Tinfoil Hat

Reading through email spam or the classified advertisements in a progressive newspaper, one may find offers for everything from assertiveness training¹ to sexual domination hypnosis² to computer software designed to flash brief messages on the screen with the goal of quitting smoking or losing weight.³ These are just a few of the many household Mind Control products marketed today promising that their simple tricks will allow anyone to be the master of their domain. While the efficacy of these programs is debatable, the science behind them is quite sound.

The basics of Mind Control are as ancient as mankind itself. Convincing someone to adopt an idea or perform a task is commonplace in every family. Children begin learning how to rationalize, peer pressure, beg, bribe, bully, guilt, or resort to any number of other tactics including blackmail and all out violent assault in order to get their way. As author Eric Schlosser notes in Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, James U. McNeal, a leading authority in marketing to children, “classifies juvenile nagging tactics into seven major categories” in his 1992 book Kids as Customers: A Handbook of Marketing to Children:

A pleading nag is one accompanied by repetitions of words like “please” or “mom, mom, mom.” A persistent nag involves constant requests for the coveted product and may include the phrase “I’m gonna ask just one more time.” Forceful nags are extremely pushy and may include subtle threats, like “Well, then, I’ll go and ask Dad.” Demonstrative nags are the most high-risk, often characterized by full-blown tantrums in public places, breath-holding, tears, a refusal to leave the store. Sugar-coated nags promise affection in return for a purchase and may rely on seemingly heartfelt declarations like “You’re the best dad in the world.” Threatening nags are youth forms of blackmail, vows of eternal hatred and of running away if something isn’t bought. Pity nags claim the child will be heartbroken, teased, or socially stunted if the parent refuses to buy a certain item.⁴

An increasing number of teens and young adults are beginning to hone these skills in order to control family, friends and coworkers. As behaviorist B.F. Skinner explains in his book Walden Two:

We make continual efforts to control each other – teachers to control their students, students to control their teachers; parents to control their children, children to control their parents; friends and lovers, governments and citizens, all are engaged in this enterprise – but we do it poorly, haphazardly, because we don