Brace [1:27:07]: If they're mind controlling Paul [Bonacci], what are they mind controlling him to do? Because it seems like they just mind controlled him to be like a guy who lives like a fucked up shitty life.
Nick: Well the thing about it is---my understanding of mind control is [that] there has to be like---when you get the latest operating system there has to be updates, and if there isn't that then the mind control starts disintegrating---you have to kind of be up on it. Add ultimately you've done a lot of horrific stuff to this individual, and ultimately when their alters disintegrate they're ultimately going to be someone that's very very damaged.
He's not saying that people were literally programmed like computers. He was explaining how a person who was presumably once a useful intelligence asset could become psychologically damaged and dysfunctional after being discarded by the agency, and he made an analogy to a Windows computer that badly needs updates (because he probably has a boomer-brain understanding of computers). I think a better analogy would be "Paul had a very fragile psyche and he required constant conditioning by his handlers. When they abandoned him, he broke down."
Most of the concrete shit I've heard about mind control is like how Brace puts it, they "mind control" someone into being a destroyed human being, and if you're all fucked up and only want to avoid further pain and trauma then yeah you can be coerced into doing shit.
But mind control and brain washing gives a big air of mystique and sophistication to what ultimately appears to be systematically traumatizing a person constantly.
He's not saying that people were literally programmed like computers. He was explaining how a person who was presumably once a useful intelligence asset could become psychologically damaged and dysfunctional after being discarded by the agency, and he made an analogy to a Windows computer that badly needs updates (because he probably has a boomer-brain understanding of computers). I think a better analogy would be "Paul had a very fragile psyche and he required constant conditioning by his handlers. When they abandoned him, he broke down."
Most of the concrete shit I've heard about mind control is like how Brace puts it, they "mind control" someone into being a destroyed human being, and if you're all fucked up and only want to avoid further pain and trauma then yeah you can be coerced into doing shit.
But mind control and brain washing gives a big air of mystique and sophistication to what ultimately appears to be systematically traumatizing a person constantly.
Right. Understandable how it would result in a broken person.