5 ~ The Psychodynamics of the Cold War.
The indoctrination of society in the psychological Cold War has been very subtle taking place little by little over a period of years like stalagmites and stalactites growing imperceptibly in a limestone cave. It has therefore passed unnoticed by the majority preoccupied by the everyday management of their lives.
Understanding the mind and human nature has been an enigma since antiquity and this mystery has been fully exploited in the Cold War to confuse and dupe the people. However anyone can observe that we all have two personalities. They hold the key to understanding the dynamics of the psychological Cold War.
The two personalities are illustrated by the fact that in everyday life people can be in a bad mood with low spirits when things are going badly and in a good mood with high spirits when things are going well. The former is associated with difficult circumstances where individuals feel threatened and insecure in some way and the latter when more congenial conditions prevail and individuals feel safe, secure and ‘at home’. For most people most of the time, the mood is an appropriate balance between feeling tense or relaxed depending on temperament, knowledge and individual interpretation of situations. This is true for everyone regardless of culture and religion. There is a rationale to human emotions no matter how irrational they may seem.
To examine those two personalities more closely, one can be anxious, mean, greedy, self-centred, surly, irritable, discontent, and so forth. It can also be aggressive or submissive depending on circumstances. It can be devious and manipulative seeking to control the immediate environment or blindly obedient to constraining influences. This personality dominates when individuals feel threatened or insecure. One might talk of the ‘defensive personality’.
The Cold War surreptitiously and successfully sought to promote this personality in the population at large.
The other personality is more assured, generous, kind, good natured, and content. It seeks to promote the wellbeing of those about them. Such personalities become dominant when individuals feel safe and secure. One might talk of the ‘non-defensive personality’.
To probe these two personalities deeper, it is probable that ‘tolerance’ of the biochemical changes in the body stimulated in response to circumstances and described in greater detail later, can develop just as tolerance to psychotoxic drugs such as heroin can develop. The defensive personality can continue to function but becomes ever more ‘freaked out’, ever more ‘uptight’, extreme and oppressive. As it does so, the mind develops an increasingly narrow-minded, dogmatic and dictatorial approach to difficulties. This probably ultimately lies at the root of genocide as was illustrated by the Nazis and the holocaust for example, Pol Pot in Cambodia or the crazed Hutu of Rwanda. The defensive personality can be seen as ultimately responsible for all the ills of humanity.
At the other extreme, the non-defensive personality can display a Christ-like quality. This was illustrated by the lives of the saints such as Columba and the Celtic Christians in Ireland in the first millennium. Increasing ‘tolerance’ of the innate biochemical changes can be seen as resulting in the ability to perform miracles. In ancient China, it was probably the tranquility associated with this state of mind that resulted in the ability to delineate the meridians. The non-defensive personality can be seen as ultimately responsible for all the virtues of humanity.
These extreme traits are probably ‘hard-wired’ into the central processing unit of the human cerebral computer. While this is pure speculation, it is important to note that if the non-defensive personality was not ultimately stronger than the defensive personality, human civilisation could never have evolved. Contrary to Christian teaching, human beings must be essentially ‘good’ and driven to ‘evil’ by desperate circumstances rather than free will.
Consider more closely the ordinary everyday defensive personality that can be experienced by everyone. Regardless of actual physical security we are all quietly on the lookout for danger, consciously or subconsciously, all of the time because survival depends on it. The defensive and non-defensive personalities therefore co-exist regardless of prosperity and wellbeing. When an individual feels insecure for any reason the mind is anxious and preoccupied by the search for security. In acute situations, the intellect is overridden as when jumping aside to avoid an accident. When chronic insecurity prevails, individuals have no option but to focus their minds on resolving the situation. They stew in their own juice so to speak distracted by the chattering apes of consciousness debating a course of action among themselves regardless of whether any danger they perceive is real or imagined. Survival dictates that the intellect is focused on the immediate situation. But there are only twenty-four hours in a day. Time spent coping with the here and now is time that is not available for contemplating the future, exploring the wider world, broadening the mind, planning ahead, making dreams come true or deducing the likely consequences of actions. Anxiety therefore narrows the mind forcing it to ignore the interests and wellbeing of others.
