Do You Strive to be Someone’s Pet?
Hi Everyone,
We live in strange times. One of the strangest and most alarming aspects of our times is the extent and success of brainwashing. This appears to be occurring around the world. We have seen the Covid-19 fiasco, climate change, the war in Ukraine, the war in Israel, and the many elements of wokeism.
Attempted brainwashing of the masses is not a new phenomenon. It is one of the oldest mechanisms of controlling people that has ever existed. What makes it incredibly powerful is that it is voluntary. When people are subjected to force, they can fight back because they know they are being oppressed. If people voluntarily embrace their own oppression, there is no desire to resist.
Young people have been the most subjected to this brainwashing. Everywhere they turn, they are faced with some form of brainwashing. The education system, the media, social media, and peers push the same narratives about reality.
Young children have been deprived of the opportunity to think for themselves. They are ill-equipped to deal with the bombardment of dogma. Ultimately, many are deceived. Once they have been deceived, most of them are unable to escape the product of the dogma. It becomes hardwired into their systems. This can be clearly observed with the followers and former followers of cults.
We think of cults as groups of people blindly following the dogma of one or two fanatical people. What we face in the world today is something well beyond a large group of people. It is well beyond even nations of people. It is a global phenomenon.
So what is this dogma? It is whatever can be used to manipulate people into behaving in a particular way that meets the goals of manipulators. It will vary depending on culture. People from liberal and conservative cultures require different methods of manipulation. It seems the Establishment has found the best approach for both types of cultures.
Purpose of Brainwashing
The original intended purpose of brainwashing was to create blind obedience to people who claimed to be the authority. The world has grown and evolved, so has brainwashing and its intended role. Blind obedience to a person, group of people, or a static ideology is not sufficient for liberal cultures. People want to believe they are educated and capable of forming their opinions. Therefore, brainwashing needs to simulate this process.
Blind obedience can be obtained if blind disobedience is also pursued. Something needed to be portrayed as bad or unjust. This revelation would lead people to believe they voluntarily opposed this injustice. Their response is not voluntary, but reactive to the stimulus put before them. Their perception of the problems is reinforced through repeated depiction of them. Mainstream media and social media play a vital role in shaping this perception. Their next response is to resolve the problem or injustice. This leads to them following, supporting, and eventually embracing the next big idea. Ultimately, this leads to submission to some form of claimed authority.
Obtaining and Protecting Success
The Establishment elite define their success by obtaining and preserving power and wealth. Neither of these desires is unnatural; nor are the desperate attempts to cling to them. However, their ability to preserve their power and wealth appears far from natural. Their dedication to the use and refinement of brainwashing is fundamental to their success.
In nature, we have something known as ‘the survival of the fittest’. The creatures most suitably adapted to an environment have the best chances of survival. Success is rewarded with life, and failure is punished with death. The traits of survival are passed on to the next generation. If the environment remains fundamentally unchanged, the next generation has better chances of survival than the previous one.
Eventually, the environment will change. Traits that guaranteed success in the past, might not do so in the present or in the future. For the species to survive, it must adapt. The most successful of the species will change to meet the requirements of the environment.
The survival of the fittest philosophy also applies to people. In this modern era, it is not so much pure about survival (live or die) but about success. We see this with businesses, employment, politics, sports, and even relationships.
There are many different paths to success. It could be about possessing amazing innate talents. It could be about being better in key areas such as planning, management, innovation, or marketing. It could be about having advantageous connections and relationships that put us in the best position to succeed. It could be about being able to manipulate the rules so as to gain an advantage over others.
Whatever the reasons for success might be, it is not intended to be permanent. People and businesses should not be able to indefinitely maintain their advantages. This is because they decline over time, new stronger competitors appear, or the environment changes.
Different people, groups of people, and businesses rising to success is a natural and healthy development for our species. The problems occur when some do not accept what should be an inevitability. These are the successful who are unwilling to risk their position or, even worse, refuse to be challenged.
