Brandon Smith, Contributor
Activist Post
This fact is, of course, counterintuitive to our Western manner of thinking, which teaches us to believe that the man with the bigger gun (or the bigger predator drone) always wins. Sadly, we have had to suffer through multiple defeats and overdrawn occupations in Asia to learn otherwise. One of the great unspoken truths of our era is the reality that the modernization of warfare has changed little the manner in which wars are won. Since the beginning of history, intelligence, force of will, and guiding principles are the dominant factors in any campaign.
Therefore, it only stands to reason that the most vital battle any of us will ever face is the psychological battle, the battle within; for success in the mind will determine success in all other endeavors.
Unfortunately, very few people ever consider the importance of the mind war, let alone know how to defend themselves against psychological attack. As with any method of self-defense, constant training is required.
For the past century, at least in the United States, a subversive and secret cold war has been waged against the people in the form of psychological subjugation. This cold war is designed to weaken our resolve, our heritage, our self-belief, our confidence and our integrity in preparation for a “hot war” against our time-honored Constitutional rights. The power elite know well that the most effective strategy for victory in any battle is to convince your enemy to surrender before the fight even begins. Today, the American populace is being conditioned to lie down and die a mental death, to give up the inner war, so that when the outer war comes, they will already be defeated.
Corrupt governments rely heavily on what they call “psyops,” which are primarily propaganda initiatives meant to demoralize their target (usually the citizenry). In the case of a despotic regime, psyops involves the insinuation of lies, half-truths, threats and brutality that is choreographed to elicit a very specific reaction. It is used to instigate strong emotional responses en masse that will work in favor of the oligarchy. The following guidelines can shield you from the arrows of deceit, allowing you to maintain control and avoid being unconsciously influenced to labor against your own cause...
Do Not Fear Hypothetical Dangers
Fear is the weapon of choice when it comes to totalitarian proponents. Conquering armies and bureaucracies are notorious for exaggerating their strength and numbers in order to squelch the fighting spirit of those they intend to rule. Genghis Kahn, for instance, used the tactic of exaggerated numbers, along with vicious genocide, to strike terror in regions he had not yet attempted to overtake. Upon his arrival, the Mongol hordes had received such a reputation (some of it fabricated) that many regions surrendered immediately without question.
When becoming an activist against a criminal establishment, it is very common to be the target of fear campaigns. Today, those of us in the liberty movement hear warnings from “random” concerned parties constantly telling us that our efforts are “all for nothing,” that we are “making ourselves targets.” That the globalist system is far too strong and far too advanced to be defeated. That they have predator drones and NSA databases and soldiers without empathy etc, etc.
Their hope is to make us afraid of hypothetical situations which can neither be confirmed nor denied. To make us obsess over the "odds" rather than the objective. In other words, they hope to encourage a state of mass cowardice. To undo this tactic, you must remain focused on your goal regardless of the possible danger. That is to say, the strength of the enemy, whether real or fantasy, is irrelevant. It is meaningless. Goliath is nothing but an obstacle, and all obstacles can be dealt with. Move forward toward the objective and never stop.
Do Not Be Distracted By Minor Inconveniences And Personal Problems
At the height of communist power in East Germany, the Stasi secret police deployed a tactic which they called “Zersetzung,” which means to “corrode” or “undermine.” The Zersetzung policy involved the use of subtle manipulations of a particular person’s life in order to interfere with his ability to function normally and participate fully in dissenting activities. The Stasi would send agents to a person’s home to rearrange items or fake a break-in. Often, they would attempt to create emotional conflicts between the dissident and his wife, family and friends and to damage business relationships. The purpose was to force the target to divert his attention from his political and social work over to more minor inconveniences.
Personal firestorms, whether engineered by Stasi or by natural conflict, are destructive only when you give them too much credence and attention. Some people become utterly fixated with their own private soap operas, and this weakness is often exploited by government elements.
The truth is, our home lives and the tensions in them are secondary when it comes to defending our principles and our culture against enslavement and oblivion. Woman troubles, family arguments and invasions into our private lives are not important. Only the mission is important; and in the Liberty Movement, our mission is to awaken the public, disrupt the indoctrination of the masses and, if necessary, physically remove the elites from power. Family and friends who get in the way or are manipulated into getting in the way should be ignored.
