Gestures, Sounds, Smells Pt.2
Acoustics – the world of sounds – is, in general, a crucial symbolic system. Its role in influencing the unconscious sphere, and consequently, in manipulating consciousness, is very significant…
Music has long been used to rally people for battle, induce relaxation, and create lyrical or sentimental moods.
Certain musical (rhythmic) phrases have the power to influence our reflexes.
Shamans, for example, can induce trance-like states with the beats of a drum, while modern forms of mass music, such as rock concerts and raves, can turn a crowd into an uncontrollable or, conversely, skillfully controlled mass.
At the same time, there are known methods of strong psychological impact on prisoners through music. This includes both its volume (acoustic impact) and its rhythm, frequency of repetition, and inappropriateness of content for the inmate's culture.
This practice gained widespread attention after scandals involving the torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib and in Guantanamo.
More often, musical influence is applied for a more peaceful manipulation of consciousness. Cheerful Christmas melodies stimulate consumer demand in shopping centers; lively and nostalgic tunes set the mood for the back-to-school season on September 1st. In general, a special musical program has long been developed for each national holiday.
Music has historically stirred people for battle, provided relaxation, and set lyrical or sentimental moods.
Silence, especially when sudden, strongly affects the human unconscious. The news metaphor "radio silence" is often used to add even more tragedy to already tragic events.
For a long time, the significance of scents disappeared from the purview of consciousness manipulation researchers. Despite this, the impact of various aromas on people has been known since ancient times. Herbs thrown into the fire by witches and shamans, scents of food and living spaces attracting travelers home, specially crafted scents used by ladies to seduce gentlemen—the role of smells in influencing people is richly diverse.
The influence of scents on consciousness is actively used in various sales strategies.
Ни для кого не является секретом, что запах свежей выпечки из пекарен, расположенных в супермаркетах, увеличивает продажи и остальных продуктов.
It's no secret that the smell of freshly baked goods in supermarkets increases sales of all other products. Writer and screenwriter Lilia Kim recalls from her impoverished youth working as a realtor, where she deliberately brought a coffee grinder to property viewings and ground coffee to make the residences more appealing. The scent of freshly ground coffee, at a subconscious level, evokes feelings of comfort and joy.
The impact of scents on the human unconscious is deeply rooted in language. Through olfactory metaphors, people often express things and connections that they intuitively understand but cannot rationally or logically explain. Expressions like "smells fried" or "scent of luxury" illustrate this phenomenon.
Both smells and words about them powerfully influence the human unconscious, triggering chains of imagination and images. This further confirms that successful manipulation of consciousness is always complex. It's not possible to activate just one mechanism and expect a specific result. By engaging one mechanism, manipulators immediately set off several more, affecting logical thinking, disrupting cause-and-effect relationships, creating false associations and stereotypes, inducing emotions, and even psychosis.
More on this to come...
#music #manipulations #Media

In countries with representative democracies and developed civil societies, individuals (citizens) are endowed with equal units of power (votes) based on the principle of "one person - one vote."
No one, except the citizen, has the right to determine their choice. Furthermore, citizens are not only endowed with the right to vote but also the right to be elected. However, since the time of the French Revolution, it has been known that legal equality does not necessarily translate into equality in reality.
Citizens are not equal in terms of property and political rights. Moreover, this inequality is a necessary condition for the existence of a capitalist society. In a capitalist society, the fear of personal poverty binds citizens to civil society, making them politically active. The prospect of losing their money - investments, stable income, the value of their property, privileges, and so on - compels citizens to align with one or another political force whose promises and actions seem most understandable and attractive to specific social groups.
These "active citizens," who consistently uphold their political positions in elections (for example, supporting "Democrats" or "Republicans" in the United States), represent about two-thirds of society. Another third is dissatisfied with this way of life, and it is they who are often tried to be excluded from elections or drawn to their side through situational manipulations of consciousness.
