Attaining the Throne: Blood, Sweat, and Tears.

Disclaimer: This article has sarcastic elements for the purpose of entertainment.

Recap:

As of right now, we are currently caught in the riptides of a changing nation. You have a stable economic source, you have the capacity to defend yourself, and you can provide for the basic needs of the nation.

Now, I did say ‘riptides’, so there is a ‘but’. As you move up the echelons of nations across the globe, many have turned their attention towards you. As your country’s economic and military prowess rises in rates never before seen, they have begun to realise the threat you pose to their current rank in the world. And it is about time that they begin to turn against you...

Step 7: Take Over Potential Brainwashing Platforms… At Least Domestically.

The title is pretty self-explanatory, you must make sure that, at least domestically, the most prominent social media, entertainment, education, and news platforms are owned by companies of your nation.

Why? Long story short, if any aspect of these four potential brainwashing platforms (PBP) is held by other countries’ companies, they have the capacity to incorporate heavily biased materials into it, allowing them to ingrain dissatisfaction of your government, twist things in their own favour, and plant unfavourable ideas/opinions in your citizen’s minds.

How? One way to do so is to implement laws against said PBPs publishing any kind of controversial material concerning your nation. Alternatively, you can learn more about how countries, especially the most politically powerful nations do this in my other article: Keeping the Throne: On Social Media.

If any government other than yours has the ability to do that, you are in knee-deep trouble, because as soon as your existence begins to trouble them, they will turn your people against you. From then onwards, no matter how well you rule with an iron fist, they will destroy your nation.

One example nation from current times that we can model is none other than everybody’s favourite Asian news topic, China.

China is doing quite well in holding strong control of these areas. Let us take a look at the four PBPs.

• Social media: WeChat, Douyin (TikTok), Weibo, etc.

• Education: Xueersi, New Oriental, Gao Si

• Entertainment: there are way too many for my own good (e.g. IQiyi, Tencent videos)

• News: Weibo, and the other one bajillion newspapers/news platforms…

And now, there is something here I think is too convenient a coincidence: The Great Firewall of China. Finished in 2006 and extensions added in 2008, this “great wall” of software stopped certain software products such as search engines, social networking sites, etc. from being accessed in China (unless you had a VPN installed). Now, VPNs are very widely used, and the Chinese government, totally capable of completely banning it, did not. However, every single time one VPN became too convenient, the banhammer struck.

They made sure that you could access the outside internet, but it takes a bit more effort, and perhaps, a bit more money. They controlled it this way so that aspiring domestic companies took advantage of incentives and anti-incentives (against the stronger more developed companies) to build their own strongholds in these four areas, to where Chinese citizens found it easier to access the domestic media than the ones from other countries.

Now, your nation can learn a thing or two from this. Create ‘fertile land’ in the PBP market with incentivization, as well as disadvantaging foreign companies. Aspiring entrepreneurs will see this opportunity and build their empires within the four areas, adjusting their companies to fit the domestic audience better. With your support (economically and in terms of image) these companies will become very successful in your nation, which is good for two major reasons.

Firstly, you are gaining very capable companies in the uncharted territory of the media.

Secondly, and more importantly, companies from other countries can no longer take over your PBPs, meaning they do not have a readily available means of brainwashing your citizens.

The best part is that you can actually take advantage of this and use it to your benefit. In the case that we need to call upon the great people to do our bidding, we can also use the PBPs we have under our control. A little brainwashing of our own never hurt anyone...

Step 8: National Pride

Now, I should really have gotten to this much earlier, but I chose to put it here in step eight for one reason: your nation is about to walk right into international attack, and by this I mean not a physical one, but one of ideas.

You have risen among the ranks of nations, having extensive education, anti-brainwashing against international forces and limitless brainwashing opportunities domestically. Along with this, we also have a stable economic growth, influencing entrepreneurship, and a strong military to discourage upfront attacks to your nation. You have a foothold in the global stage and reliable allies to back you up. At the very least, you should have secured a place as one of the world’s ten most powerful countries (assuming that the UN by this point has collapsed, in the event of a new worldwide peacekeeping force assembling, you should aim to grab a spot as a permanent member of its Security Council equivalent). It is at this point that the other countries—whether they feel threatened by your capability of surpassing them in the future or are enemies in conflict—really start thinking about tearing you apart.

They will turn the international media and their own citizens against you, not to mention striking on your economy by placing tariffs. Sadly, tough luck for you, because I’m guessing that you have strayed off this perfectly humane and ethical plan at least once or twice, accidentally murdering a few million people. Oh yeah, and remember step seven? They will also latch onto that firewall you built, deeming your actions as “brainwashing” and “keeping the great people in the dark” (which kinda is the truth). If you decided to start a cultural revolution at some point… well, I must say that things are looking unsavoury for your nation’s morale.

And that is why it is time to revive your nation’s pride. To make your people feel like they are in this together, that they are one.

Incorporate extensive programs about your history and your cultural significance (and if you don’t have any, casually do some over-glorification and fabrication of LIES). if your rise happened recently, educate your citizens on the greatness of your growth as a nation. Make the founder(s) a legend, and perhaps create a TV series about them, as China did with Mao Zedong. Which, to be honest, may be the most effective method of them all (I mean after watching that, I somehow became extremely proud of the CCP’s founding). Of course, just casually erase the human rights abuses you have committed from your history textbooks.

Now, an editor told me the other day that the nation I’m constructing is so dark and oppressive that he suggested the next thing to do would be to open an amusement park called Blood, Sweat, and Tears. So, just to piss him off…

Don’t forget to construct an amusement park called Blood, Sweat, and Tears! Remind your citizens of the toils between the beginning and the present, of what was sacrificed and what was gained. Let them see the burning glory of your rise!

Maybe don’t call it Blood, Sweat, and Tears… the international media will find it kinda sus.

But jokes aside, you must ingrain into your citizens' minds that the country is theirs (when you may or may not be a dictatorship) and that the fight to push it up the global ranks is their fight, that they are great with cultural heritage and legendary beginnings.

This way your people shall be prepared for what is to come.

What is to come? You ask? Part four of Attaining the Throne.