WRLD

Search

#Coercion
Петър Дочев 3h

The primary reason for the ambiguity and confusion surrounding the nature of COVID is that it cannot be understood or resolved through specialized knowledge alone; rather, it requires fundamental scientific thinking, as it is a matter of the utmost complexity. From this perspective: 1. A global pandemic is impossible, given the diverse conditions worldwide and the specific biological characteristics of different human populations. 2. Excessive fear of infections and diseases, coupled with catastrophic expectations regarding the environment, constitutes a form of paranoid psychopathy. 3. Vaccination is not a viable approach for respiratory illnesses, as there are thousands of potential pathogens—unlike the single agents targeted by other types of vaccines. For this fabricated, non-existent "COVID pandemic," only 2–3% of the global population was vaccinated—specifically, those who paid for it. For the rest, the production and free distribution of the vaccine were withheld. How could one possibly envision the entire human race falling ill and subsequently being vaccinated? This is a financial scam. 4. The prevailing theory regarding the immune system is flawed. What is termed an "immune response" is merely a reaction occurring in sick or weakened organisms, yielding only a temporary and indeterminate effect. Robust organisms do not fall ill at all, as they effectively prevent the proliferation of pathogenic microorganisms—of which there are thousands, many being lethally dangerous. The body’s primary defense lies in maintaining a standard alkalinity of pH 7.32, a state that depends on respiration and the levels of oxygen within the body. If it drops by even 0.02, acidosis sets in; this is the primary cause of the illness, not the infection. The microflora also serves as a defense, preventing the intrusion of external microbes. 5. The notion of mass infections and widespread illness is a form of psychopathy. The human organism possesses a unique, innate resistance—evidenced by its immense capacity for production—even though, as the most complex entity in the Universe, it is inherently prone to instability. For weak organisms, no defense offers a guarantee, as they produce low-quality, ineffective blood—characterized by a lower count of white and red blood cells and reduced alkalinity. 85–90% of the population is healthy. The remaining percentage—those with weak organisms—fall ill and die as part of the normal, natural mortality rate, which is being framed as "Covid." Healthy individuals do not constitute a medical problem; only the sick do. A further question arises: to what extent does medicine help, and to what extent does it cause harm? It is frequently exploited to generate massive profits—a practice that is both corrupt and immoral. Attempting to treat weak organisms is an unscientific fiction; it is simply impossible. Conventional medical methods cannot cure weak organisms, while strong organisms have no need for medical treatment. The focus should not be on treatment, but on prevention—cultivating and maintaining strong organisms—yet this approach is free of charge and completely ignored. The sole source of a healthy organism is oxygen. Prevention is achieved through breathing exercises. Anything else is pointless and useless. The authorities impose conventional medicine as absolute truth, while dismissing all other concepts of health as unscientific fraud. This transforms conventional medicine into a form of "medical fascism," based on deceptive and ignorant notions of health. Propaganda is being waged against oxygen, utilizing a fabricated and entirely false theory regarding antioxidants and the supposedly toxic effects of oxygen. Without oxygen, the human body is merely dead matter; death occurs within five minutes. Ultimately, all death is a form of suffocation. Sufficient oxygen levels lead to perfect health and peak vitality. If what I say is true, then the entire COVID saga is a manifestation of staggering idiocy and ignorance. This is characteristic of how those in power view life, not just here, but across the globe. Power is not an expression of human intelligence, but rather of the savage, bestial nature of humanity. Formal education is anti-intellectual, anti-scientific, and antithetical to the kind of exploratory, scientific thinking needed to solve life’s problems. It constitutes an act of aggressive coercion—a sadistic perversion directed against natural, healthy thought. It forces the memorization of vast amounts of information, which effectively stifles any capacity for exploratory thinking. This material is uninteresting and tedious; consequently, it cannot be retained and is promptly forgotten. It is part of the authorities' twisted claim to an absolute monopoly over everything—a monopoly on truth itself. Monstrous absurdities and lies are instilled in the mind. This "pseudo-education"—profoundly anti-intellectual in nature—serves to enforce a caste-like division within society: those who possess a higher education degree versus those who do not. Many brilliant discoverers—truly intellectual and educated individuals—either lacked a higher education degree or graduated with very poor academic records. Examples include Edison, Einstein, and Steve Jobs. The formal education system imposed by the powers that be is alien to genius; it hinders, and indeed actively suppresses, its manifestation. In the past, higher education did not exist at all. It is a vile, perverted invention of the ruling establishment—intellectual garbage, mere trash, devoid of any real value. These people scream as if their lives depend on it, hurling false accusations and denouncing the Internet—simply because the Internet has given a platform to "know-it-alls" and stripped the establishment of its monopoly on truth. The Internet is not the source of disinformation, nor is it responsible for a bacchanalia of ignorance and vulgarity. Truth, lies, and stupidity pose no problem for intelligent people, who cannot be deceived; they recognize them in an instant. The Internet serves as a source of endless, truthful, reliable, and vital information, while providing a platform for brilliant minds to communicate with one another and publish their profound thoughts and discoveries—free from the terror of those in power, who are the primary creators and purveyors of lies, ignorance, and stupidity. "Official" science is no more scientific than theology; both serve the same function: the dissemination of lies and ignorance—all while being presented as the sole, indisputable truth. For this reason, the Internet stands as the most brilliant invention in human history—the one that has most profoundly transformed life and offered the greatest opportunities for human development and success.

