Tools of Integrated Apologetics Course 1.7.4
Analysis of Mind Manipulation
Chapter 4
Principles Of Mind Control — 2
The remaining three principles that the world uses in mind-control are explained below. 4-Manipulation Through Expansion: There is no boundary to human desires if they are left to themselves. Thus all God-fearing people have to learn to control their desires so that they never cross the boundaries appropriate for a believer. The Ten Commandments and other Biblical commands remind believers not to desire what belongs to others — neither their wealth nor satisfaction of sexual desire through them.
After ten to twenty years of training in a Christian atmosphere people automatically restrict and control their desires most of the time. However, those opponents of the Christian faith can still attack these people. In ways that look very innocent, these opponents can induce people to expand their moral boundaries. Thus by cleverly expanding the needs, desires, and expectations that people have, it is possible to motivate them to desire things that are outside their proper boundaries. Once the desire is kindled, the boundaries automatically enlarge and adjust. As a result people become mentally prepared to indulge in behaviour that they actually ought to avoid.
Fantasies are a powerful tool for expanding the boundaries. Fantasies obey no boundaries, and given an opportunity they would break all barriers of decency. Consequently, continuous exposure to fantasy expands the barriers so much that the distinction between right and wrong is lost. This is one reason why fantasy-provoking novels, stories, TV programmes and conversation should be avoided by believers. Acts that are not moral sins can be divided into the following categories: Essential Acts, Pleasurable Acts and Desire for Luxury. Right-thinking persons should desire only the essentials of life. They understand that there is nothing wrong if they receive the pleasurable things of life, but they are not supposed to crave them. Further, they should see as sinful all craving for the luxuries of life. This balanced thinking helps people to remain within their boundaries.
However, the balance can be destroyed with the help of contrived desire-creation. Desire-creation is another method to expand the boundaries. The world has numerous methods for creating desires in human hearts, and these are mentioned in the discussion on Propaganda Techniques. For example, if the world can motivate people to dwell for some time on the joys of luxury, it creates a craving for it in their hearts. This breaks down their perception of the distinction among the essentials, the pleasures and the luxuries of life.
Thus the boundaries of desire are expanded. It works something like the following: Attraction To Luxuries –> Meditation Upon The Pleasures Of Luxury –> Viewing Luxuries Of Life As Desirables to Life –> Viewing Them As Essentials Of Life –> Seeking For Forbidden Or Improper Luxuries –> Changed boundaries.Once a person slides into this kind of thinking, the mental boundaries are easily trespassed.
Another method to expand the boundaries is through lust-creation. Lust can be for sexual gratification, for the things of life, or for name, fame and position. By creating a lust for any possible combination of sins, believers are motivated to crave for what is not proper for them. This too erodes the boundaries. The examples of Samson, Solomon and Amnon can help us to understand the consequences of lust. Proverbs 5 and 7 also speak in detail on this subject.
The Word of God reminds us that believers should seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness first, and then all things shall be added unto us (Matthew 6:33). Fantasies, desire-creation and lust-creation motivate the believer to reverse the order found in this verse.
5-Manipulation Through Fear-Creation: Making the right decisions and taking right actions often requires a great deal of mental alertness. An attitude of combat and self-defense against evil is essential. However, these attitudes can be paralysed by the creation of fear. Thieves and robbers depend upon the surprise factor to rob people. Often people can resist and even overpower the robbers, as is seen occasionally, but the sudden shock of seeing a weapon and the consequent fear paralyses them for few moments. This creates enough time for the robbers to take the loot and flee. This applies in spiritual and moral matters as well; once there is fear in the human heart, people fail to take right and timely actions. Rather, most people just flee from the scene or compromise and conform to the demands.
Usually the intimidation comes from one’s own friends or coworkers; therefore fleeing does not usually work. Since they belong to the same school, office, or society, they have to face their enemies continually. Thus, the path of conformity to the enemies’ expectations is the most common practice. This is seen most commonly in the results of peer pressure. No man is an island. Everyone needs the fellowship, acceptance and approval of many others, but often such things come only when this individual fulfills certain stipulations demanded by this group. Often these requirements place tremendous pressure upon individuals. This is called peer pressure. Though the Bible speaks repeatedly about the influence of one’s peers, very few people realize that it is one of the strongest social forces. The capacity of peer pressure to intimidate people is unbelievable (Luke 22:56-57).
Most of the time peer pressure is to do things outside one’s boundaries. It comes when the person is most energetic, most prone to the attractions of sins and least able to resist others. The fear of rejection by one’s peers is great, thus most people just conform to the demands. Peter avoided eating with gentiles because of fear on the arrival of certain Jewish believers from Jerusalem. This is an example of how even an adult can be pressurized by his peers (Galatians 2:11-14).
