The human brain, semi-secret weapon of the hospice West

First they decerebrated us, denatured us, made us harmless, docile human lounge animals incapable of defending themselves, protecting children and families, reacting to abuse. Now, cornered by multipolar geopolitics, the canny, exhausted West, the Great Hospice described by Eduard Limonov, is devising a brand-new technological weapon to preserve a tired hegemony, to subjugate peoples to its supremacism, its laughable money-dominated democracy, its litany of rights. It is the human brain, yes, the very contents of our heads, sterilized by decades of propaganda, neurolinguistic programming, psycho-social experiments.

The military-industrial establishment (the two terms are symbiotic) has taken one more step on the road to human manipulation, the way to transform the antiquated homo sapiens into a remotely monitored cyberhuman, even usable as a weapon. Heterogenesis of ends for the poor little Western man, pacifist, trembling, fearful, patiently programmed for generations. NATO, the military apparatus that defends what remains of Western dominance in the world, has in fact added to the traditional domains of warfare - land, sea, air - and to the more modern space and cyberspace, a new domain: the cognitive one.   

It is not just about conveying certain ideas or behaviors, as in traditional propaganda and psychological (psyop) operations, but about altering cognition, influencing the process by which we arrive at ideas, insights, beliefs, choices and behaviors. The target is not the enemy army, but the common man, used as a weapon in battles.

“Cognitive warfare is one of the most discussed topics within NATO”, said researcher François Du Cluzel. The French military scientist is the author of a seminal article titled “Cognitive Warfare” for the NATO think tank Innovation Hub. Cognitive warfare overlaps with information warfare, classical propaganda and psychological operations, penetrating deep into the brains of the recipients. In information warfare, attempts are made to control the flow of news. Psychological operations involve influencing perceptions, beliefs and behaviors. The goal of cognitive warfare is to “arm everyone” and “the goal is not to attack what individuals think, but how they think”. It is a war against cognitivity, the way our brains process information and turn it into knowledge. It targets the brain directly: it involves hacking the individual to program his or her brain.

Obviously disquieting to read - in a strategic studies journal of the world's leading military alliance - such concepts and objectives, which deny at root individual freedom and democracy - the totems and taboos of the West - and even go to the point of eroding human nature, anthropological structure and the essence of the human. NATO's Dr. Strangelovers, in order to achieve their goal of weaponizing each of us, turn to all the most innovative fields of knowledge: psychology, linguistics, neurobiology, logic, sociology, anthropology, behavioral sciences, “and other”. This obscure “and other” can mean any experiment on the living flesh of the concrete human being, an immense potential danger to our lives, our freedom, perhaps to the very survival of the species homo sapiens.

A gigantic operation of social architecture that “always starts with understanding the environment and the target; the goal is to understand the psychology of the target population”. Target in business language designates the potential buyers of a product or the recipients of an advertising message, but it means objective, cible. They tell us clearly: the target is us, just you and me.

The basis remains traditional propaganda and disinformation techniques, improved by current technology and advances in knowledge. “Now behavior can be predicted and calculated to such an extent”, Du Cluzel continues, “that artificial intelligence-driven behavioral economics should be classified as hard science rather than soft science”. The distinction is no small one, as the differentiation is about methodological rigor, accuracy and objectivity of knowledge and techniques. Simply put, the natural sciences are considered “hard”, while the social sciences (psychology, sociology, etc.) are described as “soft”. The leap is made: scientists in the service of the power techno-structure believe they have arrived at certainties, at the development of indisputable methodologies with certain, predictable, repeatable results on a large scale. In corpore vili, a body of no importance, ours.

The reasoning makes no bones: since almost everyone is active on the Internet and social networks, individuals are no longer passive recipients of propaganda; with today's technology, they actively participate in its creation and dissemination. Knowledge about how to manipulate these processes “is easily weaponized”. The example is the Cambridge Analytica case. Using data voluntarily provided to Facebook, precise individual psychological profiles were drawn up concerning a large population of voters. Normally, the information is used to convey personalized advertisements, but it can be used for other purposes, such as manipulating elections and determining their outcome. Cognitive warfare “exploits weaknesses in the human brain”, recognizing the importance of emotions in driving cognition. Cyberpsychology, which studies the interaction between humans, machines and artificial intelligence will play an increasingly important role.

Other technologies include NeuroS/T (Emerging Neurosciences and Technology) as well as NBICs (nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, cognitive science), including developments in genetic engineering. NeuroS/T can be pharmacological agents, brain-machine coupling, but also psychologically disturbing information. Influencing the nervous system through knowledge or technology can cause changes in memory, learning ability, sleep cycles, self-control, mood, self-perception, grasping decision-making, trust and empathy, fitness and vigor. Du Cluzel writes, “NeuroS/T's potential to create insight and the ability to influence the cognition, emotions and behavior of individuals is of particular interest to security and intelligence services, and military and warfare initiatives”. Insight is the ability to see into a situation, or into oneself: clear perception, insight into external or internal facts.