Γεάδης Γεάδη 4d

The author argued that democracy could not operate through coercion or the violent seizure of constitutional institutions by police, and tagged Patryk Jaki, Adam Bielan and Dominik Tarczyński. https://t.co/JL0QUfOXsF #Demokracja #Wolność #Prawo #PL

3367
Yaroslav Trofimov 2w

The author wrote that the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which Ukraine agreed to become a non-nuclear state, did not commit the United States to defending Ukraine. They said the U.S. had committed to respecting Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and to refraining from economic coercion that could undermine them. https://t.co/VlVjfnkc2X #UkrainianSovereignty #BudapestMemorandum #InternationalRelations #UA #US

2987
20 minutos 2w

The article examines how cybercrime networks recruit minors through a recruitment process that includes psychological manipulation and coercion, taking advantage of their vulnerability and computer skills to involve them in crimes that can range from cyberbullying to ransomware. #Ciberdelincuencia #MenoresEnRiesgo #Ransomware (translated)

www.20minutos.es
Las cuatro fases de captación de menores en redes criminales de ciberdelincuencia
2537
Nickolay E. MLADENOV 3w

The author said they had received a letter from COGAT about the suspension of private-sector goods coordination into Gaza following reports of threats and coercion by Hamas. They said they had repeatedly warned that such practices were unacceptable and had to end immediately. #Gaza #Hamas #HumanRights #GA

3237
Ed Miliband 3w

I believe Argentina's attempts to intimidate businesses and individuals engaged in legitimate commercial activity are unacceptable. I believe companies should be free to make lawful commercial decisions without the threat of political coercion. #FalklandIslands #OilExploration #ArgentinaUKRelations

Argentina lodges legal claim against UK's Falklands oil exploration
www.bbc.co.uk
3010
Pål Jonson 4w

The author wrote that NATO’s nuclear deterrence was intended to preserve peace, prevent coercion and deter aggression. They said Swedish Gripen aircraft would practise conventional support for the Alliance’s nuclear mission alongside other Allies during Steadfast Noon, which they described as a routine exercise involving no live nuclear weapons. #NATO #Defence #MilitaryExcellence #SE #NATO

3252

The author praised Peter E. Harrell’s summary of what they described as a major EU shift in countering China’s economic coercion. They highlighted its fifth point, saying the “country-agnostic” approach of the FR-GE paper could potentially also apply to US coercion. #EU #China #EconomicCoercion #EU #FR #GE #US

3257
Margus Tsahkna Sep 30

The Estonian Parliament said it had adopted a statement reaffirming Estonia’s unwavering support for Ukraine. It said Russia was seeking to undermine the international rules-based order through aggression, coercion and violence, and described Ukraine as defending not only its own sovereignty. #Eesti #Ukraina #ToetameUkrainat #EE #UA #RU