Surveys of promiscuous people in many parts of the world have shown that peer pressure plays a great role in breaking down moral restraints. Even in the most promiscuous countries a large number of young people prefer to remain chaste, but are not able to keep to their resolve. The reason most often cited is peer pressure. In surveys many of these young people said that they regret having caved in to peer pressure, and that given a second life they would prefer to resist it rather than fall into immorality.
Fear is a paralyzing force, and it can effectively force many people to cross boundaries. Another technique used to create fear is Social Pressure. As said before, every person needs the benefits of social relations. If not, such a person becomes a social outcast. Using this need, the degenerate human society puts considerable pressure upon all people to conform to the norms and standards promoted by that society. These can often be contrary to the will of God and exist outside the proper boundaries; however, the fear of isolation and rejection forces even adult people to conform.
Social Pressure creates intimidating guidelines for clothing, manners, speech, conduct and even spiritual activities. This can be seen by observing the effect that TV, video games and the cinema have on the behaviour of people in general, which is to reduce the commitment to and fear of things divine. Gradually this fear is replaced with contempt for spiritual things, followed by the adoption of worldly systems within the church of God. Dancing, mimicry, mono acting, women-led church services, etc. are some examples. Today’s mass-media plays a significant part in exerting social pressure. There had been no mass-media in past centuries and thus social pressure was confined to smaller geographical regions; however, the introduction of radio, TV, other audio and video media, cheap paperbacks, computers and the Internet have now made it possible to reach millions of people very economically. This marriage of technology and economy has made it possible for a few selfish and perverted individuals to control large segments of population.
Worse, social radicals were the first to understand the deep and wide-ranging impact of the mass-media, thus radicals control as much as ninety per cent of this communication conglomerate. As a result, the message which comes out of all this media today is meant to put pressure on the audience and condition them gradually. Not surprisingly, the breakdown of morality, decency and fear of God has decreased in developed societies in proportion to TV viewing and divorce, rape, marital infidelity and sexual impurity have increased in proportion to TV viewing.
Only very knowledgeable or insightful people can escape the consequences of Fear-Creation through Peer and Social Pressure. 6-Manipulation Through Value Shifting: A shift in the mental and moral barriers changes the values, and a shift in the values changes the barriers. This is a two-way effect and extreme care is needed to counter the effects of shifts, otherwise this can turn into a vicious cycle with barriers changing the values and values in turn changing the barriers, and so on.
Consider, for example, the very high value that people place (because of their training) upon protecting helpless people. People brought up in a Judeo-Christian milieu consider it a virtue to shelter and protect widows, orphans, and destitute, infirm, handicapped, weak, and unborn people; but still these values can gradually be shifted by continuous exposure to people who do not honour them. This shift can be perceived in the lives of many godly young people after they have spent a few years in a hostel, bad company, or with selfish people.
Doubting Creation is one tool to shift the values people cherish. Once a doubt about things or persons highly esteemed by such people has directly or indirectly been planted in their hearts the respect they had is gone. Jesus Christ was the most highly esteemed human in all history, for almost two thousand years of history, but then, in the latter half of the twentieth century many writers, artists, and filmmakers started portraying Him as an imperfect and lustful man. This very soon destroyed the high esteem that even many Christians had for Lord Jesus Christ.
The same tactic is used to create doubts about the historicity, accuracy and reliability of Scripture, and the same tactic is also used for creating doubts about the authority of parents, church, faith and even the moral values common among middle-class people. This is another reason why Lord Jesus Christ should never be equated with another person in history or in myth. The immediate effect will be that the high esteem in which Jesus is held is reduced to the level at which other people are esteemed.
Subversion is another method used for shifting values. Spiritual and moral values received from parents and from the Bible are a very complex set of interdependent truths. Destroying a seemingly unimportant part of this complex system might often do great damage, somewhat like removing a simple, but crucial part from a complex machine. People experienced in mind-control usually work at changing hidden and seemingly innocuous values in a very subtle way so that most people pay little attention. However, the end result is the destruction of many important values.
Consider the example of societies where even the elders join the unruly children in mocking and teasing mad people, and where stoning a helpless dog is considered fun. These acts may seem harmless on the surface, but they are ultimately interconnected with values like mercy, pity, care and joy and reveal a breakdown in people’s moral barriers. Thus the simple-looking act eventually affects all these major values. It is for the same reason that ragging, which is so prevalent in our colleges, does not die by itself. All students who are the object of ragging should have their consciences awakened to this torture. Every victim should be filled with pity for the next generation of victims. Unfortunately, by the time their ragging is over, they have been very negatively influenced by the way in which their seniors seemed to have enjoyed it, and together with their desire for revenge, these students experience an elimination of their own sense of balance and mercy. Thus ragging has become, among other things, an effective method to change the values of young people through subversion.
SUMMARY
Much more could be said about the Six Principles of Mind Control mentioned above, but that is not necessary. Nor is an exhaustive description possible in a book of limited length. Once readers understand the basic principles, it becomes possible for them to identify these principles at work in any situation, provided they are willing to spend a little time in analysis.
Analysis of Mind Manipulation
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