Do Not Be Seduced By Gifts
Tyrants love to offer gifts to the populace, especially at the onset of their rise to dominance. It may be the promise of new jobs, better infrastructure, free healthcare, more food, more safety or even free cellphones. They may offer payment for provocateuring or snitching. The point is to entice citizens with something for nothing, or at least the lie of something for nothing. If a government official (or anyone else for that matter) is pouring gifts into your lap, it is time to become suspicious.
Governments do not “pay” for the gifts you receive. You pay for the gifts you receive either through taxation or inflation. Free goodies should never influence the mind warrior to endear himself to any bureaucratic or corporate entity. Never allow yourself to be bought. The only treasures worth anything are our individualism and self respect.
Never Trust The Media Machine - Always Verify Information
There is no such thing as “objective journalism” in the mainstream media anymore. What you see and hear is not the truth but a facsimile of the truth, twisted to benefit the establishment alone. Media outlets today do not investigate events. Instead, they obstruct investigation by promoting only one side of every story and attacking anyone who questions their asserted narrative. The “official version” of any news story is almost always a convoluted fabrication that protects the oligarchy from harm.
No one who considers himself an intelligent human being should accept the official narrative at face value. It is important to question always that which we are told and to investigate using independent or original sources. Never allow yourself to be “taught.” Always examine the facts on your own. Demand that the establishment mouthpieces provide source information, instead of acting as if we should accept everything they say on blind faith.
Do Not Concern Yourself With Ridicule
Fighting disinformation is vital, but our personal pride is not important. Safeguarding our egos is not important. Trying to please everyone all the time is impossible and also not important. Ridicule is used not only to discredit activists; it is also used to make them question their own resolve. If you cannot be embarrassed or browbeaten, then you cannot be made afraid and you cannot be defeated by mere words.
Require your opponents to answer your legitimate questions. Move past their distractions and push the issue of tangibility. Make them produce a legitimate argument. When they cannot, and continue to revert to Ad Hominem attacks, they expose the frailty of their position, and you have won.
Accept The Risk Before Confronting The Enemy
I am still amazed by those dissenters and freedom fighters who act as though they are surprised when the potential wrath of the system is directed at them. Did they not understand the risk when entering into the battle? Did they really believe it wouldn’t be all that bad?
In any conflict against a larger, ruthless, and immoral opponent, always assume that you will have to go through hell to accomplish anything. Accept that your life will no longer be peaceful or comfortable. Know that you may not survive to see the fruits of your efforts. Realize that you may have to walk through fire and embrace pain. Otherwise, you will remain a pathetic and laughably inadequate soldier in the mind war.
Personal risk is not important. Only the truth and the future are important. Being effective means being "on the radar". If you are making a difference, and you are a concrete threat, then you should expect to have a target painted on your chest.
Understand Your Own Weaknesses
Pretending as if you have no weaknesses is the best way to help your enemy. If you are prideful, your overconfidence will be used against you. If you are spiteful, your jealousy will be exploited to distract you. If you are easily angered, your rage will be used to lure you into destroying yourself. Examine yourself as deeply and as thoroughly as you would the enemy. Though it might sound like a cliché, you actually can become far worse an enemy to your own cause than any army your opponent can muster.
Ironically, by identifying our own limitations, we also can become adept at seeing the weaknesses in others. Unblinded by our own biases, the biases of the opponent become starkly visible.
Do Not Buy Into Petty Authority
Perhaps it is in our tribal nature, but many people seem to suffer from an insatiable desire for hierarchy and leadership — even if that leadership is based on falsehoods. The ultimate protection against corruption is to become one’s own leader, rather than waiting around for a miraculously infallible overseer (or a talented conman) to guide the way for you. Relying on others to choose your path for you opens the door to having your right to choose removed from the picture completely.
Petty authority is authority derived from false pretenses, rather than earned respect and recognition. No man, regardless of title, is above the truth; and he is certainly not more worthwhile than you. Like a title, a uniform is a symbol of an ideal, but the man inside the uniform may not embrace that ideal. Do not focus on the uniform. Focus on the man, and question whether or not he lives up to the uniform.
If anyone wants to determine whether you go left or right, he should be put to the most stringent tests imaginable. He should have to prove that he has your best interests at heart, and that he has the wisdom to handle your future with care.
