Saturday, April 08, 2006

FREEDOM IN THE MIDDLE EAST

I have been saying since early in the War on Terror, that we are dealing with a cult. Now, some will disagree with me on this idea, and that is their right. But, let me elaborate on my thinking.

A cult, mind control and brainwashing. What thoughts come to mind when you read these words? To me, they mean power and control over a human being. All of us at some point in our lives have encountered a situation when we felt compelled to comply. For the majority of us, it is in a positive situation such as at work or following the laws of the land. For the most part, complying in these situations does not pose a problem. We are comfortable with our job and with few exceptions, comfortable with the laws of our land. When we find ourselves faced with a situation that raises a red flag that makes us uncomfortable, we do what we can to deal with it.

But, what if you are a child who is raised in an environment that looks at the world in a way that most of us would deem inhumane? From the time of birth you are taught that violence and imprisonment is a way of life? That if you complain, you could very well die?

This is the life of a child growing up in the Middle East. For the most part, these countries are ruled by a dictator who uses violence, imprisonment and threats to rule. A dictator who views individual rights as a threat to their power and as such, uses a type of "mind control" to rule.

DO THE PEOPLE WANT THIS?

Today, with the advent of the internet, there are many more people in the Middle East, who have found a way to gain information and communicate. In many countries in the Middle East, information that goes against the government is banned. The purpose? Power and control of the people. You see, if the citizens of these countries were to find out that their world really isn't that great, they may rise against the government. In order for these dictators to stay in control, they must control the minds of the citizens.

Times have changed and the outside world is coming in, whether the dictators like it or not. There are many more people in the Middle East who have come to realize that their lives can be better. That what they have been raised to believe, is not necessarily correct. Many of these people have started blogs. Many countries have started jailing bloggers for writing about things that are banned. Those bloggers that continue, regardless of this threat, should be commended for their bravery.

PATIENCE

Bringing freedom to the Middle East is something that is long overdue. It is a process that will take a lot more time than people may realize. The people in the Middle East have been raised in a manner that I compare to brainwashing. Undoing this process will not happen overnight. But, it can be done and absolutely must be done. In today’s world, we have grown accustomed to instant everything. This idea must be forgotten when it comes to the Middle East. We must remember exactly what needs to be accomplished and how much time it took for the thoughts that are rampant there to be embedded. I for one want this to be done right. Want the people in the Middle East to finally feel what freedom feels like. To finally be able to accomplish whatever their hearts desire. In order for this to happen, we need to give it all of the time and energy that is required. Haste makes waste. These are human beings that we are talking about, not robots.

WHAT DO WE HAVE TO GAIN?

Some people may wonder, why would we be willing to expend blood and money for this. The simple fact is, the ME has become a breeding ground for terrorists. These terrorists are a threat to the world. In the end, I feel that any investment that we make in the ME, will have a huge payoff in our security.

CULTS

I have included some information below regarding cults. It is really important that we all begin to understand exactly what we are dealing with here.

ICSA

Mind control is the process by which individual or collective freedom of choice and action is compromised by agents or agencies that modify or distort perception, motivation, affect, cognition and/or behavioral outcomes. It is neither magical nor mystical, but a process that involves a set of basic social psychological principles.

Conformity, compliance, persuasion, dissonance, reactance, guilt and fear arousal, modeling and identification are some of the staple social influence ingredients well studied in psychological experiments and field studies. In some combinations, they create a powerful crucible of extreme mental and behavioral manipulation when synthesized with several other real-world factors, such as charismatic, authoritarian leaders, dominant ideologies, social isolation, physical debilitation, induced phobias, and extreme threats or promised rewards that are typically deceptively orchestrated, over an extended time period in settings where they are applied intensively.

A body of social science evidence shows that when systematically practiced by state-sanctioned police, military or destructive cults, mind control can induce false confessions, create converts who willingly torture or kill “invented enemies,” and engage indoctrinated members to work tirelessly, give up their money—and even their lives—for “the cause.”

Power struggles

It seems to me that at the very heart of the controversy over the existence of mind control is a bias toward believing in the power of people to resist the power of situational forces, a belief in individual will power and faith to overcome all evil adversity. It is Jesus modeling resistance against the temptations of Satan, and not the vulnerability of Adam and Eve to deception. More recently, examples abound that challenge this person-power misattribution.

From the 1930s on, there are many historical instances of state power dominating individual beliefs and values. In Stalin’s Moscow show trials, his adversaries publicly confessed to their treasons. Catholic Cardinal Mindzenty similarly gave false confessions favoring his communist captors. During the Korean War, American airmen confessed to engaging in germ warfare after intense indoctrination sessions. The Chinese Thought Reform Program achieved massive societal conversions to new beliefs. It has also been reported that the CIA put into practice nearly 150 projects—collectively termed MKULTRA—to develop various forms of exotic mind control, including the use of LSD and hypnosis. More than 900 U.S. citizens committed suicide or murdered friends and family at the persuasive bidding of their Peoples Temple cult leader, Jim Jones.

The power of social situations to induce “ego alien” behavior over even the best and brightest of people has been demonstrated in a variety of controlled experiments, among them, Stanley Milgram’s obedience to authority studies, Albert Bandura’s research on dehumanization, my Stanford Prison Experiment and others on deinviduation.

Understanding the dynamics and pervasiveness of situational power is essential to learning how to resist it and to weaken the dominance of the many agents of mind control who ply their trade daily on all of us behind many faces and fronts.

No comments: