Ministry of Propergander
"Keeping all the gander proper"
Good to hear from you as always Farquar.. Yes us old horns are aware these humans can be stupid beyond belief ironically even as they advance further and further technologically. But it was the same before their great deluge, they're just unaware of this. The only important thing now is to encourage their admiration of themselves for as long as possible. (I know, you'd think that would already have stopped working by now..) But it's sufficient to just keep them chasing the latest advances in their gadgets and devices which itself becomes another job to keep them busy in the things of this world.
Thank you once again Farquar for pointing out my mistake to me.. I did indeed send you the wrong text. And yes we mentors are now handling more mentees at a time now. This is not due to a lack of available mentors or mismanagement as you suggest - and I would be careful of making too many suggestions - but rather on the increase of souls being brought to our Father below. And yes that is our story.
Quite true Farquar, keeping our patients minds aligned with one particular political party or another - doesn't matter which, they all work for us - has yielded especially good results for us since the age of monarchs passed. Now entire nations of peoples can be divided up into camps with truly incredible amounts of fear and hate building up between them over time, yes even though they are of the same nation.. It's the gift that keeps giving and has special holidays events for us every election cycle. And the fields here are ripe for corruption of all types. In fact this hands us the additional bonus of playing with your patient's mind even more. Get these humans all excited about representatives that align so well with their beliefs, then kapow! Reveal the truth - doesn't matter what truth we're talking about or if it's even true - it just matters that it's scandolous enough or even better a rank betrayal of all those believers!
Of course, Farquar, the modern 'church' is our playground as well as any other worldy place. It has been through most of 'church' history as our Enemy even pointed out in many of His instructions to them. Dividing them up was simple to begin with, we even managed to mix in wars, divisions in families and untold numbers of feuds and unforgiving separations in their ongoing breakups. With this almost complete lack of unity it was childsplay to sneak in various extra practices unbiblical and even directly against what the Carpenter Himself told them.. All that's needed is to keep them believing theirs is the actual right way church is supposed to be done whether that's traditional (truly ridiculous as almost no modern 'church' is really very biblical thanks to both us and our patients) or newer supposedly better (although this usually turns out to be just more like a cult).
Well, not exactly Farquar. We don't necessarily want to help further the narrative of a false religion. In fact in the particular case, we have far more to gain by stirring things up around the situation. You may think it's more helpful to our cause to back whatever religion of an entirely false 'god'. But in that respect of spreading their false beliefs, they're doing our - I mean Your - job for you. But the situation arising from it is ripe for our cultivation. It creates a nice confusing dichotomy for any of our patients in that the spread of this false belief that takes over control of any area it can through population growth becomes a threat to the home population's way of life, beliefs and even core ideas of what's right. And while this home population knows they should do something about this before they become outnumbered in more of their home territory, they have propagandized themselves that 'rights' are somehow holy, and they can't in turn violate these invaders' rights even though it threatens the future wellbeing of both themselves and their children. So we get a nice mix here of dread fear for the future, a sense of hopelessness because of 'rights' (that the invaders meanwhile have no regard for) and continuing sorrow experienced by the home population from being continually harmed by these invaders. Also generally there develops more blame to go around for all!
Thank you yet again Farquar for pointing out a mistake of mine this time to someone else about something that has nothing to do with you.. But an object lesson can be gleaned from this anyway. Miscommunication can be an additional form of or way of promoting propaganda. Sometimes it can be hard to determine of a miscommunication was accidental or intentionally misleading. This can misdirect understandings of a situation in any number of directions. For example, I'll make my texts to you shorter - what might you make of that?
See how well that worked, Farquar? Had you all worried you might miss out on more of my wisdom! But have no worry, I wouldn't think of letting you go unsupervised.. But to take my previous point further now that I have your attention - the practice of misinformation has long been used both in military and peacetime intelligence operations of our patients. They've learned from us so well! Once they find out who is spying on them from the other side, it's just a matter of feeding them the information they want to get to the decision makers of the other side. For us, they're all our sides. All we need do is influence things so certain stories get to the right people to disseminate to those we want to have that information, and from there again they do the work for us.
Welcome back to the Ministry Farquar. I hope your little time out you received for recent suggestions has been instructive for you. If not, perhaps I can help. Consider the value of forced and as you probably perceive it unearned guilt you have probably experienced. It's been found incredibly easy to get our patients to do this to each other over perceived slights, and even actions done by someone else as far back as hundreds of years prior that have nothing to do with anybody in the present day. They're so gullible as to allow clamors for reparations for things in the far past when the so-called victims (who have never actually been victims of anything themselves) are the ones who should be paying reparations for the real damages they themselves do to others in the present!
That's actually a good question to delve into further, Farquar, on the nature of and what is meant by perceived slights, or more to the point how to create and use them! Basically it's getting these patients to believe some injustice is being done to them by way of disrespect, losing material or opportunity, or direct harm. Whether this injustice is actually being done or not is not relevent to us, only that they perceive it is actually happening and can be driven to some revengeful act they can be convinced is 'justice'. Of course any actual justice here is not our aim but rather that any given two sides may be driven into an escalating spiral of actions against each other. And here is where our particular talents come in - as with anything in our business, confusion is key in this case with mixing in some harsh reality of actual injustices that either (hopefully both) side can point to for you guessed it, justification. A master stroke we've employed here is being able to use the very guardians they entrust their 'justice' system with - police officers - against them, or at least giving a mix of strong perception and strong reality that is the case. In the name of protecting officers from abusive legal repercussions (another whole subject to get into..) officers are often given qualified immunity protecting them from being charged even when they've overreached their authority enforcement powers. But more on this next text.
So to continue, Farquar, the effects of this qualified immunity has been profitable to us in many ways. In my opinion the best result for us has come from it giving officers a false sense of security causing them to lessen their own self restraint and relying more on defaulting to blaming their overreach on training. These tendencies have inevitably led to unnecessary deaths and harm to arrestees, in turn leading to two other effects. One, when the political hammer has to fall and an officer is denied this immunity after a catastrophic result and clamors for defunding their whole profession, this leads to many good officers leaving their profession as soon as they can in turn leaving departments to hire whoever they can get which is bad for all involved.. except us! The other result is of course this blows up the perceptions or at least claims of other injustices, probably some real and some not, again we're not really concerned about which as long as we have their perceptions.
Department of Reality Crafting
"Real Eyes Realize Real Lies - as defined by us!"
Not at all Mindwipe, your concern here is entirely misplaced. It won't matter if they can find documentation of self destructive behaviors once designated as mental illnesses. Even if the reasons why they were are readily available, they will inevitably choose to believe that which represents the path of least resistence for them, so they won't be 'canceled' as they've been made to so fear.
Okay Mindwipe so now you're worried about their discovery of what they're calling predictive programming? My response would be.. who. cares. To the extent that what they've discovered is true, there's still nothing they can do about it. Don't you understand that if we have them spending more time following conspiracy theories about what someone else may or may not have done than actually doing things themselves, well that's perfect! Also don't discount the value of the confusion sown whenever they happen to get this or that bit of the conspiracy theory wrong. It's like what happens when someone claiming a date for the end of the world gets a good following, then.. a literal pouring down of personal losses enough for all of us down here to enjoy!
Mindwipe, Mindwipe, Mindwipe, has the department fallen behind on it's continuing education programs? AI is just another tool to help us help our patients' stay confused about what is and isn't real. Anything that contributes to leaving them with uncertainty is our friend. They can leverage or regulate things all they want - once yet another Pandora's Box is open enough they may never be sure of what's real again. And think of the opportunities now for having them cheat, lie, take the easy ways out. Or better yet take the way out that leads directly to us by creating imaginary people and worlds and allowing them to take the places of real ones.
You're nothing if not entertaining Mindwipe. No, we're not really shook up by 'alternate media' exposing lies and uncovering what's 'real'. Much of the time they're obscuring or further slanting reality themselves. It's like they're doing our job.. excuse me I mean YOUR job for you. Sure they may get some truth out and we always hate to see that, but if we use it correctly, they may only further confuse many patients as to what's real and what's not, who they can and can't trust, etc. What's even more delicious is when we get them to turn on each other - when a trusted source is suddenly a traitor, whether they are or not is not really relevant to us. What is important is that it contributes to further confusing them on what reality is. The human and reputation casualties are just icing on the cake. If we can get senses of betrayal and unforgiveness sprinkled in there, again they're doing the work themselves.
No no, Mindwipe, we don't really have any interest in wasting our efforts in undermining any particular claimed reality in order to push another claim of reality no matter how promising the advancement of that claim may be to us. The ultimate goal here is really to convince our patients of the futility of believing in any claimed reality. Achieving this itself distances a patient from belief in our Enemy as a one true reality. So if we can in fact manage to even cultivate a roughly equal bolstering or two or more claims to a reality of a given thing (high profile assassinations are great for this!), then we have multiple possible realities swimming around in our patients' heads thereby keeping them perpetually confused and less willing to put their trust in any reality. In this way we can better focus our efforts, and can eventually explain reality to them in person with crystal clarity when they arrive down here!
I can see why you might think that Mindwipe. Seeing the winds of popularity change from our long relied on 'reality' dispensers to fall into the hands of those claiming to be able to fix false news might seem dangerous to our cause. Then it seems our efforts in controlling those dispensors for so long has all gone down the drain. Well it may seem so for a time, and there may even leak some actual reality.. again for a time. But these patients of ours have a propensity for just exchanging one falsehood for the next one. In the current situation, it seems merely a case of the opposite side making a use of a few actual realities - much like we would, we can sometimes learn even from those we've trained so well - to seize control of the positions of the dispensors. So all we need to do is exert our influence on these new dispensors to the same effect. And it was always a two way street with these patients - it's as important to keep in the listeners that desire to believe the message being sent. The message itself - entirely irrelevent.
I think you're getting the idea of this better Mindwipe, but still you seem so concerned that we fight against an actual reality surfacing and promoting only false realities. You're actually (ar ar) overthinking this. We really (ar ar again) dont care that much what an actual reality is - we happen to know quite a bit of what's real for better or worse - or whether our patients get to hear some once in a while. We are far more interested in keeping our patients' minds heavily burdened with so many possible realities it becomes a hard thing to discern between them, so much so that they may not want to try any more at some point. We want to aim at them giving up on both this and the possibility of there even being a truth they can know. If we get them to this point, we have the game!
Yes, I can see why it might seem that way Mindwipe. You would think that holidays - especially end of the year ones - would be a quieter simpler time for them to relax while winding down the year, and therefore not give much opportunity for messing with our patients' senses of reality. But no... they always help us find something. In this case we've found it extremely profitable to our cause to call into questions their reasons for their seasons. One approach we've used is what you might expect - simply introduce the old competing claims which may be atheistic or of some other religion/culture. In some extremes we've even gotten them to change their long time seasonal greeting phrases for no real reason in the name of 'sensitivity' which has been one of the most useful concepts to lose reality in that we've found. But another less obvious reality bending approach we've found especially successful in spreading confusion by way of competing realities is to bring in the question of the origins of the holiday. Now even though the holiday is meant to celebrate the meaning of the event, not as a precise historical marker, still this works on them.. They feel the need to prove the choice of date correct for some reason, again giving us our competing realities to work with - another gift that keeps on giving.
