How Our Views, Emotions and Mental States are Manipulated
Unhappiness, confusion, distress and low self-worth are intimately woven into our relationships with the family, workplace, society, and the political and global contexts of our lives. Seldom are we made aware of how our views, emotions, mental states and quality of life are influenced without our knowledge. Remaining unaware of such influences makes us easy prey to continual coercion, manipulation and exploitation - the roots of distress.
The following are links to a variety of books, films and special reports detailing the everyday influences upon us from State-controlled media, government, individuals, advertisers, corporations, managers and institutions. These powerful forces continue to affect how we experience ourselves and others - our desires, freedoms, emotions and attitudes - whilst slowly eroding our freedoms, values, personal identity, sense of social responsibility, community and caring for one another. Coercion, manipulation, harassment, racism, bullying, terror, abuse, deceit, exploitation - whatever terms we use for it, the results for the victim are always destructive and undermining; contributing to tremendous suffering.
However, such toxic influences are often so hidden and their illusory effects so familiar that few of us ever question or challenge the 'normality' they create. Indeed, to challenge what we call 'normality' in the workplace, group, family or society is in itself seen as a symptom of abnormality. Some experience the resulting fear and mass conformity in society as a deadening of the spirit; a lifelessness and individual powerlessness that can dampen the most earnest of souls. Yet, in spite of the complacency these societal influences can instill in us, their effects upon us remain huge, forming a typically unchallenged background to the foreground of our individual woes.
Building a sense of social responsibility and awareness of such influences and the contexts in which our own personal sufferings sit can be a vital step towards awakening our true conscience, beliefs, passions and power to change ourselves and the world, in spite of what we are commonly led to believe.
The Century of the Self
Written, Produced and Narrated by Adam Curtis
How psychology has been used since the time of Freud to manipulate the public's desires, emotions, views and behaviours according to political and corporate agendas.
The Power of Nightmares
Written, Produced and Narrated by Adam Curtis
"In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares. The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares. In a new series, the Power of Nightmares explores how the idea that we are threatened by a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion used in the service of controlling the public. It is a myth that has spread unquestioned through politics, the security services and the international media." (BBC website)
Breaking the Silence
Written, Reported and Directed by John Pilger
John Pilger's work has been a beacon of light in often dark times. The realities he has brought to light have been a revelation, over and over again, and his courage and insight a constant inspiration.
Noam Chomsky
John Pilger unearths, with steely attention, the facts, the filthy truth, and tells it as it is.
Harold Pinter
War By Other Means
Written, Reported and Directed by John Pilger
The New Rulers of the World
Written, Reported and Directed by John Pilger
The Corporation
Produced and Directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott
Global Dimming
Written and Produced by David Sington
Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say
Written by Douglas Rushkoff
Can We Be Manipulated?
Psychological Coercion, Abuse & Bullying
Psychological Coercion has not only been used by psychologists employed by politicians, the military and corporations, but can be commonly experienced within the workplace, family, school and social group. It can work in both subtle and crude ways, both verbally and non-verbally. Women, children and men are all vulnerable to such abuse unless it is directly challenged.
Exploitation
Instilling Fear and Eroding Civil Liberties
The War on Democracy
The Road To Guantanamo
McLibel
Copyright © 2006 Stephen Forrest. All rights reserved.
Page updated March 14, 2008
Unhappiness, confusion, distress and low self-worth are intimately woven into our relationships with the family, workplace, society, and the political and global contexts of our lives. Seldom are we made aware of how our views, emotions, mental states and quality of life are influenced without our knowledge. Remaining unaware of such influences makes us easy prey to continual coercion, manipulation and exploitation - the roots of distress.
The following are links to a variety of books, films and special reports detailing the everyday influences upon us from State-controlled media, government, individuals, advertisers, corporations, managers and institutions. These powerful forces continue to affect how we experience ourselves and others - our desires, freedoms, emotions and attitudes - whilst slowly eroding our freedoms, values, personal identity, sense of social responsibility, community and caring for one another. Coercion, manipulation, harassment, racism, bullying, terror, abuse, deceit, exploitation - whatever terms we use for it, the results for the victim are always destructive and undermining; contributing to tremendous suffering.
However, such toxic influences are often so hidden and their illusory effects so familiar that few of us ever question or challenge the 'normality' they create. Indeed, to challenge what we call 'normality' in the workplace, group, family or society is in itself seen as a symptom of abnormality. Some experience the resulting fear and mass conformity in society as a deadening of the spirit; a lifelessness and individual powerlessness that can dampen the most earnest of souls. Yet, in spite of the complacency these societal influences can instill in us, their effects upon us remain huge, forming a typically unchallenged background to the foreground of our individual woes.
