Shanghai ’ed - The Cognitive War

 

Shanghai ’ed - The Cognitive War

The primary purpose of this article is to highlight how important the cognitive domain is to secure and ensure resilience of our freedoms. The objective of this article is to highlight how easily, and quickly, people can lose their independence to dominance and freedoms to tyranny - based on the whims of their “public servants” who by intimidation, control, threats, and abuses of power can change our trajectory rapidly unless proactively challenged and directly confronted. It is time to wake up to the reality that evil does exist. That some would rather control you, vice let you live free and independent.

 

Dystopian Society

Let us look at Shanghai China in 2022.  It is the center of the Chinese economy, vibrant, following a semi-capitalist mentality and the center hub driving China’s overall economic development. In Shanghai today, the communist authorities and government continues to take draconian measures to lock down their population, supposedly to stop the spread of the #ChinaFlu. Twenty-six million people in Shanghai are now locked in their homes – with limited access to food, medical, or other necessities. Their pets are taken and bagged (cats and dogs, etc.) or taken away forcibly then slaughtered or beaten to death in the streets. If the citizens try to leave their homes, whose doors are taped shut or padlocked from the outside, they are arrested and disappear into the police vans. The military and police forces keep them imprisoned, forcing many to starve to death or into other horrible conditions. The twenty-six million could easily overwhelm the authorities, but do not.  Why? Because China’s despots control the cognitive domain. The control the people as a shepherd controls his sheep.

 

How does China control this city of twenty-six million, and multiple other millions throughout their country? Through lifelong indoctrination, controlling the flow of information, continual propaganda and via intimidation, terror, threats, assaults, imprisonment, etc. They control their 1.5 billion citizens - by using the power of tyranny to control the cognitive domain of their citizens. China has conquered, at least for the moment, it is domestic cognitive war.

 

Before I go further, let us remind ourselves that the USA has 322 million people, China 1,449 million (~1.5 billion), and Australia 27 million.  Why? I will explain in a moment. First, let me define the cognitive domain and cognitive war to lay a proper foundation for this discussion.

 

I define the Cognitive Domain as: The domain of the human mind, ideas, ideology, function, reason, etc. The Cognitive Domain encompasses all other domains - the umbrella under which mankind operates, functions, learns, advances or regresses. All other domains - Cyber, Air, Land, Sea, Subterranean, Space, Sub-surface -are all one operating domain, not separate. We, as humans, have mentally segmented these domains to operate and function in them. And as we learn, we add new operational and/or functional domains. Yet, the most important domain, the Cognitive Domain, remains an afterthought.

 

I define the Cognitive War as: A primarily an ideological war, between tyranny and freedom, control and independence, subjugation, and democracy. It is a war fought primarily in the cognitive domain, using various means to influence (e.g., academic, economic, to agriculture, social, etc.), but which can include irregular warfare and kinetics. It is a war that has been ongoing for more than a millennium. It is timeless as mankind exists. The cognitive war is truly an existential threat that is global and domestic. In today’s U.S.A, few understand it, can defend against it, can compete in it, or win it. It can be won, but not if we are unwilling to learn and change.

 

Sheep are Sheep

We like to think we are freer and more independent than China. We like to think our allies, like Australia, are also freer and more independent than China. So, let me quickly dispel that notion – with a qualifier. If we allow what occurred in the USA and Australia from December 2019 to about March 2022 to continue, we will be no different than China – and China will significantly advance its dominance in the cognitive domain, and success in the ongoing cognitive war. We will join the sheep, and forgo our position as the shepherds of freedom.

 

Australia, which I noted has twenty-seven million people, not much different than Shanghai – acted much like the dictators in China during the last two years. To me, having worked in our Intelligence Community and Department of Defense for over thirty-years (to include working with our ally Australia), I was shocked by the abuse of government, police, and state powers to subdue, submit, subjugate, and destroy the freedoms of their citizens over the last two years. It was absolutely a disgusting abuse of power on par with China, fascism, communism, etc. But it exemplified how quickly a free state becomes a police state – within minutes – if those who govern forget whom they serve, and think they are omnipresent.

