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13 May 2023 00:58:24 UTC
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Human-Manipulation-A-Handbook-Coxall
Preface
Why would anyone write a book about human manipulation when many of us have little clue as to what manipulation is or why it might be important to us? The answer is that we, the majority of the world's population, the faceless masses who shuffle off to work every morning and hang our coats up when we come home in the evening, are the main targets of a rigorous exploitation by global puppeteers. Therefore, maybe we should take an interest in how we are manipulated and why.
In recent years phrases such as spin doctors, smoke and mirrors, the Teflon man have become commonplace in our media, adding to the already familiar ideas of Big Brother and 1984. Public consciousness and discontent at the shenanigans of our political masters is getting louder every day.
And in another sense, human manipulation has become something of a plague. The bad examples of our leaders have permeated the consciousness of the people where we even manipulate each other as proxies for our government, or even on our own account. It's truly a morally sad state of affairs.
But it wasn't always like this. Until quite recently the very idea of a central government was alien to many societies. Concepts such as a total DNA database of all citizens, ID cards, video monitoring of our movements and the routine surveillance of our telephone and other communications were unheard of. Such ideas were abhorrent and unthinkable. Nowadays, however, we live in a world where all power is vested in government and little is left to the individual. All authority resides with a regulated state. And this state is everywhere, in everything we do, it permeates our life.
And occasionally we do see the truth behind our "civilised", Western, democratic governments: To mix our metaphors and eras, modern capitalist government often shows itself as a towering and threatening brute - feudalism on steroids. Occasionally, we glimpse this violent and armed thug, especially when there is a risk that we might step out of line or challenge its authority.
Fortunately, most of us rarely see the uglier side of this monster, because he prefers us to see him in his well-cut suit, a civilised urbane man, smiling, always reasonable, so trustworthy.
But what we are really seeing is a prime example of a new and virulent form of institutional social control. Because our ever more pervasive governments can no longer rely on traditional feudal methods like coercion and intimidation, anew, efficient and repeatable method of social control has grown up. It is called political manipulation, and it is everywhere.
More frighteningly, the lines between government and commerce have become blurred as government and big capital merge from a popular point of view, into the great "Them". "They" are now in a unique historical position. "They" have access to unlimited economic resources, they control the media, and "they" control all political and military resources and institutions.
A concentration of power between political and economic elites creates an enormous risk to human freedom. These elites have moved on from the messy and violent traditional methods of social control to a much more dangerous paradigm of social manipulation, this time backed up by the end-stop of limitless state violence.
Such a dangerous conjunction of total influence and power has rarely existed inhuman political history.
Manipulation relies on ignorance, and for our sake, for mankind's dignity and the preservation of our basic freedoms, I believe we all should question our roles as pawns to be conveniently moved here and there according to the wishes of some faceless "grandmaster". Is this the kind of world we want to inhabit?
And so, I now present this humble attempt to define and de-mystify the subject of human manipulation. Everyone has a right to see if they are being manipulated and decide for themselves whether they find it acceptable or not -and if not what they can do to stop it.
Having said all of this, morality, politics, economics and government are not like the weather. What happens isn't inevitable. It's not pre-determined. An economy or a government or a political or economic system does not exist in nature or by the hand of God. We don't have to settle for what we get. And, crucially, it can be changed, by us.
We are now at an important moment in human social and political development which requires serious and universal political reflection and debate. This book is intended to contribute to that debate. It may perhaps even provide the key to unlocking some of the manipulative chains that have been placed upon us by the shadowy manipulators that govern us.
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