We all know how they* do it, we just don’t appreciate the extent to which they do it. Media, movies, tv programming, radio, music... that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Now there’s social media, podcasts, periscopes, YouTube, even game apps - all broadcasting directly into our helpless brains 24/7 from the second we emerge from the womb.
Every instant of exposure is a gentle nudge in a desired direction. They’re usually imperceptible, but sometimes these nudges are blatant calls to action in the immediate present. Sometimes they are used as a harbinger of events that will unfold in the future. They may give cautionary warnings to prevent catastrophe, or may prime those who will be called into service to auto-activate at the appropriate time.
The paradox is that each of us thinks we are uniquely immune to these nudges, that we possess free will - but if you search your internal hard drive, you will be hard-pressed to find even a single original thought. It’s all been implanted in bits and pieces over time. We merely parrot what we have absorbed.