Psychological Warfare is using deception, manipulation, and fear in order to gain a strategic advantage over others. Under these strategies, one lies, manipulates, shames, and demoralizes the target in order to gain control over their mindset and therefore their resources.
Using books such as The Art of War and 40 Laws of Power, psychological warfare techniques have been repackaged into self-help techniques for those who want to have success in business and life, thus reinforcing the tyrannical archetypes that are embedded into society.
Paul Linebarger writes, “Psychological warfare, by the nature of its instruments and its mission, begins long before the declaration of war. Psychological warfare continues after overt hostilities have stopped. The enemy often avoids identifying himself in psychological warfare; much of the time, he is disguised as the voice of home, of God, of the church, of the friendly press.” [1]
Linebarger goes on to explain how ideology, education, and salesmanship are used in war.
Ideology is a system of deep rooted beliefs. A difference in beliefs that does not touch fundamentals is simply a matter of opinion. But when the difference is so large that agreements become impossible then it’s gone from a matter of opinion, to a matter of ideology. When ideologies are different, people begin to fear one another.
Education is transmitting practical information, but it can also be used as indoctrination. Linebarger writes, “In the states which are ideologically self-conscious and anxious to promote a fixed mentality, the process of education is combined with agitation and regulation, so that the entire population lives under conditions approximating the psychological side of war. Heretics are put to death or are otherwise silenced…Education is to psychological warfare what a glacier is to an avalanche. The mind is to be in both cases captured, but the speed and techniques differ.”
Salesmanship, or advertising gets people used to visual and audio appeals.
Psychological Warfare Tactics
- Fear
- Divide and Conquer
- Confusion and Wonderland
- Wearing Down
The first step is psychological warfare is making people afraid of the loss of some aspect of their life. This leads to stress which impacts the nervous system. When people are stressed about some aspect of survival, they can be easily led to work against their own best interest. One can adapt the mindset that, “if I just comply with this, then I’ll be safe from harm” which is not always accurate when dealing with bullies and tyrants. Every situation is different, and we must evaluate the circumstances we are in at the time. But on a large scale, when dealing with systems and structures built on the foundation of control, acting from fear does not bring about long term positive results. It only reinforces that the controllers can get what they want from people by bullying them.
With this ideology of fear-based control in play, it leads to divide and conquer. You separate people from their support system in order to weaken them. This tactic works by separating families from one another, making friends and associates suspicious of one another, bringing discord to unified groups, and targeting individuals and groups for character assassination.
“We can form a single united body, while the enemy must split up into fractions. Hence there will be a whole pitted against separate parts of a whole, which means that we shall be many to the enemy’s few.” – Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Once the target is fearful and separated from their support system, it’s time to confuse them. This can involve elaborate deceptions, gaslighting, betrayals, and forcing requirements on them which make no logical sense. The individual can begin to feel as if they are trapped in the nightmare of Alice in Wonderland. The purpose is to get the person into a state of such confusion that they don’t know up from down, left from right, who to trust, or what kind of world they’ve entered.
This makes them primed for the next level of psychological manipulation which is to overwhelm them and wear them down. This also involves forcing requirements which make little logical sense, but at this level the requirements increase and it becomes so much that the person becomes overwhelmed. They are afraid of some sort of loss, legal issue, or other intimidation factor, they’ve been separated from their support system, they’ve been dysregulated by confusion, and now it’s time to totally dismantle them by draining and demoralizing them so much that they just give up under all of the pressure.
How many of our social systems are designed under this very model? We have to be able to recognize it in order to bring about change that improves the quality of life for everyone. Whether we are interacting with a control structure due to necessity, or if we are employed to enforce the control structure – it is important to make the unconscious, conscious in order to rise to the level of balance and harmony that is inherently human.
The Antidote
The first antidote to psychological warfare is to recognize that it exists. It exists during times of obvious war, it exists during times that are perceived to be peaceful. It exists on a large scale of society, and it exists in our everyday interactions with people, organizations, and structures. Once we see and know what is being done, then we can start to disentangle ourselves from it.
Next we have to understand the difference between trustworthy and untrustworthy behavior. This will help clear up fears and confusion which are breeding grounds for manipulation. Just because someone has a certain degree or job title or position in life, it does not make them inherently trustworthy. Just because someone is well spoken, attractive, or well put-together, it does not make them inherently trustworthy. Trust must be earned based on behaviors, and it can be lost based on behaviors. This applies to everyone, in equal measure.
Unfortunately, sociopathic behaviors such as lacking empathy and compassion, lacking respect for others, and being deceptive in order to gain power over others have unconsciously become markers of “trust” because these types of behaviors can lead to professional success and wealth. This is not an “all or nothing” observation. Success and wealth can be had without sociopathic tendencies, so discernment is required to see what type of energy we are dealing with. We have to recognize what the current situation is in order to tune ourselves into discerning productive vs. destructive behaviors.
Next we can refuse to allow ourselves to be used to promote division or separation. Without divide and conquer, most attempts at psychological warfare will fail. We are in a society that provokes conflict, always seeks to make someone the victim and someone else the victimizers, which leads to rewarding inhumane and predatory people. This requires comfort with dehumanizing and terrorizing people; and we have to decide if we want to take part in or not.
We are not going to agree with or resonate with everyone, but we can still be vessels of peace, compassion, and fairness. We can choose to feel as if we are the enforcer of tyranny, or we can be vessels of peace. This requires rising above fear because some people may think, “well we can’t let “bad people” get away with anything so it has to be this way.” That is not accurate, that is fear masquerading as logic.
We can discern energies, refuse to support harm, and honestly discuss actions without judging, demoralizing, degrading, or trying to steal power and resources from any individual.
References
[1] Psychological Warfare, Paul M.A. Linebarger (1948)
The Art of War, Sun Tzu