I feel like the science of the mind in individuals and groups is being exploited to help cultivate a populus that thrives in the mentally void spaces of where civilization is being steered.
I completely agree. And not only that, it is being used to make us feel like we are smart enough to not be exploited, while we are consistently bent over and screwed.
We are consistently being broadcast messages that direct our actions with premeditation, and still we think that we are thinking for ourselves, as we do exactly what we are directed to do.
Precisely! We have all heard of cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias but I recently just found out about cognitive ease. I think you would enjoy scratching that surface if you aren't already familiar.
I think social engineering over the long-term has conditioned the masses to feel like the cognitive path of least resistance is probably the right path or the more virtuous one.
It feels like the infamous 'they ' have compartmentalized most of the predictable outcomes and have moseyed the herd into each pigeon hole fitting for the choice of the individual. Hegelian dialect all the way... thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.
Yes. they have made it appear that the workless life is the easy path, when it leads to an increasingly difficult future full of suffering.
And yep - compartmentalization at the granular level - makes us all increasingly fragmented from each other, with everyone an enemy. "Divide and conquer" in the digital age.