The significance of herd mentality cannot be overstated, and is part and parcel of most government schemes. The Solomon Asch conformity experiment in the 1950s showed that in the overwhelming majority of cases people would rather be in agreement with the crowd rather than correct.
However, the experiment also showed that if even one of the "actors" broke ranks and said the correct answer the candidate was 80% more likely to pick the correct answer too. This goes a long way to explain why totalitarian states are so zealous in their censorship of dissenting voices.
I agree Frank it is an important mission to break people out of their delusions, and I can say from experience it is not an easy task. To quote the great Morpheus: "You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."
The quote is from the character Morpheus in the film "The Matrix", I'd never put any thought into why the character was named as such, but yes quite the coincidence.
pardon' I do have a fascination with le traffique' I does tie in directly with the thesis you have presented. the traffic needs to flow. IF you do not participate in le delusioniones' you become the outsider. I hope i have made my argument in a coherent fashion. I think we could be friends. The herd is most apparent on the highway. To me at least. I think you were in a Tesla?
I don't get on well with others so it's unlikely we could be friends, as evidenced by my inability to think of 5 people to send Substack gift subscriptions to. I've never owned a Tesla, I failed the application process when it was clear to the dealership I didn't enjoy the smell of my own farts to the required degree.
You hit it here, Frank, with exile. It's the state I've been in ever since Covid. I can relate to it viscerally. Back in 2020 I watched everyone around me pivot 180 degrees while I went, WTF just happened? Ever since, I've felt what I call the fracture - fracture from society as a whole, and most unnervingly from my friends and family. I've lost so many friends to propaganda, I've lost count. And in all this I feel the call to strengthen my mettle, to live or die in truth come what may. Yes, I may revert occasionally to maintain some kind of connection, some rapport with my fellow humans who are unable to hear truth. As you so succinctly put, these are casualties of war and we need to treat them as such. Doing battle with an injured kindred is unwise as it is unkind. Most of the time I feel incognito. Rarely do I get the chance to connect in truth, in dissidence from the regime. But there's a rising tide of all of us, as you point out, intent on breaking the dam of falsehood and coercion. Those of us in exile are returning.
This is brilliant, Frank. As far as I know, you are the only voice out there who explains what has been done to us and why. You give us the bigger picture which makes complete sense of this madness. I had many moments reading this thinking ‘that was me’ or ‘that reminds me of this person…’.
This is a wonderful essay which I hope reaches many people. Thank you, Frank for your perspicacity.
Truth may be dangerous, but it's ultimately our greatest tool for positive change and I think you really hit that nail on the head here. We must follow Christ's example and stand firm in truth no matter the consequences.
this is a powerful diagnosis. You've mapped the psychological machinery of the "liberal regime" with real precision, the information overload, the social penalties, the "cop in the head." I've shared your work because it matters.
But I want to press you on one thing.
*You name the "consumer-credit system". You describe the "knowledge economy" and the "addiction economy". But you never name what actually makes that system run: money itself. *
Today, all the money in circulation is created by private banks as interest-bearing debt when they issue loans.
The sovereign power to create money, the power explicitly granted to Congress in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, has been outsourced to a private banking cartel. This is not a conspiracy theory. It is the operational reality documented by the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve. The government merely prints and mints the currency which it sells to the banks at cost for their customers’ cash needs.
Why does this matter for your diagnosis?
• The information overload you describe is funded by advertising revenue which is ultimately debt-created money chasing eyeballs.
• The "consumer-credit system" is built on privately created money.
• The "total system" of repeat consumption requires perpetual growth to service the compounding interest on that debt.
• The social penalties for dissent are enforced by institutions, universities, media, and NGOs that are themselves financially dependent on the same donor class that benefits from the status quo.
Your "liberal regime" is not just a psychological operation. It is a financial operation with a psychological wing. The "cop in the head" is not just social conditioning; it is the internalized logic of a system where your mortgage, your student debt, and your pension are all denominated in money created by private banks.
