A short History of Social Engineering

The grand parade of social engineering – that pernicious attempt by self-appointed saviors to mold society according to their whims! Let us embark on a journey through this cesspool of misguided benevolence and thinly veiled manipulation, shall we?

From the Settlement House Movement to the modern-day digital charlatans, social engineering has donned many masks, each more insidious than the last. In the early 20th century, we witnessed the rise of the so-called “social engineers,” those starry-eyed reformers who fancied themselves master sculptors of the human condition. How quaint.

Let us not forget the unholy alliance between these do-gooders and the “scientific managers,” those efficiency-obsessed bureaucrats who saw in social engineering a means to control the unwashed masses. Together, they formed a cabal of meddlers, each more delusional than the last, convinced that their clipboards and charts held the key to societal perfection.

Fast forward to our modern era, where social engineering has taken on a more sinister digital guise and we’ve seen a parade of charlatans and ne’er-do-wells manipulating the gullible and the unwary. It’s as if we’ve taken the company town model of control and slapped a coat of ones and zeros on it!

In conclusion, the history of social engineering is nothing more than a litany of hubris, a testament to the folly of those who believe they can reshape society through manipulation and deceit. From the well-intentioned but misguided reformers of yesteryear to the digital miscreants of today, the song remains the same: a siren call of progress that leads only to the rocky shores of unintended consequences.

Let us learn from this parade of folly and resist the temptation to play puppet master with the lives of others. For in the end, the greatest social engineer is liberty itself, allowing individuals to shape their own destinies free from the meddling hands of self-appointed saviors and digital ne’er-do-wells.