Leaders, politicians, and businesses protect themselves by reducing competition. They are able to do so because they can either set the rules or greatly influence the rules regarding their competition. Leaders can eliminate their competition through various methods. They can kill them or threaten to kill them. They can have them arrested for exaggerated or made up crimes. They can discredit or humiliate them with false information, while censoring any negative information about themselves. They can rig elections against them.
Top politicians can be protected in a similar manner as leaders. They also have the party system to protect them. Politicians outside of the two largest parties rarely have a chance of gaining any significant political power.
Businesses have a wide range of tools to protect themselves from competition. Most of these relate to barriers to entry, such as control of essential resources, ownership of large expensive infrastructure, and copyrights and patents.
Businesses work with Governments to bypass competition. They obtain grants for fulfilling certain requirements (e.g., economic, social, and governance (ESG) criteria). The Government becomes the customer on behalf of the people. For example, the Government uses taxpayers’ money to buy products and services, which they distribute to the people. Governments have grown in size to become customers instead of producers. This is for the benefit of the biggest businesses. The biggest companies return the favour by sponsoring media and events, donating to political parties, and offering opportunities to former politicians.
Rigging the game against competition is not enough to ensure indefinite success. The Establishment wants to take it one step further. They aim to prevent competition from ever emerging. This is done through brainwashing.
How Did This Brainwashing Progress?
Traditionally, religion has been the primary tool for brainwashing. Many cultures introduce religion to their children at a young age. A child’s earliest understanding of the world is based on these religious teachings. They are taught that any conflicting teachings are wrong and, in some cases, blasphemous. This essentially closes a young person’s mind. They are brainwashed to accept just one way of thinking and one type of ideology.
In many cases, the religious teachings are not even fully representative of that religion. They are based on a particular group’s interpretation of that religion. When this is done dogmatically, it creates conflict between different groups that are supposedly preaching the same religion. This has happened with Christianity (e.g., Catholics vs. Protestants) and Islam (e.g., Shiites vs. Sunnis).
Over the years, Christian cultures have become more liberal. This is particularly true in western countries. The church has lost much of its power. Therefore, far fewer western Christians can be brainwashed by its teachings.
The role of brainwashing was passed on to the Government. They have many ways of brainwashing the public. Like religious institutions, they pursue children. They do so by dictating what is taught in schools. The schools teach children to memorise the prescribed content. They enforce this approach by requiring them to regurgitate this content in examinations.
The political opinions of teachers often align with the agendas being taught in the classroom (Education Week). Therefore, they consciously influence their students to think in a similar manner to themselves. In doing so, they honestly believe it is for the better. ‘Progressive’ ideology is appealing to teachers as it aligns with the ideas of helping one another and being nice.
When not in school, children need to contend with both mainstream media, entertainment, and social media. Entertainment programs that target children are full of ideology that aligns with the dogma taught in school. Social media algorithms are used to direct particular content at children in an attempt to normalise certain behaviours and points of view (Consumer Research). Even if a child can avoid social media, he or she cannot avoid peer pressure from other children who have been exposed to this content.
The Old Dogma
Islamic cultures are still greatly influenced by religious institutions and leaders. This is particularly true in the Middle East. These are the most conservative countries in the world. For many of these people, their perception of their religion is the most important thing in their lives. They want to live their lives in accordance to the will of their god. They desire to be judged favourably by their god to gain access to heaven. Religious institutions and leaders are held in very high regard. Therefore, they are very powerful. They are able to use religion and their interpretations of script to manipulate people.
Their religion follows them everywhere they go. Far fewer Muslims convert to other religions than Christians (Pew Research Center). Muslims who migrate to predominantly Christian countries are likely to keep their faith. It is more likely for Christians in these countries to convert to Islam than the other way around. Most Muslim migrants tend to be male (Politico) and most converts tend to be women (Independent). This is leading to a gradual shift away from Christianity towards Islam.
