The Human Flaw

Given enough time, anyone can be made to believe anything.

Being human is exhausting. Not because of the physical limitations or the inevitability of aging, but because of how flawed, how easily corruptible, how weak the human mind is. People like to believe they are rational beings, that their thoughts and decisions are their own, but history, psychology, and everyday life prove exactly the opposite of that. Given enough time, anyone can be turned, twisted, reshaped into something they never thought they’d become, they can accept (or turn a blind eye to) things that contradicts all their beliefs. The mind is not some fortress of reason and free will, it is a malleable, fragile thing, easily manipulated, easily fooled, easily owned.

Control doesn’t need chains or threats. It doesn’t even require intelligence, just an understanding of basic human needs. The need to belong, the need to be accepted, the need to be heard, the need to be right, the need to have an enemy or a focus of hate and negative emotions, those are the levers of mass control, and they work every single time. It’s why dictators rise, why propaganda works, why corruption thrives, why entire nations can be led to ruin while their people cheer for it. A leader, a movement, an ideology, it doesn’t have to be good, logical, or even remotely beneficial to society. It just has to provide a sense of unity, a common enemy, and a narrative that allows people to believe they are on the right side. That’s it. The rest falls into place naturally (Of course it also needs someone to go up the stage and start the manipulation, they do need certain level of charisma and convincing power, even some hints of bravery, but that too, is not unusual).

People love to pretend that education is the antidote to manipulation, but that’s just another comforting lie. Some of the most educated people in the world, people with degrees, credentials, and high IQs, fall into the same traps as anyone else, just because they are smart or excel in one academic field, doesn’t mean that they are immune to manipulations. The need to belong overrides intelligence. The need to be right warps perception. When enough people within a group repeat the same ideas, reality itself becomes secondary. They start believing in absurdities, defending the indefensible, justifying things that should be obviously wrong. Entire populations will stand behind a leader laundering money, funding destruction, pushing policies that objectively harm them, because the alternative would be admitting they were wrong, or to not belong anymore, to be an outcast. And that’s something the human mind refuses to do. Even I constantly struggle to force myself out of my bubbles, to fact-check the “truths” I am told. But it’s exhausting, an extra effort that, more often than not, I ignore. And just like that, I too end up believing misinformation just because someone I normally believe in told those lies, just because we are in the same group, the same bubble.

History is filled with people who were decent, rational, maybe even kind, only to end up serving or supporting something monstrous. Monarchs, presidents, dictators, they don’t rule alone, they are not Gods or Super Humans, they are just people. Their power is not in themselves, but in the people who follow, who cheer, who make excuses. It’s never just the uneducated or the desperate, of course their volume and loudness certainly helps, and a lot, but it is never only them, it’s lawyers, doctors, professors, artists, scientists. Smart people, people who should know better. The first handful will be certainly bribed into participation, but given time, given pressure, given the right combination of social isolation and ideological reinforcement, all other “smart people” will change. They adapt. They justify. What was once unacceptable becomes tolerable, then normal, then righteous. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it happens.

The human mind can make peace with anything if it means staying within the safety of a group. That’s why even the most ridiculous ideas gain traction. The flat earth movement is a perfect example, just like many other conspiracy theories. What started as an internet joke became accepted in in small isolated groups, that grew, that got together, and then turned into a growing global bubble of delusion, where members reject basic reality just to maintain their shared identity. The facts don’t matter anymore, only the group, only the sense of belonging, only the narrative that reinforces their position. And this isn’t some fringe, isolated phenomenon. This is how movements work. This is how people get pulled into cults, into political extremism, into supporting things that actively harm them. The method is always the same, because the human mind always bends the same way. We got a few thousands of years controlled by religion, monarchs, and now by politicians, but it never changes, we never learn, we only want to belong.

It’s a flaw that can’t be fixed, only exploited. The people in power know this, they always have. Every dictator, every manipulative leader, every ideological movement that gains an irrational following, they all rely on the same principles. They don’t need to make sense, they just need to provide structure, enemies, and a sense of righteousness, and people will follow:

• The Crusades – We are right, God wills it. Killing infidels, reclaiming the Holy Land, and waging war in the name of faith is our divine duty. Those who oppose us are heretics, and their deaths are justified.
• The Nazis – We are right, our nation has been betrayed and weakened by outsiders, and it is our duty to purify it. The Jews, the Slavs, the disabled, and anyone who does not fit our vision must be removed for the good of the Reich.
• The Soviet – We are right, the enemies of the revolution are everywhere, hiding among us, and they must be eliminated for the survival of communism. Trust only the Party, report your neighbors, and purge the traitors before they destroy us.
• The Rwandan – (yes, Africa too or course) We are right, the Tutsi have oppressed us for generations, and now we must wipe them out before they wipe us out. We are the true people of Rwanda, and our survival depends on their extermination.
• The Spanish Inquisition – We are right, heretics and blasphemers threaten the purity of the faith, and we must root them out. Confess, repent, or burn, the soul must be saved at any cost (the gold and lands we are stealing are just a plus).
• The Mongol – We are right, the world belongs to the strong. Resistance is treason, and those who oppose us must be exterminated. We bring order, but only through absolute domination.
• The Roman – We are right, these Christians refuse to honor the gods and the emperor, and they threaten the unity of Rome. Their refusal to conform is treason, and they must be punished to maintain stability.
• South Africa – We are right, racial segregation is necessary to maintain order and protect civilization. The white minority must rule, and the black majority must be kept in their place for the good of society. Resistance is terrorism, and those who oppose us must be silenced.
• The USA – (just one of several examples here) We are right, slavery is the foundation of our economy and way of life. The abolitionists and the federal government want to take away our freedoms and destroy our heritage. We must fight to preserve our rights, and those who resist us are enemies.

And so it goes. Over and over, century after century, the same justifications, the same patterns, the same blind obedience to whatever idea offers comfort and certainty. The faces change, the flags change, the slogans change, but the mechanics remain the same. A story is told, an enemy is named, and the people fall in line. It doesn’t matter how absurd, how destructive, how obviously wrong it is, once belief takes hold, reality becomes irrelevant. The past should have been enough of a warning, but it never is. Because the flaw is still there, waiting to be used. And it always will be The Human Flaw.