Technocracy vs Democracy; Are Politicians Really in Control?
Uncertainty and discontent in government has led to some unforeseen populist movements lately, often promising to disrupt the status quo or playing to people’s fears and proclivity toward divisive rhetoric. In either case the root of these movements’ popularity is a lack of faith in the political process, mostly in democratic societies. But some believe that this may be a planned tactic, or the natural segue into a technocracy in which the decision makers become those who have excelled outside of politics. Could the future of democracy be a mixed political system incorporating industry giants and politicians, or are we on the brink of a new world order in which a small group of outsiders begin to take control?
Technocracy vs. Democracy
The technocratic definition is somewhat ambiguous, but essentially it is an outsider with no prior political experience, who is technically skilled and usually part of an elite group of society. Technocrats are often leaders in their industry and apply the scientific method to problem solving in order to achieve their goals.
We incorporate technocracy, to a certain extent, in our government with independent and bipartisan panels and committees. These groups are tasked with solving problems and implementing solutions that have been voted on or put together by a branch of government. The current administration in the U.S., for a short period, put together a commission of leading executives in top industries, known as the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative, as part of an ostensible effort to glean insights and develop strategies for economic issues.
However, a true technocracy is almost antithetical to a democratic form of government. Behaving more like a corporation with a board of directors who act as the decision makers, the technocratic definition of government wouldn’t necessarily take into account the will of the populace or consider dissenting popular opinion. While it is assumed that this ruling elite would have the people’s best interests in mind, decisions would essentially be autocratic and the rulers would be elected and replaced by a small vote amongst themselves.
An example of this that is relevant to a hypothetical technocracy in U.S. government, is the Chinese Communist Party. While there are several branches within the Chinese government, the primary decision-making body consists of seven people who come from a slightly larger Politburo of 25 people. While this form of government is incredibly effective at decision making and implementing policy, it is oppressive and intolerant of public dissent. It is also not immune to corruption and poorly managed protocols.
Another example that is often cited as a wildly successful instance of technocracy is Singapore. The country is clean, wealthy, technologically advanced, and provides a high standard of living to the majority of its citizens, but when it comes to social issues there are rarely concessions made or public opinion consulted in its legislative process.
Technocracy Rising
This growing trend of technocratic control started during the Great Depression in the 1930s at Columbia University. Replacing politicians with scientists and engineers was proposed as a solution to fix the dire economic dilemmas of the time, and was likely the inspiration for Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel, Brave New World. Historically, technocracy has become an attractive concept when politicians have stumbled or there is little faith in the political system, hence it’s Depression-era acclaim. But could this portend a technocratic resurgence today?
While we still maintain the remnants of a democratic form of government in the U.S., there is a rising tide of technocratic influence and control in our society and this can be seen on either end of the political spectrum. The lobbying influence of the Koch brothers has become well documented, while just recently Mark Zuckerberg invested $1 billion of his own to create an LLC with the goal of shaping public policy. Much like the Koch brothers, Zuckerberg’s LLC can influence politics and policy without having to disclose its spending and investments, like most non-profit political interest groups would.
With the increasing polarization of the electorate and a complete lack of legislation being passed in government, we will likely start to look to the private sector more and more, for solutions to our problems, especially as our lives become increasingly intertwined with technology. Decisions will be made by those who offer the best solutions and can influence the government, while limiting the amount of imposed regulation. When this dynamic proves to be more effective than government can be, which doesn’t seem difficult in this day and age, we will slowly start to defer to these industries to solve our problems.
The issue with allowing for technocratic solutions to political problems is that a technocracy is not a political system, but rather an economic one. A business leader, like Elon Musk, might be able to solve a problem that plagues society with a clever and concise solution, but actually implementing that solution to a large population with diverse and varied needs, takes the expertise of a politician who can navigate the convoluted systems of regulation, legislation, and bureaucratic hurdles in order to be effective.
A Trilateral Technocratic Conspiracy
What frightens many is the prospect of a new world order, in which there is a global government imposed by a select few. According to Patrick Wood, one of the means of implementing a world order is through a technocratic system. He says that one of the goals of a technocracy is to control the economic means of society and take away ownership of private property, so that the ruling party can effectively control the populace, much like certain oppressive communist regimes of the past.
Wood warily eyes the Trilateral Commission as the group that has been attempting to surreptitiously supplant our democratic process with a technocratic one world order. Started by David Rockefeller in the 1980s, the Trilateral Commission is an NGO that works in conjunction with the Council on Foreign Relations, with the supposed goal of uniting policy between North America, Europe, and Japan. The group doesn’t allow access to politicians and claims to be a think tank that focuses on democratic government, human rights, and freedom of speech, though many believe it to have an antidemocratic worldview, with a membership base that primarily represents large multinational corporations.
