Mass psychology

[svenhag]

“There will be in the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it … [through] brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods.”
Aldous Huxley, speech at the California Medical School in San Francisco, 1961

“Scientific societies are as yet in their infancy. . . . It is to be
expected that advances in physiology and psychology will give
governments much more control over individual mentality than they now have even in totalitarian countries. Fitche laid it down that education should aim at destroying free will, so that, after pupils have left school, they shall be incapable, throughout the rest of their lives, of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished.”

“Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early
age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the
authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible.”

“Gradually, by selective breeding, the congenital differences
between rulers and ruled will increase until they become almost
different species. A revolt of the plebs would become as unthinkable a an organized insurrection of sheep against the practice of eating mutton.”
Bertrand Russell, “The Impact of Science on Society”, 1953, pg 49-50

“I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is
mass psychology…. Its importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda. Of these the most influential is what is called ‘education.’ Religion plays a part, though a diminishing one; the press, the cinema, and the radio play an
increasing part…. It may be hoped that in time anybody will be able
to persuade anybody of anything if he can catch the patient young and is provided by the State with money and equipment.”

“Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be
rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be
allowed to know how its convictions were generated. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for a generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen.”
Bertrand Russell, “The Impact of Science on Society”, 1953

[someoneisatthedoor]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
video.google.co.uk/videoplay?doc … 3887273321

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trap_( … ary_series

The next question is that, given Russell made such predictions (which was the style at the time, like having an onion on your belt) did he do much to prevent this state of affairs from coming about? Or, given that he described how it could come about but did little otherwise to resist it did he actually make it more likely that his description would come about?

It’s ironic that while there’s been an obvious and widely-predicted scientising of politics, there has equally been a strong politicisation of science, which was less widely predicted. Science is almost invariably portrayed as the demon, the state being a sort of unassuming accomplice in this particular historical movement. I’m not sure that this is the right way round. There’s nothing wrong with science per se, though it is an immature epistemology and perhaps this is why it’s passage into becoming entrenched with political (and economic and so on) interests has happened so quickly. Or it’s just the nature of the relationship between power and knowledge. That’s an argument, put simply, between Marxists and Foucaultians.

[unrealist42]

Well, knowledge is power so science has always been politicized.

[someoneisatthedoor]

@unrealist42

Well, knowledge is power so science has always been politicized.

The relationship between knowledge and power is not one of equivalence. The control of the movement of knowledge, the control of information, is more directly related to power per se. But knowledge doesn’t equal power.

And yes, I suppose science has always been politicised.

[JrnymnX]

which was the style at the time, like having an onion on your belt

[svenhag]

SIATD,

Started watching that vid. This is also worth a look: BBC series in 4 parts about how Sigmund Freud’s ideas about the unconscious mind has been used to control the masses.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8953172273825999151&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-678466363224520614&q

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6111922724894802811&q

[someoneisatthedoor]

Sure sure, same director (Adam Curtis). I’ve only seen the start of The Century of the Self but it’s along similar lines to The Trap.