Just like in the mental hospital we are all given fake money in the form of credit

'Game theory was readily embraced at the RAND Corporation, the archetypical think tank charged with formulating military strategy for the atomic age, and in 1950 two RAND scientists made a momentous discovery. Called the "prisoner's dilemma," it is a disturbing and mind-bending game where two or more people may betray the common good for individual gain'(1)

I thought of the above, when reading the recent Adam Curtis blog. Betraying the common good: That's what the plutocrats,who play the role of politicians do: every day. Politicians and the media have  been designed, solely for the purpose of betraying the common good. They propagate, instill hate and fear, distract you from asking certain questions. Controlling the narrative.   

'elite group of technocrats who see people as passive beings who need to be constantly monitored and managed in order to keep them happy'(2) 

An experimental psychologist, called B.F. Skinner; explains Curtis:

'Recorded an experiment in a mental hospital in San Bernadino - California. The patients are given rewards in the form of plastic fake money if they do what the doctors consider the right social behaviour. They can then use that money at meal-times to buy their way onto a “nice” table - with tablecloth and flowers. Those without the rewards have to eat - as one of the nurses puts it, “in less elegant conditions”.

What emerges in the hospital is a new, ordered hierarchy created by a system of reward - but one where the patients don’t feel controlled - instead they feel “empowered” because it was through their actions that they received the reward. Skinner makes clear in the film that he sees this as a model for how to run a future kind of society'.

How does that social behavioral expert sound today?  Well according to Curtis - extremely accurate: 

'The accepted version is that the neo-liberal right and the free market triumphed. But maybe the truth is that what we have today is far closer to a system managed by a technocratic elite who have no real interest in politics - but rather in creating a system of rewards that both keeps us passive and happy - and also makes that elite a lot of money.

That in the mid 1980s the new networks of computers which allowed everyone to borrow money came together with lifestyle consumerism to create a system of social management very close to Skinner’s vision.

Just like in the mental hospital we are all given fake money in the form of credit - that we can then use to get rewards, which keep us happy and passive. Those same technologies that feed us the fake money can also be used to monitor us in extraordinary detail. And that information is then used used to nudge us gently towards the right rewards and the right behaviours - and in extremes we can be cut off from the rewards.

The only problem with that system is that the pigeons may be getting restless. That not only has the system not worked properly since the financial crash of 2008, but that the growing inequalities it creates are also becoming a bit too obvious. The elite isoverdoing it and - passive or not - the masses are starting to notice'.

The politicians want you compliant - a happy pill popping little consumer --who "Pays no attention to that man behind the curtain" and that's why I love Curtis - he's one of the only few, trying to expose the machinery.

Imagine, society started reading about money creation - fractional reserve lending - private central banks...then the curtains would be opened in the mental hospital and the prison doors would be closing for the plutocrats like, Cameron and Osborne, et al.  


 (1)

Prisoner's Dilemma: John Von Neumann, Game Theory and the Puzzle of the Bomb

 (2) 
HAPPIDROME - Part One