Psyops: The Battle for Your Mind

Midst the controversy surrounding state funding for artistic endeavours and the boycott by some recipients against the donor’s interference in the creative process, i.e. censorship, one cannot help imagining the reason could be the oft quoted “He who pays the piper calls the tunes.”  Throughout history artists have an uneasy relationship with their governments as their work have the power to move people and frustrate government intentions. This has not stopped governments from using artists, sometimes under duress, as tools of propaganda or for self-glorification in state-sponsored plays, opera, and monumental sculptures and buildings. From the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome to modern day dictatorships, the state has tried to bend the creative process to its will, but never achieving total success. This is because true artists (not the mercenary ones) owe allegiance to one and only one party – their muse. Governments must face this hard truth. They can never buy respec...

Every waking moment and even in your sleep, you are bombarded with thousands of messages from the mass media designed to make you take action, sometimes against your better judgement. This is psyops, or psychological operations, conducted by governments, corporations and individuals to tilt the playing field for decision-making in their favour. How do they do that? To understand the fundamentals, one needs to explore the field of psychology upon which much of the mechanism for directing and influencing your decision-making processes is made. We start with an overview of the wellsprings of psychological theory and the way it pools into a central body of thought from which practitioners of mind control in various capacities draw ideas to frame their operations.  © 2000-2024 Tan Choon Hong. All rights reserved. THIS POST IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION:  TO BE UPDATED

An idle mind is the devil's workshop. See what I'm dabbling in during my idle hours: Title:  Shanghai, Virtually Painted About:  Digitally rendered paintings of Shanghai with short commentaries . Site:  https://tanchoonhong.blogspot.sg   Title:  Nanyang, a Graphic Novel  About:  Two fortune-seeking brothers end up on opposite sides of the law. Site:  https://tanchoonhongcreative.blogspot.sg Title:  Artistic Licensee About: Taking liberties in portraying the lighter side of life. Site:  https://tanchoonhongartist.blogspot.sg Title:  Psyops: The Battle for Your Mind About:  Exposing the covert use of psychology in propaganda. Site:  https://tanchoonhongpsyops.blogspot.sg Title:  Singapore, Virtually Painted About:  Digitally rendered paintings of Singapore with short commentaries. Site:  https://tanchoonhongdigital.blogspot.sg Title:  Salon des refusés About:  Stories of reject...

In a blogger's post* it was reported that primary school children sitting a history test in  2013   were examined on their knowledge of Singapore history with the following: Othman Wok was one of Singapore’s founding fathers. Refer to his quotes below and answer the questions that follow. “Most of the members at that time who were loyal to the PAP stuck with us. But there were others who were so naive that they were talked into joining the other side. It was foolish to join the other side, because they were not really fighting for the aspirations of the people of Singapore.” (i) Why was there a split within the PAP in 1961? (ii) Which group of people does “the other side” refer to? Before a child could tackle this question, the answer had to be fed in advance through the teaching system. This is but just an example of how the ruling party unabashedly burns young impressionable minds with the PAP brand. One can conclude that the takeaway for the student is that the ...