For example, American Democrats often play the card of Latin American migrants before elections, promising amnesty for undocumented immigrants or relaxed entry rules into the country. In this way, they hope to attract the votes of naturalized Latin Americans in the United States, who are still interested in reuniting with their families and support their diaspora in the U.S.
Republicans, on the other hand, promise stricter immigration policies each time, such as the construction of a border wall with Mexico, an initiative that was never fully realized despite Donald Trump's election as the 45th President of the United States. However, the House of Representatives did not provide funding for full-scale construction.
In any case, the election promises of politicians are usually populist and highly manipulative, as their concrete implementation is often tied to changes in existing legislation, which, for various reasons, may be impossible to amend.
As a result, any pre-election promise can be nullified without significant damage to the reputation of the politician or political force, simply by using existing laws and the country's constitution. It should be noted that populist forces often win elections because they do not hesitate to make promises they do not intend to keep, as their goal is to gain power rather than enact societal change.
Furthermore, elections themselves are a form of manipulation that is necessary to maintain social consent. Responsibility for power is shifted onto the citizen: no one (supposedly) forced them to make an unsuccessful choice. The individual, being a thinking being, weighed all the pros and cons, familiarized themselves with the parties' platforms and candidates, and made their informed choice.
In reality, this is not often the case (at least in the majority of instances), but it's difficult for an individual to admit, even to themselves, that someone influenced their decision. They become victims of manipulation, which is both hurtful and damaging to their self-esteem. As a result, they begin to rationalize their choice to themselves and others in the most complementary and positive way.
In summary, manipulation not only solves the specific task of bringing a candidate into power but also has a longer-lasting impact by creating additional loyalty, seemingly perpetuating itself indefinitely. The individual becomes a staunch supporter of the political force that deceived them.

Why is the manipulation of public consciousness, which is well known and understood in our time, still so effective?
Because most citizens are not inclined to critically filter the information they receive, nor do they perceive information critically.
This is especially true in the modern world, where the volume of constantly cascading and ever-updating information has increased exponentially.
Moreover, messages come in increasingly complex and challenging "packaging."
Back in the mid-20th century, American sociologists Paul Lazarsfeld and Robert Merton wrote, "Those who control views and beliefs in our society rely less on physical violence and more on mass suggestion. Radio programs and advertising replace intimidation and violence."
Researchers also noted the "narcotizing dysfunction of the media."
In their view, despite the abundance of information of all kinds - political, cultural, societal, even advertising - citizen engagement in the political life of the country has decreased.
This is because all this information only makes a person superficially informed about various subjects, and the individual cannot understand the depth of their understanding of a particular topic.
Debates on social media clearly demonstrate how dozens, or even hundreds of people, staunchly defend their point of view on a given issue, sincerely believing that they possess the most correct knowledge.
They provide links to authoritative and expert opinions, research, and so on, yet neither side seems to reach a "correct" understanding.
This phenomenon is not limited to ideological debates where correctness depends on personal opinion but extends to everyday disputes, such as the correct way to make a salad or treat a cold.
According to Lazarsfeld and Merton, the degree of influence of mass media on the audience is not only about what is being said but also about what is not being said.
The latter is more critical since "hidden" information reveals more about the structure of society than the information the media presents. Additionally, hidden information generates increased interest and trust and spreads more quickly (the Streisand effect).
In this way, by promoting conformity and minimizing the opportunity for critical attitudes to develop in society, commercial mass media indirectly but effectively hinder the development of real critical thinking among citizens.
So, not everything that is communicated to us by television, the media, and especially the internet corresponds to reality.
To identify manipulation, one does not necessarily need to be an expert in the field, but they do need to have basic knowledge of the fundamentals of state organization, information delivery and reception, public relations, and so on.
However, this isn't particularly interesting to the average person.
Personal development is a complex and challenging process, demanding psychological, financial, and physiological resources. Raising one's level of legal awareness, public and political consciousness is a complicated procedure that requires effort and resources. It involves stepping out of one's comfort zone.
Therefore, it's much easier to manipulate people who are less educated.
We will discuss how this happens in more detail next weekend.
#manipulations #state #media