Tactical Reality Dictionary ─ Cultural Intelligence and Social Control

Culture is not just the expression of individual interests and orientations, manifested in groups according to rules and habits. It also offers

identification with a system of values. The construction of cultural memory and the establishing of a symbolic order through setting up mental and

ideological spaces is a traditional practice of cultural engineering. Developments in electronic communication and digital media allows for a global telepresence of values and behavioral norms, and provide increasing possibilities for controlling public opinion by accelerating the flow of persuasive communication. Information is increasingly indistinguishable from propaganda, defined as "the manipulation of symbols as a means of influencing attitudes". Whoever controls the metaphors controls thought. in this lexicon of culture as social control, Austrian media theorist Konrad Becker illuminates media practices that transform conspiracy into normative reality, and disbelief into the condition of truth.