Many years ago as a young special forces soldier I had to undertake a combat survival course at Hereford. This was a course for special forces soldiers which they had to pass? Why? Special forces have to go behind enemy lines to gather information of the enemies strength, movements, equipment and morale , etc. More importantly to identify were the enemies lines of communication are located.
This means having to operate behind enemy lines in unfriendly territory and being able to operate without being detected always moving at night and laying up in during the day to observe troop movements using high power telescopes. Even getting in close to observe camp sites strategic fortification, etc. making sketch maps of enemy locations .
The combat survival course which lasted 3 weeks you were shown how to live off the land using snares to catch wildlife to identify edible natural vegetation such as fungi.
The last week of the course you had a big final escape and evasion exercise near the Black mountains near South Wales. You had to meet different agents at night to get your next RV point and navigate the whole training area from end to end. At the same time you were being pursued by the police and army units.
Finally you received your final RV and when you arrived you were blindfolded and taken to an interrogation centre to be deprived of sleep and subjected to white noise and psychological interrogation. We had to adhere to the Geneva convention by only giving your name rank and number. And no more and never to get involved with any conversation with the interrogator. Once you do that your on down hill slope to be slowly psychologically broken. That was the most critical part of the whole process never to divulged anything to your interrogators or captives.
In the Korean War the North Koreans and Chinese used brain washing techniques to psychologically break down American POW’s ( prisoners of war) morale and turn them against the US government. They were put on stage at show trail were asked to denounce the US military and or the U.K. government on camera.
Over the past few years I’ve become concerned about the cult of celebratory especial with political leaders such as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson. The constant drip feed of lies and untruths which slowly destabilises democracies. Constant lying is a ploy of a dictator to confuse the populace with misinformation and create polarisation. Trump & Brexit have both achieved this aim. This is the ploy of all dictators. Such as Kim Jong Un and Putin. They tell so many lies and give out lots of misinformation the populace don’t know what the real truth is any more. They also like to control information through the press and news sources such as the state media and in the US Fox News, part of the Rupert Murdoch news corporation.
We have a populist celebrity leader in the U.K. however his authority is being eroded by his constant lies rule breaking and gaffs. He has a serious enemy with Dominic Cummings his previous puppet master media guru who seems to want to do everything in his power to undermine his leadership. If Dominic Cummings was in Russia he’d be locked away like the Russian dissident Anatolievich Navalny.
Propaganda and lies and disinformation is to control peoples minds is not something new it’s been carried out for many years by totalitarian regimes and religious cults for infinitum! Take ex cult members who have escaped from the Moonies or the Unification church and Scientologists.
What’s exacerbated this problem of mind control is the internet. I worked with a guy recently who was an ardent anti-Vaxxer it’s as if he’d become possessed by his believes against covid Vacinations. Anytime I spoke with him he got straight on to the “great reset” and George Saros the American Hungarian financier. He was always intense about his anti vaccine believes.
I had happen to give him my emails address I was inundated with anti vaccine emails by him. I thought wow this guy gone down the Alison Wonderland rabbit hole!
Brain washing is here with us now with social media and the internet. I realise that marketing for products is form of mental propaganda to persuade us to buy things or influence us is the same as the propaganda we get from governments that influence us to vote for certain political parties. They call it ”marketing” but most of what they say are bunch of half truth and lies! Through clever technology it’s hones in on any psychological weaknesses we may have?
For instance I happen to watch a movie from an American lady called Sonia Ricotti. It was called “ Unsinkable” it was about people who overcome major traumas in their lives. Such as loss of love one, traumatic childhood experiences, addiction, destructive relationships and personal and business bankruptcies. It was really about a frame work to help you to come to terms with these things that happen to a greater or lesser degree in all our lives.
But it was at the end of the film presentation which I felt uncomfortable with. I enjoyed the film and the advice in how to reset your perspective. I thought wow that was similar to my last blog on how we have to control our thoughts through positive thinking and mediation to close down those negative thoughts that pop into our minds.
But it was the big sell at the end to take their course with so many free videos and all at price of $147 dollars. Made me think the whole film had been devalued by this “hard” tacky sell technique. I thought Ugh what a shame it’s devalued the quality of message of the film. Why does every single thing have have price tag on it!
Back to my last blog about toxic nature of our modern society and the manipulation of so many things we see around us. I do watch selective YouTube things such as TED talks but you have to endure intrusive advertisements that come before and through the film or documentary. It’s done in a subliminal way. Say I happen to be looking at a bike or bike accessory next you’re maybe watching something about cycle touring up pops an advertisement about that product you might of been looking at previously. You think subliminal advertisements! thats what cookies are all about, the internet is bad at this!
Many years ago subliminal advertisement was banned but not to day its ubiquitous. Fake news, lies, is the order of the day manipulation of the masses. Hence voting in Trump, Johnson and many of old eastern block countries voting for demigods who thrive on disinformation. If you tell a lie often enough it becomes the truth. They use confusion, so you don’t know what to believe anymore.they create fear, “foreigners are going take your jobs”, “Take back control” was Brexit rhetoric, us and them polarisation of groups and families. Internet was a great idea at the time but now it’s been captured by capitalism and dark forces to control us through use of algorithms to take us down the fake information rabbit hole. Finally nothing is black white in life just many grey areas we have be so selective with the information we read or watch, but we’re bombarded with 24/7 by news and advertisements it’s non stoppable!