Status: 04/14/2021 2:19 p.m.
Madonna once said that music brings people together. But music can demoralize or even torture opponents in wars and conflicts.
1989 was not a good year for the then ruler of Panama, Manuel Noriega. By the end of the year, the US military had invaded and chased him in Panama City. Noriega fled to the Apostolic Nunciature, the diplomatic mission of the Vatican in Panama. Noriega stayed there with 32 faithful, American soldiers surrounded the building.
Get to the man with music
Manuel Antonio Noriega was the ruler in Panama from 1983 to 1989.
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God’s representatives in Panama were not thrilled with Noriega’s check-in. Apparently they let him in because he is said to have threatened that otherwise he would flee to the country and start a guerrilla war. They gave him a room – more like a hole a few meters, without air conditioning and without a view of the outside. Meanwhile, the Americans got up in front of the door, asking themselves: How do we get to the man? And then they had an idea: music!
80s hit mix moves Noriega to give up
They pulled up a row of jeeps with loudspeakers on top and then there was a non-stop 80s hit mix for Noriega at festival volume. Among other things, “Give It Up” by KC and the Sunshine Band was there – a kind of wave with the tonearm. Almost eleven days later, Noriga actually gave up – the roar of music will have played its part. But it was not the first and by no means the only time that music has been used as a kind of weapon. “The topic is historically not a marginal issue either. The military use of music has been a topic since ancient times, there is something about it in Plato and Plutarch,” says Rainer Mausfeld, professor emeritus for general psychology – most recently he taught at the University of Kiel. Mausfeld is, among other things, an expert in psychological torture and manipulation. And music is also suitable for this.
AUDIO: Music as a weapon (3 min)
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“That runs through the whole story and that is no wonder, because music is a very central instrument for the nature of our psychological apparatus. It grabs our emotional plumage directly, if you will,” explains Mausfeld.
Music as motivation, intimidation and manipulation
And: Music not only helps to force Central American rulers to give up: It also helps to motivate people to throw themselves out of a trench into a hail of bullets; it helps at the same time to intimidate the enemy and also to torture and break people: survivors from the Bosnian war have reported that they had to sing patriotic songs in prison camps; US soldiers in Guantanamo Bay also tortured with music in the so-called “War on Terror”. “Music is a very central element in opening up the soul,” explains Mausfeld. “And when I open my soul, I can achieve a lot with it, of course also manipulatively.”
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