How Totalitarians Force Confessions From Innocent People
I am looking at this article from the perspective of the left, the radical left.
We all say to ourselves...how could they believe the crap they sell, how could they possibly ignore history, the truth, the obvious results of their stead fast adherence to their ideology.
Well maybe, for them, Marx never lied, their professor would never lie to them, history has it wrong so in essence, they confess by doubling down, confessing to their gods, to marx, to stalin, to alinsky or even satan itself.
They unquestionably trust what they were taught, they were promised money, power, prestige and fame...so they continue without knowing what they do...they are bad, they are guilty, so somehow must live up to the promise.
It is hard to imagine that at one point in their lives, they had the opportunity to embrace the mind, a conscience, the good and honest way of life but were convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the opposite way was the right path...surely, no one would lie to them about that.
We all say to ourselves...how could they believe the crap they sell, how could they possibly ignore history, the truth, the obvious results of their stead fast adherence to their ideology.
Well maybe, for them, Marx never lied, their professor would never lie to them, history has it wrong so in essence, they confess by doubling down, confessing to their gods, to marx, to stalin, to alinsky or even satan itself.
They unquestionably trust what they were taught, they were promised money, power, prestige and fame...so they continue without knowing what they do...they are bad, they are guilty, so somehow must live up to the promise.
It is hard to imagine that at one point in their lives, they had the opportunity to embrace the mind, a conscience, the good and honest way of life but were convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the opposite way was the right path...surely, no one would lie to them about that.
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It would not bother such individuals to hold other peoples familys in jepordy for the actions of the person you want to convict or supplant. As they say "Alls fair in love and war". A true leftist view of the world.
And yes I know extreme rightists are the same. It appears that the extreme favor the more/most extreme measures to get what they want.
+1
I think Ayn Rand was absent in this type of discussion because she didn't have kids. But, the principles really apply, still.
Chilling article. I have shared it with a colleague who read 1984 when I read it. We still discuss the concepts. Thanks...
What is your first reaction when you encounter goodness in its pure form? "Why is s/he doing it?" - is the first then you dismiss it as an accident. It can't be true.
We are so used to evil and unfairness in our daily life that feel uncomfortable when seeing good.
Why do you think it is not popular being good?
Take countries, like Hungary, where the PM is determined to keep the country's Christian heritage alive and fights daily with Brussels to prevent it from being overrun by Muslim migrants. He is dubbed as a Nazi and a "populist". Being a populist is evil, according to the left. From Hussein through Clinton and the entire socialist left, populist is bad. Why? Because it puts the country and her people first. According to today's "standards" that is bad and must be killed by all means.
That is why we feel uncomfortable when being around anything good. It is populist.
But it is not only culture that distracts us, not just the temptations of the brain but everything around us, the cycles of nature, the sun, the cosmos and our environment...there is a host of things that change us every day, in ways we might not imagine...for one not to be unknowingly influenced, one must have a strong sense of self, knowing the voice of self and a solid connection to one's mind...we just haven't evolved to that point quite yet.
I do believe we can though...
I read Solzhenitsyn's book a long time ago. It is one of the classics portraying the Soviet totalitarian regime (although they all use the same methods).