Almost every person wants something. As long as there is desire, there will be supply. That is why no one is immune to manipulation. A person may want something for themselves, for their loved ones, for their children, or may want to see their values professed by society and the state. And so there will always be someone willing to offer what someone wants—or at least the hope of it. The other side simply has to believe. And, of course, be ready to give something in return. Most often in advance. Labor, diligence, self-sacrifice, money—whatever is expected. But this is just trade; there is nothing inherently wrong with it.

What becomes problematic is when someone begins to define what people should want. That is the core principle of manipulation: the manipulator makes the manipulated want what the manipulator offers. The person wants—the manipulator provides. Everything else—what is desired and at what price—is a detail subject to adjustment. What matters is that the manipulator gains control over the person: over their desires, their attitudes, and their behavior. Or over those of the masses. Desire is the hook on which a person is caught. Any kind of bait can be placed on it, and it is even possible to train an individual to “bite” bait they would normally ignore. This is the job of PR specialists, advertisers, psychologists, sociologists, and so on. Desires can gradually be shifted, transformed, modeled, associated, unconsciously pushed, presented in a certain positive or negative light, and so forth. Desires are connected to emotions, motives, causes, associations, symbols, and other elements that manipulators can work with. The plasticity of desires—and of the emotions and associations tied to them—is directly proportional to the naïveté and confusion of the individual. There are many techniques for activating and influencing desires. One example is the use of symbolic words, discussed earlier. These symbolic words carry emotional charge; they trigger emotions. Such words include freedom, happiness, joy, success, family, security, home, children, victory, and so on.

In the chapter on symbols and advertising, this technique was addressed. The example used was Coca-Cola, though it could just as easily have been many other brands. Coca-Cola has aimed at happiness. Understandable—everyone wants happiness. Well, Coca-Cola gives happiness. Choose happiness—take Coca-Cola. It’s that simple.

If you’ve already taken Coca-Cola, you now have happiness—but perhaps you also need freedom? No problem. With a new model of a high-clearance SUV you will certainly gain the freedom to go wherever you like. Or if you use a particular airline, you will also have the freedom to soar through the clouds, sipping your Johnnie Walker at 10,000 meters altitude—because you keep walking forward—while holding a cigar from a famous brand in your other hand, created especially for the refined taste of successful people like you.

And if you want stability and security, don’t forget to vote for the party that offers them most insistently in its campaign. You can also deposit your savings in a bank that likewise provides stability and security.

Desires are managed, formed, educated. They standardize people within a group and separate them from other groups. In this way, several standard types of people are formed, each occupying their own ideological, behavioral, consumer, financial, and other sector. These types form classes—or perhaps it would be more accurate to call them castes.

Where previous dictatorships forced people to do things—through threats or violence—modern regimes try to ensure that people themselves desire and choose what power wants from them and for them. Because if the individual is programmable and subject to modeling, then in fact there is no individual at all—and if there is no individual, there is no resistance, and therefore no reason for power to be reproached for anything whatsoever.