Brainwashing

[Silver Guard]

Is brainwashing wrong? Is it wrong to force someone into believeing what you want them to by whatever methods you wish, stick and carrot, endless repitition, threats, making it the only thing they know?
Heres an example
If you believe in this, you'll go to a good place when you die, if you don't, you'll go to a bad place
"Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done..."
You will suffer in the fires of a thousand suns, you will be tortured by the deamons of the earth, sky and water...
"Whats an Atheist mummy?", "They're bad people ben, they try and destroy society and lead you to the devil"

[Axe-Battler]

there can be positive way of looking at brainwashing (something that unfortunately doesn't happen)...

How about, force someone to not believe in hell? haha.

[Silver Guard]

What's the point? Anyone with common sense can look at a volcano and work out that there is no hell. Why should we rely in brainwashing when we can rely in common sense and individuality?

[boofhead]

Of course not. Any truthful ideology does not need to resort to brainwashing tactics - truth speaks for itself.

BTW certain muslims have spoken about Arab extremist propoganda as "brainwashing" with pride, because "washing" to them means "made clean"

We Westerners actually "Braindirty" or something.

[Kythras]

Wow, it's going to be fun watching the "no" bar get bigger and bigger...

[Captain Arrrgh!]

Wow, it's going to be fun watching the "no" bar get bigger and bigger...

You repeated the word 'bigger'....are you attempting to brainwash me?

[Chaigidel]

control of a society can be maintained with any tools necessary or available brainwashing is viable and a good thing--- so that a people can move as one

anyone who wont step in line can just be killed eventually you will have an obedient and proper community willing to lay waste to anyone that is needed .

[boofhead]

control of a society can be maintained with any tools necessary or available brainwashing is viable and a good thing--- so that a people can move as one

anyone who wont step in line can just be killed eventually you will have an obedient and proper community willing to lay waste to anyone that is needed .

More likely revolt and crush the 'brainwasher'.

[Kythras]

control of a society can be maintained with any tools necessary or available brainwashing is viable and a good thing--- so that a people can move as one

anyone who wont step in line can just be killed eventually you will have an obedient and proper community willing to lay waste to anyone that is needed .

@God
Please make him be joking...

[Chaigidel]

yes but even if they rise up boof they still unite-- so brainwashing is good.

[boofhead]

yes but even if they rise up boof they still unite-- so brainwashing is good.

So the brainwasher is destroyed and the "brainwashees" commence a new era of "anti-brainwashiness" which leads everybody full circle.

Brainwashing sucks, frankly.

[Chaigidel]

all im saying is that its going on right now its always been going on its just a natural side effect of a society built around great apes.

[Blau&Gruen]

Is brainwashing wrong? Is it wrong to force someone into believeing what you want them to by whatever methods you wish, stick and carrot, endless repitition, threats, making it the only thing they know?
Heres an example
If you believe in this, you'll go to a good place when you die, if you don't, you'll go to a bad place
"Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done..."
You will suffer in the fires of a thousand suns, you will be tortured by the deamons of the earth, sky and water...
"Whats an Atheist mummy?", "They're bad people ben, they try and destroy society and lead you to the devil"

Lol, it might make sense to say that there are many forms of let's call it persuade yourself or others. Between the conditioning of a pet and the elaborate introduction into the belief "There are Raelians, therefore you owe me bucks" are worlds and many degrees in between, aren't there?

[GershomPatmos]

Lol, it might make sense to say that there are many forms of let's call it persuade yourself or others. Between the conditioning of a pet and the elaborate introduction into the belief "There are Raelians, therefore you owe me bucks" are worlds and many degrees in between, aren't there?

I agree..."brainwashing" is just a form of persuasion. You see it with the media which selects which news to bring to you, and how they want to "slant" it, you see it with religious leaders, and you definitely see it with political leaders and rulers, etc. I love the example of Hitler...he was a brilliant man IMO. Many people look at him as though he was crazy or something, especially because how he used his military might...but he was just simply brilliant. (And yes - this coming from a Christian.) Some of his words, starting with my favorite quote:

"When an opponent declares, "I will not come over to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already... What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community."

