Soft power

Soft power  (social control,  manipulation,  statecraft)
Start	1990
Founder(s)	Joseph Nye
Interest of	Ryan Gawn

Soft power in politics (particularly in international politics), is the manipulation or operation of a reward and punishment system in the absence of (obvious) physical violence. Soft power involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal, attraction and (covert) threats or unpleasant consequences. The currency of soft power includes culture, political values, attraction and rewards.

Soft power techniques against individuals

Five basic ways of "nudging", "learning", conditioning or manipulation

According to H. Braiker there are five basic ways that manipulators control their victims. All tactics either threaten a loss and/or promise a reward. The "currency" may be anything, from pain to a soft glance, words, fear, guilt, money, food or fresh air.

Psychological tactics that can be used against individuals may also be used against groups and even large groups, such as nation states.

Positive reinforcement

If you like what someone is doing and you want to increase the frequency and consistency of the desired behavior, you provide a reward, or positive reinforcement, for it.

Punishment

The threat of a loss after an undesired behavior happened. Punishment is less effective - it is forseeable and the effectiveness depends on the willingness of the subject to endure pain. It is obviously coercive and the threatening party is likely seen as cruel or "bad".

Negative reinforcement aka aversive conditioning

With negative reinforcement, the unpleasant stimulus occurs before the target produces the desired behavior, and discontinuation of the unpleasant, aversive stimulus (the reinforcement) depends on the compliance of the subject. This is the most powerful and deceptive method. By gradually introducing pain (i.e. face masks, etc.), the mark or public reacts much like the boiling frog reacts to the rising temperature. Mostly unaware of the suffering, the promise of even the slightest release drives a powerful unconscious need to surrender. Moreover, the surrender might be falsely perceived or portrayed as voluntary.

A theoretical example may create fear of a deadly disease and painful restrictions in the subjects and then suggest ways to reduce both fear and painful experiences - i.e. by buying a vaccine, accepting surveillance and giving up freedoms.

Traumatic one-trial learning

This method of controlling behavior is the proverbial “hand on a hot burner” event. In other words, you do not need a second experience to learn to keep your hands away from a hot burner if you have experienced a painful burn once. 9-11 is a typical example of such shock programming. In the moment of shock, the brain accepts messages from "caregivers" as facts in a very suggestible mood.

Intermittent or partial reinforcement

In this powerful variant, ambiguous, chaotic and unpredictable stimuli are used - in addition to 1-4 - to create feelings of helplessness, passivity, and dependence in the victim. A simple example is the slot machine or now-and-then treatment. Or, the unpredictable coming and going of lockdowns in the COVID-19/aftermath, i.e in Germany in 2021.

Resisting psychological abuse

Processes that are highlighted in cases of severe child abuse have been translated into coercive programs for adults (applying the 5 modes above), who can be made to react similar to infants quite easily - especially under conditions of prolonged stress, isolation and abusive group dynamics.

Understanding these processes is an effective way to resist manipulation. This includes understanding that psychopaths are aware of the fact that shocking realities are unacceptable for most people and that they, therefore, may get away with it.

 

Examples

Page name	Description
Social control
Social engineering	The calculated influencing of society on a large scale, often over a long term.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
"Continuity of Government"	“It's important that the UN and WHO remain very clear, but when they challenge governments directly, they often get into this issue of sovereignty. (...) I think it's really critical to think about soft power influence, which is other influentials, who can call up the head of state, or powerful constituencies within those countries. We've seen this in the context of mobilizing religious leaders in the context of polio, or specific business leaders where you can soften perhaps a very hard line from government through less more stealthy entry points, rather than trying to punish them (...)”		18 October 2019
Brussels Forum/2014	“The ultimate soft power instrument in the world is the Brussels Forum”	Carl Bildt	2014
Ditchley	“Ditchley is one of the hidden gems of the Transatlantic relationship... its role as a clearing house for ideas; a forum for debate and discussion; and a magnet for policymakers gives it a unique status. It is the intellectual expression of 'soft power' and a tribute to the pre-eminence of reason and rational debate."”	John Major
Event 201	“It's important that the UN and WHO remain very clear, but when they challenge governments directly, they often get into this issue of sovereignty. And so I think it's really important not to have that as the only response. I think it's really critical to think about soft power influence, which is other influentials, who can call up the head of state, or powerful constituencies within those countries. We've seen this in the context of mobilizing religious leaders in the context of polio, or specific business leaders where you can soften perhaps a very hard line from government through less more stealthy entry points, rather than trying to punish them through the International Health Regulations or something like that.”		18 October 2019
Anthony Fauci	“I feel confident that over a period of time we will get a good vaccine, that we will never have to get back to where we are right now.”	Anthony Fauci	8 April 2020
Social control	“How Do You Get Manipulated? Manipulative relationships depend on activating one (or both) of two principal human drives: gain (or reward) and loss (or avoidance). These are the two engines that drive the manipulation. Do not bother looking for anything more complicated than this: Manipulation always boils down to the promise of a net gain and/or the threat of a net loss.”	Harriet Braiker	2003

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:The new mind control	article	March 2016	Robert Epstein	The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence that can flip elections and manipulate everything we say, think and do
File:MindWar.pdf	paper	1980	Paul E. Vallely Michael A. Aquino

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.