Tony Robbins -Re-Awaken_the_Giant_Within

HOW YOUR IDENTITY IS FORMED
Why is it that during the Korean War more American POWs informed on their fellow prisoners than in
any other war in modern history? The answer is that the Chinese Communists, unlike their allies, the
North Koreans, understood the power of identity to instantaneously change not only their long-held
beliefs and values, but their actions, in an instant. Rather than brutalize the prisoners, they doggedly
pursued their own ingenious form of psychological warfare designed not merely to extract information
or create compliance, but rather to convert the American fighting man to their political philosophy. They
knew that if they could lead him into a new set of beliefs and values, then he would see his country’s
role in the war as futile and destructive, and therefore assist them in any way they requested. And they
succeeded. Understanding what they did can help you understand how you’ve arrived at your current
identity and how you can expand your identity, and therefore your entire life, in a matter of moments.
The task before the Chinese Communists was formidable indeed. How can you change someone’s entire
identity without the threat of death or the promise of freedom? Especially knowing that the American
soldier has been trained to give only his name, rank, and serial number? Their plan was very simple:
start small, and build. The Chinese understood that the way we identify anyone is by their actions. For
example, how do you know who your friend really is? Isn’t it by the way he or she acts, the way he or
she treats people? The Communists’ real secret, though, was that they understood that we determine
who we are —our own identities—by judging our own actions as well. In other words, we look at what
we do to determine who we are. The Chinese realized that in order to achieve their broader objective of
changing the prisoner’s beliefs about his identity, all they had to do was get the prisoner to do things that
a collaborator or a Communist would do.
Again, this is not a simple task, but they realized it could be done if they simply could wear the
American POW down through conversation that lasted twelve to twenty hours, and then make a minor
request: get him to say something like “The United States is not perfect” or “It’s true in a Communist
country that unemployment is not a problem.” Having established this footing, the Chinese would
simply start small and build. They understood our need for consistency. Once we make a statement that
we say we believe, we have to be willing to back it up.
They would merely ask the POW to write down some of the ways in which America is not perfect. In his
exhausted state, the GI was then asked, “What other social benefits are there to communism?” Within
a short period of time, the GI would have sitting in front of him a document not only attacking his own
nation, but also promoting Communism with all the reasons written in his own handwriting. He now
had to justify to himself why he’d done this. He’d not been beaten, nor had he been offered special
rewards. He’d simply made small statements in his need to stay consistent with the ones he’d already
written, and now he’d even signed the document. How could he explain his “willingness” to do this?
Later he would be asked to read his list in a discussion group with other prisoners or even to write an
entire essay about it.
When the Chinese broadcast these essays, along with the names of the prisoners who had written them,
suddenly the prisoner would find himself publicly identified as an enemy “collaborator.” When fellow
©2013 Robbins Research International. www.tonyrobbins.com 75