Sociological Principles utilized against us by the Enemy

Sociologists have long understood and taught the several societal factors that influence and direct group behavior. One such principle is that people's behavior isn't influenced so much as to what their response to reality should be, but what their response to their PERCEPTION to reality should be. Let me explain this.

We all know that we are not infinite beings. Nor are we omniscient. There are limits to what we know and understand about the world and people around us. A lot of times we may think we know, we may form the best judgements possible with available information so that we can live and adapt to the world around us. And for all that, there are bound to be mistakes. There are bound to be misconceptions, delusions, and even deliberate manipulations.

And yet, it influences our actions. Our distorted view of the world. But we can all see this on a micro or macro level. Suppose, for instance, that a friend informed you that another individual was gossiping about you behind your back, maybe even insinuating that he/she was going to try and cause you harm. Would this not influence how you reacted to this person when you see them? Or how you spoke of this person when their name came up? Even if you didn't directly attack or confront them, can you honestly say that when they came around, try as you might to remain prudent and collect all the facts, can you not see how you would be a little more guarded or at least prepared to respond if provoked?

Of course you would. Even if you had doubts, the possibility would demand a shift in the way you viewed the situation. But if you really actually believed what was said, how possible would it be for it not to influence your acts or thoughts in any manner whatsoever?

Now suppose, for instance, that the source of information, or even multiple sources of information were completely wrong! Yet you still believed it because you didn't know they were wrong. The misconception would still play the same influence of your acts as if it wasn't wrong. Simply because you didn't know. And here, lies the basic root of our finite beings to be manipulated and deceived.

But even on a national level we can be so manipulated. We can have misconceptions drilled and re-drilled over and over into our collective consciousness. A certain type of person displaying certain characteristics, for instance, can be repeatedly portrayed in news channels or Hollywood movies as displaying characteristics that they do not, in fact, possess. And yet as more and more people perceive them as having said characteristics and even begin to respond to them as if they had such characteristics, can we not see how this would, and does, exert an influence on their actions and reactions? It's impossible for them not to respond. The misconceptions have an impact both on the one possessing the misconception as well as the one affected by the one with the misconception.

But we all know this implicitly. Our thoughts towards entire peoples, the Iranians for instance, or the Russians, are almost never shaped from personal experience. Our perceptions of distant peoples, both in time and space, are almost always shaped by what other people tell us about these peoples.

But what if our sources of information are deliberately attempting to change our perception to a distorted view that is far removed from reality? What if the sole purpose of this is to alter the way we respond and are responding to the world around us in the present? What if, learning the truth of sociological principles, select groups of individuals decided to use them to impact and influence the world in which we live.

Nothing wrong with that, we may say. Unless it falls into the hands of an enemy. Someone deliberately opposed to our interests, someone with a desire to manipulate us into working against our own interests. Someone bent on causing wholesale misery and destruction to us.

But for Christians we have such an enemy. And even here on the finite physical plane of existence, we have human, flesh and blood enemies that may be cooperating, for any number of reasons, real or perceived, to bring about our destruction.

People call such people that point this out "conspiracy theorists", yet how much of our defense department's staff know the value of propaganda in wartime? What difference does it make whether we know we are at war or not? It doesn't.

Anyone who has noticed revised history books, even revised classical literature has to ask themselves "why the departure from the Truth?" I mean, ANY change has to have a reason, a purpose, doesn't it? If not, why bother putting forth the effort to bring about change in the first place?

More importantly, why departure from the Truth? What good could possibly come of leading people to believing and acting on deliberate lies? Or for that matter, what person or group, or type of people even operates under the guise of deception? Is it possible that such people could have anything but sinister motives? Of course not.

The Bible speaks of the Last Battle between Christ and His forces against the forces of the deceived. The "deceived". Think about that. How many of us have consistently noticed the lies and manipulations from our leaders, our news media, our educational system, and yet, despite all of that continue to return to the same corrupt sources searching for the truth? Worse, how many of us continue to base our opinions and perceptions of the world on these very same sources that have been known to deliberately distort our views of reality in the past? Is that not the definition of insanity?

We need the Truth. We need the Truth to respond to a world that isn't going to change with our perception. We need the Truth to make the correct choices in a world that misguided choices we make will have real and harmful consequences. Consequences that we may not be able to understand, yet we will have to suffer for anyways. Why continue to live in a dark fantasy world, where we can't even recognize the obstacles and traps laid before our very feet?

And then comes the matter of the deceivers. We must remove them. Convert them hopefully, but if that is not possible due to their own refusal to be converted, do we not owe a duty to our neighbors to remove them from a position of causing them harm? One way or another, peacefully or forcefully they must be removed. Only then will we be able to live in the light of Truth.

Chris Hall