The Evolution of Psychological Manipulation in Democratic Societies
Why the Establishment Manipulates Reality to Justify Ambitions of Power and Control
Twelve years ago, I was introduced to the unsettling concept of 4th Generation Warfare. As I learnt the mechanics of propaganda, I found this notion both intriguing and alarming. It exposed the lengths to which governments and elites would go to manipulate the masses, all while avoiding direct conflict when possible.
The shift towards 4th Generation Warfare was spurred by an unexpected source: the general public. After the American Revolution, it became clear that dominating civilians with military force was no longer a guaranteed victory. The solution? A new kind of warfare, one that relied on psychological manipulation to weaken and disarm the populace. The goal: to convince the masses that authoritarian rule is inevitable.
A crucial component of this psychological warfare involves the use of economic leverage for social engineering. A century ago, this took the form of banks creating endless debt mechanisms and controlling currency issuance. But the elites' ambitions have grown.
They now seek to alter the very nature of money through Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). This shift is accompanied by an attempt to influence public behavior by tying “social justice” ideology to economic participation via Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards.
The message is clear: if you want access to credit, money, and the ability to compete in this so-called “inclusive” marketplace, you must embrace the woke religion. Resistance means risking your access to trade and, ultimately, the survival of your family.
A formidable force in this mind war is the manipulation of the Overton Window, which transforms cultural cornerstones into supposed villains. This shift is orchestrated by a movement that some have dubbed the “deconstruction religion” or, more derisively, the “Cult of Woke.”
Consider any core value or principle that underpins Western civilization: meritocracy, self-reliance, mental fortitude, liberty with responsibility, the rewards of hard work and family, the shielding of children from harmful influences, discipline over hedonism, logic and reason over fanaticism, and the preservation of heritage and history. These are the core bedrocks of our society, and the “woke” cult is intent on dismantling them all. This psychological assault on the West is well-funded, with billions of dollars from globalist think tanks like the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Open Society Foundation.
These globalists view public manipulation and social engineering as their birthright, their manifest destiny. They arrogantly suggest that humanity would somehow descend into chaos and self-destruction without their guiding hand. As the renowned propagandist Edward Bernays once observed:
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society... Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country... We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of... In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
Bernays and his contemporaries conceived psychological operations as a means to preserve a particular status quo, with those in power securely ensconced behind the scenes, away from public scrutiny and ire.
The concept of a “shadow government” took root in Bernays' era, but what once served as a tool to keep the masses in the dark has now evolved into a strategy for waging war against them. The insidious nature of 4th Generation Warfare finds its origins in the murky world of perception management.
One might reasonably question how such a war could be waged without the use of soldiers, guns, bombs, tanks, or drones. Surely, this sounds like the stuff of paranoia. Yet, as detailed in a once-classified internal US Army document titled 'From Psyop To Mindwar,' the potential for sabotage through 4th Generation methods is both real and alarming. The document, penned in 1980 by Lt. Colonel Michael Aquino, a self-proclaimed satanist, and Colonel Paul Vallely, outlines the strategy of causing a target population to self-enslave by eroding its core structures through psychological warfare.
Aquino's theory posited that the US Army was not making full use of psychological operations as a complement to kinetic operations. He argued that psyops could, and should, serve as the primary weapon for destroying an enemy nation or controlling a domestic population, without resorting to the destruction wrought by conventional munitions.
In a 2003 preface to Mindwar, Aquino attempted to downplay the more sinister aspects of his proposal, suggesting that psychological warfare could be used to “overwhelm your enemy with argument” and “seize control of all the means by which his government and populace process information to make up their minds.”
The veneer of benevolence in Aquino's words is as thin as it is unsettling. He later sought to distance himself from the more controversial aspects of the document, dismissing the exposure of Mindwar among “conspiracy circles” as a “big misunderstanding.” Yet, the role of occultism in the upper echelons of the military and government cannot be so easily dismissed.
Mindwar strives to distance itself from the tarnished reputation of propaganda efforts employed by the Nazis and Communists, yet its underlying principles remain deeply troubling. Propaganda, by its very nature, is associated with deceit, and rightfully so. However, Aquino and his cohorts claim that their new approach to psychological operations will rely on “the truth” to manipulate the masses. The question then becomes, who holds the power to determine what constitutes “the truth”? In Aquino's world, it is those who wield power and seek control above all else.
The hypocrisy of Mindwar is laid bare in its fundamental premise: that the establishment will always propagandize using the truth, because what is considered a lie today can be rebranded as truth tomorrow. As Aquino himself states, “MindWar has nothing to do with deception or even with 'selected' – and therefore misleading – truth. Rather, it states a whole truth that, if it does not now exist, will be forced into existence by the will of the United States.” This statement, in and of itself, is a manipulation of reality, a twisting of truth to fit the vision of men who crave power.
