A corollary to the strange reality of society is the phenomenon of gaslighting, which as a term of usage has gained a popularity concurrent with the rise of its dominance as a social force. But as a factor in the formation of the shapes that society takes and maintains, it has been around for quite some time, always existing to differing extents. Let's take a moment to set this up.
As we've observed, a large complex society is made up of a massive array of moving parts, in the form of differentiated and segmented institutions and then more amorphous and shifting factions and interests. Contrary to the machine metaphor, in which a given contraption can be analyzed and then directly manipulated to achieve the desired results, you can't directly screw with society as a whole. You try that, and eventually it hardens around you into multiple hostile tinkerers and manipulators and you end up tinkering and manipulating each other, no longer to achieve a desired result, but to merely maintain power and survive. From then on, the rest is, dare I say, history.
Instead what must be done, at least in the modern world (which is a whole other can of worms), is that all of these conjunctive human powers must seek out relations of synergy with each other and then influence and manipulate each other in turn. At some point one or multiple sectors of societies may pull away and become more influential than the others, and then it can instrumentalize the rest in the pursuit of narrower ends, all the more narrower in proportion to concentrated power.
The modern industrial power has gotten very good at this, because we've figured out how to tinker with various aspects of the individual and even the collective ego and eventually instrumentalize it, making use of self interest in the service of alien ends, thereby holding off the triggers set off by exposing oneself as a hostile and exploitative interest. Take a marketing or PR message whose function is clearly to make a sale or influence, but then contained in the message itself is all manner of flattery and wish fulfillment that is all too convincing for many. Gaslighting on a mass industrial scale.
On a mechanical level, this works because of how human thought, communication, and identity works. These systems exist on separate layers of their own, which while possessing no shortage of interfaces with the emotions and material reality, have an internal logic of their own, where certain provincial realities local to thought and perception can be maintained and frozen for quite some time. Serial liars know what I'm talking about.
It is hard not to notice that one can get quite pleasant feelings by simply communicating a certain reality to another, and have that other communicate that reality back. Similarly, one can make use of a potent form of sanction by seizing on some limited aspect of reality and then communicating some disapproving idea to another, and watch their behavior change quite quickly.
Given that we are social animals, and that power is achieved through the coordinated efforts of others, much more can be acquired than simple pleasant feelings or changed behaviors if one communicates the right things to others.
Much of this is simply the reality of human social relations. The complexity of the many conflicting inner wants and desires can be pared down by constructing masks and personas for use in a given social situation, and much of this is healthy given a complex society. It becomes gaslighting when these behaviors and mechanisms are turned toward outright exploitation and predation,
The higher the class, the higher up the value chain, the better we are at smiles, tones, word choices, insinuations, projecting emotions, and all the rest. Further, the higher up in hierarchy, the more these machinations are backed up with material power. You listen to stories of social environments in the top corporate suites for example, and all you see are smiles in the front and daggers in the back. Observing the day to day social interactions of individuals, it becomes apparent what a powerful force this gaslighting can serve to be on greater scales. This deftness in communication has been perfected into a science and an art.
Earlier on in this civilization's lifespan, that role was filled by organized religion and the mass manipulation of collective spiritual life, which then would reveal and sustain the power of those elites able to put themselves closer to the top of the great chain of being in the ideological perception, as it were.
Now much of it is done through mass marketing and media consumption on an industrial scale, which itself rests on a perpetually self-renewing cultural production. For the time being though I wanted to get into the nuts and bolts of the gaslighting itself, and highlight some of the consequences of these mechanisms.
First, as systems that exist separately and with cycles and logics of their own, human communication systems generate a sort of resistance and then inertia to collective social action. It is not just action you are dealing with, but understandings of the actions and communications about the actions. One you have a society dominated by interest groups adept at manipulating these systems, you become awash in a multitude of conflicting ideologies and signals all pulling and tugging in different directions.
This introduces a profound turbulence in collective social endeavor. The thing about a flat out lie, or even just softer manipulation, is that once the target discovers the nature of the signals, they are read as not only false but usually as betrayals, and so there is a recursive recoding of the signals as a hostile force. There is a reactive reversal. And then this hostility can generalize to possible truth signals as well. The whole apparatus of communication is thrown out. At larger scales, these effects can become quite profound indeed.
A good sharp puff and the gaslight blows out.
