You Are Being Controlled

You best understand psychological concepts and strategies by experiencing them. Talking about them is good. Experiencing and talking about them is better.

Consider keeping a journal. Writing adds an important dimension to your adventures, and later reading what you wrote adds a second. The experiences of other people are often included, which adds a third.

You can do the chapters alone, or share with a group. If you have the opportunity, do both and notice the differences.

Use good judgment. If you are asked to do something that doesn’t feel right move on, perhaps to try another day.

C. Skinner and Pavlov
Don’t be put off by the dry, objective language and methods of Skinner and Pavlov. They are used by everybody, every day, to influence/control how you think, feel, act. Greater awareness of how it’s done makes you much less controllable, and gives you better tools to influence/control others.

In the next chapter you’ll learn how Skinner and Pavlov are used as building blocks to create Hit Lists, talking points and narratives that governments, political parties, interest groups, and advertisers use to turn you into a useful idiot.

1. How they influence/control you
2. How you influence/control them
3. Shape up yourself
4. Classical conditioning
5. Create Power Words---RELAX-ENERGIZE
6. Systematic desensitization
7. Uses and abuses
8. The payoff

D. How they turn you into a useful idiot

Frivolous Fun