Building a sense of social responsibility and awareness of such influences and the contexts in which our own personal sufferings sit can be a vital step towards awakening our true conscience, beliefs, passions and power to change ourselves and the world, in spite of what we are commonly led to believe.
The Century of the Self
Written, Produced and Narrated by Adam Curtis
How psychology has been used since the time of Freud to manipulate the public's desires, emotions, views and behaviours according to political and corporate agendas.
The Power of Nightmares
Written, Produced and Narrated by Adam Curtis
"In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares. The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares. In a new series, the Power of Nightmares explores how the idea that we are threatened by a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion used in the service of controlling the public. It is a myth that has spread unquestioned through politics, the security services and the international media." (BBC website)
Breaking the Silence
Written, Reported and Directed by John Pilger
John Pilger's work has been a beacon of light in often dark times. The realities he has brought to light have been a revelation, over and over again, and his courage and insight a constant inspiration.
Noam Chomsky
John Pilger unearths, with steely attention, the facts, the filthy truth, and tells it as it is.
Harold Pinter
War By Other Means
Written, Reported and Directed by John Pilger
The New Rulers of the World
Written, Reported and Directed by John Pilger
The Corporation
Produced and Directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott
Global Dimming
Written and Produced by David Sington
Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say
Written by Douglas Rushkoff
Can We Be Manipulated?
Psychological Coercion, Abuse & Bullying
Psychological Coercion has not only been used by psychologists employed by politicians, the military and corporations, but can be commonly experienced within the workplace, family, school and social group. It can work in both subtle and crude ways, both verbally and non-verbally. Women, children and men are all vulnerable to such abuse unless it is directly challenged.
Exploitation
Instilling Fear and Eroding Civil Liberties
The War on Democracy
The Road To Guantanamo
McLibel
Copyright © 2006 Stephen Forrest. All rights reserved.
Page updated March 14, 2008
"Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott's epic documentary looks at American big business and the power it wields. Scripted by Joel Bakan from his book, The Corporation: the Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, it tackles everything from the protection afforded corporations in the US constitution, the bullying tactics of multinationals and the “nag factor” built into children's television advertising. The anti-capitalist agenda is readily evident, but with executives from the likes of Shell and Goodyear so willing to shoot themselves in the foot, the eloquence of the likes of Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Michael Moore is almost redundant. The corruption, exploitation and ecological-ignorance of these global players has never been so damningly exposed."
Stephen Forrest
Existential Analysis, Psychotherapy & Personal Development
Existential Analysis, Psychotherapy & Personal Development
Episode Four: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering
Episode Three: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed
Episode Two: The Engineering of Consent
Episode One:
Happiness Machines
Happiness Machines
Part I:
Baby It's Cold Outside
Baby It's Cold Outside
Part II:
The Phantom Victory
The Phantom Victory
Part III:
The Shadows In The Cave
The Shadows In The Cave
How the culture of fear engineered by our politicians supports their political aims. Award-winning journalist John Pilger investigates the discrepancies between American and British presentations to the public of the 'war on terror', and the actual facts on the ground as he finds them in Afghanistan and Washington, DC.
How we in the west live under the illusion that we are helping developing countries. In reality, the World Bank helps maintain poverty by giving loans to developing countries at interest rates that result in crippling debt, and physical and emotional suffering for the poorest peoples.
How our consumerist culture maintains suffering in the world. This documentary looks beneath the gloss of the world of financial trading, mobile phones, McDonald's, Starbucks, GAP, Nike to reveal the human costs to the impoverished majority on the planet.
This documentary shows how our increasingly narcissistic and consumerist lifestyles in Europe and the US have contributed to a little-known climate change phenomenon - more invisible than global warming - which is causing famine and suffering in the developing world.
"Douglas Rushkoff argues that we each have our own "theys" - bosses, pundits, authorities, both real and imaginary-whom we allow to shape our lives and manage our futures. Like parents, they can make us feel safe. They do our thinking for us. We don't have to worry about our next move - it has already been decided on our behalf, and in our best interests. Or so we hope."
[VIDEO] THE PERSUADERS with Douglas Rushkoff, PBS Frontline in Autumn 2004.
A behind-the-scenes look at the influence industry, and how the techniques of marketing have migrated into politics to create the "citizen consumer." Learn more, or watch the whole documentary online, here.