Acknowledge The Power Of Symbolism And Myth
Oligarchs use theater and pageantry to influence the collective unconscious because the human mind gravitates toward rituals that feed our inherent need for myth and symbol. Psychologist Carl Jung often referred to the inborn symbolic processes of the psyche as “archetypes,” which exist in the art, dreams and spiritualism of every society regardless of time, place, religion or culture. Knowing these universal symbols and how we react to them emotionally allows a person to prevent himself from being conditioned or influenced by them.
Not all fantastic events in history are spontaneous. Some are staged as a means to appeal to a particular side of a nation’s collective psyche. These “false flag” actions very often revolve around a symbol that is culturally valued. The construction or destruction of this symbolic edifice, famous person, social mechanism or loved representation of the future leaves a lasting and deep-rooted impression on thousands, if not millions, of people. They become emotionally invested in the event — frantic, fearful or furious — without having the slightest inkling why. In the end, they can be conned into acting in disastrous ways just to appease the inner imbalance. They can be led to war, to enslavement and to death — all on the promise of preventing a myth from appearing or disappearing.
The secret is to explore our inner life with more vigor than we waste on outer fantasy. By discovering our own internal myth and, thus, our own individuality, we make ourselves impervious to false-flag conditioning. Our emotions remain within our control, our biases become non-existent and our fears become irrelevant. We do not become overly attached to images, to superficial expectations, or to the collective. The theater of the mind loses its power; and from that point on, we choose our own destinies.
Never Forget Your Individualism
Collectivists consistently promote the idea that human beings are empty vessels; blank slates to be molded by the environment, or mere biological machines with rudimentary animal instincts that we "mistake for a soul". As I pointed out above, Carl Jung's work on inborn psychological archetypes proves that we are in fact NOT empty vessels. Each of us is born with common qualities, like conscience and insight, as well as distinctive qualities that make us unique. We are born with dual concepts of good and evil. Right and wrong. Because of this duality, we are given the power to choose. To ignore conscience, or embrace it.
Collectivists pander their blank slate propaganda because they want us to believe that we have no inherent qualities, and therefore, no conscience. They want us to ignore our intuition and adopt moral relativism. For if every man is empty, then there is no right or wrong, and nothing the elites do can be qualified as "criminal". If every man is convinced that he is purely a product of his environment, then he can also be convinced to turn over his free will to those who appear to have the most control over the environment. If he believes he is not in possession of individual determination, then he may assume the role of a robot, waiting to be programmed by the outside world.
This is the ultimate collectivist dream: to become the "great providers and makers" of the masses. To feed us what they like, clothe us in what they like, teach us what they like, and to tell us what we are to think and when we are to think it. They wish to see themselves as the painters, and us as the canvas. Only then, in their minds, will our society reach "perfection".
If mankind loses track of his individuality and accepts the blank slate ideology, he will surrender the mind war, perhaps without even knowing it.
Mind Over Matter
Facing down an adversary with firearms or with fists is an easy thing to grasp. Facing down a lie, or an idea meant to destroy one’s mental capacity for resistance, is incredibly complex. When an opponent attempts to play mind games, though, it is a sure sign that he does not have the capacity to thwart you with physical strength alone. The fact that our government and the power structure behind it has so desperately relied on such strategies for so many years shows that they believe they cannot enact centralized authority over our nation and undo our free imperative simply by the momentum of military might. No gun, no matter how big, will get them what they want. So they continue to play the game until our resolve is broken and our ability to fight diminished.
In order to prevail, we must make ourselves immune to the game. We must walk away, separating ourselves from it completely. We must relinquish all unnecessary fear, doubt, and hatred, and do what we know needs to be done. We must ignore the rhetoric of defeat and nihilism. We must take that long solemn step beyond the veil of doubt, knowing that all great men before us fought their own battles despite the so called "certainty of death".
If we cannot take lordship of our own psychological world, we are doomed to failure in every other fight that envelops us. Without impervious will, we cannot overcome, and we cannot find peace.
You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com Join Alt-Market.com today and learn what it means to step away from the system and build something better. To contribute to the growth of the Safe Haven Project, and to help us help others in relocating, or to support the creation of barter networks across the country, visit our donate page here: http://www.alt-market.com/donate
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