by Kathie MM
Political mind games provided at considerable cost by tiny ruling cabals are not enjoyable forms of rest and relaxation designed to help people escape from the stresses and strains of daily living. Rather, they are dirty destructive devices deliberately developed to deceive and defraud people.
The purpose of mind games is to manipulate people into doing things that are not in their own best interests or the interests of millions of others like them. These mind games serve to increase the wealth and power of the one percenters at the top of the control tower tottering over our fragile globe and its endangered inhabitants.
Roy Eidelson has revealed the mind game strategies targeting common human concerns and inflaming powerful—and manipulable—emotions in ways that get people to engage in a wide range of immoral behaviors, including voting for legislation that:
- robs the poor to pay the rich,
- destroys public lands to enrich the fossil fuel billionaires,
- steals from social programs to benefit the arms industry, and
- undermines peace efforts to shore up the military industrial complex.
The common human concerns and their associated emotions are:
- a sense of vulnerability (fear);
- perceived unfairness/injustice to self (anger and resentment);
- distrust (suspicion);
- need/desire to feel superior (pride); and
- sense of helplessness (despair).
These mind games work, in part, by manipulating fear, anger, suspiciousness, pride, and despair in ways that get people to abandon or reject universal moral principles (e.g., the Golden Rule) in favor of what feels like the only way to survive and prosper in a dangerous world. That is, mind games work by sabotaging moral engagement in principles and behaviors that are supportive of human kindness, justice, and peace. Bottom line: mind games capitaliza on and promote moral disengagement. More on that coming up in future posts.
Pegean says, “While your eyes are open and you’re paying attention, don’t let the one percenters and their followers use the 9/11 anniversary to manipulate your fears and hatred. Rise above it.