!8: Shop Egyptian Magic: December 2011

!±8± Social Control, and Introduction

Throughout my life I have been immersed in the world of protest. Starting at a young age, I frequently attended rallies, marches, and picket lines with my mother, as she would not always want to get a sitter, and more importantly, believed them to be important activities to be involved in. While I cannot really remember individual accounts of attending these protests, I do know that it had an immense effect on me. In these few years that I have been living, I have realized that, by being so involved and surrounded with forms of challenging injustice, I am a very hard person to be told what to do. For better or for worse, I most often question the situation or instruction that I am presented with, and I rarely accept what I am told as the final decision.

As it turns out, this aspect of my personality has lead me to discover many things that I do not accept in the conduction of society. For instance, the topic of this paper, the behavioral control of the masses by the few, to achieve what is sought after by wealthy power holders. This personal discovery has revealed many injustices to me, as well as it has shown me further proof that one cannot trust those who we rely on the most to keep our country operational, not in the sense that without the working class our society would crumble, but rather in the sense that without the power holding class to control the proletariat, the work would not be done. I say this not to justify the abuse and exploitation of the working class, but to point out that at this stage in our evolution of human society, some control of the masses is necessary.

Through the following exploration of injustice in the form of social control, I intend to emphasize that institutions in our society promote conformity through methods of social control to increase stability and profit, and to preserve power in the hands of few. Throughout this paper, I will be covering numerous aspects of social control. I will discuss the importance of psychological development, socialization, and indoctrination in social control. I will go over a variety of examples of social control occurring in the U.S. and around the world. Most importantly, I will explore the methods through which social control is achieved. And finally, I will examine how it can be, has been, and is challenged, and the consequences associated with these objections.

Relevant Concepts
Psychological Development

It is important to consider the effect of natural psychological development, and its role in and contribution to social control. The need to develop a sense of individuality as well as a sense of fitting in has been a major aspect of the human psyche that plays such a role. This need for a balance of belongingness and individuality is important to understand while examining its use as a point of exploitation, and can be much more easily understood by noting the difference between nonconformity and individuality.

Firstly, while conformity and nonconformity are obvious opposites, they do not share the same relationship that is revealed when comparing conformity and individuality. Taking the following scenario for example displays the difference that nonconformity and individuality produce. In "The Social Animal," Elliot Aronson states:
"...consider the rebellious teenager who smokes cigarettes, stays out late, gets tattooed, or dates a certain boy just because she knows that her parents disapprove. She is not manifesting independence so much as she is displaying anti-conformity, not thinking for herself, but automatically acting contrary to the desires or expectations of others."
This example shows that while going against the wishes of others displays nonconformity, it does not display individuality because it is fueled by a desire to go against another force, rather than the need to be one's own self.

The effectiveness of most marketing campaigns relies greatly on appealing to peoples' desire to conform. Take for example a billboard for Abercrombie and Fitch clothing that shows a very "sexy" model; while the advertisement itself is for clothes, the model is shown with nearly no garments at all. This example displays the fact that the marketing scheme is not to show people that the clothes are of any quality, but to make people think that they will fit into the "good looking" group of people by purchasing Abercrombie and Fitch products. It increases the individual's desire to conform to the fashion of the day as a route to popularity and inclusion.

Another example that can be used to identify the severity of a normal human being's want to fit in can be seen in Solomon Asch's "perceptual judgment" experiment. The experiment called for five participants per observation, however, four of the five were employed by the experimenter. The participants are all shown a line, then shown three more lines, and then asked to indicate, one by one, which of the three lines was closest to the length of the first. The lines are such that it should be no problem for the correct answer to be given; in fact, the controlled observations showed a nearly complete absence of error. As the experiment is set up, the four confederates answer first, incorrectly, and the remaining participant, 35% of the time, also answered incorrectly. Asch's experiment proves that even in the face of what should be a clear-cut answer, the human need for conformity and belongingness still overwhelms the part of our minds that knows we are right.