Lebanon Example
Lebanon was formerly a Christian country. In the 1920s, over 70% of the population were Christians. Just ten years later, this dropped to about 55%. In 1943, Lebanon gained independence from France. In the 1950s Lebanon became one of the most successful countries in the world. However, the number of Muslims began to overtake the number of Christians. By the end of the 1950s, Muslim political groups attempted to takeover. They were initially thwarted. However, they persisted in their attempts to take over the country (Kreately).
From 1975 to 1990, there was a civil war. During this time, Christians were forced to flee. This reduced the Christian population to only 23%. The Muslims took complete control of the country. After the civil war, some of the Christians returned, increasing the population to around 40%. Lebanon’s society has been completely altered, and the economy has been destroyed (Kreately).
The method of takeover was through migration. Many managed to enter as refugees. From there, they facilitated the growth of Islam through conversions and faster natural population growth. They infiltrated government institutions under the guise of supporting ‘left-wing’ ideology. Existing Christians became labelled as ‘right-wing’. They were claimed to be the oppressors, and the Muslims were claimed to be the victims. This was an attempt to win global sympathy (Organiser).
Radical Islamic extremists committed frequent terrorist attacks. Christian leadership began to lose control of their cities. Eventually, they decided to fight back in self-defence (Organiser). A full civil war broke out between Christian and Muslim militias. During the civil war, the militia/terrorist group Hezbollah was formed (Wikipedia). Since then, Hezbollah has continued to grow more powerful and influential in Lebanon (Wilson Center). This has been to the detriment of the Christians (Christians United for Israel).
The New Dogma
Leaders, politicians, and businesses are not only interested in avoiding immediate potential competition, but also future competition. This begins with the brainwashing of children. The aim is to make them less competitive. People naturally strive to be successful. The new dogma aims to reverse this desire. They want success to mean very little and, in some cases, even be treated as negative.
Winners used to be awarded with prizes as a mark of success. Now, prizes are given out for just showing up. Winners are sometimes even shamed. They are treated as if they are arrogant. Sometimes, they are told that they only won because they have some form of unfair advantage. They want to convince children that everyone is a winner. Effort, motivation, desire, skill, ability, and whatever else should be necessary to be a winner, are not important because everyone is already a winner. This diminishes children’s desire to push themselves to become better at something or anything.
Everyone who has been successful in life has failed at some point. Failure builds character and fuels the desire to succeed next time. ‘Everyone is a winner’ mentality shields children from failure. Thus, robbing them of the opportunity to learn from failure. Some people will never succeed in certain endeavours. Repeated failure provides a message that, maybe, another path should be pursued, one where there is a reasonable chance for some success. These messages are lost if a child is led to believe they are succeeding when they are not.
The problem is compounded further in higher education institutes and the workplace. Instead of rewarding success, they reward based on quotas. Representation is more important than rewarding success. The ‘overrepresented’ have reduced incentive to succeed because the chances of being recognised have been greatly reduced. The ‘underrepresented’ have reduced incentive to pursue areas that they might prefer or be better at because they have an easier path to pursue something they are not as good at. The overall outcome is a fall in standards.
A key part of the latest iteration of this new dogma, wokeism, is victimhood. When success can no longer be faked. It is blamed on everything other than the person who has failed. It is blamed on other people’s ‘unfair’ advantages. It is blamed on racism. It is blamed on some other form of discrimination. Victimhood leaves a person powerless and unable to change his or her circumstances. Whereas taking responsibility, empowers a person to make changes to improve or change the direction he or she is heading in.
The people, who cannot claim victimhood, are brainwashed to self-loathe. These people have been given the designations of ‘white’ race, ‘straight’ sexual orientation, and ‘cis’ gender. They are brainwashed to believe they are privileged because they benefit from discrimination. Any success they achieve is because of discrimination and has little to do with talent or hard work.
