Tag: SAGE

We're publishing an original piece today by Dr James Moreton Wakeley, a former Parliamentary researcher, about the Government's shameful use of sophisticated psychological techniques to terrify the British public.

by Dr. James Moreton Wakeley Fear is our most powerful emotion. It triggers our deepest animal instincts and makes us act in irrational ways. We find ourselves fighting, fleeing, or hiding. We look only to our own safety, forget how to think, and become heedless of anything or anyone else. Fear is the ultimate master of the mind. Employing it as a form of influence, however softly, however subliminally, can profoundly change behaviour and cause lasting mental trauma. Enemies do it in times of war to undermine their foe’s morale and will to resist. It is the tactic used by totalitarian regimes throughout history to compel obedience. And it is the tactic that the British government, for the past year, has consciously employed to turn us into the compliant subjects of lockdown. Using such behavioural science to ‘nudge’ us into acting in certain ways is not new. As conceived by the Cameron government, harnessing ‘nudge theory’ to encourage people ‘to make better choices for themselves’ without resorting to the compulsion of law is not necessarily malign. Yet the ways in which behavioural science has been employed over the course of the past year demonstrates the deep truth of the old aphorism that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) is ...

The role of SAGE is likely to be reviewed when the pandemic is over. Some Government insiders have already admitted to having "bowed to" the advisory group too often over the past year.