You're right about that, Mindwipe, allowing their heads to rest for even a holiday season is a dangerous thing. It gives our patients time to clear their heads of our medicines and therapies. This is why our invention of the 'busy season' treatment is so handy. By convincing them of the 'reality' that a lot needs to get done in a short period of time - in and around their final work days of the year when of course there may be some more increased business - shopping, decorating, preparing for guests, etc. All things that would be good for them if not for our fortunate ability to get them to jam it all in as little time as possible! If we work it right we can keep their time consumed through most of the holiday. You have to be careful here, though. The kind of festivities and time with real loved ones that occurs during this season may have the unfortunate effect of giving them a real sense of joy. This can lead to a catastrophic relapse into actual reality for your patient. If this happens there's nothing for it but to focus your patient on the reality of the season ending and having to get back to the everyday 'reality'.
Well, you know, Mindwipe, the greatest joy for our crafters is when we can get the patients themselves to devise their own unrealistic expectations. And resolutions for a new year are a perfect opportunity for that! The best part is the unnecessary disapointments they set themselves up for. It's not that anything is so impossible for them as He claims anything is possible with Him, but simply that they fail to check their true motivations and to have a plan for their resolution flexible enough. They also fail to question the purpose of resolving anything themselves - if it doesn't take into account that unfortunately as He tells them in His proverbs they may make their plans, but He directs their paths.
Young Tempters Guild
"Building the temptations of tomorrow"
Well yes little Ant Agonist, it's a fine idea to flood your patient's world with unavoidable porn at every turn. In fact it's too easy which is in some ways as much problem as solution. The patients of today want to imagine they are experiencing brave new worlds of debauchery regardless of the reality these things have been around since their beginnings. Just keep them thinking they're finding new experiences and you'll keep your temptations' effectiveness as fresh.
Ah our little Ant Agonist is growing up - so good to hear! Yes indeed blame makes an excellent fulcrum to wrap temptation around. And it's working out quite well with today's patients. Hardly a day goes by now that we haven't set off a new school shooter that places the blame for how they turned out on often younger students they've never met - or at least that's who they actually shoot, we don't really care who they're actually blaming. And then after the incident, whoa! talk about blame games - both sides of various issues start grasping to find out the killer's motivation. And then, then both sides actually race to get their stories out first that the killer was actually activated by the other side.. 'we don't need no stinking fact checking'. Again the beauty of it all is we don't have to care about any of it - the blaming does the work for us!
Indeed little Ant Agonist, you bring up a good if rudimentary point. The temptation for one to give up is always a good go-to one for us. It brings our patients not only - and sometimes unnecessary - loss but also the shame that goes with it. But here some caution is advisable. If that same loss or shame should get turned around - happens all the time - and ends up motivating them to some great accomplishment or even worse some self sacrifice for others, we may be seeing you making an appearance at a Young Tempter's remonstration hearing.
I must say young (see I'm trying to stop calling you little even though you're well, pretty small) Ant Agonist, reading your long wordy texts becomes a bit wearisome. Indeed the temptation to go on and on about something, belabor a point, bring up old wounds, etc. can be great to get these patients' juices going. And that is something we'd like - a bit of agitation going on non-stop. One of our patients' political sides even returns to this agit prop like a dog to its vomit even after it's cost them very bad election results and been a feature of historically failed societies. But hey, it's easy for them to make up out of thin air or just mindlessly repost without factchecking on their social medias, so it's something they like, and works well for us! Without this kind of spirit among the patients, we'd be hard-pressed to keep things stirred up as much as we have.
Quite true my mini-me (trying here!) Ant Agonist. Desires to get and accumulate things has always been a classic tempter's go to. But it has even more dimensions to it. Our Enemy's commandent not to covet is at the bottom of 'the 10', so more often not remembered - if we're doing our jobs of keeping our patients' minds off that pesky Word thing. And surely keeping a patient's mind focused on a thing or situation they want is a good thing for us. But motvation can put the icing on the cake. The idea of coveting itself indicates the motivation for wanting some thing or some situation is simple because someone else has it. This itself adds layers to the cake of jealosy, self-pity, etc. that goes beyond a simple desire for something. But if you really want to add special frosting to the cake, well, this is why we love holidays and special events so much - don't act all shocked, these can be great for our cause. Typically around such events, our patients will grow increasingly expensive traditions around exchanging gifts, paying for more and more elaborate ceremonies, even special trips involved sometimes - and yes they're building all this up all on their own! The opportunity here for us is the particularly exquisite pain to be had for our patients who want to do these things for their own loved ones but can't keep up with the increasing costs of such things. It just warms our already burning hearts!