Moreover preoccupied by everyday survival, the intellect has less time to concentrate on learning so that the acquisition of new knowledge is impaired. Individuals become confined to a narrow, restricted, homely and familiar repertoire of ideas and routines. In effect individual liberty is curtailed. The Cold War slyly sought to promote this state of affairs.
Threats can be real as when at risk of injury or death or more commonly, imaginary as when one feels inadequate to cope with a situation. This makes it possible to undermine morale by deliberately promoting awareness of possible dangers by health and safety legislation for example. This must have been the essence of the ancient Chinese philosophy adopted by the KGB to subvert western culture.
Increasing public awareness of possible dangers has been achieved in such a plethora of insidious ways that they are impossible to itemize. To give an example, consider the emotive subject of driving under the influence of alcohol. It would nowadays cause outrage, even among the young, if it were to be suggested that the drink/drive limit be doubled or trebled rather than halved. However, before the Breathalyzer was introduced in 1967, individuals were only considered too drunk to drive if they could not walk steadily down a white line painted on the floor of a police station. Any tendency to totter resulted in a blood test to provide evidence for prosecution. Everybody knew this, moderated their consumption and tested themselves when they walked back to the car to go home. When the Breathalyzer was introduced, a ridiculously low limit was set. The plausible argument used to promote and pass the legislation was that alcohol caused accidents by slowing reaction times and impairing concentration. However, only emergency and racing drivers drive at the limit of their reflexes, nobody else does. Moreover, when people have had a drink they concentrate more on their driving not less. Concentration is dangerously impaired by other emotive distractions such as an argument with a wife or girl friend. This is born out by the fact that road accident statistics for fatalities remained remarkably constant at about five thousand a year for decades since well before the war in spite of an ever increasing number of vehicles on the road and in spite of the introduction of the Breathalyzer. Moreover, there are still spectacular accidents of the kind previously attributed to drink. The number of fatalities only fell to below two thousand more recently with improved vehicle construction and road safety schemes such as traffic lights and roundabouts at dangerous junctions. [1]
However, the introduction of the Breathalyzer had covert and still unrecognised political consequences that are being overlooked and need to be exposed and addressed. Previously it had been common for people to drive with friends for a drink in a neighbouring community in the evening, particularly at weekends. Indeed, in the thirties, splendid roadhouses were built on arterial roads outside towns. They did not go to get drunk but to enjoy the company of friends and acquaintances, gossip, tell jokes, discuss the world and exchange opinions. Totally overlooked has been the fact that such free association is as much part of the democratic process as the vote. The Breathalyzer and arbitrary alcohol limits eliminated this freedom. The recent banning of smoking in public places by grossly exaggerating the dangers of smoking tobacco has further diminished individual liberty forcing ever more licensed premises to close thus further reducing opportunities for democratic discussion and debate in the community. The Breathalyzer and smoking ban have been greater acts of political subversion than anyone yet appreciates.
Over the years a series of terrorist threats have been fomented among Palestinians, Irish republicans, and Moslem fundamentalists for example. More insidiously, less obvious potential risks, dangers and threats to security have been exaggerated by constantly drawing them to the attention of people. For example many news programmes on television have a mawkish ‘if it bleeds it leads’ strategy and then there are all those health and safety issues. Now after sixty years, people often remind each other to ‘take care’. In spite of the fact that people in the west are healthier and more physically secure than at any time in history, the anxiety created by subversive indoctrination has dulled intellects and curtailed individual liberty. People have had to do as they are told by central authority like ‘zombies’. While ancient religions kept people in line by threatening eternal damnation, Socialism threatens people with anything that comes to hand, even the gap between train and platform – ‘mind the gap.’ The bottom line of this tactic is to deploy the sins and shortcomings of an irresponsible few, such as drunk drivers, as an excuse for limiting the liberty of the many.
This ensures that people are preoccupied by the dangers rather than the joys of living thereby diminishing the quality of their lives and demoralizing them. The effect has been to make people ever more anxious and dependent on the guidance and leadership of the state rather than individual judgement just as a child is dependent on the guidance and leadership of its parents. People have thus become easier to control and manipulate. Over the decades, such manipulation has been so successful that no one is now able to defend the interests of themselves, their families or their country. Every branch of society has been infiltrated – government, civil service, business, mass media, the law, education, medicine and even motherhood.
