Noam Chomsky: 10 ways to manipulate society

1 - REVERSE ATTENTION

A key element of public control is the strategy consisting in the reversal of public attention from important matters and changes made by political and economic elites, through the technique of constant distraction and the accumulation of irrelevant information. The strategy of distraction is also necessary to prevent public interest in basic knowledge of science, economics, psychology, neurobiology and cybernetics. "Public opinion turned away from real social problems, enslaved by invalid matters. Let the society be occupied, occupied, occupied, without time to think, still on the field with animals (quoted by Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars).

2 - CREATE PROBLEMS AND PROPOSE THE SOLUTION

This method is also called "problem - reaction - solution". It creates a problem, a "situation", aimed at evoking reactions to recipients who will demand certain preventive measures. For example: let the spread of violence or arrange bloody attacks, so that society will adopt stricter legal norms and regulations at the price of one's freedom. Or: create an economic crisis to justify radical cuts in the rights of society and the dismantling of social benefits.

3 - ADJUST THE CHANGES

Acceptance up to an unacceptable level. Move the border gradually, step by step, over the following years. In this way, radically new socio-economic conditions (neoliberalism) were pushed through in the 1980s and 1990s: minimum benefits, privatization, uncertainty of tomorrow, flexibility, mass unemployment, wage levels, no guarantee of a decent income - changes that would have led to a revolution at the same time.

4 - CHANGE CHANGES

Another way to trigger acceptance of an unwelcome change is to present it as a "painful necessity" and to get the society's consent to bring it into effect in the future. It's easier to accept your future sacrifice than surrender to it. For this society, the masses, always have a naive tendency to assume that "everything will be fine" and that it will be possible to avoid sacrifice. Such a strategy gives society more time to become familiar with the awareness of change, and to accept this change in an atmosphere of resignation when the time comes.

5 - SPEAK TO SOCIETY AS TO A SMALL CHILD

Most of the content addressed to the public uses the way of speaking, arguing or even patronizing tone, which is used to speak to children or mentally ill. The more you try to blur the image of your interlocutor, the more willingly you reach for such a tone. Why? "If you speak to a person as if he was 12 years old, then, because of suggestion, the person will probably answer or react uncritically, as if he actually was 12 or less" (Silent Weapons for Quiet War).

6 - FOCUS ON EMOTIONS, NOT ON REFLECTION

Using the emotional aspect is a classic technique to circumvent the rational analysis and the common sense of the individual. What's more, the use of emotionally charged speech opens the door to the subconscious inoculation of given ideas, desires, fears and anxieties, impulses and inducing specific behaviors.

7 - KEEP THE SOCIETY IN IGNORANCE AND AVERAGE

Make society unable to understand the techniques and methods of control and enslavement. "Education offered to lower classes must be as low and as average as possible, so that the gap of ignorance between lower and upper classes is incomprehensible to lower classes" (Silent Weapons for Quiet War).

8 - CREATE A SOCIETY TO CONVINCE THAT IT'S WORTH TO BE AVERAGE

Let the public believe that it is "cool" to be stupid, vulgar and uneducated.

9 - CHANGE BACK AT THE SIP

Let the individuals believe that they are the only ones guilty of their failures, and this is because of the lack of intelligence, ability and effort. So instead of rebelling against the economic system, the individual will live in a devaluation of his own worth, guilt, which leads to depression, and this to stop the activities. And without action there is no revolution!

10 - KNOW PEOPLE BETTER THAN THOSE THEIRSELF

Over the last 50 years, rapid advances in science have generated a growing gap between knowledge available to the broad masses and those reserved for narrow elites. Thanks to biology, neuroscience and applied psychology, the "system" has reached advanced knowledge about human beings, both physical and psychological. At present, the system knows the unit better than it does itself. This means that in most cases it has more control over the units than the units above each other.