I came across an article in the paper from months ago about the military’s possibile use of Psy Ops to influence the perspectives of Senators visiting Afghanistan. I saved the piece wondering how many programs are at work that are capable of messing with minds. How does this process differ from propaganda and advertising? Or for that matter, from the psychological effect of what we listen to over and over again on TV? I think we all need to take training in this instrument of “warfare” so we can protect ourselves. Many important inventions have come out of military research and translated well into civil society. We could use this Psy Op knowledge to enable people to guard against undue influences. Asumijg, of course, that we really want to think for ourselves. Democracy requires an informed public not a public formed by psychological operations. Trying to make robots think is one thing, trying to make human beings into automatons is another. Lets have courses on Psy Ops for the public…at least the basics. I’m in. Seems like a reasonable part of modern education.
Then, of course, I’m reminded of my studies in family systems and psychology. We would do well to be conscious of what we absorbed from our parents and the effect of the times in which they lived on them. Unprogrammed influences. That way, we can be more aware of ourselves and our choices.
Religion has been for me, a discipline that has helped clear my mind and enabled me to make moral judgments based on the continuum of history and the witness of prophets and great religious leaders along with my own sensibilities in community. There are those who say that religion by its nature is a “psy op” operation on its own. It can be. It can also provide a platform from which to discern the idolatries of this world in light of a transcendent reality that includes our finitude but exists beyond it in so many dimensions.
And, when I learn the subtleties of how “psy op” functions, I can apply that knowledge to any aspect of life.