Okay Ant Agonist, I'll keep this short (stopped trying..) due to your attention span apparently being so short (lol, sorry someone stop me..). It's been brought to my attention in your latest essay on how to help a patient deal with someone else disturbing them, you would recommend outright murder to the patient.. On the grounds I take it that the patient violates a major commandment, then deals with punishment, guilt, victim family with loss, etc. While true, you're forgetting some key points - if dead that source of pain for your patient is now gone.. Annd cases like this take forever so that there is great chance that your patient may realize guilt and turn to our Enemy for forgiveness. That is a chance we should never take while we can just keep the source of temptation and pain present in the patient's life instead.
A'ight, a'ight, Ant Agonist, I'll make this really short (sorry again the temptation is too much ar ar). But seriously you do make a good counterpoint that with what we've been able to do with their 'justice' system, it is possible that your patient might be able to plead to a lesser charge along with insanity on the major charge and then even be released in shorter time than the lesser sentence was for. This can indeed lead to greater senses of pain, fear and injustice. But just as a general rule any point of temptation we can stretch out longer usually works out better.
I know, I know, the Ant Agony of it all.. (I gotta stop myself!). But sure, Ant Agonist, it may seem a lean time to pour on the temptations as when the year starts winding down our patients begin to realize how they've screwed up, wasted a year's worth of time - or so we should be making it seem. But there're at least two ways you can go with this time of year. One is to push them into deep self-pity to wallow in all their perceived losses if they are given to doing so. Another is almost the opposite - encourage them to 'go big' with bigger celebrations, bigger spending sprees, bigger eating (!), bigger resolutions at the turn of the year, etc. This has strong possibilities for self-delusion, and hey if you can somehow manage both approaches, all the better!
I see where you're going with this, Ant Agonist, but you have to look out for possible repercussions from pushing an extreme temptation too far. I'll cover the caution needed for the negative temptation here and the concerns for the grandiose one next text. On the side of tempting to despair, this can be very effective this time of year getting your patient to focus on disappointments and unrealized expectations and such. You just want to take care of where it leads from there. If the patient falls into a kind of despondent lethargy, well then it looks promising with opportunity for followup guilt, losses, etc. But if it results in the patient suddenly waking up, realizing the opportunity and time being wasted feeling sorry for self, it can lead to very problematic developents for the tempter. It may mean a complete turn around for the patient, giving a fresh outlook maybe the patient hasn't had for a long time. This can be a disaster hard for a tempter to recover from. For this reason if at all possible we want to keep the temptation levels moderated and within our control to avoid this kind of outcome.
To continue, if you manage to get your patient to take the going big route, this can turn out quite nicely for producing self delusions that can lead to disappointments later. There's just that same problem we must watch out for this time of year. We must avoid letting our patients fall into experiencing genuine joy in whatever manner, but especially just in contentment with the season itself! Temptations should be aimed at getting the patient into the idea that this year's (fill in the blank) must be bigger, better, more expensive, etc. If your patient becomes satisfied with how something is to the point where rest becomes an option, well, you're losing ground there. This is a perfect time to bring in the temptation to think one is really doing such and such for someone else therefore grandiose is better. But yet again - this is indeed a tricky season for us! - you have to look out for the possibility of the patient actually getting into the idea of doing something for someone else. If this happens you've fallen into an old trap set by the Enemy a long time ago - one that can undo all of our work and carefully laid out schemes, one that can flush all of our efforts down the drain not to mention make us have to start all over again in the new year - that insidious, despicable, incorrigible spirit of Christmas.