The PPP Government Has Used Behavioral Psychology to suppress Guyanese

The PPP Government Has Used Behavioral Psychology to suppress Guyanese

Fellow Guyanese, Greetings!

Recently I had a conversation with an S O P Party follower that I am fully acquainted with. During the conversation I ask him the Question “Are you willing to stand for a position in the local government for region six”. His Answer was “My brother as long as I am living in Guyana I am not interested in getting involved in politics”. And continue to contrast and compare according to him “the CCJ and their flawed ruling on the Guyana Election”. His conclusion is “politics in Guyana the government will get rid of you when you are against them”.

Well it’s sad to say that his feelings and opinions are of the same of about 95% of the Afro Guyanese living in or out of Guyana.

As the Co-founder and Co-leader of the SOP Party I think this is the right time for the party to call to your attention and at the same time educate you on what has been happening to every Guyanese, but more so Afro Guyanese. It is called Classical and Operant Conditioning in Behavioral Psychology.

There are several types of behavioral psychology but I am only going to refer and make mention of two a) Classical Conditioning and b) Operant conditioning that has been use by the PPP government.   

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Classical conditioning is a form of learning studied by Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, also known as Pavlovian conditioning or respondent conditioning. It is the procedure of learning to associate an unconditioned stimulus that already brings about an involuntary response, or unconditioned response, with a new, neutral stimulus so that this new stimulus can also bring about the same response. The new stimulus then becomes a conditioned stimulus and the newly learned behavior is a conditioned response to that new stimulus.

Examples

In dog training, the dog food is an unconditioned stimulus or a primary reinforcer. In classical conditioning, unconditioned stimuli are biologically potent stimuli that can lead to involuntary responses. In this case, the involuntary response is salivation which is also an unconditioned response. For example the ringing of a bell originally is a neutral stimulus. But after the training, it will become a conditioned stimulus that could elicit the same response as the food, in other words you can either use the bell or the food to cause the dog to salivate because it has become a conditioned response. Therefore, classical conditioning is learning by association.

There are many classical conditioning examples in our daily life. Some are intentionally and some are not.

Here are some examples of classical conditioning:

Example 1: A father comes home and slams the door when he has had a bad day at work. Then it’s usually followed by him yelling at his children for random reasons. So the kids will learned to associate door slamming with being yelled at. Now the children have been conditioned to tremble every time they hear the sound of a door slamming.

Example 2: A mother usually comes home with a big shopping bag that is filled with new toys for her child. So whenever the child sees her mother come home with a big shopping bag, she is happy and excited because she has associated the bag with receiving new toys.

Example 3: When driving through an intersection, you were hit by a car that ran a red light and got severely injured. You are now fear-conditioned to feel nervous whenever you drive towards an intersection, any intersection, not just the one you got hit in. The anxiety can be so high that you don’t want to drive ever again. That is how stimulus generalization creates anxiety disorders.

Example 4: The PPP Party initiated the Phantom Squad which was responsible for Law and Order and Extra Judicial Killing, Drug Lords and Extra Judicial Killings. People who speaks out and voice their opinion mysteriously disappears or found dead in various places with gun shots wounds, no arrest and the name Phantom Squads, Extra Judicial Killing and Drug is circulating in the communities. The mysterious disappearance, gun shots wounds and no arrest will become the stimulus and the name Phantom Squads, Extra Judicial Killing and Drug Lords will become the fear-condition, so when the name Phantom Squads, Extra Judicial Killing and Drug Lords is mentioned people will be scare to speak and voice their opinion, because they have learned to associate name Phantom Squads, Extra Judicial Killing and Drug Lords to mysterious disappearance, gun shots wounds and no arrest. Now the people have been conditioned by the government to be afraid to speak or associated with those who speaks out or voice their opinions. (Mussel up)

Classical conditioning created by an extreme aversive event like this can be very powerful and result in phobia, panic disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Operant Conditioning

But B.F. Skinner, an American psychologist, did not believe in free will, so he developed the theory of operant conditioning through observable stimulus. I a nut shell his theory asserts that behavior could be controlled by the consequences to be applied for Reinforcement and punishment to either increases or decrease to achieve a target behavior.

Operant conditioning, also known as instrumental conditioning, is the procedure of learning to increase or decrease a voluntary behavior using reinforcement or punishment. This learning process can be carried out using different timings, called schedules of reinforcement.

Examples

Operant conditioning is used extensively by parents at home and teachers in classrooms.

Example 1: Whenever a child goes to bed on time, her parent reads her a bedtime story. The story reading is a positive reinforcement used to increase target behavior (going to bed on time).

Example 2: If a student raises his hand before he speaks, the teacher gives him a gold star sticker. The student learns to raise his hand before he talks in class.

Example 3: Animal trainers frequently use operant conditioning to train animals to do tricks. When a dog does a trick correctly, the dog trainer awards it with a treat. The dog learns to perform tricks to get treats.

Now my people if you understand all that is said above then you can now understand where I am coming from and apply it to what is said about the PPP government and the past implementations of a) Phantom Squads, b) Extra Judicial Killings and c) Drug Lords

But let me remind you nothing is perfect in anything man made or develop and there are no different in both Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning. While some measures appear to be effective on the surface, there are many dangerous pitfalls. In particular, using behaviorism to govern can confuse voluntary and involuntary behaviors that can become dangerous.

Pitfall 1: Treating Voluntary Behavior As Involuntary Behavior

1. a) One of the biggest problems of applying behaviorism to govern is that it treats human beings as similar entities with no regard to one’s mental state or internal processing. (Note)
2. b) The belief is that given the same stimulus, we all should respond in the same way without the ability to choose otherwise. The theory doesn’t take into account what goes on inside the person or what that person thinks or feels. (Note)
3. c) To put it bluntly, using behaviorism to govern is treating human beings like animals. Voluntary behavior is essentially involuntary under this theory. (Note)

Pitfall 2: Treating Involuntary Behavior As Voluntary Behavior

1. a) Another problem is that governments who use behaviorism to govern do not differentiate between voluntary and involuntary behavior.
2. b) For instance, when a toddler is overwhelmed by emotions he cannot control, he throws a tantrum. The parent punishes him believing it is a voluntary behavior he can change. If it doesn’t work, and the parent increase harsher punishment, this will traumatizes the toddler. (Note)

To conclude I think our country Guyana is not far from the brink of a race against race explosion and fire burn against the nation, because the ingredients are floating everywhere. We must embark upon stopping it now, before it too late. Stop the insanity before it too late.

He who has ears to ear, let them ear, have eyes to see let them see and wisdom to understand let them understand, that the above stimuli and stimulus will never return in Guyana, because others are listening, looking and talking.

Dr. Martin C Blair

Co-founder/Co-leader