Early Influence Is Hard To Overcome

Like it or not, most of our personality is likely formed before we’re very old. Our childhood experiences and memories are often the bulwark of complex thoughts and feelings, both conscious and unconscious throughout the rest of our lives. 

Rather than focus this week’s posting on the hacking of the AP’s Twitter Account and its effect on Wall Street (see http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/04/23/obama-carney-associated-press-hack-white-house/2106757/) I’ve decided to post on a more insidious means of influence.

Those of us who grew up in the 1950s will attest to the power of TV. Many of us spent incalculable hours watching Mickey Mouse Club, or Roy Rogers or whatever else was on. We felt that TV was our view into the world and it stood for all that was right. Fast forwarding a bit, our children were raised on Sesame Street and the Electric Company. Each of these series were also highly regarded and revered by their young audiences.

This kind of mesmerizing power must be used with caution and so when children’s TV is used to hate, there is great cause for concern. According to The Times of Israel, Hamas broadcasted a TV program where young children were praising martyrdom. (See http://www.timesofisrael.com/gaza-children-extol-virtues-of-jihad/ which is also the photo source.)

Growing up with this kind of influence sets the stage for blind acceptance of progressive training all designed to shape a child in the image of a terrorist. In thinking of how this onslaught could be overcome, it strikes me that there is no simple answer. The only obvious answer is if the child viewer can counter the TV with real life experience such as having friends ‘on the other side’. 

When a predisposition is set, it is difficult to overcome and opens the target up to susceptibility for more nefarious activities and we have recently seen by the Tsarnaev brothers’ example.

MISO planners need to insure that country analysis packets are attuned to the type of influence shown on media in the AO and be prepared to provide plans to minimize or counter these efforts so as to increase the chances for ultimate normality in the AO.