Mindwar, as a document, is a piece of propaganda that cannot help but distort reality to justify the ambitions of those who seek power above all else. I encourage you to read the paper (linked above); the concepts described within it are being employed against the American people and the Western public today. The disingenuous arguments put forth in Mindwar are the same ones used by current governments to justify state propaganda and mass censorship of opposing views, all in the name of security and the greater good.
Moreover, the ideals and goals of the woke movement bear a striking resemblance to the narcissistic religions of satanism and luciferianism that Aquino so admired. I'm sure this similarity is purely coincidental.
Conservatives and liberty advocates have been at a disadvantage in this “mind war” because their understanding of warfare is rooted in a traditional, direct confrontation model. They point their guns at them, and they respond in kind, refusing their control. However, not all war is designed to destroy people directly, and some wars are waged in a cowardly fashion to avoid direct confrontation.
Advocates of mind war might argue that their tactics are akin to guerrilla warfare strategies. However, I contend that these methods bear a far greater resemblance to those employed by terrorists, with a crucial distinction between the two.
Globalists understand that once armed conflict begins, they lose the ability to meticulously manipulate the outcome and may become targets themselves. The objective of psychological operations is to either instill fear in a population, deterring them from fighting back, or to manufacture popular support through deception, rendering any potential uprising as marginal as possible.
This strategy explains the funding of woke activism and the indoctrination of Western youth. By indoctrinating today's children, the globalists hope to replace the West by demonizing it in their minds, potentially avoiding conflict altogether.
This struggle extends beyond the simplistic “left vs right” narrative. The true enemy is the globalist institutions that threaten our civilization's existence. Until this cancer is eradicated, peace will remain elusive, regardless of which side of the political spectrum emerges victorious.
However, it is intellectually lazy to dismiss this conflict as a mere byproduct of the false left/right paradigm. Leftists indeed serve as a paramilitary force, fully supported and controlled by the globalists. To reach the moneyed elites, it is likely that we must first confront the leftists. This confrontation may take the form of removing them from positions of influence over the next generation, a strategy some conservative states are now employing, or by expelling them from a state or country entirely. In times of war, those who seek to destroy freedom forfeit the benefits of that freedom.
To fully comprehend the situation, it is essential to recognize that a war is, in fact, upon us. The woke movement is a psychological operation devised by globalists, striving to become the dominant system of thought and a morally relative ideology. To succeed, it relies on a particular set of circumstances: the belief that the men of the West will not adopt a fighting stance in the face of psychological attack. As long as we continue to view war solely as a physical confrontation, we will remain passive in the face of a more sophisticated cultural bombardment.
For 4th Generation Warfare to be successful, the target population must adhere to a strict set of rules, while the opposing side is granted the freedom to wreak havoc without restraint. The establishment is permitted to unleash total destruction upon their adversaries, while those who dare to mount a defense, even through words, are castigated.
However, what transpires when patriots grow indifferent to such censure? What happens when the superficiality of public opinion no longer holds sway? What occurs when the objective shifts from triumphing in political debates or the realm of public discourse to securing victory in the tangible conflict that lies before us?
In such a scenario, the landscape of America and the Western world would be irrevocably altered. The ultimate outcome, whether positive or negative, will hinge on the identity of those left to reconstruct once the dust settles.
How you can support my writing
Restack, like and share this post via email, text, and social media
Thank you; your support keeps me writing and helps me pay the bills. 🧡
Agreed we need to remove this element from authority. The issue is this element is always a part of every society to the tune of ~5%. Even if we could remove them from society, there are still a random 5% of sociopaths born every day, some with obviously inherited traits, some acquired due to wealth isolating them from the rest of society but some emerge from parents with no sociopathic history. This personality is a roll of the genetic dice. The best defense is training critical thinking of ourselves with an emphasis on identifying this personality and the means of dealing with them as we encounter them. There will never be an end to sociopathy, but we can at least begin to make everyone else better educated to dealing with it face to face.
Very nice article! Thank you. It's nice hearing a woman talk about it too. My wife hates this stuff and its usually me and the bros talking about it.
I wrote a scheduled article titled "Seeing Black Holes". In essence you can infer the exitance of an impossible to see entity (black hole) by the impact it has on the things around it. Fortunately I have enough life experience prior to the last 20 years to see a clear emergence of agendas. The agendas commonality is to split a population across any number of topics.
The dilution of the fabric of a country is a highly effective, non-combative means to disrupt the cohesion of a society. A 100k foot view would reveal that it is also parochial to Western Countries.
Thank you!