Warfare centered on individual cognitive processes represents a radical departure from traditional forms of warfare, which, at least in principle, sought to keep civilians out. In cognitive warfare, the citizen is the objective (target) and his or her brain the battlefield. It changes the nature of the war, the actors, the duration and the way the war is fought.

According to Du Cluzel, “cognitive warfare has a universal scope, from the individual to States and multinational corporations”. It is no longer won by occupying territory or by adjusting borders on a map, because “experience teaches us that while warfare in the physical realm can weaken an enemy army, it does not achieve all goals”. With cognitive warfare, the ultimate goal changes: “Whatever the nature and purpose of war, it ultimately boils down to a clash between groups that want something different, and victory then means the ability to impose desired behavior on a chosen audience”. It is therefore, in effect, a matter of operating an ideological and behavioral conversion in the target population.

The enemy is not only the civilians in the occupied territories, but also the citizens themselves, who according to NATO are easy targets for enemy cognitive operations. “The human being is the weakest link. This must be recognized to protect NATO's human capital”. Then comes the frank confession: “the goal of cognitive warfare is not only to harm soldiers, but also societies. This way of war resembles a shadow war and requires the involvement of the whole government to fight it”. War can therefore be fought with or without the military, and it is potentially endless, “because for this kind of conflict you cannot conclude a peace treaty or sign a surrender”.

It is clear that behind cognitive warfare is waged a battle for control of our brains, that is, of ideas, emotions and feelings, the lintel of beliefs and concrete choices. Each of us becomes a weapon, remotely teleguided or manipulated by those who exercise control over culture, communication, and education. Du Cluzel notes that “the brain will be the battlefield of the 21st century and that human beings are the territory to be conquered”.

As happens in societies laden with hypocrisy, it attempts an impossible ethical justification. “The human being is very often the main vulnerability and this must be recognized in order to protect the human capital of NATO, but also to be able to exploit the vulnerabilities of our adversaries”. However, the point is the explicit admission that “the goal of cognitive warfare is to harm societies, not just the military”. The study describes this phenomenon as the weaponization of brain science. But it seems obvious that the development of cognitive warfare will lead to a militarization of human society, from psychology, from intimate social relations to the mind itself.

This all-encompassing militarization is reflected in the paranoid tone of the report, which warns of “an integrated fifth column, where everyone unknowingly behaves according to the plans of one of our competitors”. Here are the real plotters! In other words, the document shows that NATO sees its own population as a threat, potential enemy sleeper cells, fifth columns that challenge the stability of “Western liberal democracies”.

The development of new forms of hybrid warfare comes at a time when military campaigns are targeting national populations at an unprecedented level. The Ottawa Times reported that the Canadian military has taken advantage of the pandemic to lead information warfare against the population, testing propaganda tactics on civilians. Inside reports suggest that this news only skims the surface of a wave of new unconventional warfare techniques employed by Western militaries around the world. “Cognitive warfare seeks to change not only what people think, but also how they act”, the Canadian government wrote in an official statement.

“Attacks on the cognitive field involve the integration of cybernetics, information/disinformation, psychology and social engineering capabilities. Cognitive warfare positions the mind as a battlespace and a contested domain. Its purpose is to sow dissonance, trigger contradictory narratives, polarize opinion and radicalize groups. Cognitive warfare can cause people to act in ways that can disrupt or fragment an otherwise cohesive society”. On the cohesion of Western societies let us draw a pious veil.

For Du Cluzel, cognitive warfare is the art of using technology to alter cognition of human goals. These technologies “integrate the fields of NBICs: nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science. The whole forms a kind of cocktail that allows further manipulation of the brain”. The new method of attack “goes far beyond” information warfare or psychological operations. “Cognitive warfare is not just a fight against what we think, it is a fight against the way we think, and we can change the way people think”.

At stake is control over how our brains process information and turn it into knowledge. In other words, cognitive warfare is not just another name for information warfare. It is a war against our individual processor, the brain. The NATO researcher stresses that “this is extremely important for us in the military” because “it has the potential, developing new weapons and new ways to damage the brain, to involve neuroscience and technology in many different approaches to affect the human ecology, because you all know that it is very easy to turn civilian technology into military technology”.

As for who might be the target of cognitive warfare, Du Cluzel confirms that it affects everyone. “Cognitive warfare has a universal scope, starting with the individual and ending with states and multinational organizations. Its scope is global and aims to take control of human beings”.

If we still believe in the beautiful fairy tale of freedom, human rights, democracy, and the ethical superiority of the Western liberal-liberal model, then cognitive warfare has probably already reached us, manipulated us, and changed us to the core.

Original column by Roberto Pecchioli :
https://www.ideeazione.com/il-cervello-umano-arma-semisegreta-dellospizio-occidente/
Translation by Costantino Ceoldo