How do you make anyone do anything? The ideal is to persuade by incentive or example. You can also pesuade by argument. Any one of those three aproaches is noteworthy, and non-coercive.

Unfortunately, there are people who want you to do or believe something that is repugnant or contrary to your beliefs or life style. Those people have to use a different approach. Their approach is coercive, although coercion can be more sublte. For example, a tax deduction or credit would be a subtle form. At the other end of the spectrum is execution, physical pain, deprivation or prison. There are also some strategies that fit in the middle, and these are some of the more clever and deceptively subtle. These strategies would fall, generally, under the category of propaganda. Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew, is the “father of public relations“.

Public relations is propaganda with a pink bow on it. All the major corporations of the world have someone in charge of public relations. The PR person is charged with creating good will regarding the company’s image, products and services. When something happens to tarnish that well crafted image (real or contrived), then the PR person goes into defensive mode and lies (by omission or comission) in order to evade public criticism. The PR person wants to put the rabbit back in the hat before someone realizes that keeping a rabbit in a hat is cruelty to animals. If the PR person is successful (most of the time they are), then they have successfully “made” people to accept the corporation, its products and/or its behavior.

Of course repeated offenses will ultimately lead to loss of credibility, and therefore a failure to “make” people believe what the corporation, or propagandist, wants to make people believe in order to control their actions. Making people do anything is a very big challenge. There are numerous think tanks in America that spend billions of dollars coming up with psychological strategies to manipulate public perception (making people think the way they want them to think).

What they want to make them think could be as benign as Lindt chocolate tastes better than Hershey’s chocolate. Or, it could be as wicked and damaging to people and society as “making” them think and/or accept war, homosexuality, adultery, recreational drug use, transgenderism, transhumanism, Socialism, Communism, Fascism, Satanism etc. etc. are as good as peace, heterosexuality, marriage, sobriety, humanity, free enterprise capitalism and Christianity. But, is that so?

Obviously, there will be push back against many of the above issues by those who reject them as unAmerican and un Christian. Now it becomes a matter of “making” people to do or believe what the people in power want to have accepted and supported. How is that accomplished? For most people who reject the ideas, it will require lies, deception and force. Force can amount to political sanctions, taxes, denial of services, censorship, confiscation of property, violence, imprisonment, execution etc. etc.

The victims of this kind of force will ultimately fight back and want to “make” people of the opposite viewpoint do what they want. They will ultimatley have to use many, if not all of the same strategies to accomplish their objectives. So, what’s the difference?

Enter Biblical Christian teaching! Christianity leads by example and offers the WORD of GOD as a standard for how to set that example. Christianity goes beyond that to be very tolerant of persecution (possibly too tolerant). Christianity also has the tool of being “salt and light” in the community. What does that entail? One thing it entails is the mandate to shine the light of truth on evil and expose it! When people are exposed to the truth, many, not all, will reject the evil that is exposed.

Of course, under the propagandists, many have been so propandized, that they do not recognize, or maybe do not care about, the truth. At that point, there is a significant conundrum. The Bible teaches that we are all sinners in thought word and deed daily. The way out of that dilemma is through Jesus Christ, an unacceptable solution to anyone who is not touched by the HOLY SPIRIT of GOD. And yet, the thief on the cross who was obviously a bad guy who even mocked Jesus, had his heart changed at the last moment, and Jesus said; “Today you will be with me in paradise!” What did the thief do to deserve salvation of his eternal soul? He did absolutely nothing! Salvation is solely of grace and you cannot earn it, deserve it, be born into it, cajole for it, bargain for it for it is a gift GOD gives to whom He will.

GOD “makes” people do things! He’s the only one who ultimately controls people. Man makes his plans, but GOD guides his footsteps. Do not be misled – GOD is good, and man is evil. GOD uses evil men to suit and/or accomplish HIS purposes. He does all things for HIS glory and good purposes. Don’t argue with GOD!

Pensiamento Peligroso