You write that "to recover your capacity to think and decide for yourself... you must understand why this function is not an accident". I agree. But we must also understand the material architecture that makes it possible.
The cure you don't name is sovereign money.
When the state creates and issues currency directly, without private bank intermediation, the entire architecture changes:
• The debt-growth imperative is removed. War is no longer profitable for financiers.
• The seigniorage returns to the public, not to bank shareholders.
• Policy is no longer hostage to the bond market. Genuine democratic sovereignty becomes possible.
Mental hygiene is valuable. But it is an individual solution to a systemic problem. Until we name the monetary architecture, we are treating symptoms. Money is much more than an economic tool, it is a cultiral artifact that influnces human behavior, how people interact, what they value, and even how they define success. It is a powerful psychological influence and its design matters.
One question, is it plausible that the firewall is failing because of texting, social media etc? Face to face conversations seem to reinforce social compliance, while even the slight anonymity of texting allows for a more liberated ability to say what you think. And of course social media has proved fairly ineffective at actually silencing all decent, just the loudest voices.
Yes. The machine can’t contain the consequences it has created. Breakdown is underway. It’s about what comes after. I am for a better not worse future.
My two penneth: the healthy thing to do is get off X, TikTok and Instagram; they are almost entirely slop, manufacturing a mood and calling it news, and, more seriously, making unfounded or uninformed accusations.
The only reliable source, anyway, is your own eyes and ears: what you see on your own street, what you decide to watch, listen to and do with your time. Too many people who say they want change won't do the work; they want the easy option, which is to follow others rather than take responsibility, because, at the end of the day, nothing meaningful changes until the individual makes the changes necessary in their own life.
The best way to push away the memes and detritus of modern life is to pray.
Say the Rosary and the Stations of the Cross. Go to mass, and if you can, Matins and Lauds. Speak to God, and listen in the silence, where He is. Nevermind the noise -- whether it's well-intentioned or malevolent.
Embracing silence and praying is the most counter-modern thing you can do. Your attention belongs to God.
This is very encouraging. Many quotes spring to mind, but perhaps this one from Horkheimer is best:
"The resistant individual will oppose any pragmatic attempt to reconcile the demands of truth and the irrationalities of existence. Rather than to sacrifice truth by conforming to prevailing standards, he will insist on expressing in his life as much truth as he can, both in theory and in practice. His will be a life of conflict; he must be ready to run the risk of utter loneliness."
This needn't be disheartening, though. As you say, it offers the opportunity for a genuinely heroic life.
The significance of herd mentality cannot be overstated, and is part and parcel of most government schemes. The Solomon Asch conformity experiment in the 1950s showed that in the overwhelming majority of cases people would rather be in agreement with the crowd rather than correct.
However, the experiment also showed that if even one of the "actors" broke ranks and said the correct answer the candidate was 80% more likely to pick the correct answer too. This goes a long way to explain why totalitarian states are so zealous in their censorship of dissenting voices.
I agree Frank it is an important mission to break people out of their delusions, and I can say from experience it is not an easy task. To quote the great Morpheus: "You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."
A strikingly sensitive quote , thank you Jacques .
I had to look up Morpheus and as “ the god of sleep “ I guess it’s no coincidence that he seems connected to morphine?
The quote is from the character Morpheus in the film "The Matrix", I'd never put any thought into why the character was named as such, but yes quite the coincidence.
I always thought the movie The Matrix, to be a documentary. Though in those days I could not have articulated my reasoning.
As for the coincidence, it is of course bigharma and its minions.
They are into injectables of all kinds.
A strikingly sensitive quote , thank you.
Was that you who cut me off in traffic earlier? I was on my way to work.
I have no idea who you are, or where you live. Also I don't own a vehicle.
But yes, it was me. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
pardon' I do have a fascination with le traffique' I does tie in directly with the thesis you have presented. the traffic needs to flow. IF you do not participate in le delusioniones' you become the outsider. I hope i have made my argument in a coherent fashion. I think we could be friends. The herd is most apparent on the highway. To me at least. I think you were in a Tesla?
