Originally published September 16 2015
Obama issues Executive Order to monitor Americans' behavior and develop psychological manipulation programs
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) President Obama has ripped a page out of George Orwell's classic futuristic tome, 1984, in issuing an executive order that directs federal agencies to better manipulate Americans to the will of the government.
They will accomplish this, according to WorldNetDaily, by hiring psychologists who will "experiment and find ways" to achieve manipulation - all in the name of "science."
"A growing body of evidence demonstrates that behavioral science insights – research findings from fields such as behavioral economics and psychology about how people make decisions and act on them – can be used to design government policies to better serve the American people," Obama wrote in an executive order released in mid-September at WhiteHouse.gov.
Pay no attention to your own common sense
The order's origin comes from a 2013 policy proposal considered by the White House called "Strengthening Federal Capacity for Behavioral Insights". The new order streamlines applications for federal financial aid as well as automatic retirement payments – two areas where behavioral science lessons applied to government programs have been effective, WND reported.
"[T]o more fully realize the benefits of behavioral insights and deliver better results at a lower cost for the American people, the federal government should design its policies and programs to reflect our best understanding of how people engage with, participate in, use, and respond to those policies and programs," Obama wrote, as reported by the Washington Examiner.
The president has never hidden his desire to use the heavy hand of federal authority to employ behavioral control techniques against the American public, a sizable portion of which has routinely opposed his policies on immigration, health care, the military and social spending, to mention but a few. In February 2014, the White House launched a Social and Behavioral Sciences Team, or SBST, and then celebrated its one-year anniversary in this blog post.
"SBST had a successful first year, launching a wide variety of evidence-based pilots with objectives ranging from connecting veterans with employment and educational counseling benefits to helping struggling student borrowers understand their loan repayment options," the Obama administration wrote on February 9, 2015.
Now, the team will move forward in pointing out programs that will "most effectively promote public welfare, as appropriate, giving particular consideration to the selection and setting of default options." The team performs under the guise of the National Science and Technology Council, WND reported.
Welcome to 1984 – in 2015
"It makes sense for us to be able to redesign government so that it can deliver on the functions that the American people are looking for. We should all want a government that's smarter, quicker, and more responsive to the needs of the American people," Obama said in 2013.
Who's not for a redesigned government that is "smarter, quicker and more responsive to the needs of the American people?" It all sounds so good, doesn't it? In fact, it calls to mind the statement that "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor," and "Obamacare's individual mandate is not a tax." Notice the president never mentions anything about the hiring of psychologists and the role they will play in manipulating Americans' thought processes and opinions.
If they can brainwash us into thinking that all government policies are good, that Obama and his minions are benevolent and all-knowing, wouldn't we then also believe that government had suddenly become "smarter, quicker, and more responsive?"
Two people whose research played a central role in the creation of Obama's initiative and order are Harvard Law School Prof. Cass Sunstein – who once acted as Obama's "regulatory czar" – and Richard Thaler, a University of Chicago economist, according to The Daily Caller News Foundation.
"The two behavioral scientists argued in their 2008 book 'Nudge' that government policies can be designed in a way that 'nudges' citizens toward certain behaviors and choices," the Daily Caller reported.
Welcome to 1984 – in 2015.
Sources include:
WND.com
WashingtonExaminer
DailyCaller.com
WhiteHouse.gov
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