Harry Targ
The Cognitive Domain is a
new space of competition, beyond the land, maritime, air, cybernetic and
spatial domains.
© NATO Innovation Hub
Harry Truman on free institutions versus totalitarian ones:
At the present moment in world history
nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is
too often not a free one.
One way of life is based upon the will of
the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative
government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech
and religion, and freedom from political oppression.
The second way of life is based upon the
will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror
and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the
suppression of personal freedoms.
I believe that it must be the policy of
the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted
subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
I believe that we must assist free peoples
to work out their own destinies in their own way.
(from the Truman Doctrine speech, March 12, 1947)
And President Biden’s articulation of the
struggle between democracy and authoritarianism:
“It is clear, absolutely clear … this is a
battle between the utility of democracies in the 21st century and autocracies,”
Biden said. “That’s what’s at stake here. We’ve got to prove democracy works.” https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/25/politics/biden-autocracies-versus-democracies/index.html)
On NATO’S Conception of Cognitive Warfare:
In cognitive warfare, the human mind
becomes the battlefield. The aim is to change not only what people think, but
how they think and act. Waged successfully, it shapes and influences individual
and group beliefs and behaviours to favour an aggressor’s tactical or strategic
objectives. In its extreme form, it has the potential to fracture and fragment
an entire society, so that it no longer has the collective will to resist an
adversary’s intentions. An opponent could conceivably subdue a society without
resorting to outright force or coercion.
In cognitive warfare, the human mind
becomes the battlefield. The aim is to change not only what people think, but
how they think and act. Waged successfully, it shapes and influences individual
and group beliefs and behaviours to favour an aggressor’s tactical or strategic
objectives. In its extreme form, it has the potential to fracture and fragment
an entire society, so that it no longer has the collective will to resist an
adversary’s intentions. An opponent could conceivably subdue a society without
resorting to outright force or coercion. https://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2021/05/20/countering-cognitive-warfare-awareness-and-resilience/index.html)
On Cognitive Warfare
This NATO document, of course, is addressing the world
of international relations but the concept of “cognitive warfare” seems to
parallel efforts “to change not only what people think, but how they think and
act.” This project animates the efforts of media conglomerates-print,
electronic, social media platforms. Changing how people think and act has its
historic roots in campaigns to convince citizens to support wars, consume
cigarettes, forget climate disasters, and to find flaws in populations because
of class, race, gender, sexual preference, and/or religion. Creating
images of enemies is central to launching wars. The processes of “branding”
are similar in all realms of human experience.
On the Media
The media and political, economic, educational,
religious, and entertainment institutions shape our consciousness. People are
told, inspired, coerced, and manipulated to think in certain ways, usually ways
that support the economic and political interests of the rich and powerful. Sometimes
theoretical arguments about “ideological hegemony” are too abstract or too
immobilizing. However, specific efforts at thought control can be understood and identified. And
campaigns to challenge them are feasible.
On Ideology
The economic and political structure of capitalism
requires “an ideology, a consciousness, a way in which
the citizenry can be taught to accept the system as it is. This ideology has
many branches but one root, the maintenance and enhancement of the capitalist
economic system. The elements of the dominant political ideology include:
privileging individualism over community; conceptualizing society as a brutal
state of nature controlled only by countervailing force; acceptance of the idea
that humans are at base greedy; and, finally, the belief that the avariciousness
of human nature requires police force and laws at home and armies overseas.”
The Battle of Ideas Matter
Statements by prominent Americans from the nineteenth
century on have celebrated American exceptionalism. The frequency and intensity
of such messages have been correlated with the rising of challenges to economic
and political hegemony and orthodoxies that have arisen to challenge the status
quo. As Howard Zinn and others have vividly pointed out resistance has been as
much a fabric of US history as celebration. But to challenge resistance
educational, information, and cultural institutions have intensified the
prevailing mythologies. This cognitive warfare, of course, always includes
efforts to censure uncomfortable and challenging alternatives.
So today, the US is faced with global challenges as
its support of Israel, Ukraine and NATO are resisted. And more and more
citizens are questioning rising militarism and police repression. It is in
response to all this that the frank NATO call for a “cognitive war” was raised.
And for those of us who work for peace and justice it
is worth remembering that the battle over ideas matter; in educational, media,
cultural, and religious institutions.
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And for more:
https://heartlandradical.blogspot.com/2024/01/old-ideas-still-hegemonic-as-we-greet.html