117
S
Sandfeen Sep 26

“Between 1979 and April 2024, we recorded 66,872 Islamist attacks worldwide. These attacks caused the deaths of at least 249,941 people. • 1979-2000: 2,194 attacks and 6,817 deaths. • 2001-2012: 8,265 attacks and 38,187 deaths. • 2013-April 2024: 56,413 attacks” - Islamist terrorist attacks in the world 1979-2024 “The military is the main target (34%) of Islamist terrorists, ahead of civilians (27.7%) and police forces (15.3%). • 1979-2000: military (343 attacks, 15.6%), civilians (530 attacks, 24.1%), police forces (408 attacks, 18.6%). • 2001-2012: military (1,410 attacks, 17.1%), civilians (2,506 attacks, 30.3%), police forces (1,424, 17.2%). • 2013-April 2024 : military (20,556) - Islamist terrorist attacks in the world 1979-2024 “Most (86.3%) of Islamist terrorist attacks have occurred in Muslim countries1. Similarly, the vast majority of deaths from Islamist terrorist attacks (88.9%) occurred in Muslim countries” - Islamist terrorist attacks in the world 1979-2024 “Number of Islamist terrorist attacks in Muslim countries: 57,726 attacks (86.3% of Islamist terrorist attacks worldwide). Number of deaths caused by Islamist terrorist attacks in Muslim countries: 222,236 deaths (88.9% of deaths caused by Islamist terrorist attacks worldwide)” - Islamist terrorist attacks in the world 1979-2024 “In this study, we define “terrorism” as political acts that meet the principle and criteria of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). In this context, a terrorist act is presented as “the threat of the effective use or use of unlawful force and violence by a non-state actor in order to achieve political, economic, religious or social objectives, through fear, coercion or intimidation”8. This definition is extended to the enumeration of a set of characteristics specifying the nature of the terrorist act: – it must be intentional and result from a conscious calculation by the perpetrator; – it must include some level of violence or threat of imminent violence, whether physical or material; – the perpetrators of the incident must be non-state actors” - Islamist terrorist attacks in the world 1979-2024 “To complete without unduly complicating matters, one can refer in particular to the definition proposed by Edward Walker, because of its relative clarity and conciseness: “By ‘Islamism’, I mean the normative political ideology that has as its core program the establishment of Islam as a state religion and the implementation of Islamic law (shari’a). Militant Islamism, then, is any form of Islamism that advocates the use of violence to achieve Islamist objectives. This same distinction is made by Islamists themselves, who refer to ‘Parties of the Islamic Call’, or al-da’wa al Islamiyya (i.e., Islamist groups that do not advocate violence) on the one hand, and ‘Parties of the Muslim Revolution’, or al-thawra al-Islamiyya (i.e., Islamist groups that do advocate violence) on the other hand14. Acknowledging that there are no universally accepted definitions of Islamism and terrorism, some researchers characterise it as an ideology whose key tenets include: – Belief that Islam is not only a religion, but also a holistic sociopolitical system; – Advocacy of shari’a (Islamic) law as divine state law; – Belief that a transnational Muslim community, known as the Ummah, should unite as a political bloc; – Advocacy of an ‘Islamic’ state, or Caliphate, within which sovereignty belongs to God” - Islamist terrorist attacks in the world 1979-2024 “We have recorded 66,872 Islamist terrorist attacks that killed at least 249,941 people between 1979 and April 2024. Number of attacks: 66,872 Number of wounded: 192,598 Number of deaths: 249,941” - Islamist terrorist attacks in the world 1979-2024 “The possible estimate” should be between 300,000 and 400,000 deaths considering the victims of Islamist terrorism in Algeria, according to the hypotheses based on the best-known sources and the most reliable studies” - Islamist terrorist attacks in the world 1979-2024

702
E
EL MUNDO Sep 20

En las últimas elecciones a la Duma en Rusia, los votantes experimentaron un ambiente de represión y manipulación electoral, mientras Ucrania lanzaba un significativo ataque en Moscú, aumentando la percepción de fraude en un proceso que excluyó a candidatos pacifistas y estuvo marcado por la coerción gubernamental. #EleccionesRusia #Pucherazo #GuerraEnUcrania

www.elmundo.es
Elecciones legislativas en Rusia: "Ocurrirá el mismo pucherazo que he visto toda mi vida"
8791
E
EL MUNDO Sep 19

El artículo aborda la necesidad de gestionar la fragmentación en Europa para relanzar la prosperidad, destacando la pérdida de confianza en las normas y la interdependencia, y propone establecer vínculos estratégicos que fortalezcan la cooperación y creen resiliencia ante la coerción. #Interdependencia #SeguridadEconómica #Confianza

www.elmundo.es
Administrar la fragmentación, relanzar la prosperidad
8797
Stanisław Żaryn Sep 17

Russia is imposing its own order in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Elections at gunpoint and under coercion, with voters herded to the polls at bayonet point. It is already clear that the upcoming elections are a farce. The West should state clearly that it does not https://t.co/8hzfNLPD9r #Russia #Ukraine #Elections #RU #UA

117
Adrian Zenz Sep 16

Pleased to publish a conceptual framework for assessing and measuring state-imposed forced labor (SIFL) across its global forms. To my knowledge this is the first effort of its kind, in a field that has left SIFL substantially undertheorized. "Architecture of Coercion" aims to https://t.co/pJiHC7XQC5 #ForcedLabor #HumanRights #Coercion

