Mass Consciousness Management as a Goal of Social Engineering
Large groups of people cannot function without appropriate management mechanisms. In the past, managing mass activity was easier (for example, religion played a significant role in this), as the world was more stable, and its model (worldview) was also constant and fixed. Today, the world is dynamic, requiring more complex management methods that take into account this dynamism and the greater diversity of acceptable human behaviors. In other words, previous eras with a single behavioral model and established worldviews were simpler and easier for managing mass consciousness.
The humanities technologies that deal with this do not just analyze or produce texts-they produce life, as their goal is to change behavior. This kind of adaptation allows humanity to move forward. In this sense, even dramaturgy can be considered a humanities technology, as it transmits social information about human interaction. For example, we can recall the rise of certain authors during the Perestroika era (such as M. Shatrov).
Every entry into history-whether by a person or an object-always results in a change in behavior. Impressionists, for example, not only used new equipment (a new type of easel and brush), but also had a new vision, which brought new content, as they depicted people of different professions and situations. This was the entry of a counter-society, as one researcher writes (Nord PG, Impressionists and Politics. Art and Democracy in the Nineteenth Century, London, 2000). He also writes about France at that time (p. 59): “The republican society of that era was marked by a friendly attitude toward prominent members of French religious minorities. Enemies of the regime even slandered it as a result of Protestant, Masonic, and Jewish influences. The new artists were chroniclers of the republican scene. Therefore, it was not surprising that Jewish or Protestant faces often appeared in their paintings.”
It should be added that they not only reflected society but also influenced it through their art. Remember how the rejection of their works and salons caused scandals and discussions. They were constantly in the spotlight, even if it was negative attention.
Baudelaire, with his texts and interests, is considered the ideological inspiration for Impressionism. This can be seen in his influence on each of them, especially �douard Manet (Perruchot A., The Life of Manet, Moscow, 1988). Again, we see another line of influence: one person (one text) influences a group, and the group influences society as a whole.
But this group must have its own technology for organizing the masses. Even Al-Qaeda terrorists can be analyzed from this perspective. They have a text that organized them-Sayyid Qutb’s writings, which are now even studied by the U.S. military. Their organizational technology, though specific, was terror. Impressionists exerted their influence through paintings; terrorists-through explosions.
We see the following transition:
- New Ideology ? New Technology ? Mass Influence
The Strugatsky brothers are also considered as creators of formative texts for Gaidar, Chubais, and their team of young reformers (Kurginyan S., Esau and Jacob. The Fate of Development in Russia and the World, Vol. 2, Moscow, 2009). They introduced the ideology of social experimentation, which was implemented in the post-Soviet space.
Coco Chanel is another such example. In a New York Times article, she is called “the mother of reinvention.” The status of the fashion industry was so high that it was almost the only industry the Nazis planned to preserve in France.
What did Coco Chanel invent? One of her competitors answered: she offered luxury for the poor. The idea of fashion for the poor is clear from her main invention-the little black dress. The poor (relatively speaking), or rather the masses, were brought closer to fashion, which was new behavior for them.
Chanel introduced a new lifestyle for young women-the modern woman, called the “gar�onne.” This woman wore short clothes, had many lovers, never married, and could drive a car like a man. This is also the model for today’s modern woman, who has an independent lifestyle from men.
By the way, Chanel herself behaved questionably during the war. She not only had a German officer lover but also traveled to Berlin to meet with Schellenberg and Himmler to discuss a plan to influence Churchill, whom she knew personally. “The Smell of Perfume” is the title of a review of a book that reveals Chanel’s behavior during the Nazi occupation.
From the French perspective, she was a “horizontal collaborator,” meaning a woman who had relations with a German. Her lover, Baron Hans G�nther von Dincklage, was a real spy. His job was to recruit wealthy French people as informants for Germany. However, books portray him as just an “Aryan playboy.” Chanel was agent F-7124, with the code name Westminster (see here and here).
Chanel not only opposed Jews but also tried to take advantage of the Germans seizing their property. Her Chanel No. 5 perfume was owned by the Wertheimers, a wealthy Franco-Jewish family. Before emigrating to the U.S. during the war, they temporarily transferred ownership to a Frenchman. In 1947, they rewrote the 1924 contract, under which Chanel received 2% of all Chanel No. 5 sales worldwide, earning her millions of dollars.
In a New Yorker interview, the author of the book about her collaboration says his book was published in the U.S., UK, Germany, and the Netherlands, but not in France. The French do not want to know this truth.
