barracuda wrote:In other words, "could you lie to uninformed individuals and by doing so lead them to false understandings?" The answer would be yes, but the pathway there is a highly complex one which follows extremely overt layers of misinformation rather than subliminal suggestions in order to get there.
Actually, when it comes to exceptionally consequential subjects -- such as wars, assassinations, terrorist attacks, and so forth -- you can usually lie to
informed individuals and by doing so lead then to false understandings. Meaning "you, an operative with some communication skillz," not "you, whoever the hell
you are."
Just tell them what they want to hear. And if you can't make them feel good about themselves, make them feel bad about other people.
It is, in fact, that simple. In terms of the "psy" part of it, anyway. I assume that the part that involves composing and distributing the messages is at least as complicated as any other large-scale creative endeavor in a communications medium that has to meet a clearly defined demand within very narrow stylistic and lenght parameters -- eg, advertising. That shit's very hard to do. You can tell by the money they make.
But people-influencing in itself only needs to use elaborate and arcane cognitive techniques when you're in the business of influencing them to make enormous immediate personal sacrfices of some kind. Recruiting for the military, for example. Other than that, there's not much reason to go beyond the plain old straight-up non-high-tech-dependent behavioral psych basics: Push this lever, get food pellet. Push that lever, get electric shock.
It works. If you don't mind making the people whose opinions and attitudes you're influencing so miserable that you'll probably have to come back and influence their opinions again periodically forever or until people stop fucking with other people's minds. Which I guess is probably at some point after the rapture, though I don't really know. I've never spent enough time living with that tradition to be on a truly intimate basis with all its little details.