The Observable Unknown

Episode: Interlude LIV.5: The Flood That Teaches You to Stop Resisting - Information Overload, Propaganda Theory, and the Psychology of Demoralization
Host: Dr. Juan Carlos Rey
Date: April 9, 2026

Episode Overview

In this incisive solo interlude, Dr. Juan Carlos Rey delves into the overwhelming realities of modern information environments. He traces the lineage of propaganda theory—from early 20th-century thinkers to present-day research—exploring how engineered informational floods impact our perception, psychology, and ability to make meaningful decisions. Rey weaves together historical theory, contemporary research, and his own neuroscience-based insights to illuminate the shift from persuasion to exhaustion, and outlines why “holding the line” is an urgent act of personal agency.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Manufactured State of Overwhelm

• [00:00] Rey opens by asserting that today’s sense of overwhelm is not accidental; it is the result of a carefully constructed information environment.

• He cites Walter Lippman, who described how we respond not to objective reality, but to a “pseudo environment”—a manufactured, internal picture of the world shaped by external influences.

  “You don't respond to reality in its full complexity. You respond to a simplified internal picture of experience driven reality, a constructed environment, a pseudo environment. And whoever shapes that environment shapes your perception of threat, of urgency, of what deserves your attention.” — Dr. Juan Carlos Rey (01:05)

2. Evolution of Propaganda: From Persuasion to Environment

• Harold Lasswell viewed propaganda as a scientific method—systematic and scalable—not merely as deception.

• Edward Bernays expanded the concept, focusing not on forcing belief, but on “engineering consent.”

• Jacques Ellul witnessed a new era where:

  “Propaganda would no longer operate as isolated messages. It would become an environment, continuous, ambient and unavoidable. The aim is not always to convince you of something. It is to keep you immersed, reactive and unable to step outside the stream long enough to evaluate it.” — Dr. Juan Carlos Rey (02:35)

3. The Creation of Ignorance

• Robert Proctor reframed ignorance as not just absence of knowledge, but as a product deliberately manufactured through “doubt, distraction, overload, contradiction.”
• Constant contradiction and contestation are not failures—they are tactics.

4. The Firehose of Falsehood and Information Saturation

• Research by the RAND Corporation (specifically, Christopher Paul and Miriam Matthews) labels modern propaganda the “fire hose of falsehood”—characterized by high-volume, rapid, multi-channel messaging with “no obligation to coherence."

  “Contradiction is not a failure, it is a tactic. Because the goal is not persuasion, it is exhaustion.” — Dr. Juan Carlos Rey (04:10)

5. Psychological Impact: Demoralization and Learned Helplessness

• The human nervous system is not built to withstand relentless information assault.

• Clinical studies (referencing Johannes Matthes, Marco Tacuta et al.) confirm a link between information overload, depressive symptoms, anxiety loops, compulsive checking, and a phenomenon called demoralization:

  • Demoralization: Not quite depression; marked by helplessness, loss of meaning, and inability to cope. People are “energized enough to feel the problem, but not enough clarity to resolve it.”

  “You still have enough energy to feel the problem, but not enough clarity to resolve it.” — Dr. Juan Carlos Rey (06:10)

6. Participation in the Cycle

• Information overload becomes self-perpetuating: people scroll, refresh, and return not just for knowledge, but to reaffirm their unease.

• The stream curates reality before conscious awareness, narrowing what options we perceive and are able to choose from.

  “You do not choose from all available options. You choose from what was allowed, from what was permitted to appear.” — Dr. Juan Carlos Rey (07:40)

7. Cost of Saturation: Erosion of Agency

• Referencing his own research, Rey discusses “the cost of the move”—that every internal orientation extracts a price, and that the saturated system costs us structurally and emotionally.

• Outcome of overload is not belief in lies, but “fatigue toward truth” and a sense of futility.

  “This is the outcome, not belief in falsehood, but fatigue toward truth. What is the point of sorting, weighing, deciding? If nothing ever resolves?” — Dr. Juan Carlos Rey (08:40)

8. Practical Agency: Holding the Line

• The informational “flood” will not cease; resisting the current is futile.

• The vital act is to preserve the ability to decide what matters, despite the storm.

  “The question is not whether you can silence it or stop slow it. The question is whether you can remain within it without surrendering your ability to decide what matters. Because in the end, what you allow to organize your attention will organize your world.” — Dr. Juan Carlos Rey (09:30)

• Rey’s closing message: “Hold the line, even if you must redraw it every day.” (10:00)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You are not overwhelmed by accident. You are living inside a condition that has been studied, named and refined long before it reached you.” (00:10)
• “Propaganda would … become an environment, continuous, ambient and unavoidable.” (02:35)
• “Contradiction is not a failure, it is a tactic. Because the goal is not persuasion, it is exhaustion.” (04:10)
• “You still have enough energy to feel the problem, but not enough clarity to resolve it.” (06:10)
• “This is the outcome, not belief in falsehood, but fatigue toward truth.” (08:40)
• “Hold the line, even if you must redraw it every day.” (10:00)

Important Timestamps

• 00:00–02:30 — Historical roots of information shaping: Lippman, Lasswell, Bernays, Ellul
• 02:30–05:00 — Transition to environmental propaganda; the “fire hose of falsehood”
• 05:00–07:15 — Psychological consequences: overload, compulsive checking, demoralization
• 07:15–09:00 — The neuroscience of attention, permitted options, “the cost of the move”
• 09:00–10:30 — Emphasis on practical agency, holding the line, closing reflections

Summary

Dr. Rey weaves a timely, urgent meditation on how the deluge of information, carefully designed and deployed, leads to collective fatigue and personal disempowerment. The concluding challenge is not to flee the flood, but to discern and hold—again and again—what truly matters, lest we surrender agency and meaning to the vast and indifferent informational sea.