The group’s eerie undemocratic view was laid out in its 1975 report, The Crisis of Democracy: On the Governability of Democracies, in which it states that political problems in the U.S. stem from an excess of democracy and proffers the solution of restoring power in centralized government institutions.
Wood says that we are in the nascent phase of a technocratic takeover that could lead to this new world order. He says he believes we are at about 80 percent technocratic control, but are distracted by a smokescreen of issues that are hyped in the media.
With companies like Google and Tesla developing self-driving vehicles and its leaders heralding the coming day when all transportation will be automated, one might start to question what these advancements will really lead to. Musk’s vision of a fully automated transportation industry sees a large percent of the workforce as unemployable when that day comes. His proposed solution of a universal basic income, in which a no-strings-attached stipend is given to citizens to satisfy their basic needs, sounds frightening to some, especially when trust in government is at an all-time low. And when the government controls the population’s basic needs, there can be fear of an authoritarian takeover.
When one looks at the creeping grip that technology has on us, it becomes immediately apparent that our personal information and identities are being sold on a daily basis by large corporations. This increasingly intrusive collection of data occurs mostly unbeknownst to us and can be used to profit and create individual profiles for an array of reasons. At the same time, the growth of companies like Amazon are creating furtive monopolies on the roots of our economy. Not only does the company have a hand in the transactions of just about anything we could want to purchase, but it is also selling recording devices to consumers, guised as a convenient tool.
Maybe it’s overly paranoid to think that Alexa is recording and transmitting your banal, dinner table conversations, but based off of Edward Snowden’s revelations, it’s not that farfetched to think that the government may have backdoor access into the technology or that it can can remotely access your robotic personal assistant. And these reaches are only likely to continue, as invasive technology is masked with ostensible convenience, allowing for a potentially unseen technocratic control of society, where politicians are merely puppets or, “useful idiots,” as Wood refers to them. Many would even argue that this has already happened.
About the Author
Mass Media Mind Control
I have had wide and varied interests since a very young age and have loved learning all of my life. Simply, I believe life should be lived as a great adventure of growth and learning in every way. In science, my interests started in crystallography and minerals and progressed through the several branches of science into politics, philosophy, religion and all things esoteric.
What is Mind Control?
In the late 1980s, the most interesting research I began exploring was on mind effects or, more popularly, mind control. My interest grew out of the misuses of the information released in the Church Committee hearings of the 1970s dealing with the CIA programs in this area. At the same time, the positive possibilities for these new technologies were also exciting. Stimulating optimum human performance, accelerated learning, meditation, relaxation, and focus could all be improved. In fact, even so-called altered states could be enhanced or even stimulated. The most fascinating possibilities, however, were even more startling.
The idea that perhaps we could stimulate what is now referred to in some literature as “anomalous human capability” or, in the past referred to as ESP or extrasensory perceptions, may be possible.
In fact, this may be the next evolution of humans on earth as many of us are acknowledging and science is proving.
Control of the Mind and Body
The predominant brain wave frequencies indicate the kind of activity taking place in the brain. There are four basic groups of brain wave frequencies that are associated with most mental activity. The first, beta waves, (13-35 Hertz or pulses per second) are associated with normal activity. The high end of this range is associated with stress or agitated states that can impair thinking and reasoning skills. The second group, alpha waves (8-12 Hertz), can indicate more relaxation. Alpha frequencies are ideal for learning and focused life form energy. The third, theta waves (4-7 Hertz), indicate mental imagery, access to memories and internal mental focus. This state is often associated with young children, behavioral modification and sleep/dream states. The last, ultra slow, delta waves (.5-3 Hertz), are found when a person is in deep sleep.
The general rule is that the brain’s predominant wave frequency will be lowest, in terms of pulses per second, when relaxed, and highest when people are most alert or agitated.
What is Entrainment?
External stimulation of the brain by electromagnetic means can cause the brain to be entrained or locked into phase with an external signal generator. Predominant brain waves can be driven or pushed into new frequency patterns by external stimulation. In other words, the external signal driver or impulse generator entrains the brain, overriding the normal frequencies, and causing changes in the brain waves. Changes in brain waves cause changes in brain chemistry; which then cause changes in brain outputs in the form of thoughts, emotions or physical condition.
As you are driven, so you arrive – brain manipulation can be either beneficial or detrimental to the individual being impacted depending on the level of knowledge or the intentions of the person controlling the technology.
Is it Possible to Train Consciousness?
Consciousness training is also a big theme in cults, religious organizations, and others pursuing the “new age.” Science has now gained a greater understanding of how the mind and brain work so that what used to take years, or even decades, to achieve, can now be mastered in weeks, days or even minutes. For instance, in 1996 a method and apparatus for the use in achieving alpha and theta brainwave states and effecting positive emotional states in humans were developed.
