Filler-people at raider seizures: manipulating the mind of Ukrainians
Ordinary people – victims of the consciousness manipulation – help radicals and activists to take over UOC temples.
In all cases of seizures or attempts to seize the temples of the UOC, there are always direct initiators of this process. As a rule, they are representatives of the authorities, radicals, activists of the OCU. But they are never alone – there are always people next to them, gathered for voting or basically for a mob.
Who are these people? At the first glance, it becomes clear they are not at all concerned about church issues and have almost nothing to do with the Church. Often, when questioning such “activists”, it turns out that they do not know elementary things about the Church; they are not able to recite a single prayer by heart. They simply relay those slogans they are brainwashed with and view the situation in primitive black and white colours: “Ukrainian Church” – “Moscow Church”.
Unfortunately, there is no more talk in this respect than about mass manipulation of consciousness.
Let us try to figure out the principles by which manipulative technologies work in Ukraine today in relation to precisely church issues.
You will want yourself what we want from you
When any person hears about the manipulation of consciousness, he thinks he will never be put upon. May others be manipulated but not me – this is what an individual thinks. But such a person forgets that manipulation produces a hidden effect not to be noticed by the object of manipulation.
The manipulated individual must believe that everything that is going on is natural. For this end, he is offered a false reality in which the impact of manipulation is not feelable. Moreover, they do it so skillfully that when the manipulation is still revealed, the victim does not want to believe for a very long time that he was deceived.
Today, such a parallel reality is created by the media, and we all live to a certain extent in this reality. Almost all the information consumed goes through a certain processing, which is difficult for an ordinary person to detect. Almost no one has sustained immunity to withstand this hidden lie. We are all victims here – in one way or another.
Those people who support the seizure of temples are victims of the most brutal, blatant manipulation based on church themes. Its primitiveness shows how strongly the running roller of secularization has swept through our land and how little we have done in nearly 30 years of church freedom in terms of both pastoral work and religious education and catechesis.
The people who support the seizures of temples are the victims of the most brutal, blatant manipulation based on church themes.
For example, people are simply told: are you for the “Moscow” or for the “Ukrainian” Church? And this is enough for the verdict to the UOC community in a particular temple. But the question is obviously false, because basically the Church cannot be Ukrainian or Moscow. She is the Church of Christ Who lives in the territory of one or another state. And if one understands, “which Church to go to,” the salvation and truth of the Church is determined not by “Ukrainianness” or “Moscowness”, but by completely different things: the testimony of the other Local Churches, compliance with the Gospel, church tradition and canons.
But people buy into deliberately manipulative questions considering that they know all about this topic and make their “free and informed choice.” For them there has already been created an image of the Church as a servant of the people and a puppet of the state. Since they have no idea of what the Church is from the personal experience of living in Christ, they react to moulage in an expected way. That’s the whole idea!
I remember a poster which used to hang in the army barracks: “If you can’t, we’ll help you. If you do not know how – we’ll teach you. If you do not want – we’ll force you.” The manipulation of consciousness has a slightly different message: “We will not force you. We will penetrate into your soul and make it so that you yourself will want what we want from you.”
The image of the enemy
Wide controllability of people would be impossible without the situation in the country. The terrible situation in the economy and social sphere affects primarily “little Ukrainians”. They are brainwashed with virtual “victories” and are taught “to be proud”. Despite the fact that they see one reality on TV and another in life, they see as if they cannot see and hear as if they cannot hear.
The media say to them: “Everything is going according to plan, you are great, take pride of yourselves and confidently look into a bright future! Of course, our enemies stand in our way. Who is the enemy is clear to everyone. Take it easy, guys, you have to get together, tighten your belts (after all, difficulties on the path to a brighter future are inevitable), learn to hate the common enemy and wait for better living standards. Everything is good – and will be even better.”
Approximately such a message comes from official news channels, speeches of the President and politicians. But if you distract yourself from the TV screen and the newspaper, life will say something completely different – and quite the opposite.
We will see a catastrophic decline in living standards, utter disruption in the economy, growing poverty, social insecurity of grassroots, extreme humiliation of pensioners, miserable situation with teachers and health workers, total migration of the population, loss of territories, incessant war and total absence of any positive prospects. We will simply not mention the spiritual and moral state of society.
A person must believe that the media world is more real than the real world before his eyes. And he believes, "tightens his belt" to the limit, and continues to "be proud" and wait for "improvements”.
Question: how not to see all this? It is at this point that the already mentioned technology of manipulation of consciousness works. A person must believe that the world of the media is more real than the real world before his eyes. And he believes, and "tightens his belt" to the limit, and continues to "be proud" and wait for "improvements".
If some of the more intelligent ones notice the discrepancy between the virtual and real worlds, the manipulation of consciousness suggests a second level. If there is a discrepancy, then someone must be to blame for it! Moreover, this someone must be held responsible and punished (well, not the President is to blame, indeed).
And in this context, Orthodox Christians and the canonical Church fit perfectly for the role of the scapegoat. They are not very amenable to official propaganda and have their own opinions, which are unpleasant and always annoying. They are connected with the “enemy” – Moscow and Putin –but they cannot give a good crack in the mouth like Moscow and Putin, because Christian ethics does not allow it. That is why it is easy, honorable and pleasant to “conquer” them. Throwing old women out of the temple is not so difficult, right? The “winners” immediately raise themselves in their own eyes and the eyes of others and contribute to the “victory” of Ukraine. And when they shout “glory to the heroes”, they shout a little bit about themselves.
