Wierding is an ancient art of separating someone from his associates. In the film “Dune”, a weapon called a “wierding module” was voice activated such as to “break the hardest stone” and was used to bring down the Emperor. In a 1950’s Twilight Zone episode the same concept involved some “aliens” sitting atop a mountain watching a small community turn to chaos as they mischievously created suspicion between neighbors. In a Star Trek episode the Federation crew of the Enterprise were prodded into suspicion and war against a crew of Romulans by a mysterious hidden spirit. Wierding is somewhat invisibly turning one group against an individual or other group.
If you ran across a tribe of gorillas and had reason to want to alter the way they behaved as a group, one thing you might have to do is to disrupt its established structure so as to more easily establish a new one. Its established structure would have been based on natural reactions between the gorillas dictated by their perceptions, hormones, and innate instincts. In order to disrupt that more natural way, you merely need to sneak in and alter a few things such as to cause them to perceive the other gorillas in a “new light” and give them a little medical discomfort so as to encourage change. As perceptions and reactions began to change, conflicts would arise between established mates and authorities and destroy the prior structure allowing you to begin to more easily establish your preferred structure.
The gypsy moth epidemic was resolved by using chemicals and/or retro viruses to cause the moths to no longer be able to distinguish the opposite gender. Thus the population propagation was quickly reduced. The moths were never told what happened.
Of course dealing with people is much more interesting. Merely by sneaking in and taking a single sock from the dryer, relocating a few small items, or perhaps providing a little subtle damage to fragile things, a husband is likely to see that his wife is being annoyingly irresponsible because he sees no one else to blame. Add a few hormones, chemicals, or germs and the additional headaches, stress, and anxiety will soon have husband and wife at each other’s throats. Eventually they breakup.
The famous Spanish Inquisition was brought about by the Pope discovering that the Jews had been pretending to be Catholic priests while subtly instigating turmoil. The inquisition was of the priests, not the population (despite rumors). Jesus’ church was specifically designed on principles so as to be “the stone upon which the Jews would stumble”. The principles involved forgiveness, compassion, reluctance to condemn, and the refusal to accept anyone as an enemy, thus “stilling the waters”. It was proposed that “any who gather in my name” (his principles) would live eternal. Perhaps a little hyperbole, but it certainly was aimed in that direction.
But you might ask why any group would want to do such a thing to another group. The rationale has been established for thousands of years and hasn’t changed except for a little new technology added to the venture. Such wierding doesn’t merely destroy the established group, it also provides for great power and wealth.
In physics, a similar effect is used to split atoms (a “family”). As one atom is excited to the point of fracture, its increased entropy state allows its components new freedom to go affect neighboring atoms. Those atoms, when struck by the additional stress also breakup and rush to spread their stress. The entire chain reaction is called “fission” and releases tremendous freed energy. Total devastation is the end result. And what do we get from fission - energy to use to either totally destroy our foe or when limited, to use at our pleasure; to warn our feet.
In society, when the families and organizations turn on each other and breakup, they also produce a type of energy called Economy. Tremendous wealth gets created by the fission release of radical energy through cravings for stress relief, emotionalism, lusting, flaming, law suits, damage repairs, medical expenses, war weapons and munitions, and so on. Communication and information theories provide for principles to limit the devastation to confined groups.
By providing the right information to one group while providing different information to another, they soon suspect each other to be the enemy and the greater cause of their stress. "Look at what those Terrorists are doing to you!" “Look at what those Capitalist pigs are doing to You!” “Don’t look at Me. I am meek, humble, innocent, and wise… but terribly abused.” War is guided into a reality. All the while, one group stays out of the limelight and gains the freedom to wonder among the devastation to gather wealth. They need not attack anyone themselves. Everyone else is doing that for them. All they need to do is to favor their chosen people and leave the others to their “eternal fires of Gehenna”; “the eternal fires of Hell”. Those who were not a part of the fire, increase from day to day while those of the fire, diminish from day to day.
Even thoughts and beliefs are destroyed by such tactics. Instigate doubt; suspicion; indecision, make the person uncomfortable enough to be anxious and worry, and the end result will be that he will divide inside, turn against himself (“self defeatism”), and betray his own mind, heart, and only hope.
If you are not part of a stone, you are part of a fire with the very few exceptional serene but impotent individuals.
So I ask again, who are what, if any, would You absolutely refuse to betray?