Brainwashing is bad, right? We remember movies and stories like the Manchurian candidate where a high level official is brainwashed by a foreign government and the victim will be activated when it is most advantageous. Brainwashing is when people are convinced of something through torture or prolonged exposure so that they will consider this false idea as fact. People may have been brainwashed in P.O.W. camps to think their captors were good people. Stockholm syndrome is where prisons come to love their captors in a form of brainwashing. So generally speaking, most everyone would agree that brainwashing is bad.
That is, unless you are brainwashing people to believe something you consider true. For example, if a political party runs news stories and opinion pieces and commentaries and advertisements that portray a particular candidate as evil. Eventually some people will come to believe what is being said about this candidate, that they are evil. On one hand we could say that these people were brainwashed through prolonged exposure to certain ideas. Or we might say that these people have finally been convinced of the truth. It is not brainwashing if I am right and I am educating you in the truth, or is it.
Politics works this way and so do most religions. For a believer of a religion, to tell someone, educate someone and convince someone of their beliefs is not brainwashing, it is enlightenment. A person is not brainwashed, they have been encouraged to see the light. But if a bad religion causes someone to see the light, a deprogrammer might be hired to help them out of this brainwashing. Brainwashing, therefore, is in the eye of the beholder, it seems.
Groups of people are formed when common beliefs are discovered. These groups can be formal, like a political party or a church, or it can be informal, like a gathering of friends. People tend to gravitate to people who believe similar things to themselves. Facebook friends, twitter followers and other social constructs are used as boundaries of people who believe similarly. They may not share all beliefs in common, but the beliefs important to the group are shared. For example, people sho go to the same church may not share the same preferences in cars, or food or ice cream flavor, but the core belief in Jesus Christ is what is necessary to bring them together. All other beliefs can be ignored if the important beliefs are common.
And so to convince someone of your core beliefs, you educate, indoctrinate, tell and share, and even brainwash. We may not be reduced to water boarding or solitary confinement, but if we can convince someone of our beliefs and they agree and join us, that is a win. Then week after week we teach, convince and brainwash people into believing the same way we do. If we are in the truth, then it is good we convince people in the truth. It is only brainwashing if we are teaching something false, right?
#Thoughts on Brainwshing#
That is, unless you are brainwashing people to believe something you consider true. For example, if a political party runs news stories and opinion pieces and commentaries and advertisements that portray a particular candidate as evil. Eventually some people will come to believe what is being said about this candidate, that they are evil. On one hand we could say that these people were brainwashed through prolonged exposure to certain ideas. Or we might say that these people have finally been convinced of the truth. It is not brainwashing if I am right and I am educating you in the truth, or is it.
Politics works this way and so do most religions. For a believer of a religion, to tell someone, educate someone and convince someone of their beliefs is not brainwashing, it is enlightenment. A person is not brainwashed, they have been encouraged to see the light. But if a bad religion causes someone to see the light, a deprogrammer might be hired to help them out of this brainwashing. Brainwashing, therefore, is in the eye of the beholder, it seems.
Groups of people are formed when common beliefs are discovered. These groups can be formal, like a political party or a church, or it can be informal, like a gathering of friends. People tend to gravitate to people who believe similar things to themselves. Facebook friends, twitter followers and other social constructs are used as boundaries of people who believe similarly. They may not share all beliefs in common, but the beliefs important to the group are shared. For example, people sho go to the same church may not share the same preferences in cars, or food or ice cream flavor, but the core belief in Jesus Christ is what is necessary to bring them together. All other beliefs can be ignored if the important beliefs are common.
And so to convince someone of your core beliefs, you educate, indoctrinate, tell and share, and even brainwash. We may not be reduced to water boarding or solitary confinement, but if we can convince someone of our beliefs and they agree and join us, that is a win. Then week after week we teach, convince and brainwash people into believing the same way we do. If we are in the truth, then it is good we convince people in the truth. It is only brainwashing if we are teaching something false, right?
#Thoughts on Brainwshing#
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