On the other hand, individuality is shown through the intentional decisions that some choose to make. By defining a set of values that one lives by and by not allowing meaningless influences to affect their choices, an individual attains a certain level of independence.
Socialization

Socialization is used since the start of one's life in order to condition one into thinking and acting in certain ways. Everything from how to ask for things to how one is expected to behave in different settings and at different times is programmed into our minds through socialization.

One can see a very clear use of socialization when examining the techniques used to teach children to say please and thank you. When a child asks for something without saying please, whoever they're asking should have been socialized themselves as children to not give the child what he or she wants, but to ask for the "magic word." This magic word business has been used by adults to teach kids what is necessary for them to obtain what they want, in order to have their way, or to get where they want to be.

Another example of socialization is the use of the word "no" with children. As a child does something that the parent doesn't want them to, they are awarded with a negative sounding "no." As the child experiences "no" more and more, he or she will begin to understand that certain things are not okay to do, touch, or at a certain point, say. This example can also be observed in the training of dogs; negative sounds are used to stop the pup-in-training from doing what is not accepted, and in time, to learn not to do those things without the negative feedback from the owner.

A third example of socialization that is used with children is the different meanings we associate to different colors. Kids are constantly surrounded with information that pushes them to think that certain colors are for girls, and certain colors are for boys. For instance, walking into a toy store, the so-called "girl toys" will be sorted into pink or purple sections, while the "boy toys" are clearly marked by their placement together in what turns out to be the blue or red aisles of the store.

Many other forms of socialization exist in society and, in fact, without some form of socialization, and social control for that matter, society would not exist. It is society's premier purpose to provide control and order to groups of people.

Methods of Social Control

Social control can come in many different forms as many things can be used to obtain a result of behavior. This sort of control can be gained through the use of incentive, fear, conditioning, anger, division, deception, and many other techniques. As social control can range from completely blatant approaches to much more subtle and deceptive methods, there is as much room for variation as there is methods of control.
Laws and Policies

Arguably the most overt technique of social control is the use of laws and policies to control behavior. Laws and policies can control nearly anything the controller wants, ranging from drug laws to the control of where and how an individual may travel.

An example of legal control being used can be seen in the comparison of controlled substances, for instance, marijuana and alcohol policies. Alcohol has been legal for most of our country's history, and even though it was outlawed for nearly 15 years in the U.S., it remains to be a large contributer to the annual death toll. On the other hand, marijuana, which began to be controlled in the 1930s, has never directly caused a death in the world. By examining the differences between the fatality of alcohol and marijuana, one can see that the law makers obviously have a hidden agenda.

In the 1930s, when marijuana was first brought before congress to be outlawed, Harry J. Anslinger stated that: "Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death." This statement is an example of the extent of deceit that has been used to control, not only the behavior of society through laws and policies, but the thoughts on which voters base their support.

Since the criminalization of marijuana, many have speculated as to why these laws have been passed. Arguments have been made that the policies were fueled by those in control of the paper industry who saw hemp as a threatening new alternative or by the possibility that cannabis could be used instead of newly discovered plastics and fuels. In exploration of this instance of social control, we see that the rich and powerful corporate owners furthered their own profits by having the competition outlawed or in some way made less attractive.

Capitalism would work a lot better if certain people didn't have advantages that were gained, not through a better product, but through more resources.
Political Strategies

Another, less overt method of social control is the use of political strategies, namely by politicians, to trick voters into supporting them on less important, and in some cases completely insignificant platforms. One such strategy was used as an example in "The Real War on Crime" by Steven Donziger. He recounts: "...during an election year, residents of a tranquil town in rural Virginia were polled on their most important concerns. At the time, one of the leading candidates was attracting media interest with his proposal that parole be abolished for all violent offenders. There had not been a homicide for over two decades in the town. There was virtually no violent street crime. Yet the majority of citizens listed violent crime as their most pressing concern."

