A Moscow State University professor told us who controls our consciousness with the help of soft power

Who is “hunting” us and for what purpose?

All modern people, according to Grebenyuk, are under unprecedented information pressure, which forces psychologists to often remind us about digital hygiene.

Recently, information influence has had an increasingly manipulative effect.

“This information is not just information,” says the professor. “She constantly pushes us to take some kind of action – read something, watch something, like something, buy something, and sometimes she even inspires some to storm the airport. What is even more alarming is that information pressure begins to transform us, reaches our value system, our social attitudes, and influences our patterns of social behavior.

Who are the people who are trying to influence us?

Alexander Grebenyuk identifies three groups of subjects who do this every day. Firstly, these are global and regional players – industrial corporations. Why do they need to influence us? Yes, because “we must buy.” They need to formulate the population’s demand for consumption. Without this, the system cannot develop. Who is the best buyer for a fashion gadget? The one who comes home with it and… pretty soon throws it away and goes for the next one. The rate at which things break down pushes people to change them more often, thus spinning the flywheel of uncontrolled consumption.

The second group “hunting” us is the agents of the “attention economy.” What it is? This is a new industry where they are trying to monetize our attention. These are owners of Internet platforms with various content, public opinion leaders, bloggers. They use our views, our time and our attention, making money from them. The more attention we direct to YouTube and Telegram, the more they earn.

– It would seem that everything is simple – we have the “Culture” TV channel! Turn it on and watch only it! – the scientist suggests. – But for some reason we still switch to daily short news on social networks. And even though they are low-grade compared to the content of a truly cultural program, they attract our attention more because they are constantly updated. The rule of a successful blogger is: “To retain the news consumer, you need to produce content constantly. Two posts a week is not enough; you need three stories a day.

The sociologist suggests recalling the outstanding science-fiction film of the last decade, Interstellar. Such a cultural product, according to him, can be created once every 10-15 years. It really deserves attention, and many people watched it. What kind of “genius” do public opinion leaders produce every day?

“We are “caught” by negative content because our brain is excited by it,” the professor reveals the secret. – This is explained by the course of our evolution: who survived in primitive times? The one who managed to react to stimuli in time, run away, and hide in time. We are susceptible to negativity. But we must understand that we are often fed low-quality content that destroys our consciousness.

The third group influencing us is the world’s political centers of power. They need to stand out, and therefore they also generate a large amount of information that is directed at us.

Grebenyuk notes that so far all three groups have enough platforms to influence the population, but another 5-7 years will pass and these centers will begin to seriously compete with each other. Based on the budget of our free time, there is simply not enough for all of them.

What means do “hunters” use?

There is a technique for influencing the public that not only helps to capture attention, but also to control people’s minds and stimulate them to take certain actions.

The goal of social technologies was formed in his time by the Western philosopher Karl Popper. In his book “The Open Society and Its Enemies,” which, according to the sociologist, is considered the bible of the liberal wing, he presents elemental social engineering, that is, social technology, which, based on an algorithm using methods and tools, creates something desired in society.

“For example, we can create phenomena – launch a migration movement, electoral, political, develop, transform some phenomenon into a process, and maybe destroy it,” explains the scientist. – But the main object of influence is, of course, the consciousness of the individual: in order for us to get some kind of result (it can be aimed at the benefit of society), we must influence it. But how to influence consciousness – after all, a person does not have a special button! Consciousness is a very abstract, multi-component entity. We social analysts assess this impact on a different level. The first thing we see now is the impact on values. Values ​​are extremely important for a person, because they act for him as a kind of constructor of future behavior, criteria by which a person evaluates others and what is happening around him. If a person has some kind of value, then a social attitude is formed in accordance with it.

The scientist gives an example: let’s say a person has some kind of value system. Its reproductive settings will depend on what place the family and children occupy there. If the family is at the top in the distribution of values, this is important for him; he will be focused on creating a prosperous, cohesive family, on the birth of one or several children.

But then a social technologist takes over and, having to convince him otherwise, begins to “work with values.” For example, he says to a potential family man: “What kind of children?!” You must have other tasks: a house in Spain, a C class car, a yacht…” That is, a consumer attitude appears – one of the main motivational attitudes of a person – and, accordingly, competition appears between values ​​for your actions.

Or the opposite example. The teenager loves unhealthy fast food with fried potatoes, lots of sugar, and carcinogens. The task of other social technologists is to convey to the child the idea: “You don’t need to go there,” to change his value system. How to do it? Make you think, transform your consciousness: “Yes, it’s delicious, but you have to think about the consequences. This addiction will end in excess weight at best, and stomach disease at worst.” This means that we conclude: it is better to eat at home or where food is prepared in a healthy way.

Soft power

Social technologies can affect not only the behavior, health and personal lives of people, but even hypothetically expand the borders of the state and increase the degree of its influence.

The German sociologist Friedrich Ratzel once said that the spatial growth of the state is accompanied not only by the expansion of borders, but also on the basis of powerful attractive radiation, says Alexander Grebenyuk. – What it is? In the early 70s, seminars were held in the USA. Their main theme was to find an answer to the question: “What to do with the USSR?” Let me remind you that in the late 60s, our country, which won the bloodiest war, a country that built a social state where hard workers received all kinds of preferences, was quite attractive to many. In addition, it was the state that was the first in the world to launch a man into space, where the strongest man in the world lived – the Olympic champion in weightlifting. This is how we looked in the world. Our radiation, our soft power was similar to the radiation of the Sun: man wanted to be in its rays.

But we were not the ones who introduced the term “soft power” into the lexicon. This was done in the 80s of the last century by the American political scientist Joseph Nye. What did he mean by it? Soft power is the ability to persuade others to want what you want, or is an indirect method of exercising power. No one needs to be forced to do anything – other people, countries themselves fit into the channel of your ideas, your development.

The main task of soft power is to create demand in society. It should be like this: “We want it to be like there, it’s better there.” If in fact someone knew “what is best,” then we would have lived without wars a long time ago. But that’s why she’s a soft power, to convince, sometimes of things that don’t really exist.

For soft power, according to Grebenyuk, content is very important. For example, in the USA, in addition to intangible content – “democracy”, “freedom of speech”, “American Dream”, there are quite tangible, material things: McDonald’s, iPhone, etc.

To cultivate the desired influence, the resource base is very important. These are the directions where content and patterns—attractive images—come from. This includes culture (for example, strong cinema), diplomacy, and developed armed forces with advanced weapons systems that are associated with advanced technologies. A strong system of science and education, strong industry, and sporting achievements are also important. Moreover, not only sports records from world sports stars, but also the holding of sports events, which people also associate with a strong country capable of creating the appropriate infrastructure. If you manage to fill all spheres of public life with your attractive images as much as possible, you can increase the prestige of the country, which will help significantly strengthen the real economy, military power, and the level of well-being of citizens.