Video Games, Predictive Programming, and the 21st Century Skinner BoxPerhaps the most encouraging development in fostering freedom in our modern era is therise of effective counter-propaganda to the machinations of Globalism, the likes of which have (arguably)not been circulated so widely since the pamphleteers of the 16th and 17th Centuries. The digital era has brought rise to propaganda and psychological warfares perfect foil: The alternative medias adoption of open source intelligence analysis. However, if one were pondering why the first-person shooter they just purchased for their Xbox was laden with pro-war propaganda while simultaneously training the player in reflexive shooting, one might have a more difficult task ahead of them; despite the vast influence of the gaming industry on 21st Century culture, virtually no investigative mettle has been assigned to the task of rooting out Deep State actors within the field. That is, until today. Foundations, Think Tanks, and Academia: The Usual Suspects and the Revolving Door Collusion between video game developers and the Military Industrial Complex has come a long way since Ataris 1980 tank combat gameBattlezonewas used by the US Army as a Bradley tank training simulator. Its come an equally long way since the 1996 creation of Marine DOOM. The vector graphics of Yesteryear have given way to ever-increasing polygon counts, the shoot-em-ups of the 2D-gaming era dissipating in a sea of first-person shooters (or FPS games). The US Army, too, has evolved in kind; no longer aresuch training simulators masquerading as video games aimed merely at enlistees, but the populous at large. In this respect, the Armys pet project, Americas Army, is the Bradley Tank Simulators modern analogue. Originally published in 2002 (with over 40iterations released since as of 2015),Americas Army is the brainchild of oneColonel Casey Wardynski. Running on the widely used Unreal Engine, the game is distributed at no cost on multiple platforms; in line with Wardynskis original vision, the series intention is to [use] computer game technology to provide the public a virtual Soldier experience that was engaging, informative and entertaining. In other words, a soldier simulation FPS, more realistic than its big-budget, Hollywood-esque counterparts. Some might even characterize it as military training software, somewhatham-fistedly andmorbidly marketed the towards the very teenagers and young men the Army intends to recruit. Colonel Wardynski, the architect of this marketing and conditioning strategy, is arenaissanceman as Globalists are concerned. An economist, Professor, Colonel, game designer, Ivy Leaguer, and, most recently, Huntsville, AL Superintendent, Wardynskis biography reads like that of a polymath: Most interesting is his post-graduate degree, attained from the highly selectiveRAND Graduate School, an offshoot of theavowedly Globalist RAND Corporation,graduatinga mere 100 students per year. Simultaneously a Think Tank, policy analyst, andpropagandist, the RAND Corporation, like Colonel Wardynski, wears many hats. Widely known as an integral componentof the Military Industrial Complexs well-oiled psychological warfare machine, that the RAND Corporation would produce a man like Wardynski is less than shocking. RANDs constant ability to evolve its propagandistic ambitions, from Radio Free Europe of the 20th Century to the video games of today, however, is a noteworthy feat. Taking into accountthesizable Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford Foundation grants issued to RAND throughout the decades, itspervasive influence is more easily explained. As a disciple of RAND, Wardynskis acknowledgement of game theoryin the form ofAmericas Armydisplays his creative appreciation for history, if nothing else. The RAND Corporation is hardly alone within the Military Industrial Complex in its pursuit of games-based propaganda. The infamous DARPA and CIA subcontractor, SRI International, is also hard at work developing video games, though its project takes a radically different approach:Operant conditioning of childrenin the classroom. Like RAND, the Stanford Research Institute, or SRI, has a long, diverse, and to the discerning eye, somewhat disreputable history. From the seemingly strange to the ruthlessly pragmatic, SRI has offered its unique skillset to many a government agency. In the 1970s, they were a witting CIA subcontractor in the pursuit of psychic supersoldiers, which, according to the CIA, yielded actionable intelligence. More recently, SRI created Apples artificial intelligence, SIRI, yet many remain unaware of the fact that SIRI is merely the civilian iteration of a military AI, developed by SRI for DARPA. Did I mention that SRIcreated nearly all of modern computing back in 1968? From the computer mouse to hypertext, from word processing to videoconferencing, SRI, in cooperation with ARPA (using the ARPANET), NASA, and the Air Force, is the progenitor of our 21st Century Technotronic Era: SRI is now leveraging its vast experience in the technological realm with its foray into Digital Games for Learning, ostensibly creating conditioning software focused on the cognitive effects of simulations in K-12 STEM education. STEM (or Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) is the latest educational initiative in a long line of Prussian-style reforms and afocus of the oft-criticized Common Core agenda. Where Common Core lurks, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is never far behind, making their partnership with SRI Education in this venture somewhat predictable: Youre welcome to read GlassLabs wordy executive report on Digital Games for STEM Learning,but in brief, SRI and the Gates Foundation havedetermined what marketers at Sony, Nintendo, and Gates own Microsoft have known for decades: Video games are an excellent way to operantly and classically condition children.Gone are the days of focus on literature, the Arts, and the Trivium Method of learning necessary to create independent and holistic minds. SRI, the Gates Foundation, and popular game creator and publisher Electronic Arts(progenitor of the propaganda-ladenBattlefieldseries) will now pump out automatons using a digital