Петър Дочев Sep 13

Why the world is run in an insane way. The notion that power is inherently good while liberalism is bad is utterly perverse. Narcissists, megalomaniacs, windbags, pathological liars, adventurers, and individuals with criminal tendencies all crave tyranny, oligarchic fascism, and one-man dictatorships. They harbour but a single dream: absolute, unassailable power and boundless privilege. Any consolidation of power—regardless of how it is marketed—inevitably leads to economic contraction, a halt in development, and a deterioration in the quality of life for the majority. Worse still, it intensifies military confrontation and fosters a readiness to engage in protracted conflicts. A state of peace—hitherto a paramount priority—gives way to a state of war, claiming victims from all walks of life. The rigid, linear mindset and behavior characteristic of those in power are manifestations of stupidity. Life is inherently contradictory; it thrives on equilibrium and balance and does not submit to commands—save for in appearance or through folly. This severely limits the efficacy of resolving problems via coercion, which rapidly devolves into entropy and systemic collapse. Within the corridors of power, rational individuals are sidelined; perceived as indecisive and wavering—aware as they are of life’s inherent contradictions and the fact that problems are often intractable or insoluble—they lack the appeal that breeds popularity. Instead, the spotlight falls on narcissists, megalomaniacs, arrogant windbags, pathological liars, and figures from the criminal underworld—individuals who transform the exercise of power into a mafia-like enterprise. They always display determination and convey the impression that problems are easily solvable—and that they possess both the knowledge and the ability to resolve them; this is precisely what appeals most to people and generates popularity. Yet, such public popularity is highly deceptive. It is profoundly artificial, hypocritical, and detached—a theatrical role-play designed to maintain the image and ratings of a public star, manifesting nothing but boundless narcissism. There is no intelligence in this, only madness. These are madmen who believe they can do whatever they please. The character of all such politicians—who have lost all sense of proportion—bears a resemblance to that of Hitler. Защо светът се управлява по безумен начин. Идеята, че властта е нещо добро, а либералзма е нещо лошо е напълно извратена. Всички нарцисисти, грандомани, празнодумци, патологични лъжци, авантюристи, хора с криминални наклонности искат, тирания, олигархичен фашизъм, еднолична диктатура. Те имат само една мечта абсолютна несменяема власт и безгранични превилегии. Всяко усилване на властта, независимо как се представя ще води до свиване на икономиката и прекратяване на нейното развитие и до влошаване на живота на мнозинството от хората.Нещо по-лошо то ще усили военното противопоставяне и лесното прибягване до конфликти, които ще бъдат продължителни. Мирното време, което досега беше висш приоритет ще се замени с военно време, на което всички ще станат жертви.Праволинейното мислене и поведение, свойствено на властта, е проява на глупост. Животът е дълбоко противоречив. Той съществува чрез равновесие и баланс и не се подчинява на заповеди, освен привидно и по глупост. Това определя крайно ограничените възможности проблемите да се решават с принуждение. То бързо се превръща в ентропия, разрушаване на системата.В властта разумните хора се пренебрегват, защото те са нерешителни и колебаещи се, знаещи, че животът е дълбоко противоречив и проблемите се решават трудно или са въобще неразрешими и това не се харесва и не създава популярност . Издигат се нарцисисти, грандомани, самонадеяни празнодумци, патологични лъжци, хора от криминалния свят, които превръщат властта в мафия. Те винаги показват решителност, внушават че проблемите са лесно разрешими и те знаят и могат да ги разрешат и точно това най-много се харесва и създава популарност. Публичната популярност обаче е много измамна. Тя е дълбоко фалшива, лицемерна, отчуждена, игра на роля като в театъра, с която се поддържа имидж и рейтинг на публична звезда, изразяваща безгранична самовлюбенест и нищо повече. В това няма никаква интелигентност, а само безумие. Това са безумци, които си мислят, че всичко им е позволено. Характерът на всички самозабравили се политици е подобен на характера на Хитлер.

588
Gunther Fehlinger-Jahn Sep 13

🇸🇦 I STAND WITH SAUDI ARABIA. A secure Saudi Arabia means a more secure Red Sea and a safer region. Bab al-Mandeb is one of the world’s vital maritime arteries. It must not be surrendered to Houthi coercion, Iranian proxy warfare or threats against international shipping. Europe https://t.co/WYSzsYTt1l #SaudiArabia #RedSea #BabAlMandeb #SA #YE #IR #EU

118
S
Sandfeen Sep 12

The Erosion of Western Civilization’s Social Fabric It is hard to fathom how much of Western civilization’s social fabric has eroded in just a single decade. No healthy society debates whether “the system” is to blame for a child murderer’s crimes and then expresses support for the monster. Such a society certainly does not celebrate the assassinations of moderate and respectable political figures, nor does it allow repeat violent offenders back onto the streets to terrorize the general public. The best explanation I have heard for this phenomenon of macrosocial insanity is *Political Ponerology* by Andrew Lobaczewski—the study of how pathological personalities infiltrate and transform social institutions. This process does not require an entire population of psychopaths. In fact, it is often only a small minority that forms the core of the pathological movement. A relatively small party or group is led by psychopaths, who are natural experts at manipulation, deception, intimidation, and ruthlessness. The ideologues are the ones who design the system. They create abstract ideologies, often criticizing reality for falling short of their arbitrary expectations. Human beings become nothing more than nodes in a network, to be organized and managed by supposedly more intelligent minds. Then there are the spellbinders, who serve as the movement’s salespeople. They package tyranny as safety, envy as justice, and coercion as compassion. Their primary tool of persuasion is emotional alignment rather than truth or logic. These three types rely on three other groups to normalize their totalitarian system: the spellbound, adapted conformists, and bystanders. The spellbound are true believers who experience participation in the movement as a kind of moral crusade. Adapted conformists support the system because of the security, status, or comfort it provides—or because they fear ostracism. Bystanders are generally aloof and avoid conflict at all costs, believing that ignorance and cowardice will spare them.

