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Win their minds, not their hearts

LettersWin their minds, not their hearts

Dear Editor,

Over the years there have been numerous American films around the theme of the Manchurian Candidate. The plots are pretty much the same: a soldier or private citizen is captured and via several methods of mind control by the enemy or some type of opposing force is programed to commit some type of assassination, usually of some government leader, high ranking official or Fortune 500 CEO. Governments all over the world have been obsessed with mind control for several obvious reasons. It presents the highest level of compliance possible, since with a compliant population, almost anything is possible. This obsession with mind control was at its height during the Cold War between the United States and the now defunct USSR. Countless experiments were conducted on both humans and animals and with a wide range of methods, including chemical, psychological and biological methods. Lysergic Acid Diethylamide or LSD, which is commonly known by its street name “acid”, was widely used and in some cases on ordinary unassuming citizens in experiments to determine the usefulness of this chemical as a mind control agent. There is documented evidence that both the US’s Central Intelligence Agency and the Soviet Union’s Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnost (KGB) used in some cases, horrific methods on humans to try and create the perfect mind control agent. In most cases the success was mixed at best. Governments and their clandestine agencies quickly realized one thing: it was better and in their interest to control the minds of people rather than their hearts.

Some of the lessons learnt from governments’ mind control experiments made their way into the civilian World, but this time for commercial purposes. While biological and chemical methods were by this time outlawed and illegal, some of the milder psychological methods were still available. These became the foundation of modern day commercials which are aimed at getting people to purchase certain products or services or to think or act a certain way. These became the driving force behind election campaigning, commercials, product marketing and public influencing which is now today a multi-billion-dollar business. First World countries have been the biggest players in this industry for the mere fact they have the muscle, know-how and financial backing to do this. China, with all its industrial and manufacturing might, has one setback, and that is its ability to successfully market its product globally. The challenge that it faces is a great one for two basic reasons: its language barrier and lack of a thorough understanding of cultures beyond the Chinese border. China, though one of the oldest civilizations in the world, was for most of the last century until US President Richard M. Nixon opened the gates to China in 1972, in a virtual state of isolation. During this time China’s understanding of the commercial mentality of the West was limited and the fact that it operated a planned economy did not help. Today it is playing a catch-up game, but also making great strides. Industry, manufacturing and services today have one goal and that is to extract as much money out of your pocket as possible.

Over the last couple of decades, the US entertainment industry has been the largest agent of commercial mind control. It has been able to do this through its movies, music, sports and the entertainment industry. Ever wonder why all major US sporting events are called World Champion when they are the only one participating? Baseball World Series, NFL World Champions, NBA Champions, when the only ones participating are US teams? And probably the biggest hypocrites of them all is the Olympics. The Winter Olympics is probably the largest example of what is not in the spirit of the Olympics. For an organization that proclaims equality, respect for human rights and the equality of all athletes and nations, the Winter Games is the largest contradiction to that. Don’t get me wrong, the idea of the Olympics was and still is a great one. But consider this: the Olympics is one of, if not the largest, global platform for the commercialization of products and an effort to get people around the world over to buy products. However, the Winter Olympics gives a distinct advantage to nations that have some type of cold weather condition, which in most cases are the most industrial nations on the globe. These include the US, Russia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea and all the Scandinavian nations. Third World countries, on the other hand, like Belize and other nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, therefore face the greatest competitive disadvantage because winter sports are unavailable to them for the simple fact their natural environment is not conducive to it. While there are no outright bans on them participating, they are clearly at a disadvantage. Therefore, once again, the more industrialized nations have an avenue both in the Winter and Summer games to showcase themselves while for the most part Third World nations are relegated to the Summer games. Ever wonder why we have a tendency to look up to Europe and the West? The control over people is subtle, but it is there, and most of the time the target is us Third World nations.

It’s all about the people!

Sincerely,
Neri O. Briceño

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