It is a rainy weekend and I've had this video in the hopper for a while so I thought that I would share it with you. I've often written about "the post" I've been working on that highlights where our US society is going, and along the way I discovered this video. Ultimately, I think it fits into the theme of the degeneration of our country and grapples with the notion that as citizens that are engaged 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in some sort of mass media, we end up believing the stories that are presented to us.
BEHAVIORAL MODIFICATION THROUGH FILTERING
Think about this for a moment. The messages that we hear and see drive all of our decisions. I think a perfect example is that of our current leadership in the White House. When President Obama was elected he had little real political experience and no foreign policy experience and ran based on a campaign to end all wars and stop all military efforts abroad. Suddenly, upon election, he refused to end the Iraq conflict, continues to remain in Afghanistan, helped topple Egypt through lack of action, deposed Libya's dictator through the UN, and now looks focused on efforts to engage Iran. All the while he has kept Gitmo open. What happened? How did a pacifist anti-war Constitutional Law professor like Obama become a war-mongering imperialist?
My opinion is that there are two reasons for the changes we've seen with Mr. Obama. First, someone shared with him that there really are bad guys in the world. Second, he is probably receiving a steady diet of feedings about how evil folks are by the machine, and reality becomes what the organization wants the President to see and know. In a way, we are all like this, and this is why I want to present this documentary to you. We receive filtered information and thus we can be manipulated into believing just about anything.
MAKING ME WANT WHAT THEY WANT ME TO WANT
The video is about creating needs and wants in target subjects and controlling their behavior through the most basic manipulation techniques. I think I've done a pretty good job with my kids as they have grown up asking them probing questions as commercials are presented to them on kid shows. They are aware that companies are attempting to sell them stuff they don't need or want. I hope that their ability to recognize these tricks sticks!
I know the video is long. Just act like you eating an elephant....and take it one bite at a time. Come back to the site when you need a break and make sure to shop in our Amazon box at the upper right because you deserve some plastic crap from China or a book or game that only can be obtained through my search box....hurry there is only a limited amount of time to get the best deal! Maybe click and ad or two and check out our Google Ad sponsors! (Ok self-serving commercials are over!).
THE CENTURY OF SELF
HERE'S THE STORY, NOW THINK THIS.....
Finally, please check out this story about a software program used by Forbes and a few other outlets. The program actually writes stories and then compiles data and adds pictures. AUTO-PILOT JOURNALISM
We now have the ability to automate and create stories with depth based on events that happen. In other words, the computer software that a media giant actually uses creates stories and adds a bias to them without human eyes needing to manage the process. Now, to make this even more conspiratorial, think about this software in the hands of a totalitarian regime like North Korea or Russia. Isn't it an easy leap to believe that it would be a great tool to control the masses?
Just something to think about when you feel like putting your tin-foil hat on during this rainy weekend.
GOATMUG
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