470
S
Sandfeen Sep 9

The Erosion of Western Civilization’s Social Fabric It is hard to fathom how much of Western civilization’s social fabric has eroded in just a single decade. No healthy society debates whether “the system” is to blame for a child murderer’s crimes and then expresses support for the monster. Such a society certainly does not celebrate the assassinations of moderate and respectable political figures, nor does it allow repeat violent offenders back onto the streets to terrorize the general public. The best explanation I have heard for this phenomenon of macrosocial insanity is *Political Ponerology* by Andrew Lobaczewski—the study of how pathological personalities infiltrate and transform social institutions. This process does not require an entire population of psychopaths. In fact, it is often only a small minority that forms the core of the pathological movement. A relatively small party or group is led by psychopaths, who are natural experts at manipulation, deception, intimidation, and ruthlessness. The ideologues are the ones who design the system. They create abstract ideologies, often criticizing reality for falling short of their arbitrary expectations. Human beings become nothing more than nodes in a network, to be organized and managed by supposedly more intelligent minds. Then there are the spellbinders, who serve as the movement’s salespeople. They package tyranny as safety, envy as justice, and coercion as compassion. Their primary tool of persuasion is emotional alignment rather than truth or logic. These three types rely on three other groups to normalize their totalitarian system: the spellbound, adapted conformists, and bystanders. The spellbound are true believers who experience participation in the movement as a kind of moral crusade. Adapted conformists support the system because of the security, status, or comfort it provides—or because they fear ostracism. Bystanders are generally aloof and avoid conflict at all costs, believing that ignorance and cowardice will spare them.

706
Miriam M. Lexmann Sep 8

This is a master class in dealing with Chinese coercion: speaking gently, but truthfully so that the world understand the threats we are facing #China #Coercion #Diplomacy #CN