This use of coercion and manipulation is obviously wrong in many ways, most noticeably that the politician acted as, instead of a protector of the people's rights, an engineer of disorder and ignorance.

Another example of political strategy being used to change people's perspective on a certain situation is the use of vast amounts of resources to make certain figures seem more acceptable to the public. Take for example the spending of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the appearance of the Palin family during the 2008 presidential race. This careless use of money is a prime example of the extent to which institutions will go to increase support in their platform. This overwhelming spending of money had absolutely nothing to do with policies or ideals that the particular institution held, instead, it was deemed necessary in order to create a sense of the Palin family's belongingness to a certain style of living. A sense that was perceived as necessary to create in order to give Palin's party an advantage over the other candidate's platform.
Ideological Divisions

A third and even more subtle method of social control is the use of ideological divisions which can be instituted by anybody that has something to gain from less of an opposition. The most notable example of this method of social control regards the creation of perceived differences between subgroups of the working class that is discussed in "How the Irish Became White." In Noel Ignatiev's exploration of the 1800's working class situation, he reveals that the Irish were given the title "white" people so as to give them a sense of superiority to the rest of the proletariat, so that they would not rally together against their shared oppression. Instead of working together, the working class was now separated, giving the upper class a majority of like minded voters, and the preservation of power in the wealthy. Strategies such as this have been used countless times in the history of society.

Another notable use of ideological division is the creation of the class system itself. While there will always be differences between the rich and not rich, the use of different terms for the not rich is used to separate people that would normally be able to work together to achieve a better situation. If the lower classes came together despite their petty differences that are blown out of proportion by the rich-controlled media, they would control the majority of votes used to pass laws and policies, meaning that they would be able to create much more fair circumstances for themselves.

Another example of this is the fact that Washington state has most regressive tax system in the country. This means that as income goes up, the proportion of it that goes toward state taxes goes down, a result of a reliance on the sales tax. Some effort has been made to reform our tax system by instituting an income tax so that it is more fair and stable, but interestingly, many people who would benefit by paying less in taxes find it difficult to support such a change, largely because our society seems to detest taxation. There are many lower or middle income people who vote against their own economic interests because they have been convinced by politicians and the media that taxes are "wasted" on social programs, rather than recognizing that we are all in this together and that our society is better for everyone when we join together in solidarity.
Religion

While religion is not directly used by the U.S. Government to control the behavior of the people, it is important to understand that it is still a form of social control, and that even though it is not used directly, the ideals and philosophy that drive religion are used as justification for many uses of unjust social control in the U.S. Religion has been used throughout history as a way for those without power, to gain power. This view is clearly held by Scroobius Pip, in his song "A Letter from God to Man," he says:
"Religion became a tool, for the weak to control the strong with all these new morals and ethics, survival of the fittest was gone no longer could the biggest man simply take whatever he needed because damnation was the price if certain rules were not heeded."
Through Mr. Pip's lyrical description of the true use of religion, one can see that it would not be hard to believe that religion is used in order to control those who would normally "take whatever he needed."

Another, similar view on religion was held by the Father of Communism, Karl Marx. In the introduction of his "Critique of Hegel's 'Philosophy of Right'," where he states "[Religion] is the opiate of the masses." In this statement, Marx gets at the fact that religion is used to control what many people are willing to do, just because a book that was written a long time ago says that you're not supposed to do something.
Education

As a student of public education for over 10 years, I have found that something is wrong about the formal side of things. While I have been very pleased with the education that I have received, I feel that there is a vast gray area between an education of enlightenment, and that of
the goal "to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry," as referred to in H.L. Mencken's thoughts on the "aim of public education."

While I would say that Mencken was a little more extreme in his critique of the public education system than that of my eyes, I do agree that his analysis of what is happening is true. I vary in that I do not feel that the aim of public education is completely attempted, and therefore far less than achieved. Throughout my schooling experience, especially that of high school, I have grown more appreciative of the level of education that at the very least a significant percentage of my educators have left me with. I have been brought to at least a degree of enlightenment, despite what may have been the system's intention. In fact, it would be rather insulting to the youth to think that a goal such as to "put down dissent and originality" of hundreds of adolescents in a single building could be achieved without the cooperation of the majority of the system's educators.

