Psychological Warfare

The modern world is defined by who you can influence you the most. People often view this as the form of the mainstream media. Commercials and advertisements bombard the individual with tricks who in turn end up buying into the consumerist culture. A culture in which everything is a commodity. Where a price-tag is placed upon anything of value including life. And this is correct. Most people would agree that the job of advertisers and corporations is to fool the consumer into using their product or service. And for a long time that was the only focus, but the beat of capitalism evolved. This evolved into everything to the absolute.

In today’s digital agenda, advertising has morphed into every aspect of society. Politics, health, sex, religion, etc. Influences are sought to endorse a product or a certain point of view. For the sheep follow their herder. People have not realized this, and believe that their icons whether they are religious ones such as priests, or sports icons. They are indoctrinated into their belief system or are given monetized coercion, but because the idols are often portrayed as one’s hero one can relate to they tend to believe and trust the people who they should be most skeptical of. For they are a product, a product to consume and to use as an authority to drive one’s own decisions. It is easiest to see this in the music, artist, and political icons of the modern-day but this is also coming from corporations and religious institutions. Public relations and branding have become one of the most important things for any ideology. Ideas died when there is no one to advocate for them.

The person is under attack from all angles. This attack is against the mind. Pieces of the mind are carved up for competing ideas wanting real estate in you the individual’s ideology. For the stronger an influence the more willing one will be to advocate for their cause. And the more followers they gain the stronger their hold on civilization
they have. This idea could be as simple as being either pro or the anti-death penalty. Or it could be the idea of a nation-state, an ethnicity, but it could also be more abstract. The way a society should function, gender roles if a monarchy is more proficient than a democracy. As time goes on one idea supersedes another. Even if it is only temporary.

Death of Privacy(A New Era with a New War)

A new era and a new war. The world right now in the early 21st century is enduring a time of revolution and change. In a free flowing era of information technology, where everything seems open has smacked society with the truth: the rules of the game have changed. Governments want to seize information, monitor it, control it, because of the perceived threats it fears. Entire nations have refined the rules of what espionage is not only is it just targeting diplomats and government officials, but also the common citizen especially since accessing the normal lives of everyday citizens is even easier than it has been before in human history. Many people already knew or had a strong inkling but when it is slapped in your face as it was with the NSA and Snowden(if you haven’t been checking the news you should be). It becomes very apparent of what I have said before that privacy as we know it is dead. When we wish to interact with people through the cell phone, email, or video within that moment privacy is dead, but it was also dead when we wrote letters and telegrams. Spies and others often would intercept these messages, but it was not as invasive as it is now. Privacy ends when you are listening without permission on a private conversation, or when you are secretly watching someone in their own privacy either in person or by the use of technologies such as hidden cameras. Privacy is an illusion unless you are truly isolated. I sometimes wonder if people truly understand how limited freedom actually is. For instance you can take your own life at any moment, but you can also you get sick and die I am pretty sure not many people living today desire such a fate. An earthquake can destroy an entire city, at the moment we can’t control those types of events so there is no choice on our part. We often place choice with freedom. We can choose to buy certain products, we can choose which street to turn on, we can choose what mate we can to reproduce with, and various others examples of “choice.” As I mentioned before choice is not as “free” as we like to make it. Yes we can pick what novel to read, or what movie to watch, but we didn’t pick our parents, genetic code, or country of birth. All huge factors of our experience and quality of life. If you are born poor in India you will live a very different life, and perhaps an even shorter one compared to a rich person living in France. Yet a healthy African child can live longer than a cancer ridden baby in the United Kingdom. It is chance? Luck? or Destiny? This often goes into deep philosophical debates on the matter and also the human yearning to make the world a more equal place so that where you are born should not determine major aspects of your life.

Let’s go back to privacy and how information technology has changed the landscape. People who have access to information technology have access to massive information and create millions of different online communities where common interest and not geographical location plays more of a factor. People can build friendships across entire continents with only the language barrier stopping them. Yet it is this double edge sword that people are finally realizing. Society relies on common infrastructure and corporations to provide these services but they also have access to this information. Information that can statistically predict what products you will buy what websites you visit and what communities you are a part of. From the massive data society is outputting every single probable future that can be determined. A scary thought indeed thus the question remains how can a person be free and have choices when algorithms can determine what choices and places we will search next. It becomes apparent that we are not as truly free as we would like to believe. What I am trying to get across is that by merely saying “stop NSA” and “stop corporations” will not stop the changes that are occurring today. Someone will naturally yearn for power and today information is power. The illusion of freedom is so profound for if everyone is truly free would they not marry whoever they wished, be rich, good-looking, and powerful? I think many would but for those of us who understand such dangers we would reject such notions no matter how tempting it would be. Freedom is an ideal, and much of it is a human construct. We can choose to encrypt all personal data, or unplug ourselves from our technology, but now an entire generation especially those age 35 and under don’t think this is such an option. What this piece is attempting to do is to challenge what you think of freedom and liberty. Ask yourself what is freedom to you and how truly free are you? Going through this journey is important and I think one realizes that freedom is not as absolute as we would like to believe. There is choice but if choice is limited than how can that be freedom? The paradox continues.

Side Note: I recommend if you haven’t watched it to see it. PirateBay documentary