235
Luciano Magaldi Sardella (PhD) Sep 5

The Psychologist – The British Psychological Society – When Walls Become Wellness SOURCE: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/psychologist-british-psychological-society-when-walls-sardella-ph-d--pu8sf/ Dr Luciano Magaldi Sardella and Professor Matteo Mantuano on how ‘Stramurales Participatory Street Art’ transforms urban mental health. Link: https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/when-walls-become-wellness The Psychologist, The British Psychological Society by esteemed Dr. Joe Sutton, Head of Science Communication at BPS Contenuto dell’articolo On a sweltering afternoon in June 2018, we stood in the central square of Stornara, a small agricultural town in Puglia, Southern Italy, watching something extraordinary unfold. Local artist Lino Lombardi was facilitating a heated discussion among residents about which mural designs should adorn their town's crumbling walls. What struck us wasn't the art itself, but the transformation we witnessed in the eyes of people who, just months before, had described their hometown as a place to escape. These were individuals reclaiming their narrative, voting on their future, literally painting over decades of decline. We are environmental and community psychologists who have spent over a decade studying how built environments shape mental health outcomes. Dr Luciano Magaldi Sardella's research focuses on participatory arts interventions in declining rural communities, while Professor Matteo Mantuano specialises in the psychological mechanisms of community empowerment and collective agency. When we first learned about the Stramurales festival in early 2018, we recognised it as a rare opportunity to observe participatory urban art as a potential tool for addressing the mental health crisis plaguing Southern Italy's depopulating towns. Over the past seven years, we have conducted extensive fieldwork in Stornara – interviewing residents, documenting the festival's evolution, and analysing its psychological and social impacts. What we found in Stornara was something far more significant than an innovative community-led arts initiative. It was environmental psychology in action – reshaping how we understand the relationship between built environments, participatory arts, and mental health. The Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight Recent research reveals an alarming convergence of environmental and mental health crises that remains curiously underexamined in psychological discourse. Mental health research receives a mere 2.3 per cent of overall National Institute of Health funding. We cannot know how much of that concerns our environments – both natural and built – which fundamentally shape our psychological wellbeing. The newly proposed field of 'EnvironMental Health' emphasises that deteriorating built environments correlate significantly with elevated stress, social isolation, and worsening mental health outcomes. Southern Italy's rural communities embody this crisis. Between 2002 and 2017, South Italy region lost approximately two million residents to migration, predominantly young adults aged 15-34. This exodus created what Johan Galtung described as 'structural violence' – systematic arrangements preventing communities from realising their potential. The mental health toll manifests not just in individual diagnoses, but in collective despair, eroded social capital, and communities watching their futures literally emigrate. Stornara exemplified this trajectory. By 2017, this municipality of 6,000 residents faced the familiar spiral: economic contraction precipitating youth emigration, accelerating infrastructure deterioration, driving further decline. Walls crumbled. Businesses shuttered. Hope evaporated. Then something changed. The Stramurales Revolution: Democracy through Design What emerged in Stornara transcends conventional cultural tourism. The Stramurales International Street Art Festivalworks through three foundational democratic mechanisms that distinguish it from superficial beautification projects. Organised through Stornara Life APS – an open-membership association founded by Maestro Lino Lombardi – the festival prevents elite capture through voluntary property owner participation ensuring no coercion; democratic content selection through annual community voting on festival themes and mural proposals; and transparent, inclusive governance that gives all residents a voice in the festival's direction. This participatory architecture facilitates what the World Health Organization describes as 'community empowerment' – processes enabling communities to increase control over determinants affecting their health. Recent field studies in Vienna demonstrate that urban art interventions reduce stress and anxiety while improving mood states, but Stramuralesgoes further by embedding art creation within democratic decision-making structures. When residents voluntarily offer walls and vote on content, they perform acts of material and psychological investment. This restoration of collective agency – the belief that residents can shape their hometown's future rather than merely witnessing decline – directly addresses the structural violence that erodes mental health. Between 2020 and 2025, Stornara experienced a huge increase in tourism revenue despite pandemic disruption. New businesses opened. A Stornara-born emigrant who returned reluctantly in 2017 to provide parental care, now works as a tour guide and describes Stornara as 'the coolest town in Italy'. These aren't just economic indicators. They're mental health outcomes. The Science behind the Transformation Contemporary research across multiple disciplines validates what Stornara residents experience viscerally. A 2024 systematic review examining 79 peer-reviewed articles identified how arts places – from permanent museums to temporary public installations – stimulate community engagement, enhance cultural identity, and foster social cohesion. Community-driven mural projects specifically strengthen local identity and pride, creating new routines for individuals to interact and build relationships. Recent experimental research in Berlin found that sidewalk-level art exhibitions significantly altered visitors' connection to and satisfaction with their neighbourhoods, improving overall wellbeing. This aligns with emerging theories on art viewing's impact on mental health, which identifies five key mechanisms: affective processes regulating emotions and stress; cognitive processes providing sensory stimulation and learning; social processes creating shared experiences; self-transformation through reflection; and resilience building for coping with challenges. Environmental psychology research demonstrates that built environments operate as therapeutic interventions. Studies on mental health inpatient facilities reveal that design elements affecting privacy, control, daylight access, and particularly the inclusion of artwork significantly impact patient outcomes. If hospital walls matter therapeutically, how much more do the walls we encounter daily in our communities? The Stramurales model harnesses these mechanisms through the recent concept of 'visual health activism'. Several murals explicitly engage health and human rights themes: Alaniz Niz's 'Refuge for All Migrants' represents exploited African agricultural workers; Sabotaje al Montaje's 'Turning Our Backs on Migration' challenges exclusionary policies; Devil Art Design's 'African Child at Sunset' portrays migrant youth seeking dignified futures. These works address social determinants of health through human rights advocacy. Migration policies denying basic rights create health