This cooperation of course cannot be attained because there is a large enough percentage of people that do not conform. As we learned earlier in Asch's perceptual experiment, 65% percent of the time the subject did not conform, and instead acted in preservation of what they knew to be correct. It is this 65% percent of the time that educators are not conditioned in their own schooling to become a contributer to the attempt to reduce the enlightenment one receives in formal education.

The conditioning that I refer to is that of the idea presented by Noam Chomsky, that through formal education individuals are brought to think a certain way. He suggests that those in places of power enough to matter, are there because they went through the expected channels, and were brought to a particular way of thinking. In his "What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream" article, Chomsky states: "There are all sorts of filtering devices to get rid of people who are a pain in the neck and think independently. Those of you who have been through college know that the educational system is very highly geared to rewarding conformity and obedience..."

Because of the fact that these filtering devices cannot be perfect, many of those who think independently have gone through the system but without being conditioned into the intended point of view. I believe that educators are among the most unconditioned thinkers because the conditioning also incorporates a sense of superiority and belonging to the elite, as Chomsky puts it later in the same article "If you go through a place like Harvard, most of what goes on there is teaching manners; how to behave like a member of the upper classes, how to think the right thoughts, and so on." With this statement in mind, one can see that many of those who hold this sense of superiority, would also hold financial aspects of life in a higher view than most public educators.

Not to say that holding finances as a high priority indicates conditioning, or that public educators do not prioritize wealth, but that choosing to be a public educator comes with a sacrifice of wealth, for a gain of what is more important in an individual's mind. It is because of this that the government has not achieved its intended use of the public educational system, because those that are conditioned to think in a conformist point of view, are not generally in public education, because they are conditioned to feel that they deserve a monetarily wealthy life.

Mass Media
Perhaps the most varying form of social control, mass media can be used as one of the most subtle, or as one of the most blatant methods of behavioral control. Take for example the extent of diction that the news networks go to to influence how we perceive controversial topics. One instance of diction being used to change how people may see a certain topic is the use of "pro-choice" for those who are not against abortion, and "pro-life" for those who are against abortion. While "pro-choice" does not carry any negative connotations, the term "pro-life" suggests that the other side of the argument is "pro-death" rather than "pro-choice." This sort of choice in words shows that the media could just as easily name two sides of a policy much more fairly, but that they choose not to, in order to promote the side that they are controlled by. This not-so-fair-and-balanced approach to news coverage is just one of many instances of media bias.

Another example of media bias and social control is similar in that it regards the choice of words involved in the distribution of information. After the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks, the word terror was flashed across news screens seemingly incessantly. The fact that the media limited their choice of words, and the extent to which these words were burned into the eyes of the viewers shows that they must have had some alternate agenda to that of information distribution. This alternate, or secret agenda is most easily regarded as that of the owners of the media, the wealthy, empowered people that profit from the destruction and rebuilding of less developed countries. By creating a sense of terror being so much more common in the world today, the elite corporate controllers were able to send the U.S. to invade multiple countries, costing the people billions of dollars and thousands of lives, while those who engineered these "wars" profit from the weapons contracts, cheap labor, necessity of infrastructure that has been produced as a consequence of such destruction.

Mass media is such an efficient method of social control for a variety of reasons, most notably, because it is monopolized to such an extent that most of the information we receive is controlled by a very like minded group of people with many of the same priorities. The monopolization of mass media creates a problem in information distribution because if all of the distributors of what we as a society believe to be the truth control what we see, then we can easily be fooled into believing less what is true, and more what they want.