 

Then there is our grand old USA. Where our 322 million people, not counting the 30-40 million illegal aliens, were also subsequently locked down. Not in all states, thank goodness, but mostly in states governed by liberal progressives. The lock downs led to many health and mental issues. Then to further control and subjugate, came the mandated vaccinations, then firings of those who refused the vaccination shots (despite the reality that it causes many significant issues or death, and they only threatened themselves not others). Our personal freedoms and choices were attacked, and those not complying were victimized by their public servants. The progressive governors forced death into senior assisted living facilities. They forced death by locking people down. They advanced the infections – as they ignored the science. The results showed those states which did not lock down (typically governed by conservatives) had fewer deaths and impacts from work to education than those states that did lock down (liberal progressive governors). The point being those who challenged the so-called experts and authorities who tried to remove our freedoms were true champions, and despite being attacked in multiple ways, persevered. This despite the fraudulent president purposefully creating super spreader events at the border, then secretly shipping masses of ChinaFlu infected illegal immigrants to red (conservative) states. In simple terms, Biden unleashed a biological war on states that did not comply.

 

The messaging in China, Australia, and the USA driving lock downs and removal of freedoms were similar in many ways and had similar impacts on citizens. Most citizens became sheep, believing in the so called “government experts,” and worse turned on and persecuted their fellow citizens who did not comply. The non-sheep were harassed, abused, assaulted, and in too many cases fired from their jobs – denying them their economic freedom.

 

So those of you who think we’re “better” than China, that allies like Australia are “better” than China, best think clearly and understand that it truly depends on whether or not we actually follow the ideals enshrined in our constitution and drive a narrative based on facts and reality, or allow others to drive false narratives, push propaganda, and encompass us in tyranny by abusing their government powers to subjugate, control, and terrorize the citizens. 

 

The people of Shanghai could easily overwhelm their military and police that control them – but do not. A few in China tried and disappeared. But what of those in the USA or Australia? A few in Australia tried but were arrested, prosecuted, jailed, or sent to internment camps. The majority in Australia complied like those in Shanghai.

 

While many in the USA fought back, a the majority complied. Those who did fight back did so despite being vilified by the propaganda whores of the mainstream media (MSM), censored by the socialist media companies, and assaulted by the useful idiots (the complicit, compliant, complacent, or corrupt). They held their ground, pushed back against the advancing draconian measures of our “public servants,” and pushed forward the truth on the negative consequences of the lockdowns. They also pushed forth the truth on various other means to prevent or treat the ChinaFlu. Only recently did more of the sheep move to role of shepherds when they realized their children were being indoctrinated under their noses in concert with the lockdowns.

 

What does this tell us about the cognitive domain and ongoing cognitive war? At least for me, it highlights four key challenges:

 

·         First, that government is supposed to serve the people, but is serving itself first and the public last.

·         Second, that those in power demonstrated how quickly they will abuse the people’s inherent trust in government, to subjugate, control, and destroy them if they do not comply.

·         Third, that the line between tyranny and freedom is thin, and lay in control of the cognitive domain, which is slipping away from those who wish freedom to those seeking tyranny.

·         Forth, that unless people exercise their freedoms, those in power will undermine and destroy those freedoms and ignore their oaths via indoctrination, subjugation, or terror of the citizenry.

 

China has won its domestic cognitive war, by controlling the cognitive domain. Today, they are also winning the international cognitive war, as is Russia, as the USA lets them be the shepherds and our leadership remains more like sheep. The USA, Australia, and our allies continue to react to our adversaries lead in messaging and control of the cognitive domain. Our leaders are acting like sheep vice shepherds of freedom and democracy. The actions and impacts of the ChinaFlu hold many lessons. The first lesson we should learn, is that we like those in China and Australia, can be easily subjugated. If not for a few strong-willed shepherds who exercised, lead, and exemplified our freedoms were would we be now?

© Edward L. Haugland, All Rights Reserved 2022.