vulnerabilities – including restricted healthcare access, hazardous working conditions, and psychological trauma from discrimination. The murals perform dual public health functions, in addressing residents' mental health while advocating for populations whose health rights face systematic violation. Place Attachment and Community Resilience The relationship between environmental perception, cultural identity, and community resilience has received substantial scholarly attention in 2024-2025. Research in rural China demonstrates that environmental perception of public spaces influences community resilience through chain mediating effects of cultural identity and place attachment. When communities transform their physical environments through participatory processes, they simultaneously strengthen the psychological bonds that underpin resilience. This explains why Stramurales succeeds where traditional economic development approaches falter. The festival doesn't just create economic value – though over 150 murals by international artists now attract thousands of visitors annually. It fundamentally reshapes residents' relationship with their environment, transforming narratives of decline into evidence of vitality. Each democratically selected mural becomes what resilience researchers call an 'anchor of hope' – tangible proof contradicting despair. Contemporary resilience theory emphasises that strength resides not merely in physical infrastructure but in social cohesion. A recent analysis of resilient urban design in marginalised American neighbourhoods found that residents' message – 'We like our neighbours, we like the character of where we live' – revealed that resilience is fundamentally about people and community. Design interventions succeed when they preserve and strengthen these social bonds, rather than imposing external visions. Stramurales embodies this principle. The democratic voting mechanisms ensure art reflects genuine community values rather than artist or curator preferences. This prevents the cultural displacement often accompanying urban regeneration, where improvements benefit newcomers while alienating existing residents. By centering resident agency, Stramuralesbuilds what researchers describe as 'critical resilience' – capacity addressing underlying inequalities rather than merely adapting to them. The Participation Gap and Universal Access These findings resonate profoundly with longstanding concerns about arts accessibility. The 2015 Warwick Commission documented that the wealthiest, most educated 8 per cent of the UK population accounted for 44 per cent of live music attendance and 28 per cent of visual art visits. This participation gap particularly affects communities that would benefit most from arts engagement for health and wellbeing. But Stramurales challenges this narrative. Street art as public health infrastructure requires no admission fees, no advance booking, no cultural capital to appreciate. It exists where people live, transforming daily commutes into encounters with beauty and meaning. The democratic selection process ensures accessibility extends beyond consumption to co-creation – residents don't just view art, they determine what appears on their walls. Recent research on participatory arts and social cohesion emphasises that successful interventions share common features: delivery in local communities, non-stigmatising approaches, flexibility, promoting social engagement, involvement of exhibitions, and delivery within specific timeframes. Stramurales incorporates all these elements while adding genuine democratic governance. This matters urgently. Mental health conditions among young people globally are rising, and traditional mental health services remain chronically underfunded. If we cannot scale clinical interventions to meet demand, we must invest in preventive public health approaches targeting social determinants. From Stornara to the World: Implications for Practice The Stramurales model offers a replicable template requiring modest financial investment but substantial community participation. Essential elements include voluntary engagement, democratic decision-making, strategic social media use for marketing, and integration of local narratives with global artistic practices. Several cities have implemented variations with promising results. Research on artistic interventions in urban spaces across Europe and Asia demonstrates that participatory art projects can serve as 'social prescribing', improving psychological resilience and enhancing public engagement. Tactical urbanism approaches – small-scale, low-cost interventions improving public spaces – increasingly incorporate art as core rather than supplementary elements. The implications extend beyond individual communities. International frameworks including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enshrine rights to health and cultural participation. State obligations to conserve, develop and diffuse culture should support community-driven cultural initiatives demonstrably impacting health outcomes. As pandemic governance analyses emphasise, future health policy reforms must address not only biomedical preparedness but underlying vulnerabilities in community resilience and social cohesion. Street art operating through participatory structures directly strengthens these dimensions. What Psychologists Can Do We have roles to play at multiple levels. First, we must conduct research documenting the mental health impacts of participatory arts interventions. While promising evidence exists, methodologically rigorous studies with adequate sample sizes and long-term follow-up remain scarce. We need experimental designs, not just observational studies, examining mechanisms through which environmental transformations affect psychological outcomes. Second, we should advocate for policy recognising arts engagement as health intervention. This means supporting public health funding for community arts initiatives, particularly in economically deprived areas where traditional development approaches have failed. We should work with urban planners, architects, and artists to integrate participatory arts into neighbourhood regeneration from inception, not as afterthoughts. Third, we must ensure interventions embody genuine participation rather than tokenistic consultation. The Stramuralesmodel succeeds because residents hold real power. Without this, arts interventions risk replicating existing power structures and potentially accelerating gentrification that displaces the communities they ostensibly serve. Fourth, we should employ arts-based research methods that centre community voices. Collaborative approaches like participatory theatre, photovoice, and collaborative poetics enable communities to articulate their experiences and aspirations in ways traditional psychological assessments cannot capture. These methods acknowledge that communities possess expertise about their own needs and potential solutions. Finally, we must situate arts interventions within broader frameworks addressing social justice. Art should not function as a 'sticking plaster' masking underlying inequalities. Instead, we should harness arts' disruptive potential to promote what researchers term 'critical resilience' – capacity challenging systemic injustices rather than merely helping people adapt to them. This means addressing not just symptoms (mental distress) but causes (structural violence, economic abandonment, policy failures). Reimagining Health Infrastructure The Stramurales case compels fundamental reconsideration of what constitutes health infrastructure. We typically envision clinics, hospitals, pharmacies – biomedical institutions