Bertrand Russell discussed in his book “The Impact of Science on Society” (1952) that the subject which “will be of most importance politically is mass psychology,” that is, the lens in which an individual views “reality” and “truth.” Russell is very clear, such “convictions” are not generated by the individual themselves but rather are to be shaped by the State.
Of course, individuals are not encouraged to think about an absolute truth or reality, rather they are encouraged to think on a much smaller scale, on individual “facts,” for this is much easier to control and shape and also limits “problematic” thinking such as the ponderance on cause and effect.
Russell, in his “Impact of Science on Society,” goes on to talk about how one could program a society to think snow is black rather than white:
“First, that the influence of home is obstructive. Second, that not much can be done unless indoctrination begins before the age of ten. Third, that verses set to music and repeatedly intoned are very effective. Fourth, that the opinion that snow is white must be held to show a morbid taste for eccentricity. But I anticipate. It is for future scientists to make these maxims precise and discover exactly how much it costs per head to make children believe that snow is black, and how much less it would cost to make them believe it is dark gray.”
This is of course a program for the most ambitious “reframing” of “reality,” however, as we see today, we do not need to start before the age of ten for other sorts of “reframing,” and nowhere does this seem to be the most successful and effective with any age group than the West’s “foreign” policy.
For snow is something that we see and experience regularly. It is much more difficult to “reframe” something familiar, however, something that is “foreign” has always been a rather blurred and undefined concept for millennia, and thus is a much easier candidate for the State to “reframe” as our collective “reality,” our collective “existential fear.” And thus, for most of history, our understanding of who is our “friend” and who is our “foe” has rarely been determined by the people themselves but rather their governing structure.
Such a governing structure is free to determine for us what is “truth” vs “falsehood” what is “fact” vs “fiction,” because the people, despite all the abuse and exploitation from such a governing force still look to this very thing to protect and shield them from the frightful “unknown.”
Better the Devil you know? In this case, ignorance is most certainly not bliss…
However, the “facts” emboldened by the State have shown themselves to not be so “fact-based” after all, thus we now commonly see from the angels of justice; the flawless, omnipotent, and anonymous “fact-checkers” that “truth” is becoming increasingly not a matter of “right” or “wrong” but rather, about semantics, priorities and what one chooses to emphasize.
For instance, the very real neo-Nazi problem in Ukraine, has now been “reframed” by the media to either 1) acknowledge that there are indeed actual neo-Nazis in Ukraine but that they are also nationalists and thus fighting for all of Ukraine, 2) to claim that they are “reformed” neo-Nazis that have apparently been domesticated and are now respectable defenders of Ukraine, 3) Ukraine has a Jewish President and thus such a thing is somehow fundamentally impossible.
The thing is, we have heard this story before, 77 years ago… (more...)
Sleepwalking Into Fascism: Why CIA/NATO’s Foreign Policy Has Been Consistent for the Past 77 years
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