A behind-the-scenes look at the influence industry, and how the techniques of marketing have migrated into politics to create the "citizen consumer." Learn more, or watch the whole documentary online, here.
for not everyone to whom
we surrender ourselves is deserving of our trust
- Douglas Rushkoff 1999
Bullying: Advertisements illustrating the effects of bullying upon children and young adults.
Workplace Bullying: A discussion about what workplace abuse is, how to identify it and deal with it. How harassment and bullying are often supported by colleagues and employers afraid of the consequences for themselves of challenging it.
The effects of bullying on our emotions, thoughts and behaviour. Safer Scotland Advertisement.
Published by the Scottish Executive
Published by the Scottish Executive
WARNING: THIS FILM CONTAINS IMAGES OF EXTREME ANIMAL CRUELTY
Earthlings: A shocking, powerful, thought-provoking and award-winning feature length documentary narrated by Joaquin Phoenix with music by Moby. This film shows the correlation between unrelenting economic interest, human prejudice, and the impact of animal exploitation upon nature. The suffering created by everyday acts of exploitation in the name of money is so prevalent but hidden from the public, that we are manipulated into believing an illusory version of the truth. Such exploitation - whether in the form of racism, sexism or 'species-ism' - relies upon treating other living beings as if they are objects. Awakening our conscience as to how we are each complicit in such exploitation is the first step towards living more responsibly and changing those aspects of society that are creating unnecessary suffering and environmental decline each minute of the day.
http://www.isawearthlings.com/
Earthlings: A shocking, powerful, thought-provoking and award-winning feature length documentary narrated by Joaquin Phoenix with music by Moby. This film shows the correlation between unrelenting economic interest, human prejudice, and the impact of animal exploitation upon nature. The suffering created by everyday acts of exploitation in the name of money is so prevalent but hidden from the public, that we are manipulated into believing an illusory version of the truth. Such exploitation - whether in the form of racism, sexism or 'species-ism' - relies upon treating other living beings as if they are objects. Awakening our conscience as to how we are each complicit in such exploitation is the first step towards living more responsibly and changing those aspects of society that are creating unnecessary suffering and environmental decline each minute of the day.
http://www.isawearthlings.com/
"Ignorance has prevailed so long only because people do not want to find out the truth."
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Taking Liberties
Right to Protest, Right to Freedom of Speech. Right to Privacy. Right not to be detained without charge, Innocent Until Proven Guilty. Prohibition from Torture. TAKING LIBERTIES reveals how these six central pillars of liberty have been systematically destroyed by New Labour, and the freedoms of the British people stolen from under their noses amidst a climate of fear created by the media and government itself.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9
Part 10 Part 11
Right to Protest, Right to Freedom of Speech. Right to Privacy. Right not to be detained without charge, Innocent Until Proven Guilty. Prohibition from Torture. TAKING LIBERTIES reveals how these six central pillars of liberty have been systematically destroyed by New Labour, and the freedoms of the British people stolen from under their noses amidst a climate of fear created by the media and government itself.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9
Part 10 Part 11
'The War on Democracy' is John Pilger's first major film for the cinema - in a career that has produced more than 55 television documentaries. Set in Latin America and the US, it explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile.
"The film tells a universal story," says Pilger, "analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called war on terror".
WATCH THE FILM
READ JOHN PILGER'S GUARDIAN ARTICLE ON THE FILM
"The film tells a universal story," says Pilger, "analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called war on terror".
WATCH THE FILM
READ JOHN PILGER'S GUARDIAN ARTICLE ON THE FILM
THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO is the story of four friends who set off from the Midlands in September 2001 for an innocent wedding and holiday in Pakistan. Through an unfortunate series of events the boys are eventually rounded up by American forces, only to be kept in horrific conditions at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for over two years. The film reveals the injustices and illegality of the US use of forced extradition, torture and detention without trial of innocent individuals.
Part 1 of 10 [remaining parts on YouTube]
Part 1 of 10 [remaining parts on YouTube]
McLIBEL is a documentary filmed over three years and following the lives of Helen Steel and Dave Morris, a postman and a gardener, whose trial against fast food giants McDonalds became the longest in English history. Their case develops from the basic issues of nutrition, animals, advertising and the environment to the implications on freedom of speech. The film reveals the methods used by multinational companies such as McDonalds to manipulate and exploit the public whilst engaging in cruel and inhuman practices against animals.
Watch the film
Watch the film