Skinner Box: Simply set your kids (lab rats) in front ofyour fancy new iPad(operant conditioning chamber) and enjoy your new and improved human resource. No parenting necessary. The Simulacra isGates, SRI, and Common Core approved! Hopefully the Foundationswell-documented history as eugenicists doesnt play on your unpsychopathic conscience. Theres a pill for that, I think. This endemic relationship between the military, academia, Foundations, and the gaming industry recently manifested on the global stage by way of Syrizas Yanis Varoufakis. Before playing the role of Hero of the People as Syrizas Finance Minister, Varoufakis was a Cambridge fellow, member of the Globalist Brookings Institution, and former Economic Advisor to Papandreou, the man responsible for brokering Greeces austerity deal with the EU in the first place. His career also includes a foray into the gaming industry as a private consultant for the VALVE Corporation, founded by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington and creators of famous titles like the dystopian FPS Half-Life and first-person puzzle game Portal. VALVE also operates the popular game distribution platform, STEAM, which distributes the aforementioned Americas Army. Asadvancements in artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, and technological convergence coalesce into the emergence of the post-human era, the capable eyes of open source intelligence analysts should turn their glancetowards the gaming industry as a tool of propaganda, as has readily been done with literature, Hollywood, and television. The few documented connections outlined herein are merely a foundation upon which others will (hopefully) build far more complete works. Psychological Warfares Call of Duty In addition to military training and conditioning software, the psychological warfare tactic known as predictive programming is also alive and well in modern video games. Infinity WardsFPS series, Call of Duty, which isknown for its bombastic, Michael Bay-esque Hollywood style, fittingly envisioned the 2013 Syria Crisisin its 2007 title, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The game focuses upon two branching military campaigns: One by the Marine Corps in an unnamed Middle Eastern country (situated on the in-game map directly atop modern Syria) run by a cartoonish dictator generically referred to as none other than Al-Asad, the other by aBritish SAS team combating ultranationalist Russians who are supporting this thinly veiledtin-pot Arabic dictator. After a patriotic romp through Central Asia, Al-Asad predictably (predicatively?) uses Weapons of Mass Destruction on his own people, leading to a climactic final battle at a Russian nuclear site in a bid to avoid World War III. The plot is so reminiscent ofthe mainstream media coverage amidst the2013 chemical False Flag blamed on actual Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad,that its surprising to see that no one(to my knowledge) has yet drawn the comparison. Readers are encouraged to decide for themselves. The Call of Duty series latest entry adds a twist of Transhumanist futurism to the mix; Call of Duty: Black Ops IIIs trailer recountshumanitys potential future, looking back from the 2060s on the development of Cybernetics, Technocracy, and super soldiers. Its even complete with an Edward Snowden lookalike: While this retrospective ignores Google employee and futurist Ray Kurzweils predicted Singularity of 2045, it does imply the fulfillment of another Kurzweil vision, World Government. It is at this point in our investigation (much to this authors chagrin) at which open-source intelligence begins to fall short; unlike the intelligence networks in Hollywood mapped out by researchers like Tom Secker of SpyCulture, the gaming industry has no similar analogue with which to explore these loose hypotheses further. In a personal attempt to begin creating a document trail, I decided to pluck at (or in this case, FOIA for) the low-hanging fruit: The widely attributedMilitary Industrial Complex assistance to FPS games like Call of Duty, enshrined in most military game credits: Filing a request with each listed branch in kind, I inquired for the following documents: In addition, I filed a number of more general requests for information on military assistance to the games industry in general, all of which were flatly rejected. The Marine Corps has yet to respond to my Call of Duty 4 request in full, but one division has Marine Aircraft Group 39 who sent me the following: You can read the denial in full here; but, unfortunately, it seems the meticulous and disciplined record-keepers at the USMC have either lost these documents upon HMLA-775s decommissioning or never had them in the first place. However, a third possibility exists: Theyre simply not looking hard enough. It is at this point that I implore readers, researchers, and curious minds alike to file FOIA requests of your own on government assistance to the gaming industry. While FOIA is far from a perfect tool, thisshould hardly dissuade individuals from utilizing it while it still exists. Targeting information on an industry whose Military Industrial Complex funding is virtually undocumented, yet has stillcome to rival the distribution and revenue of Hollywoodseems a worthwhile task that, with enough effort, may very well yield important revelations. File a Federal FOIA Request (By Agency) Central Intelligence Agency:http://www.foia.cia.gov/foia_request (Note: This authors experience has been that the various branches of the armed forces, especially the Army and USMC, are far less reticent in answeringFOIA requests than their intelligence counterparts. Uncomfortable filing FOIA requests? No problem! Your assistance is still needed in cross-referencing the staff of Americas Armywith other FPS titles like Battlefield, Call of Duty, and Microsofts Halo.) Blogging under the pseudonym of Rusticus, the author and freedom activist operates a website tracing the machinations of the Anglo-American Establishment throughout history while simultaneously documenting the process of creating a truly off-grid homestead. (www.statelesshomesteading.com) Thanks, really interesting and thought provoking! 