I don't get on well with others so it's unlikely we could be friends, as evidenced by my inability to think of 5 people to send Substack gift subscriptions to. I've never owned a Tesla, I failed the application process when it was clear to the dealership I didn't enjoy the smell of my own farts to the required degree.
'I don't get on well with others so it's unlikely we could be friends, '
This is the first step to enlightenment.
This stream of comments is , painting with words . It’s lovely.
Amen Frank.
some of my best friends and family members, whom I care deeply about, have been poisoned by this sick technique of cultural production.
I’m not absolving them of their actions, only realizing that they are also victims of the greatest propaganda machine in world history.
the weak minded and emotionally wounded seem to be the most susceptible to the magic spell of words cast by our managerial betters.
the vain also seem to be just as helpless to the siren song of mass death.
I love your mask Hollis Brown and I agree with your sentiments but…we are all emotionally wounded …now.
As for the term “ weak minded “ , it may be the result of being punched in the head ….a lot.
But perhaps this is what you are saying here .
You hit it here, Frank, with exile. It's the state I've been in ever since Covid. I can relate to it viscerally. Back in 2020 I watched everyone around me pivot 180 degrees while I went, WTF just happened? Ever since, I've felt what I call the fracture - fracture from society as a whole, and most unnervingly from my friends and family. I've lost so many friends to propaganda, I've lost count. And in all this I feel the call to strengthen my mettle, to live or die in truth come what may. Yes, I may revert occasionally to maintain some kind of connection, some rapport with my fellow humans who are unable to hear truth. As you so succinctly put, these are casualties of war and we need to treat them as such. Doing battle with an injured kindred is unwise as it is unkind. Most of the time I feel incognito. Rarely do I get the chance to connect in truth, in dissidence from the regime. But there's a rising tide of all of us, as you point out, intent on breaking the dam of falsehood and coercion. Those of us in exile are returning.
This is brilliant, Frank. As far as I know, you are the only voice out there who explains what has been done to us and why. You give us the bigger picture which makes complete sense of this madness. I had many moments reading this thinking ‘that was me’ or ‘that reminds me of this person…’.
This is a wonderful essay which I hope reaches many people. Thank you, Frank for your perspicacity.
Truth may be dangerous, but it's ultimately our greatest tool for positive change and I think you really hit that nail on the head here. We must follow Christ's example and stand firm in truth no matter the consequences.
Frank,
this is a powerful diagnosis. You've mapped the psychological machinery of the "liberal regime" with real precision, the information overload, the social penalties, the "cop in the head." I've shared your work because it matters.
But I want to press you on one thing.
*You name the "consumer-credit system". You describe the "knowledge economy" and the "addiction economy". But you never name what actually makes that system run: money itself. *
Today, all the money in circulation is created by private banks as interest-bearing debt when they issue loans.
The sovereign power to create money, the power explicitly granted to Congress in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, has been outsourced to a private banking cartel. This is not a conspiracy theory. It is the operational reality documented by the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve. The government merely prints and mints the currency which it sells to the banks at cost for their customers’ cash needs.
Why does this matter for your diagnosis?
• The information overload you describe is funded by advertising revenue which is ultimately debt-created money chasing eyeballs.
• The "consumer-credit system" is built on privately created money.
• The "total system" of repeat consumption requires perpetual growth to service the compounding interest on that debt.
• The social penalties for dissent are enforced by institutions, universities, media, and NGOs that are themselves financially dependent on the same donor class that benefits from the status quo.
Your "liberal regime" is not just a psychological operation. It is a financial operation with a psychological wing. The "cop in the head" is not just social conditioning; it is the internalized logic of a system where your mortgage, your student debt, and your pension are all denominated in money created by private banks.
You write that "to recover your capacity to think and decide for yourself... you must understand why this function is not an accident". I agree. But we must also understand the material architecture that makes it possible.
The cure you don't name is sovereign money.
When the state creates and issues currency directly, without private bank intermediation, the entire architecture changes:
• The debt-growth imperative is removed. War is no longer profitable for financiers.