For people indoctrinated in the new dogma, socialism is a logical pursuit. It is not because they want to work together for the benefit of society. It is because they have no incentive to succeed. They rather have everything given to them. They want to be dependents of the state. In essence, they want to be like pets. This mentality is not sustainable. Eventually, the pets will be forced to do tricks for their masters. The transition from pets to slaves will be seamless.
Old meets New
People indoctrinated into the new dogma are brainwashed to oppose the traditional beliefs and practices of their own culture; hereon, I refer to as the former dogma. The former dogma is built on the same premise (i.e., religion) as the old dogma practiced in conservative Middle Eastern countries. The fundamental difference for those indoctrinated in the new dogma, is that they perceive those following the old dogma as being oppressed by those following the former dogma. Therefore, according to their new dogma, the people indoctrinated in the old dogma should be welcomed and embraced.
People indoctrinated in the old dogma gladly accept the invitation of people indoctrinated in the new dogma. Doing so gives them a better life. At the same time, they remain committed to their old dogma. Through migration, conversion, and reproduction, their numbers grow. Eventually, these numbers will become sufficient to utilise democratic processes. They are able to influence laws and policies that favour the old dogma. For example, 40% of UK Muslims support some form of implementation of Sharia Law (Telegraph).
Many of the people indoctrinated with the new dogma are likely to, naively, add their support to their proposed changes. After these law changes are enforced, they will become aware of how incompatible their beliefs are with the old dogma. This will result in mass emigration. Many of those who are unable to leave may resort to suicide. The example of Lebanon repeats, but at a much faster rate.
For the Establishment, both the new and old dogmas serve their desired purposes. It is apparent that they prefer the old dogma to the new. It is simpler to operationalise. The focus is on obedience. They do not need it to appeal to people who think they are liberal. The new dogma is self-loathing; therefore, it is self-destructive in nature. It is designed to fail.
Conclusion and Further Warning
It is not impossible to break away from brainwashing ideologies. Liberalism was founded on people’s desire and ability to think for themselves. Hence, this is the reason the methods of brainwashing have become elaborate. Despite being surrounded by propaganda, there are people who are still able to think for themselves. These numbers are growing.
Escaping one or more forms of brainwashing does make someone immune to brainwashing. Attempts to capture these people will always be ongoing. There is a new dogmatic ideology referred to as National Populism. It is centred around charismatic leaders who appeal to people who have rejected wokeism.
It has gained considerable popularity in the USA and has spread to Europe and South America. Donald Trump is the most prominent figure in this movement. Those captured by this ideology are put in direct opposition to those captured by both the old and new ideologies. This round of brainwashing might be the final ingredient required to trigger global civil wars.
If you want to minimise your chances of being brainwashed, do your own research, follow evidence rather than people.
More posts
I have several collections of posts. I have organised these collections based on content and purpose.
The first collection contains six collection posts created before PeakD had the collection feature. Four of these posts relate to the core of my content; one of them contains all my Actifit Posts, and one of them contains my video course, ‘Economics is Everyone’.
The second collection consists of the posts that I consider define my channel. These posts are significant in terms of content as well as how they contribute to the growth of the channel. These posts reveal the most about what I believe in.
The third and fourth collections are what I call my ‘Freedom-based Economics Living Book’. They contain all the posts that support my ideas about the value and power of freedom. Some of these posts explain what we can achieve with freedom and what we need to utilise it for. Some of them explain how we are deprived of freedom and how we often give up freedom for security and comfort. The third collection concludes with possible scenarios depending on what we (society) choose to do.
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You covered some ground there, sir!
The one factor you, and most people miss out when debating wokism against socialism is intelligence.
Some humans are thick. Simply put, its true and are thus more inclined to be followers.
Social safety nets should be a community responsibility. Of course, some take advantage but do you ignore the many to punish the few?