Two years later another patent was issued which could create desired consciousness states: In the training of an individual to replicate such states of consciousness without further audio stimulation, such states may be transferred from one human being to another through the imposition of one person’s EEG, superimposed on desired stereo signals and onto another individual, by inducement of a binaural beat phenomenon.
Is Thought Transference Possible?
This is interesting in that it speaks to the ideas alluded to earlier by the military in changing the memory of a person by imposing computer-manipulated signals which would integrate with the normal memory of a person. The possibility of abuse is obvious and the opportunity for personal advancement is also great.
Consider the possibility of gaining education by the transfer of data directly into the human brain by these new methods rather than the standard methods of learning. A serious consideration in developing these types of memory transfer systems will be the fact that they bypass normal intellectual filters – they are deposited into the brain as fact, without question or careful consideration. What happens when new information conflicts with existing information? Would it be possible to include hidden information meant to unduly influence things like religious beliefs, politics or consumption of goods and services or politics?
Ethical Questions Abound
The possibilities are immense and the ethical and moral questions surrounding these matters equally large. We can no longer avoid the debate; in fact, the debate is lagging far behind the scientific advancements. In the interim, there are some simple things we could all do to enhance our own, or our children’s, learning capacity by applying simple and available knowledge. For instance: “researchers at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at University of California, Irvine, have determined that 10 minutes of listening to a Mozart piano sonata raised the measurable IQ of college students by up to nine points.” This is a simple thing of great use to anyone seeking self- improvement as an example.
There are several articles and materials that speak to the various ways that these technologies can be applied and used beyond the scope of this article. Let’s get to the media applications.
The Use of Media
Radio, TV, the Internet, the power grid, cell systems or any other electromagnetic carrier can be used to carry a signal that will influence the behaviors of most people in close proximity to the signal. What such signals can do is cause a person, for instance, to drop into a light altered state. Like when people come home from work, sit in front of the TV and watch the nightly news feed. Within a few moments someone begins saying to you, “honey, dinners ready.” They hear nothing… they are no longer watching the “programming;” they are being programmed with the latest values, beliefs, and ideas being pressed into the consciousness of most people through media.
By oscillating a signal in a certain way, emotional states can easily be reformed so that the reaction to the advertising, political propaganda or “news” is as predicted by those generating it across the broad population as intended by them.
In other words, it is about control and manipulation. It is really very simple. People in psychology understand the Frequency Following Response (FFR). When applied to advertise or any other media, it is incredibly compelling.
Refined Control Tactics
Much more can be done with this technology in terms of the information density that can be sent in on such carriers. The objective of many military planners is to be able to even transfer thought and memory sets. These kinds of technology when applied to media particularly when coupled with mass surveillance of the population this allows those in control of such technologies to have profound effects on a highly individualized basis. This delivery system can be tailored to an individual person to have specific influences on that individual personality type and subtype.
The predictability of behavior for the target of the technology is so refined that is better at predicting an individual’s future behavior they could about themselves. Think about this for a moment.
Perpetual Worry as a Means of Imprisonment
Yet the simplest mechanism for inhibiting higher mind functions, peak performance, and anomalous human capabilities is to just keep people in a constant state of worry, agitation, and fear. Sound familiar? In these states, it is not possible to reach a higher state of awareness. These emotional states do not allow the brain to operate in a manner that will allow this possibility. Fear is the adversary and is at the root of the misuses of these technologies. The government fears an enlightened population where the light of truth shines within its darkest corners. An awakened population cannot be resisted by structures based on fear.
The Next Evolution of Humankind
After 40 years of research in the open literature and opportunities to meet and spend the time needed with the best bio-physicists in the world has allowed me insight into this area. During my time with the Lay Institute in Dallas, I put together a private conference on mind effects with some of the best people in the world. The surprise was not a story about controlling people and manipulating populations, although everyone agreed this was the case in the 21st century in so many ways. The biggest insight had to do with the next evolution of humankind.
Voiced first by the late sister, Dr. Rosalie Bertell, in her presentation about her belief that in what man was trying to create in electronics were already latent in every person waiting to be awakened. The theme was repeated in every presentation that explored the possibilities of reclaiming our birthright in terms of what we are as human beings and the endless possibilities that occur when we begin to recognize ourselves.
As we evolve and grow within the framework of this reality we also are beginning to recognize in the science of consciousness and what we know…we are more than we think, and we are beyond what we know. Together we change the world by fearlessly knowing that we each have all that we need to engage the world and are not alone in it. Our humanity is in fact our very salvation if we can recognize and alter our awareness.
