Do you believe in brainwashing?
On 16/02/13 by Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian.
Extracts:
“The term "brainwashing" first became widespread in the 1950s, to explain why some US soldiers, taken prisoner in Korea defected to the enemy.
(…)
The concept was a handy way of avoiding darker questions about psychology. If brainwashing exists, the main thing is just to keep clear of brainwashers. But in fact the world's full of "hidden persuaders", large and small. There isn't a secret switch that lets villains control your thoughts; instead, there are TV ads and manipulative friends and guilt-inducing religions, and a million other ways in which we influence, and are influenced, all the time.
(…)
We crave the sense of having consistent personalities, and that means not abandoning a path you've been on for months or years already.
(…)
It's worthwhile, and a bit alarming, to ask how many other projects we fail to abandon – bad jobs, bad marriages, bad wars – because we think we've invested too much to turn back. Scientologists believe some ridiculous things (for example, that humans are possessed by the souls of extraterrestrials who were brought to earth 75m years ago, and killed using hydrogen bombs). The scarier truth is that the rest of us do, too.”
On 16/02/13 by Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian.
Extracts:
“The term "brainwashing" first became widespread in the 1950s, to explain why some US soldiers, taken prisoner in Korea defected to the enemy.
(…)
The concept was a handy way of avoiding darker questions about psychology. If brainwashing exists, the main thing is just to keep clear of brainwashers. But in fact the world's full of "hidden persuaders", large and small. There isn't a secret switch that lets villains control your thoughts; instead, there are TV ads and manipulative friends and guilt-inducing religions, and a million other ways in which we influence, and are influenced, all the time.
(…)
We crave the sense of having consistent personalities, and that means not abandoning a path you've been on for months or years already.
(…)
It's worthwhile, and a bit alarming, to ask how many other projects we fail to abandon – bad jobs, bad marriages, bad wars – because we think we've invested too much to turn back. Scientologists believe some ridiculous things (for example, that humans are possessed by the souls of extraterrestrials who were brought to earth 75m years ago, and killed using hydrogen bombs). The scarier truth is that the rest of us do, too.”