The problem with Mr Trump and his ilk is their beliefs are rooted in fundamental religious doctrine. You might think the new brainwashing is done by governments but its not, governments are simply extensions of the core religious systems so nothing has changed, only the smoke screen.
When people are not bright and need answers they now turn to government instead of directly to religion but what to do? The intelligent and often centre right think they're just socialist scroungers and instead of helping and teaching, simply push them aside and tell them to 'take responsibility'. Genuinely good advice if you're intelligent enough to act upon it. For 2000+ years, human progress has been dragged down by religion.
Lebanon. Like many authors making a point, you stick your stake into the timeliness where it best suits your narrative. I just did the same thing!
Read further back. Go back the Ottoman empire and the Druze. Definitive Christian majority appears to have arrived with the French.
Great writing as always, you always make me ask questions of myself. I just you'd do a full and indepth study on just one small area rather than a huge swathe of connected topics.
Best wishes to you and your loved ones and thank you :-)
Not everyone is intelligent. The education system is making it worse. It does not focus on teaching children the skills necessary for them to think for themselves. It focuses on what to learn rather than how to learn. The building blocks of critical thinking are in most people. Think of how young children learn to speak. Schools need to build on this natural instinct for learning.
It would take a lot of digging to understand the extent of Christianity during the time of the Ottoman Empire. We do know there was a strong Christian presence prior to the Ottoman Empire. The Maronite Church dates back to the fourth century. The main point of the example was how one dogma can spread and take over a country in a relatively short time.
Thanks for taking the time to write such an in-depth comment. Best wishes to you too.
It's a points to understand and matter of great concern
Yes, definitely.
Good analyses, but i think you're a little bit optimistic when you say: "Despite being surrounded by propaganda, there are people who are still able to think for themselves. These numbers are growing". In my personal experience, the numbers aren't growing, at least in a very sensitive way.
I'm optimistic in respect to the number of people becoming aware about the Covid-19 jabs as well as the climate change dogma. The recent war in Gaza and Israel has turned things on its head. People are also feeling trapped because of all the various crises that are mounting from years of destructive Government policies.
Besides, if the numbers aren't growing we are truly doomed.
Well, from that point of view, yes, the conflict in Gaza has arisen more manifestations than I have seen in a good time. Maybe this is a signal of things changing 🤞
It is quite a pity that in our contemporary age, people are still engaged in brainwashing which should not be so. People are been manipulated to do things outside of their will
It's done because it works. That's the only motivation necessary.
Idolatry is so prevalent in the world today, with Trump being the biggest example. It is like he can do no wrong to his followers/believers. Even if he lies, or has done a lot of horrible things, it doesn't matter. And there are a lot of these in different countries. This is why education needs to be a priority of every nation.
Donald Trump plays to people's misery. He knows the issues that are causing people the most pain. He plays the saviour. He treats the attacks from the media, the legal system, the Democrats, and even some of the Republicans as conspiracy. For the most part he is correct. However, it isn't exactly what people think it is. Donald Trump is far from anti-establishment. We know that from his history and even his record as President. Make America Great, empty the swamp, it didn't happen. The US is in trouble.
Yeah, let's hope they get their head out of the gutter in time for the election.
How do you think people should respond to the upcoming US Presidential Election?
I haven't really been following it since I'm not an American, but I just hope they do their research, keep an open mind, and don't forget to vote. Vote on who they think is right, and not what the media or their peers tell them. At the end of it, it seems it will just be choosing the lesser of two evils.
That is a huge problem. First, there needs to be more options. Second, at least one of options needs to be something you want. Otherwise, we are just perpetuating the same problem.
Unfortunately that seems almost impossible with the two party system of the US.
Then the system needs to change.
The people, who cannot claim victimhood, are brainwashed to self-loathe.
That is perfectly true and sometimes they are manipulated to do that which at times they don't want to do
A key part of brainwashing is that people believe they are doing what they want to do or what they believe is right. The brainwashing has led them to the wrong the conclusions.