Fun (Yet Disturbing) Exercise...

On Monday, I had given you a list of statements and asked what you thought I was referring to.

Just to refresh your memory, here's the list again...

• Need for obedience & dependency.
• Deliberately holding back information.
• Keeping you so busy you don't have time to think.
• Information is not freely accessible.
• Leadership decides who "needs to know" what.
• Encourages you to "tell on" others.
• Good vs. Evil.
• "Us" vs. "Them"
• The use of "buzz" words.
• Only "good" and "proper" things encouraged.
• Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking.
• No critical questions about policy are seen as legitimate.
• No alternative beliefs are viewed as legitimate, good or useful.
• Makes you feel like if there are any problems, it's your fault.
• Fear of disapproval.

So many of you came up with some very interesting and thought-provoking ideas:

• Democratic run health care
• Obama's Health Care Non-Debate
• Movies
• Politics
• Bush's leadership
• Religion
• Government
• Parents
• A government job
• Guru-style Internet Marketing
• PPC Marketing
• schools
• military
• Google
• The Rothschild Manifesto
• Parent/Child relationship

So, lots of good guesses and as you can tell, all over the board.

So let me first tell you what my initial thought was....and two of you (Lucid & Tina) actually guessed correctly.

Google.

But, that's not where the list came from. Let me explain WHY I thought it was Google the first time I read the list:

• Need for obedience & dependency.

• If you do anything against the "rules" your website is likely to be punished. Obedience to play by the rules or your website will suffer & dependency because Google is so large that without having a listing there, you're all but dead in the water.
• Deliberately holding back information.

• They give you information, yes, but not everything. Keeping important, SERP changing, pieces to themselves.
• Keeping you so busy you don't have time to think.

• Every time you turn around there's a new product, a new PageRank update, a new rule regarding your web pages...etc.
• Information is not freely accessible.

• This one I went back and forth with a bit. They do have "freely accessible" information such as Matt Cutts' videos, and plenty of FAQ sections but the information you REALLY want, the definitive answers you REALLY want, you never get.
• Leadership decides who "needs to know" what.

• Again, Google makes the call on what they feel you need to know.
• Encourages you to "tell on" others.
  

• This one was my favorite because recently they implemented a form that allows you to "tell on" other sites using black-hat or illegal SEO techniques. And they encourage it.
• Good vs. Evil.
  

• In a January 2003 Wired article, the founders of Google stated that they're whole premise was to "not be evil". (in the face of the other search engines available such as Microsoft & Yahoo).
• "Us" vs. "Them"

• The "Us" being Google and Google fans, the "Them" being fans of the "others".
• The use of "buzz" words.

• PageRank
• SEO
• CTR
• CPM
• SERPS
• AdWords
• AdSense
• Google as in "go Google it"
• Now, as a side note some of these terms can't "directly" be attributed to Google but there's no doubt that Google has fueled the fire to use these terms more often in our everyday vocabulary.
• Only "good" and "proper" things encouraged.

• Again, only using "good" and "proper" ways of getting ranked in Google.
• Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking.
  

• Rationally you might believe that Google Street view for example is a huge violation of privacy. (this is the one example I could think of) yet Google repeatedly rejects this as they still continue to use it.
• No critical questions about policy are seen as legitimate.
  

• You can feel free to question Google all you want about their methods, however, rarely if ever, is anything done to change it.
• No alternative beliefs are viewed as legitimate, good or useful.

• Again, you can form your own opinions here.
• Makes you feel like if there are any problems, it's your fault.

• If your website has ever been delisted, you rarely know why. Additionally, if your site has lost rankings, again, you rarely know why...you just assume that it must have been "something you did" because it couldn't be Google's fault!
• Fear of disapproval.

• This plays directly into the hands of AdWords. New "improvements" are constantly made to their system and you literally sit on pins and needles waiting to see if they'll "approve" your ad or not. Even if they do, will it stay that way? Or will they all of a sudden start charging you an arm and a leg only giving vague explanations as to why your costs have gone up so much?

Now, as many of you have pointed out, these statements can describe a vast amount of topics...but...here's what you might be surprised to know.

All of these statements came from a website article entitled:

"Mind Control - The BITE Model" - which is a snippet of information from a book entitled "Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves".

This is the model that cults use in order to promote destructive mind control and the acronym BITE stands for:

• Behavior Control
• Information Control
• Thought Control
• Emotional Control

According to the web page...

"It is important to understand that destructive mind control can be determined when the overall effect of these four components promotes dependency and obedience to some leader or cause. It is not necessary for every single item on the list to be present. Mind controlled cult members can live in their own apartments, have nine-to-five jobs, be married with children, and still be unable to think for themselves and act independently."

Source: Freedom of Mind Articles and Links

So there you have it.

I hope that this has been somewhat eye-opening and has stirred up more than a little emotion and creative thought in you.

As always, I'm interested to hear any additional comments and see what you might think.

Have a fantastic day!

- Kristine