth-based Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Aegean religions in the early city states
of about 4,000 years ago (see Armstrong, Assman, Berger, Bottero, Durkheim,
Freud, Fromm, Miles, and Smith). One need only read the first five books of the
Judeo-Christian Old Testament to see the constructions of mythical
(pseudo-)reality of that period.
What is more difficult for
us to see and understand in light of the now-well-established traditions of
modern scientific research, as well as evidentiary jurisprudence, based on
rational empiricism (which is only about 250 years old, one must be reminded; see Gay,
Jaspers, and Kant), is the immense power of well-designed -- and constructed --
myth. Mankind has spent tens of thousands of years indulged in animism and
mystical deism as mechanisms of explaining "how it all works" and "what the future will bring for the faithful." And
for most of those who never made it to freshman critical thinking class (see
Bloom, Krishnamurti, Rousseau, and Ruggiero), rational empiricism and the
questioning of ideas handed down by "recognized authorities" are
wholly off the table.
We have lived in an age
when the ability to use our eyes, ears and other senses to accurately perceive
reality came to be taken for granted (see Hedges, Luce, and Russell). In 2018,
however, that's no longer the case. And certainly not among those who understand that reality is the product of interpretation of perception according to in-flue-enced beliefs.
How the new science of "reality
construction" will be used in the new era of "post-factual reality" by the cynics and sociopaths at or near the top of the cultic pyramids is anyone's guess. But one can be certain that at least some of those people are watching the use of this technology for political purposes very carefully.
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