Weird how psy was everywhere in the mid to late 20th century. It showed up in science fiction constantly, as if it was just going to inevitably pop up.
It does allow for trivial parallel construction: "that? oh, we got that from our psy squad"
[this century, we have both The Men who Stare at Goats and First Squad: The Moment of Truth releasing in 2009, but we do seem to have had a distinct shortage of Bigfoots and Bermuda Triangles ever since smartphones became widespread]
Unless they’re an even bigger shit show. Mobs of extortionists, networks in the tens of thousands, mostly bumbletard screwballs. A few elite who are as their gods.
Power is more easily developed by condemned men serving decades to life in prisons than smart successful savvy persons who live a prosperous life. They themselves are mostly pyramid schemes of extortion (these days, I am assured it was not always so.)
The things these do for fun and for profit cannot be paid for with money or be accomplished by anyone in their right minds.
You know how Americans and power are, always taking things too far, without regard for consequences.
Look at Animal domestication - see neoteny in domestic animals for eg - is a manipulative process too. People do use those techniques on each other and at mass scale via communication/advertising/marketing. Yet there are regulations and red lines and people regularly get throw in jail.