Media conglomerates such as News Corporation, owned by Rupert Murdoch, are prime examples of the negativity that such control produces. News Corporation alone owns nearly 50 newspapers, 30 magazines, and countless television channels, not to mention the book publishers and Internet sources and services. News Corporation is currently ranked the second largest media conglomerate in the world behind The Walt Disney Company. This single example of concentration of ownership shows that while many may think that we have a vast variety of sources of information, most of the information we receive is owned by quite a small group of people.

It is important to understand that education is not the only way in which conditioning is related to social control and that the monopolization of mass media is due, in part, to this conditioning of thought. As many of the conditioned intellectuals play large roles in the ability of the media to be so controllable. If so many like minded people didn't fill up the institutional structure, then there would be too much independent thinking for the media to be in the state that it is now. Also from Chomsky's "What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream," he says:
"[media authors] say, quite correctly, 'nobody ever tells me what to write. I write anything I like. All this business about pressures and constraints is nonsense because I'm never under any pressure.' Which is completely true, but the point is that they wouldn't be there unless they had already demonstrated that nobody has to tell them what to write because they are going say the right thing."

Mass media, especially in the form of an information monopoly has been used since its conception to shape the beliefs and thoughts of its audience. This indoctrination has been used in a multitude of ways to achieve the goals of those who control these conglomerates. The information we receive through this cartel is managed by those who have the most power in the United States, the wealthy and wicked. Every major news network exists solely to profit, profit that is generated through advertising, advertising that exploits the insecurities and fears that are created by the profiteer. An example of such an insecurity created by those who profit from them can be seen in the clothing industry. Advertisements selling clothes often portray an image of what many believe to be an ideal figure. For example, many clothing lines display their products on unnaturally slim, completely unrealistic looking models. Imagine a young woman that sees such an advertisement, who then begins to question the adequacy of her more natural body. If this contributes to her purchase of the advertised goods, to improve her self-image, the cartel has achieved its purpose.

Another example of the media controlling the information we receive in order to promote their owner's priorities is the general use of increasing fear in the people. This is heavily related to my earlier example of the recent "wars" that the U.S. has been involved in because the media increased fear of terrorism in order to produce a base of support for the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. The media creating fear can also be seen in my example of the politician in Virginia using the media to create a sense of danger from violent crime, even though that danger was nearly nonexistent. These two instances are only two of many that show that the media is used to control the thoughts and worries of their audiences to increase profit and support.

As one can see, there are many reasons for the control of media, the main purpose for a corporation's existence is to profit. This profit can be gained by obtaining larger audiences and effectively, controlling more people. In order to gain a larger audience, the news channels must show what the viewers want to see, or at least, what the media wants them to think they want to see. This can be achieved by convincing people to support governmental decisions, and then showing news that makes the supporter feel like they made a positive contribution by supporting that decision. Such an instance can be seen by understanding through this scenario: a news channel shows information with the intent to gain support for the invasion of a specific country known to have strong terrorist links. The people who see this information support the decision, and next on the news is the positive outcome of the invasion, even though there are most likely more negative reactions than the few the media has time to cover. This is an example of the sort of censorship of information that news networks choose to utilize, and in doing so are attracting more viewers by showing what they "want" to see. Through this process, the news corporations gain more support for their agenda, more viewers for profit, and even more control over the people.

A similar concept is used to gain profit through promoting the acceptance of economic inequality, which in essence is the preservation of power in the elite. By taking stances that make the masses feel that economic inequality is acceptable, they dilute the effects of challenges against these views. Such a stance is the promotion of the feeling that some people are simply not meant for certain tasks in society. The idea that certain responsibilities and titles are only achievable by using people with degrees from Harvard or Yale, people that have been through thought conditioning and think in the way that is "required" for that position. The simple fact, however, is that these positions require alarmingly little that cannot be obtained through average channels. Take for example the responsibilities of legislative representatives, while I'm quite sure it is a tough position to fill, I believe that it would be quite satisfactorily filled by someone who at the very least has ideas on the way society should be conducted. It is not as if the decisions such a lawmaker is required to make are so hard that those who think for themselves would not be able to make them.