• The seigniorage returns to the public, not to bank shareholders.
• Policy is no longer hostage to the bond market. Genuine democratic sovereignty becomes possible.
Mental hygiene is valuable. But it is an individual solution to a systemic problem. Until we name the monetary architecture, we are treating symptoms. Money is much more than an economic tool, it is a cultiral artifact that influnces human behavior, how people interact, what they value, and even how they define success. It is a powerful psychological influence and its design matters.
I'd welcome your thoughts. Here is my framework: https://howardswitzer.substack.com/p/a-restorative-justice-campaign-for
If you oppose the Government's hellish Utopia, you are, in the words of Milan Kundera: "spitting in the face of the smiling brotherhood."
One question, is it plausible that the firewall is failing because of texting, social media etc? Face to face conversations seem to reinforce social compliance, while even the slight anonymity of texting allows for a more liberated ability to say what you think. And of course social media has proved fairly ineffective at actually silencing all decent, just the loudest voices.
Yes. The machine can’t contain the consequences it has created. Breakdown is underway. It’s about what comes after. I am for a better not worse future.
I lost a lot of friends during COVID. Most of them are still alive.
My two penneth: the healthy thing to do is get off X, TikTok and Instagram; they are almost entirely slop, manufacturing a mood and calling it news, and, more seriously, making unfounded or uninformed accusations.
The only reliable source, anyway, is your own eyes and ears: what you see on your own street, what you decide to watch, listen to and do with your time. Too many people who say they want change won't do the work; they want the easy option, which is to follow others rather than take responsibility, because, at the end of the day, nothing meaningful changes until the individual makes the changes necessary in their own life.
Excellent. Powerful. Inspiring.
Thank you.
I like your eloquence but your words make me think of what my Dad said to me shortly before he died: "Do the right thing.".
That sticks with me and I try to do so. I don't always succeed but I continue to try.
I DO know right from wrong. I suspect we all do.
The best way to push away the memes and detritus of modern life is to pray.
Say the Rosary and the Stations of the Cross. Go to mass, and if you can, Matins and Lauds. Speak to God, and listen in the silence, where He is. Nevermind the noise -- whether it's well-intentioned or malevolent.
Embracing silence and praying is the most counter-modern thing you can do. Your attention belongs to God.
This is very encouraging. Many quotes spring to mind, but perhaps this one from Horkheimer is best:
"The resistant individual will oppose any pragmatic attempt to reconcile the demands of truth and the irrationalities of existence. Rather than to sacrifice truth by conforming to prevailing standards, he will insist on expressing in his life as much truth as he can, both in theory and in practice. His will be a life of conflict; he must be ready to run the risk of utter loneliness."
This needn't be disheartening, though. As you say, it offers the opportunity for a genuinely heroic life.
En garde for those hero's with clay feet. !
You shall cross the barren desert,
but you shall not die of thirst.
You shall wander far in safety though you do not know the way.
You shall speak your words in foreign lands and all will understand.
You shall see the face of God and live.
If you pass through raging waters in the sea, you shall not drown.
If you walk amid the burning flames, you shall not be harmed.
If you stand before the pow'r of hell and death is at your side,
know that I am with you through it all.
Be not afraid. I go before you always.
Come, follow me, and I will give you rest.
"Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
The minister at 10th Church in Philadelphia always opened his sermon with this.
It’s been so long since I’ve listened to that hymn. Thank you.
Dear Frank, keep up the excellent work.
Confined To Conformity
Confined to conformity
Stuck in your ways
Living so uniformly
Trapped in your maze
by Mark R. Elsis
March 19, 1980
MoralParty.com Newsletter 4, July 25, 2026
Spiritual Moral Party Platform Section Two
“The Kingdom Of God Is Within You.” (26:31) Jesus Christ
Demolishing Eden by Roman Bystrianyk
The Hail Mary (5:48) by Father James Mawdsley
https://moralparty.com/2026/07/25/newsletter-4-july-25-2026
Love Is The Answer
Mark R. Elsis