In the 1980s, former Soviet journalist and KGB informant Yuri Bezmenov, also known as Tomas Schuman, exposed a systematic process designed to manipulate and weaken societies from within. While his insights were framed as Cold War intelligence, they hold a mirror to the deeper strategies of control that have shaped history and continue to dictate the modern world. His revelations outline how institutions manipulate entire populations, maintaining power structures that favor the elite while keeping the majority in a state of confusion and dependency.
The Four Stages of Ideological Subversion and the Manipulation of Society
Bezmenov described ideological subversion as a four-step process designed to alter a population’s perception of reality. This method is not just a geopolitical tactic—it is an enduring strategy used to maintain control over marginalized communities and suppress movements that seek justice and autonomy:
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Demoralization – Over the span of 15 to 20 years (the time needed to educate a generation), institutions reshape history, culture, and public discourse to serve those in power. Education no longer fosters critical thinking but conditions people to accept the status quo. Communities fighting for their rights are vilified, while those who uphold the existing structures are celebrated. The truth is buried beneath layers of propaganda, ensuring that even when presented with facts, people struggle to recognize them.
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Destabilization – Once minds are conditioned, the next step is to weaken key aspects of society: economic security, healthcare, civil rights, and public trust. Widespread inequality is not an accident—it is an essential feature of control. Economic policies disproportionately harm working-class people, healthcare becomes a privilege instead of a right, and basic freedoms are chipped away under the guise of safety and stability.
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Crisis – A moment of upheaval—whether economic collapse, civil unrest, or a manufactured moral panic—is leveraged to justify extreme measures. Laws are passed to increase surveillance, dissent is criminalized, and those who protest are labeled threats to stability. Fear and division prevent the masses from organizing, as they are too occupied with survival to question who benefits from the chaos.
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Normalization – Once the crisis has served its purpose, new restrictions on freedom and justice become permanent. The public, exhausted from struggle, accepts these conditions as the new reality. History is rewritten, ensuring that future generations will view oppression as natural rather than constructed. The cycle then begins again, reinforcing the system that benefits the few at the expense of the many.
The Real-Time Consequences of Ideological Subversion
Today, the evidence of this process is undeniable:
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Education as a Tool of Control – The erasure of historical atrocities, the suppression of radical ideas, and the demonization of thinkers who challenge power all serve to prevent a collective awakening. Schools no longer teach history as a struggle for liberation but as a series of events that conveniently justify the present order.
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The Economic Trap – Wages stagnate while the cost of living skyrockets. Debt becomes a tool of enslavement, forcing people to spend their lives working for survival rather than questioning why a system of abundance leaves so many in scarcity. Exploitation is repackaged as opportunity, and those who resist are told they simply lack the will to succeed.
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Manufactured Crises and the Expansion of Control – Every crisis, whether real or orchestrated, is met with the same response: increased government and corporate control. Emergency measures never seem to expire, and new laws restricting speech, assembly, and bodily autonomy become permanent fixtures of society.
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The Normalization of Injustice – Inequality is reframed as meritocracy. Violence against marginalized communities is dismissed as unfortunate rather than systemic. Freedoms are rebranded as privileges, and those who question these realities are painted as extremists.
What Would Machiavelli and Leonardo da Vinci Say?
Niccolò Machiavelli, the master strategist of power and deception, would recognize ideological subversion as the ultimate tool of rulers who seek to maintain control without direct force. In The Prince, he advises leaders that it is better to manipulate perception than to rule by brute strength alone. A ruler who can control minds—shaping what people believe, fear, and accept—can maintain power indefinitely. The demoralization and destabilization Bezmenov described would fit seamlessly into Machiavelli’s philosophy: keep the people distracted, divided, and dependent, and they will never rebel.
Yet Leonardo da Vinci, the visionary and polymath, would likely offer a counterpoint. As a man who sought truth beyond imposed limits, he might argue that the only antidote to subversion is the relentless pursuit of knowledge and the unshackling of the mind. His fascination with anatomy, engineering, and art was driven by a need to see reality as it was—not as it was dictated. He defied authority in his studies, dissecting bodies when the Church forbade it, experimenting when dogma demanded conformity. Leonardo would remind us that the way out of ideological subversion is through intellectual and creative rebellion—by thinking for oneself and daring to challenge the constructed narratives of power.
Reclaiming Truth and Power
Bezmenov made it clear that the antidote to ideological subversion is awareness, resistance, and the courage to reclaim the narrative. The battle is not just against external enemies but against the internal conditioning that keeps people compliant. To break the cycle, we must question the stories we are told, reject the divisions imposed upon us, and recognize that justice is not given—it is taken.
Machiavelli would warn us to understand the strategies of oppression, while Leonardo would encourage us to transcend them. The world will not change until people see through the illusions designed to keep them powerless. The question remains—how much longer will the masses remain asleep to the forces shaping their reality?