Medical practice and motherhood have been particularly devastated. The rehabilitation of doctors and mothers is the key to ultimately overcoming the oppression of the psychological Cold War, restoring individual liberty and preventing the chaos of revolution.
6 ~ The Strategy of Subversion
The Russians have a talent for chess literally and metaphorically and their favourite piece is the knight because it does not make obvious moves in a straight line. Thus while their goal was world domination the comrades affected a concern for the poor, exploited and oppressed of the world thereby making a profound and plausible appeal to idealistic youth. Several generations of young men and women have unwittingly supported the cause with varying degrees of fanaticism from intellectual to revolutionary socialism. In this way, over several decades, a vast and sophisticated network of well meaning and enthusiastic but naïve and gullible agents and volunteers was formed with no obvious link to the KGB. The goal of world domination has been achieved by psychological and thus ostensibly ‘peaceful’, rather than by military means. In this way, several generations have now been passively subjugated by ideas rather than overcome by force of arms. Tellingly, the right of a child to a father and the knowledge that a father can teach which prevailed fifty years ago, is now never mentioned. For many, the state has become the role model and obedience to it paramount.
As a defector observed in his book ‘Love letter to America’ [2] written in 1984 under the name of Tomas Schuman, the Communist International and the KGB formulated a doctrine to advance its political objective slowly over the years it takes for new young generations to mature into positions of power and authority. It all started before the war with the recruiting of the Cambridge ‘spies’ for example. George Orwell saw through it and sought to warn the world in Animal Farm and 1984. [3][4] By the 1960s, Socialist supporters in California were promoting the confusion of love with erotic experience and happiness with pleasure. Thus they encouraged erotic promiscuity with abuse of the contraceptive pill and promoted the use of drugs for recreation rather than knowledge. Socialism endorsed atheism and rubbished religion. It encouraged people to live from day to day without contemplating the broader consequences of their actions or seriously reflecting on philosophical issues beyond the Socialist agenda. “If it feels good do it.” People were encouraged to think that it was politicians rather than nature who controlled the world. Essentially this is what happened to the immediate postwar generation in the ‘swinging sixties’. One could say they were on the right path but led down it the wrong way.
The division of people into hostile groups was encouraged, for example capitalism versus state ownership working class versus middle class, new versus old, youth versus age, and male versus female. Groups were encouraged to demand what they imagined to be their ‘rights’ with scant regard for the rights and liberties of others such as teachers, doctors and mothers.
The faith of the people in their leaders was undermined with contempt, ridicule and disgrace. For example, television satire such as ‘That was the Week that Was’ [5] mocked the efforts of politicians with no regard for the challenges they were confronting. There was the Profumo scandal of 1963 in which a Defence Minister lied to Parliament about a liaison with a call girl who was also intimate with an intelligence officer at the Russian Embassy. Subsequent stories of ‘sleaze’, cash for honours, and expense allowances undermined the authority of Parliament. Encouraging the left, right, left, right march of party politics with the vote becoming the sole criterion for democratic government slowly totalitarianised the political consensus.
Moral principles were abandoned by encouraging criminal activity with ‘scams’ and confidence tricks. A thriving black economy was promoted with escalating crime necessitating ever-stronger locks on front doors, ever-brighter streetlights causing widespread light pollution and ever more closed circuit television cameras. As already observed, drug abuse became endemic nationwide in all sections of society.
Government extravagance destroyed credit, causing inflation, promoting pay increases, destroying manufacturing industry, creating unemployment and resulting in national debts of trillions as if fighting a world war in peacetime. Another strategy was the incitement of resistance to modernization with unnecessary
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Killed_on_British_Roads.png
- Tomas Schuman, Love Letter to America, (Los Angeles, Maxims Books, 1984)
- George Orwell, Animal Farm, (London, Secker & Warburg Ltd, 1945)
- George Orwell, 1984, (London, Secker & Warburg Ltd, 1949)
- BBCTV, “That Was The Week That Was”, 1962/63.