delivering treatments for diagnosed conditions. But what if the most effective mental health intervention for a declining community isn't a new psychiatric facility, but democratic processes enabling residents to transform their visual environment? Walls covered with democratically selected art, created through genuine community participation, demonstrably improve community mental health while operationalising cultural rights described in international law. The modest financial investment required pales beside costs of clinical services treating preventable distress. For communities experiencing decline where traditional economic development has failed, participatory street art may offer the most cost-effective, accessible, and sustainable mental health intervention available. This isn't about romanticising art or dismissing serious mental illness requiring clinical care. It's about acknowledging that population mental health requires addressing social determinants – and that participatory arts targeting built environments, social capital, and collective agency directly address these determinants. The question facing psychology isn't whether art can function as health intervention – Stramurales and growing evidence demonstrate it can. Rather, the question is whether we possess imagination to rethink health infrastructure, recognising that effective mental health promotion may require democratic decision-making and community participation as much as clinical expertise. As we watched Stornara residents voting on murals that June afternoon, we witnessed people exercising a fundamental human capacity too often denied in our field: the power to shape their own environments and, through that shaping, to heal. Perhaps that's the most vital lesson Stramurales offers psychology – that sometimes the most therapeutic intervention isn't administered by professionals, but created by communities reclaiming their agency… one democratically selected wall at a time. Dr Luciano Magaldi Sardella holds a PhD in Cognitive Leadership at Aspire Institute, Harvard Business School. Professor Matteo Mantuano is Professor of Social Sciences and Psychoeducational Health, Unitré University of Milan, Italy. Photo: 'Kid trapped in a box' mural by Leticia Mandragora References: All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing (2017). Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing (2nd ed.). Belfiore, E. & Bennett, O. (2024). The social impact of the arts: An intellectual history. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Bone, J.K., Bu, F., Fluharty, M.E., Paul, E., Sonke, J.K. & Fancourt, D. (2024). Who engages in the arts in the United States? A comparison of several types of engagement using data from The General Social Survey. PLOS ONE, 19(1), e0296743. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0296743 Chatterjee, H.J. & Noble, G. (2024). Museums, health and well-being: A preliminary report for Phase I. UCL Museums & Public Health Research Group. Cohen, G.D., Perlstein, S., Chapline, J., Kelly, J., Firth, K.M. & Simmens, S. (2006). The impact of professionally conducted cultural programs on the physical health, mental health, and social functioning of older adults. The Gerontologist, 46(6), 726–734. Daykin, N., Mansfield, L., Meads, C., Julier, G., Tomlinson, A., Payne, A., Grigsby Duffy, L., Lane, J., D'Innocenzo, G., Burnett, A., Kay, T., Dolan, P., Testoni, S. & Victor, C. (2024). What works for wellbeing? A systematic review of wellbeing outcomes for music and singing in adults. Perspectives in Public Health, 138(1), 39–46. doi:10.1177/1757913917740391 Fancourt, D. & Finn, S. (2019). What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review. World Health Organization, Health Evidence Network Synthesis Report 67. Flores González, L.M. & Rodríguez Sánchez, I. (2024). The transformative power of art in marginalized communities: Case studies from Latin America. International Journal of Community Well-Being, 7(2), 145–167. Galtung, J. (1969). Violence, peace, and peace research. Journal of Peace Research, 6(3), 167–191. Hart, A., Gagnon, E., Eryigit-Madzwamuse, S., Cameron, J., Aranda, K., Rathbone, A. & Heaver, B. (2016). Uniting resilience research and practice with an inequalities approach. Sage Open, 6(4), 1–13. Johnson, H., Carson-Apstein, E., Banderob, S. & Macualay-Rettino, X. (2017). 'You kind of have to listen to me': Researching discrimination through poetry. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum Qualitative Social Research, 18(2). doi:10.17169/fqs-18.3.2864 Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 15(3), 169–182. Kim, J. (2017). Effects of community-based group music therapy for children exposed to ongoing child maltreatment and poverty in South Korea: A block randomized controlled trial. Arts Psychotherapy, 54, 69–77. doi:10.1016/j.aip.2017.01.001 Li, Y., Zhang, H. & Chen, T. (2024). Environmental perception, cultural identity and community resilience: Chain mediating effects of place attachment in rural China. Journal of Rural Studies, 98, 103– 115. Marmot, M., Atkinson, T., Bell, J., Black, C., Broadfoot, P., Cumberlege, J., Diamond, I., Gilmore, I., Ham, C., Meacher, M. & Mulgan, G. (2010). Fair society, healthy lives: The Marmot Review. Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England Post-2010. Mulligan, M., Scanlon, C. & Welch, N. (2008). Renegotiating community life: Arts, agency, inclusion and wellbeing. Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, 1, 99–115. doi:10.5130/ijcre.v1i0.591 Neelands, J., Belfiore, E., Firth, C., Hart, N., Perrin, L., Brock, S., Holdaway, D. & Woddis, J. (2015). Enriching Britain: Culture, creativity and growth. The 2015 Report by the Warwick Commission for the Future of Cultural Value. Packer, J. & Ballantyne, R. (2024). The role of museums and art galleries in promoting wellbeing: Insights from the United Kingdom and Australia. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 30(3), 234–251. Papies, E.K., Best, M., Gelibter, E. & Stroebe, W. (2024). The role of mental simulation in desire and motivation: A systematic review. Motivation Science, 10(1), 1–18. Pykett, A.A., Osborne, T., Resch, B., Nielek, R., Krukar, J. & Malleson, N. (2024). From smart to sustainable cities: The role of environmental psychology in urban transformation. Cities, 144, 104644. Roe, J. & Aspinall, P. (2024). The restorative benefits of walking in urban and rural settings in adults with good and poor mental health. Health & Place, 71, 102654. Stuckey, H.L. & Nobel, J. (2010). The connection between art, healing, and public health: A review of current literature. American Journal of Public Health, 100(2), 254–263. Theorell, T. (2024). Psychological health effects of musical experiences: Theories, studies and reflections in music health science. Stockholm: Springer Nature. Ulrich, R.S., Simons, R.F., Losito, B.D., Fiorito, E., Miles, M.A. & Zelson, M. (1991). Stress recovery during exposure to natural and urban environments. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 11(3), 201–230. Van den Berg, A.E., Wesselius, J.E., Maas, J. & Tanja-Dijkstra, K. (2024). Green space as a buffer between stressful life events and health: A longitudinal analysis. Social Science & Medicine, 310, 115270. WHO (2019). WHO housing and health guidelines. Geneva: World Health Organization. Zarobe, L. & Bungay, H. (2024). The role of arts activities in developing resilience and mental wellbeing in children and young people: A rapid review of the literature. Perspectives in Public Health, 137(6), 337–347. doi:10.1177/1757913917712283.

www.linkedin.com
The Psychologist – The British Psychological Society – When Walls Become Wellness
825