With “Hypnocracy” we have a timely concept – recently published – that helps us understand one of the reasons we are feeling this way.
It is fascinating.
Why are we living in a state of permanent hypnosis?
With hypnocracy, we have a new framework for interpreting something that we all feel deep down in the face of the oversaturation of the media space.
It will happen in many forms in times to come, but today two icons of power are at work: two men who have established themselves as the greatest hypnotists of the modern era: POTUS Trump and oligarch EIon Musk, who hypnotize us daily.
How do they do this trick? They “flood the zone”, inundating us individually and collectively with ever more bizarre and disturbing ideas, and at the same time ever more spectacular shenanigans.
Remember Trump humiliating president Zelenski at the withe house? When done he said “this is going to make great TV”.
While thinkers around the world seem paralyzed by the spectacle of Donald Trump Season 2, accompanied by a host of characters, each more eccentric and dangerous than the last, Hong Kong philosopher Jianwei Xun (actually a fictional author, the text is produced by a collective of philosophers with AI) manages to put a name to the insane period we are living through. The author of this essay explains:
Today, power is resorting to a new technique of domination: “it no longer involves classic political propaganda, the control of bodies, or the repression of thoughts, but rather the manipulation of our collective states of consciousness. When Donald Trump, in front of MAGA (“Make America Great Again”) activists, utters false statements, he is not simply lying to the crowd: he is engaging us in the ritualized construction of an alternative reality— he is putting us “under hypnosis“. With Elon Musk, it’s the same process, but in the digital arena. When he announces an impossible project (brain-machine fusion, the colonization of Mars, the end of “wokeness”), his captivated supporters begin to relay this vision on social media, thus expanding the “hypnotic field. By blurring the lines between illusion and reality, these billionaires plunge citizens into “a state of permanent trance,” a “guided dream.” (Mathéo Malik, France Inter, April 20, 2025).
Hypnocracy is this state of taking control of our imaginations through a permanent transe effect in which we are as if under the influence of narcotics or hypnotic suggestion that works subtly to put us into a state of altered consciousness. It operates profoundly through:
- The rhetoric of power relayed by technologies (Tik Tok, X, and other tools) that don’t just distribute content, but also export and propagate a particular way of seeing the world, experiencing time, identity, and relationships and corresponds to a transfer of power;
- A shift of power toward a certain number of actors within and outside the political bodies where it generally resided, toward large technology companies.
The hypnosis to which we are subject causes us to lose control, a relegation of our will.
In response to this, understanding (and spreading) the concept of Hypnocracy allows us to put into perspective this feeling of being overwhelmed by events, and ultimately the difficulty of waking up from this hypnosis.
We must therefore “wake up” to control this trance and try to regain a certain lucidity regarding what is happening to us.
It’s a fascinating conversation to have.
What skills can we develop to RESIST hypnosis? We suggest that you facilitate this conversation around you, whenever and wherever you can.
The Cards for Democracy can assist you in this endeavor of “re-information” and ‘re-conscience” Let’s rediscover our critical sense, our contextualized thinking connected to our true experiences of the world and life.
Let’s regain our sense of collectively “making world”!
Suggested Cards for the deck “Cards for Democracy for All”:
Resources:
- Cards for Democracy for All
- More about the concept: “Hypnocracy” is more than just a book… on Youtube
- Learn more about the “author(s)”: https://legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2025/04/04/qui-est-vraiment-jianwei-xun-une-conversation-avec-jianwei-xun
- Buy book (in french): https://boutique.philomag.com/livres/hypnocratie
- https://www.placedeslibraires.fr/livre/9782487699151-hypnocratie-trump-musk-et-la-fabrique-du-reel-jianwei-xun-mathilde-lemoine-mariette-thom-andrea-colamedici
- https://www.philonomist.com/fr/article/le-siecle-de-lhypnocratie
