Who Do We Choose to Be?, Second Edition: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity

by Margaret J. Wheatley

In the early 1980s, Operation INFEKTION deliberately set out to cause confusion and social mayhem in the United States.16 Their activities were named “Active Measures” intended to create ideological subversion. A member of the KGB who defected years ago knew it well and defined its purpose: “To change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that, despite the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community and their country.”17 ____ If you’re feeling confused about what you hear and read, if you don’t know who to believe, if you’ve given up trying to make sense of what’s going on, if you’ve withdrawn from the news and those you disagree with, there’s an explanation and a cause for why you feel this way. The Russians won. For decades, Russia has flooded all available channels of information with lies and falsehoods, using information as a most powerful weapon of war. Operation INFEKTION specialized in planting false stories and forged documents; KGB agents were tasked with spending up to a quarter of their time to develop stories that could cause social unrest in the United States. It was well funded, purportedly spending $3 billion a year on active measures; it employed fifteen thousand people in full-time work both inside and outside the Soviet Union.