Indoctrination and Mind Control

“Food for Thought” is an original column appearing sporadically on Tuesdays at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Norman Imberman. Archived columns can be found here. FFT-only RSS feed available here.

Indoctrination, in the Webster II New College Dictionary is defined as “to teach to accept a system of thought uncritically”. Mind Control is a more intensive form of the same thing, requiring some form of physical or mental torture. Indoctrination and mind control can be used to instill a system of ideas before an individual has been subjected to any belief system or it can be used to change the system of beliefs already accepted by an individual.

The metaphysical result that makes indoctrination and/or mind control what it is, is the fact that the victim does not realize that he has been subjected to an irrational mental force, causing the subject to accept that which is being taught, without understanding the validity of it. The first thing that disappears during indoctrination is truth, while the next thing that goes are lessons in critical thinking—logic. Thus it is uncritically accepted. The force of indoctrination is so powerful that the subject will intellectually and/or physically defend what he thinks is the truth of the indoctrinated ideas—to the death. The subject cannot even entertain the thought of changing his indoctrinated ideology even in the presence of valid arguments to the contrary.

The prime example of instilling an ideology before any belief has been accepted is through the indoctrination of children in the public school system of America and via religious teachings. Via the America public school system, the ideology of patriotism, Constitutionalism, Nationalism and the act of voting, is indoctrinated as a sacrosanct idea into innocent minds from kindergarten throughout all of the remainder of the child’s schooling. With few exceptions, no amount of dissuasion can extricate those beliefs, not only from the students, but in addition, from the minds of those who graduate into adulthood and senior citizenship.

Since parents were also subjected to the same degree of indoctrination, they reinforce that which is taught in public schools into the minds of their own children. So the vicious circle never ends. Mandatory public education was no accident. It was calculated to indoctrinate. The indoctrination infects the entire population from the street cleaner to the teacher to the doctor to the authorities. The novel 1984, by George Orwell very clearly demonstrates indoctrination as the evil that it is.

Indoctrination is strongest in the religious and political realms. Try using reason to persuade almost anyone to at least think about the fact that what they were taught is incorrect and resistance will be met with smirks, laughter and disbelief. In fact, this article will most likely engender those reactions. Instead of entertaining the possibility that there may be some truth to this thesis, the indoctrinated will swat it away with the flick of the wrist and nothing more need be said about it. My own experience confirms this.

Arguments criticizing religious beliefs are futile and so I’ll not delve any further into the resistance by the religious. Just understand that religious faith is the acceptance of something without proof or in spite of evidence to the contrary. However, political faith also prevails. Political faith is the acceptance of the idea that politics is the only method of solving man’s most critical problems. It too is accepted on faith or in spite of evidence to the contrary by both sides of the aisle and in spite of the fact that the very problems that the populace wants to solve are caused by the acceptance of the indoctrination to which they were exposed.

To quote Albert J. Nock, “The point is that in respect of the relation between the theory and the actual practice of public affairs, the American is the most unphilosophical of beings. The rationalization (use of reason) of conduct in general is most repugnant to him; he prefers to emotionalize it. He is indifferent to the theory of things, so long as he may rehearse his formulas; and so long as he can listen to the patter of his litanies, no practical inconsistency disturbs him⎯indeed, he gives no evidence of even recognizing it as an inconsistency.” Our Enemy, The State by Albert Jay Nock, (page 12). To recognize a contradiction and refuse to correct it is a form of mental disease. Man’s survival depends upon correcting inconsistencies and contradictions in his thinking.

The above quote is most evident in the political realm. Ask a victim of public school indoctrination to just consider a new idea that contradicts his belief system and a wall of resistance is constructed, which is especially true if that individual is well educated. Jay Stuart Snelson calls that resistance the Ideological Immune System. The flaws in thinking, pointed out by Nock, are epidemic among most Americans causing a floodgate of crimes perpetrated by American politicians, resulting in the victimization of all of us. As planned by the indoctrinators, the victims never realize that they are victims. They will fight with vehemence to remain victims. I’m like Paul Revere, trying to wake up modern America, but in reality, I’m a voice in the wilderness.

The authorities teach that theft or stealing (the taking of another’s property without his permission) is wrong and illegal. There are laws against it and trespassers will be punished. At the same time the politicians pass laws, with the consent of the indoctrinated, condoning and mandating theft, such as income tax laws. When the populace is taught that forcibly taking an individual’s home by force in the name of eminent domain is not theft, they applaud the act as an act of benevolent altruism, never considering the injustice to the homeowner who was robbed. The obvious absurdity of these aforementioned examples of contradictions and inconsistencies is never mentioned or recognized. It takes a rare intellectual curiosity and intellectual honesty to look at the truth of what I am professing. However, part of the indoctrination process involves eliminating intellectual curiosity and intellectual honesty in the first place.

History is replete with true stories of antagonism, harassment and hatred directed towards ideas that were in conflict with the accepted indoctrinated social mythology. Galileo, Newton, Columbus, the Wright Brothers, Copernicus, Semmelweis, etc. were laughed at or tortured for expounding new ideas. Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for his ideas. Entire populations were wiped out because of superstitious beliefs taught by the authorities and accepted as true by the indoctrinated populace. The authorities were responsible for the deaths of millions of people in the 17th century because the authorities claimed that people consorting with the devil caused the plague. Therefore the “devil consorters” were put to death. This resulted in failing to investigate the true cause of the plague, bacteria, so that people continued to die from the disease.

The authorities today teach that theft is not theft when the people vote for it, that a legal draft is not kidnapping when a young man is drafted in the armed services during times of war. They recognize Ponzi schemes as fraud, pass laws making Ponzi schemes illegal and then institute Social Security laws, which is one of the greatest Ponzi scheme of all.

Stop, think and recognize how your belief in the political system of this country is a result of the indoctrination your received, and is the very cause of the problems that you seek to solve through the vote. Show that you are against theft, fraud, force, corruption and coercion in general by withholding your vote. In that way you remain true to your values. When you vote you are saying that you condone these crimes and support their continuation.

Crime is not a political term. Property ownership exists prior to the concept of “crime” or the concept of government can be formulated. A crime is an intentional interference with property. Therefore, the State cannot arbitrarily redefine crime for its own convenience, even with the consent of the governed. It can’t maintain the attitude that a crime is what the State says it is. When it mandates that certain acts that are not interferences with property are also crimes, it makes a mockery of the meaningful definition of crime. The result is misunderstanding, misconduct, confusion, innocent victims, overcrowded prisons and chaos. Americans, wake up! “Redeem your [indoctrinated] minds from the hockshops of authority” [Ayn Rand].

(Since this article only criticizes “indoctrination,” see my article entitled “The Invisible Wall” which describes in detail what a true education entails.)

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Norman is a retired podiatrist who loves playing piano, writing music, lawn bowling, bridge, reading, classical music, going to movies, plays, concerts and traveling. He is not a member of any social network, nor does he plan on becoming one. Dr. Imberman has written a fantastic Christmas song which he had professionally recorded as a demonstration record. He is looking for a publisher, or A & R man, or record producer to listen to his song. It deserves to be a permanent member of the portfolio of familiar and favorite Christmas songs.