"The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force."

All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.

"People have killed only when they could not achieve their aim in other ways ... there is a broadened strategy, with intellectual weapons ... why should I demoralize the enemy by military means if I can do so better and more cheaply in other ways?"

And that's the truth of the matter. Similar to what Hitler said...why kill off a group that is different from you when you can simply brainwash their children and kill off their heritage and history that way? It's much cheaper and benefits all! Right?

later,
Gersh

[ajm317]

Brainwashing itself isn't wrong.

Mother to 4 year old daughter: Honey don't touch the burner it's hot.
2 days later: Honey if you touch the burner it will REALLY hurt because it's hot.
10 minutes later: Elizabeth you're being a bad girl, get away from that burner. You're making mommy very angry.

Clearly the mother in this scenario is evil. She's brainwashing the victim to believe that touching a hot burner is bad.

Brainwashing isn't evil. It's a tool for behavior modification. It's how the tool is USED that is sometimes evil.

[Irishman]

Brainwashing isn't evil. It's a tool for behavior modification. It's how the tool is USED that is sometimes evil.

There is a difference between brainwashing and teaching. Repetition is a part of any learning cycle, but brainwashing is when the mother brings her child to a group every week which sings songs agout how hot the water is since birth (sunday school).

Not all teaching is brainwashing, but some borders on indoctrination.

[Darth Wong]

When you teach someone with an idea, you explain the reason for it, and it makes sense. You encourage him to ask questions, to critically examine what you're teaching, to see what's wrong with other points of view by examining them, and to TEST that it does in fact make sense.

When you brainwash someone, you simply pound the same message into his head over and over and over until he loses the ability to critically examine it. You discourage critical examination, and you try to isolate him from competing points of view rather than explaining what's wrong with them. That is a HUGE difference, and an extremely harmful one. It relies upon the pattern-recognition characteristic of the human brain that many of us know as "muscle memory"; the propensity of the human brain to internalize patterns after seeing them hundreds or thousands of times so that it will go through those patterns on a subconscious level.

[LoZz]

everyone is brainwashed, everything you know as a small child is forced apon you by your parents, such as religion etc.


i dont think its right, but its a fact of life. because young people know nothing. so getting them to think a certain way, such as right and wrong is a form of brainwashing

[Ummon]

What you cannot accept willingly, should never be imposed on you, however wretched and miserable that makes you. Free choice is no joke.

[GershomPatmos]

What you cannot accept willingly, should never be imposed on you, however wretched and miserable that makes you. Free choice is no joke.

There is no true "freedom of choice" persay...a sick and twisted person might think killing people is a good thing to do (population control, ridding the world of "evil", whatever)...but does that mean he should have the "freedom" to enact upon another's? No...there are limits. Same thing as someone was mentioning with children...they tend to strike out physically at times, especially in younger ages - they don't know it's considered "wrong" to settle disputes/arguments in that way, and thus must be taught and have the right way "imposed" on them. (Though IMO the teaching should definitely start before the child is able to physically attack/violate another child/person.) Anyways - I think people in America are brainwashed about the circumstances, etc. surrounding 9/11. (This is a personal opinion of mine backed by what evidence I've seen and research, etc.). I do believe the public should know the truth...but I believe it's been brainwashed to help accept one which is more cozy and allowable, thus resulting in national stability. It's bad on one side of the coin...but good on the other. You see leaders and those in power saying and doing lots of things like this...it's historically documented too I believe. I also believe this happens the most in the court system. In the US there was recently a case involving some college lacrosse players who were accused of rape, but the case was dismissed a year later...only due to their good lawyers which helped the truth to come forward. Had it not been for the affordability of good lawyers...these poor boys would have had to face the brainwashed jury and law system which says: "somebody must pay" - whether or not the crime was actually committed. We're all brainwashed to believe a number of things...we try to be educated to figure out what the brainwashings our and how to "deal" with them...but even then we're just going through another cycle too, eh? (Figured I'd give a more philosophical post this time.)

later,
Gersh