The Plot To Hijack Our Minds

May 20, 2016

The Plot To Hijack Our Minds

A few weeks ago, Donald Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee for President of the United States. Professional pundits predict he has a credible chance of being elected.

Find a quiet corner somewhere, sit quietly for a moment and let that bit of reality sink in. Regained your equilibrium? You’d be excused if you thought that the universe’s natural order has been seriously disturbed.

But this is not yet another tiresome essay fuming about the evils of Trump, or about how Republicans, by their irrational hatred for President Obama, made inevitable the rise of Trumpism. Hatred begets hatred, and people often get the leaders they deserve.

This column is not about how politics have become as crazy as our politicians have always been. Rather, this essay is about the nature of reality and how easy it is to manipulate people. Sometimes we cannot distinguish what’s real from what’s fiction. Our minds create reality; seeing occurs in the brain, not in the eyes.

Thinking clearly is hard work, so we often leave the heavy lifting to others. When making a decision, have you ever wondered, “What would (fill in the blank) do?”

Why not think for ourselves?

The late Steve Jobs was reputed to have the ability to create a “reality distortion field (RDF),” defined as his ability to use charm, charisma, bravado, hyperbole, marketing, appeasement and persistence to convince people to see things his way. Jobs used RDF to make people believe anything is possible. He had a strange power over people so strong that they were willing to overlook his often unpleasant and profane behavior. Does this sound familiar?

Powerful personalities have that power; they can distort reality and insert themselves between the real world and us. Professional politicians, too, have that power.

Mostly we see the world we think exists, rather than the world as it is. What we see, recall, and feel emotionally is 100 percent created by biological chemical reactions in our brain. What we think we see is susceptible to influence, editing, distortions, or redacting.

Psychologists and philosophers say there is no such thing as an objective reality; thoughts and feelings are unreliable and unpredictable. They are easily manipulated and twisted, and our eyes see things that are not there, and miss the things that are.

We all suffer from “confirmation bias,” actively looking for information that confirms what we already believe and avoiding or ignoring information that threatens our current beliefs.

Over time, our confirmation bias convinces us that, hey, we were right all along. Down really is up, black really is white, and wrong certainly is right.

I know an accomplished attorney in Washington who has enjoyed a long and prosperous career. Every time we speak, he asks, “When are they going to indict Hillary? If they don’t indict her before the election, it’s only because Obama is protecting her.”

I would bet my entire retirement account that if it weren’t Hillary Clinton he was talking about, as an attorney trained in such matters, he would ask, “Where is the evidence that Hillary has committed an indictable crime? I don’t like her, but I need to see credible, probative evidence before I can conclude she should be indicted.”

But his strong and visceral dislike for Clinton clouds his mind and distorts his judgment. Consequently, he only sees, and I quote, “she’s dishonest and criminally liable.” Not once has he asked, “When will Trump be indicted for defrauding students who attended the fake Trump U?”

As Henry David Thoreau wrote, “We find only the world we look for.”

Psychopaths have an uncanny ability to sense weaknesses. Like master salesmen, they know how to overcome objections, make sales, and close deals. They can read body language invisible to the rest of us. They spot their victims from miles away, and set traps quickly and smoothly. Their victims never stand a chance.

Many years ago when I was young and idealistic and largely unschooled, I tried my hand at selling cars. I couldn’t sell water to a burning man; but I did receive a master class on salesmanship. One day a buyer came onto our car lot to take delivery of a blue Honda Accord. But there was no blue Honda waiting for him; a white one had been delivered instead. The buyer was livid and demanded back his deposit.

The salesman who had sold him the blue Accord vehicle pulled us aside and whispered, “a hundred dollars says I will get him to drive happily away with the white Accord.”

Even I signed on to that bet (how could we lose?), and I couldn’t even afford it! From a safe distance, we a watched the master at work. His hands started moving in tandem with his lips. His movements were so elaborate he looked like a bird taking flight. His eyes never left the customer’s eyes.

Initially the customer shook his head. Then, as the salesman continued to talk and move his hands in a mesmerizing fashion, the customer began, ever so slowly, nodding his head “yes” as if he was in a trance.

Glumly and incredulously, we settled the bet, the customer drove away in the white Accord, a big grin dancing across his face.

“You have to know how to overwhelm their senses,” the Master Salesman smirked, counting his money.

A cautionary tale: We must remain vigilant and protect our minds, or risk allowing someone else select the color of our cars.

Okay, so I lied; this essay is about Donald Trump. I don’t know about you, but I’m holding out for the blue Accord.

Isiah Smith, Jr. is a former newspaper columnist for the Miami Times. He worked as a psychotherapist before attending the University of Miami Law School, where he also received a Master’s Degree in Psychology. In December 2013, he retired from the Department of Energy’s Office of General Counsel, where he served as a Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Administrative Litigation and Information Law. Isiah lives in Traverse City with his wife Marlene.