Psychological warfare, an instrument of power

Psychological warfare is the name given to a set of actions aimed at destroy morally, emotionally or symbolically to the adversary in the context of a confrontation. This is an ancient practice, which has been used since war existed. Great warriors and combatants know that subjectively undermining the enemy produces strategic advantages.

The Chinese strategist Sun Tzu precisely proposed the idea of ​​defeating the enemy in war without firing a weapon. He did it in his famous work The Art of War, which has since been a classic manual for men of war. Genghis Khan himself used numerous psychological warfare tactics that he found very effective.

Later, psychological warfare took the form of propaganda . Currently it is used constantly and not always in conditions of formal war, but also in different instances such as politics, religion, family and interpersonal relationships, on many occasions.

The bases of psychological warfare

Hitler, a man of war, is an example of someone who resorted to psychological warfare systematically. In this regard, he prophesied that the wars of the future would be fought before military actions began. He said this would be done “through mental confusion, contradiction of feelings, indecision and panic.”

At the moment, US defense doctrine comprises entire chapters dedicated to psychological warfare. They point out that this has three main objectives:

Destroy the enemy’s will and ability to fight. Deprive the adversary of the support of his allies. Increase the morale of his own troops and their will to win.

Both in Hitler’s time and now, a powerful propaganda system was required to achieve these objectives. In their time, the Nazis already exercised absolute control over the media, using them in favor of their interests. It will be said that today in the West democracy and freedom of the press prevail but in practice this is not always the case.

The conquest of the brains

Both several governments and numerous illegal groups have used terrorism as a means to achieve your goals. On the one hand, in both cases the idea of ​​a radically evil, practically inhuman enemy is promoted. Thus, the United States classifies all enemy leaders as “crazy dictators.” These, in turn, refer to that government as imperialist, “demonic” and blinded by arrogance.

On the other hand, Several governments and illegal groups have also resorted to attacking the civilian population, as a means of psychological warfare. From a military point of view, this has been called “fourth generation warfare.” It means that, irregularly, civilians are victimized so that they become afraid and take the side of the aggressor. This achieves the objective of withdrawing any support that the adversary may have or conquer.

Recently there were massive protests in Ecuador, Chile and Colombia. In all three countries there were days when curfews were declared. And in the three nations a striking event took place: at night, when there was no one in the streets, People began to receive messages on social networks saying that there were vandals entering homes to steal.

Citizens called the police and they did not respond at first. After insisting a lot, they answered the calls, showing up at the place they were requested.

In many cases, they were welcomed as heroes. People were so scared that they forgot the abuses of the uniformed men during the protests; Instead, they gave them their support.

War in everyday life

There is also psychological warfare in everyday life. When the poor are blamed for their poverty or the unemployed for their unemployment, for example. In the background, an authoritarian message resonates that aims to quell a possible protest by those who are in a situation of helplessness.

There is psychological gender warfare, when men or women decide to prejudicefully disqualify the other sex to subject it to their own codes.. Or when they propose a model of life and success to which you must adjust in order not to be subject to disqualifications.

We live in times when our mind is the main spoils of war. To dominate minds is to dominate the world and have a clear path to do any barbarity with general complicity. Reading, reflection and meditation are good shields against this contamination.

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