New World Order (conspiracy theory)

===Mind control===
Social critics accuse governments, corporations, and the [[mass media]] of being involved in the [[propaganda model|manufacturing of a national consensus]] and, paradoxically, a [[culture of fear]] due to the potential for increased [[social control]] that a mistrustful and mutually fearing population might offer to those in power. The worst fear of some conspiracy theorists, however, is that the New World Order will be implemented through the use of [[mind control]]—a broad range of tactics able to subvert an individual's control of their own thinking, behavior, emotions, or decisions. These tactics are said to include everything from [[The Manchurian Candidate|Manchurian candidate]]-style [[brainwashing]] of [[sleeper agent]]s ([[Project MKULTRA]], "[[Project Monarch]]") to engineering [[psychological operations]] ([[water fluoridation]], [[subliminal message|subliminal advertising]], "[[microwave auditory effect|Silent Sound Spread Spectrum]]", [[MEDUSA (weapon)|MEDUSA]]) and [[parapsychology|parapsychological]] operations ([[Stargate Project]]) to influence the masses.<ref name="Harrington 1996">{{cite journal|author=Harrington, Evan|title=Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia: Notes from a Mind-Control Conference|journal=[[Skeptical Inquirer]] |date=1996|url=http://www.csicop.org/si/9609/conspiracy.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080317115600/http://csicop.org/si/9609/conspiracy.html|archive-date=17 March 2008|access-date=23 July 2009}}</ref> The concept of wearing a [[tin foil hat]] for protection from such threats has become a popular stereotype and term of derision; the phrase serves as a byword for [[paranoia]] and is associated with conspiracy theorists.

Skeptics argue that the paranoia behind a conspiracy theorist's obsession with [[mind control]], [[population control]], [[occultism]], [[surveillance abuse]], [[Big Business]], [[Big Government]], and [[globalization]] arises from a combination of two factors, when he or she: 1) holds strong [[individualist]] values and 2) lacks [[power (philosophy)|power]]. The first attribute refers to people who care deeply about an individual's right to make their own choices and direct their own lives without interference or obligations to a larger system (like the government), but combine this with a sense of powerlessness in one's own life. One gets what some psychologists call "[[agency (philosophy)|agency]] panic," intense anxiety about an apparent loss of autonomy to outside forces or regulators. When fervent individualists feel that they cannot exercise their independence, they experience a crisis and assume that larger forces are to blame for usurping this freedom.<ref name="Shrira 2008">{{cite journal|first1=Ilan|last1=Shrira|title=Paranoia and the roots of conspiracy theories – September 11 and the psychological roots of conspiracy theories|journal=Psychology Today|date=11 September 2008|url=http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-narcissus-in-all-us/200809/paranoia-and-the-roots-conspiracy-theories|access-date=14 July 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=0-8014-8606-8|last=Melley|first=Timothy|title=Empire of Conspiracy: The Culture of Paranoia in Postwar America|date=December 1999}}</ref>