A Note on the Terrible Twins of Control.

I was thinking of one of my favourite opinions today: that consumption mania is the western world’s greatest addiction, and advertising its most pernicious pollutant. But then my musing took on a more general tone. I noted that I’m becoming ever more concerned about the degree of manipulation to which we humans are subjected in nearly every aspect of our lives.

Depending on the kind of culture in which we live, the process is being continually operated to varying degrees by the corporate world, advertisers, the media, politicians, bureaucrats, dictators, religions, and even charitable institutions – all hell bent on manipulating our perceptions, desires, and opinions. They do so with carefully chosen words, images, overblown promises, and outlandish rhetoric, and it bothers me a lot because I spot any attempt at manipulation in a nanosecond.

I don’t like it, and that’s partly why I’m such a loner who refuses to have anything to do with the likes of Amazon, Netflix, and Sky. It’s why I decline to use fast food ‘restaurants’ or submit to the need for the latest high tech piece of equipment or the expensive updates which drop off the conveyor belt like different flavours of chemical-laden snacks. It’s why I stick a middle finger up at the power companies when they suggest I pay by direct debit because it will make my life easier. No it won’t, and you’d have to be pretty stupid to believe the companies’ weasly claims that that’s what the direct debit system is there for. Pull the other one, do.

And this gives me problems, because if you spot the manipulation and refuse to play ball you get left behind. You find yourself using up more and more mental energy trying to hold back the torrent of manipulation which is designed to further the interests of the rich, the power-hungry, and the ideological extremists. And sometimes you even find that you can no longer do the things you want to do because the whole system has been changed to deny you membership of the club. If you don’t go into somnambulist mode and do what they want, you’re out in the cold.

But what about the other side of the same coin – control by force? It seems that nearly every day there’s a report from somewhere in the world about public protests being aggressively – and often violently – put down by the authorities. And it isn’t only in those countries with dictatorial regimes like China, India, Afghanistan, Iran, and Belarus. It’s happening more and more in the western world which professes to be democratic, relatively liberal, and tolerant. We haven’t quite regressed to the 19^th century yet with the Tolpuddle Martyrs and the Peterloo Massacre, but it’s beginning to seem that we’re getting there.

So which is worse, control by manipulation or control by force? Control by force is at least visible and recognisably horrifying even to the daydreamers. Does that make it preferable? It’s an open question, isn’t it, so you decide.