Abstract

This essay examines why, despite unprecedented access to information and evidence, people repeatedly make poor decisions in both political and consumer domains. Framed through two linked themes—the modern transformation of the concept of the person and the erosion of self-awareness—it argues that contemporary propaganda succeeds less by defeating facts than by reshaping the conditions under which facts are interpreted. The essay contends that an older model of personhood as a moral, deliberative agent is increasingly displaced by an operational model of the individual as a profile: a datafied, segmentable, and predictable target optimized for influence. In parallel, self-awareness is treated as a metacognitive safeguard; the reflective pause that enables individuals to notice manipulation, regulate emotion, and align action with values, yet this pause is systematically undermined by attention-engineered media environments that reward speed, arousal, and identity signaling. By comparing political propaganda and marketing persuasion, the essay highlights their shared influence architecture (segmentation, narrative, emotional priming, repetition) and addresses common counterarguments about efficiency, personal responsibility, and free speech. It concludes that restoring evidence-based decision-making requires more than supplying facts: it demands rebuilding both the internal capacities (self-awareness) and the external institutional conditions (transparency, accountability, and incentive alignment) that protect human agency in an age of pervasive influence.

It usually starts small.

You open your phone to check one thing—weather, homework, a message—and fifteen minutes later you’re in a different emotional climate entirely. A clip has made you angry. A headline has made you anxious. An ad has made you vaguely dissatisfied with your life. You haven’t decided to feel these things. They arrived first, and only afterward did your brain begin building reasons.

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In a world where information is everywhere and change accelerates like a runaway conveyor belt, the old signals of advantage: performative hustle, polished credentials, and well-worn career scripts no longer cut through. He watches founders pitch louder while margins thin, a shop owner refreshes dashboards that multiply without clarifying, a salesperson cycles through scripts that once worked, and a student stacks certificates like charms on a bracelet. They are busy, but busyness is not the same as progress. The ones who move ahead look different. They learn what to learn and how to turn learning into impact. They do it quietly, methodically, and their advantage compounds.

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