Make no mistake: Mind control is here and now and in ways, most people fail to recognize. The term “mind control” reeks of Orwell’s 1984 and a dystopian universe where humans are semi-automatons regulated by a higher authority resident in science-fiction movies. In reality, people are affected every day by lesser degrees of “mind control” campaigns and messaging to persuade, convince, cajole or coerce behaviour from buying product A as opposed to products B-Z; to supporting or voting for particular candidates or issues; or impressing others.
The strategic version of “mind control” was central to shock and awe: affecting, influencing and ultimately controlling will and perception and thus peoples’ behaviour to do what we want or to stop doing what we do not. Two of the most striking examples of the subliminal application of mind control were BREXIT-the 2016 referendum in Great Britain whether to remain or leave the European Union (EU)-; and in the 2016 US presidential elections by a relatively unknown UK firm called Cambridge Analytica (CA). Netflix released a blockbuster documentary called
The Great Hack in 2019 on CA.
Cambridge Analytica was formed in 2013 as a subsidiary of a UK behavioural research, data analysis and communications company called SCL (Strategic Communications Laboratories) funded by UK Tory politicians and ex-UK military officers. SCL was engaged in influencing elections in several countries by manipulating data to affect voters’ perceptions and subsequent votes. The main American CA investors were billionaire Renaissance Fund Manager Robert and daughter Rebecca Mercer,
both who would be strong Trump supporters, and Steve Bannon, Trump’s future strategist, who at the time was at Breitbart News, owned by the Mercers.
People are affected every day by lesser degrees of “mind control” campaigns and messaging to persuade, convince, cajole or coerce behaviour.
After winning the Scottish referendum to remain in the UK, Prime Minister David Cameron wrongly believed that he would prevail in the June 2016 Referendum on EU membership. But Brexit, pushed by future Prime Minister Boris Johnson, prevailed 52-48%. The reasons why Remain failed were three-fold.
First, Johnson adviser, Dominic Cummings, who would turn against the prime minister in late 2021 when he was dismissed from Ten Downing Street, made a decisive observation. About one million British voters did not belong to any party. It was these voters who would be targeted by the Leave Campaign and ultimately who would decide the referendum.
Concurrently and second, the Russians drew the same conclusion. Using social media, Russian propaganda focused on these same undecided British voters to support Leave as part of Moscow’s effort for disuniting the Western alliance. While not fully proven, Russian “active measures” likely contributed to the Leave vote.
The third was Cambridge Analytics. CA had harvested thousands of pieces of data on many millions of Britons from Facebook. Shareholder legal suits would follow for which Facebook would be fined for violating privacy laws. But in December 2021, a US Federal Court dismissed more serious charges and allegations that Facebook management knew and permitted CA to loot its data.
By compiling personal data and using a combination of AI and data processing, CA tailored campaigns specifically designed to affect individual Britons. While Russia may not have deployed such a targeted strategy, its use of social media clearly was aimed at the non-committed Britons. And the combination worked. Leave won.
In 2016, Senator Ted Cruz hired CA to assist in what was his failed presidential run. However, because of the Bannon and Mercer connection, Bannon and no doubt CA techniques would be brought aboard by the Trump campaign. Trump also understood the presidential basics better than did Hillary Clinton. Only one number elects the president: the 270, the electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Clinton focused on the popular vote that she won by some 3 million. However, on January 20, 2017, it was President Trump, not Clinton.
CA collected about 5000 pieces of data on somewhere between 50-90 million Americans, affecting roughly a quarter of the US population, largely from Facebook to shape the vote for Trump that ultimately won the 2016 election. While the same techniques were probably repeated in 2020, Joe Biden’s seven million popular vote majority gave him an electoral college win. Of course, about 70,000 votes determined the results in three key states that, if reversed, would have re-elected Trump.
CA was bought out largely by the Mercers becoming Emerdata after the scandal. But the lesson should have been learned about manipulating private data in essence to impose a form of mind control on any cohort of the population. All political parties understand this and could plagiarize these techniques in the future. Worry!
The writer is a senior advisor at Washington, DC’s Atlantic Council and a published author