The third example of introducing new behavior is the history of department stores. Manufacturers began mass production and needed mass consumption. As a result, it became necessary to attract as many buyers as possible. Credit emerged, allowing people to make purchases without enough money.
Later, this organization of mass purchasing was repeated in the U.S. with the creation of supermarkets in the 1930s, offering more choices, lower prices, and parking spaces. All this was an example of aggressive marketing. Similarly, we can recall the scandals that accompanied the Impressionists’ entry into academic salons.
The department store as a social institution is seen as a means of “liberating” women. They gained the opportunity to shop, which was entirely new, as it changed values-previously, a woman could only appear in a park or museum. Department stores also provided jobs for women, becoming a true generator of new behavior. Even skyscrapers arose in response to the need for such stores. The general conclusion: department stores changed the entire lifestyle, not just forms of buying and selling.
While Americans see the cradle of department stores in their own country, the French name the first department store as the creation of entrepreneur Aristide Boucicaut. Researchers believe that high rents in central areas (two to three times higher) pushed buildings to go up or underground. Boucicaut also introduced a new sales idea: his small margin and lower prices were compensated by large sales volumes. He added fixed prices (no bargaining), free entry without the obligation to buy, and the practice of returning goods for a refund. In today’s terms, he took the customer’s side.
In these three examples, we see a fundamental influence on mass consciousness, resulting in new types of behavior, which can be summarized in the following table:
In the last case, as a result, a consumer society emerges, as consumption becomes mass. All these innovators had their own survival technologies in difficult conditions, allowing them to move from failure or a series of failures to success.
We have our own examples of such behavioral change. During Perestroika, we saw a major strategic campaign to transform Soviet values, paradoxically under the banner of Leninism. This can be seen in Mikhail Gorbachev’s speeches, as well as two tactical campaigns-the anti-alcohol campaign and the campaign against N. Andreeva’s article “I Cannot Forsake My Principles” (1988). Gorbachev launched a serious anti-propaganda campaign against this article. D. Yazov recalls Politburo meetings where the article was discussed.
What frightened Gorbachev, the General Secretary, into launching such a serious campaign against a professor’s article? For example, he demanded that every Politburo member express their opinion on the article. The situation was not simple, as Gorbachev prevented accusations against Yakovlev, who, according to the KGB, was allegedly a CIA agent, recruited along with A. Kalugin while studying at Columbia University (see here and here).
Former head of Soviet television L. Kravchenko also names A. Yakovlev and E. Shevardnadze as the main destroyers of the USSR. He emphasizes that the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict was artificial. By the way, regarding the staff of the famous “Vzglyad” program, he says that every second person there had a special service ID in their pocket.
Perestroika led to changes in both values and behavior. Interestingly, it also brought to the forefront the conductors of new values. Similarly, Americans today conduct not only military but also value campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are clear assessments of the success or failure of these campaigns. For example, in Afghanistan, they have the following data (Assessing Military Information Operations in Afghanistan, 2001-2010, Santa Monica, 2012 / RAND):
Assessment of Key Themes in Psychological Operations in Afghanistan
Mass consciousness is quite inert, so such campaigns to change it require a lot of time and resources, especially when the campaign involves an adversary.
However, not only standard methods work, but also non-standard ones. For example, video games, which also carry the potential for changes introduced into mass consciousness. In connection with the “epidemic” of killings in the U.S., Obama even requested an investigation into the influence of video games on the activation of aggression (see here and here). Overall, this may also be a reaction of mass consciousness to the stress of the modern world. Often, there is even a question about what medications a killer used.
During the Industrial Revolution in Britain, gin consumption soared, serving as a technology for relieving stress. Today, this technology has become television consumption. Data from 2011 shows that British citizens watched TV for an average of four hours a day.
Many behavioral models that seem eternal to us were actually introduced into society not so long ago. Tea became fashionable in England after Charles II married the daughter of the Portuguese king, who brought the habit of drinking tea. The British East India Company made it cheap. In 1717, the first tea shop opened, specifically targeting women, understanding that they could promote tea in society. At that time, women could not go to cafes, but here they could drink tea. This became the first public place for women.
Tea advertising provided up to 50% of newspaper revenue, so tea supported the press. Before that, tea became the subject of the first PR campaign-the Dutch East India Company hired a Danish doctor to write many articles about the health benefits of tea to promote it in Europe. Tea also supported the first industrial revolution in England, as workers drank tea to stay awake while working with machines, which required attention.
Mass behavior, especially its new forms, requires various types of support. The inertia of the past does not allow for easy transitions to the new. Therefore, new behavior enters life only with the help of additional means.