It’s easier to be duped than to think
It is important that any manipulation of consciousness is by all means an interaction. A person can become a real victim of manipulation only when he acts as its co-author and accomplice. Under the influence of certain signals, a person gradually rebuilds his views and slowly begins to act according to a new paradigm.
And if he doubts, resists it – he does not become a victim. After all, manipulation is more a kind of temptation rather than coercion. Here every person has freedom of spirit and will.
But people seem to want to be fooled. Even Alexander Herzen was amazed that “how weak logic is when a person does not want to be convinced”.
It is much easier to passively plunge into the flow of information than to critically work through each signal.
However, this is partly explainable. In order to doubt something, analyze the situation, come to some weighty conclusions, it is necessary to exert yourself mentally and spiritually, to spend personal time. Not everyone is capable of this. It is much easier to passively plunge into the flow of information than to critically work through each signal.
Alas, this is what usually occurs most often. People are gradually beginning to believe that the UOC is actually an enemy: they just have not noticed it before...
Manipulation speaks with silence, not words
It is typical that when using manipulation they always hide and conceal its main goal. Even if the project collapsed, the matter is framed up in such a way that even the exposure of the fact of manipulation itself does not lead to clarification of the final intentions. Therefore, in such processes, the concealment of a certain kind of information is a mandatory feature. In this case, manipulation techniques certainly involve a sincerity game. For example, when a politician tears up a shirt on his chest, says heartfelt words and lets a single male tear down his cheek.
In general, the main thing for politicians who manipulate the mind is always embedded in silence, while the words are distracting "shooting." It is much more important what they do not talk about, than what they say.
For example, our still acting President will not tell, of course, about the crazy debts of Ukraine has incurred during his presidency. He will not tell how much his business has advanced in the country in recent years, how much the standard of living of the people has fallen and utility prices have increased. Instead he will tell about the Tomos, about the fortified army, about some other "achievements". And few people are able, listening to his words, to hear the speaker’s silence on certain issues as well.
With regard to the UOC, the current government also holds back a lot. It is silent about the fact that it violates the law on non-interference of the state in church affairs; about the fact that almost every day our temples are taken over; about the fact that the UOC is poured with endless streams of slander; that the data of His Beatitude Onufriy were published on the infamous site with the cynical name Mirotvorets ("Peacemaker"); about the fact that the UOC parishioners are ordinary people, citizens of Ukraine, and not agents of the Kremlin, and they have every right to go to the temples they want. To those temples, which in many cases they themselves have built.
Manipulation exposure criterion
How to understand who got under the influence of a large-scale manipulation program and who didn’t? The criterion is very simple: a manipulated person suddenly ceases to listen to reasonable and obvious arguments.
Currently, large-scale seizures of the temples of the UOC are being committed. It would seem that there is nothing incomprehensible about that. You open any video of a raider seizure, you see and hear the same thing: expelling parishioners from their own churches, insulting and beating the clergy and believers of the UOC, illegal voting of territorial communities instead of religious ones, an evident abuse of power by the authorities. In all the videos – one and the same type of "activists" with their nationalist slogans.
The scheme is one, the main participants do not change, the goal is obvious. It is clear that there is no Christianity here, only the “guideline” from the top is performed – to grab the temple at any cost. However, when you point out to opponents all these obvious facts of aggression and violence, many of them seem not to perceive this information. Seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear. And you realize that further dispute is useless. Alas, such a person is really a "zombie".
Where we are going to
These are some of the principles of manipulative work that is being conducted today against the Church and in general against the Ukrainian people.
Where does our “democratic” society go? If you look beyond the seizures of temples, presidential elections, robbery of the population and look into the future, you can say: we are moving towards a totalitarian state model.
Sociologist Sergei Kara-Murza, in his best-selling book “Manipulation of Consciousness” wrote: “Manipulation of consciousness as a means of power arises only in civil society, with the establishment of a political order based on representative democracy. This is “Western-style democracy” which today, thanks to brainwashing, is perceived simply as democracy – the opposite of many types of totalitarianism.”
In this connection one cannot but recall such dystopian books as: “Oh Brave New World”, “Animal Farm”, “We”, “1984”, “451 degrees Fahrenheit” ... They provide a perfect insight into the technologies of brainwashing and the main characteristics of totalitarian states of the future. How not to recall our recent past when such a state was actually created but soon collapsed with such a great bluster which it is still buzzing in our ears.
If you look beyond the seizures of temples, presidential elections, robbery of the population and look into the future, you can say: we are moving towards a totalitarian state model.
But in any such state there will remain those who have not lost the ability to pray, think, reason, doubt, deny. There will certainly be Bernard Marx, Gai Montegie, Winston Smiths – those who analyze and reflect, get disappointed and inspired, believe and lose faith in order to regain it – in short, they live. Today such people in the first place should be believers, living by grace and brought up by the Logos.
Manipulators treat us not as individuals but as objects, things. And to be a man today means to preserve a sound mind and sanity in the era of great manipulations. Of course, it is necessary to be in the canonical Church with its gracious sacraments. We need a personal prayer, reading, reflection, studying the word of God, and attention to the information we consume. First of all, this responsibility lies with Christians. Because if we, church people, turn into a manipulated flock, too – the world will come to an end.
