brainwashing - fej.org

The project as related to brainwashing :

Ignoring discussions of what is brainwashing and who is doing it to whom, brainwashing is effectively a form of mis-information campaign. The systems in the project enable all information to be verified by trusted sources (relatives, friends, organizations, etc.), and users having access to valid information that they can trust, that conflicts with the brainwashing, the factual information will win eventually.

The term brainwashing seems to get thrown around a lot. There are specific definitions of course, but I tend to consider a more vague usage of the term.

The human brain seems to be easy to influence and trick, and often this occurs not by intention. Then when I look at social interactions between people in modern society, and then how organizations and especially businesses take advantage of characteristics of the human brain, I see brainwashing as really more of a broad on-going all-blanketing effect. This brainwashing effect to me is the medium through which a culture or something like that is defined and changed.

One clear example of this, that seems to be recognized in society, is how a movie will present images and those images translate into things that are or can be a reality. And, positive characters will be associated with good and positive actions, and people will either intentionally mimic these actions, or will sub-consciously be given a message that these actions are normal or acceptable in some way. A specific example is smoking cigarettes. It's seems to be recognized that if for example a person is raised with no examples of smoking, in person or movies, TV, etc., then if later in life they are exposed to this activity, they will very likely resist it. Or as I see it, they were not brainwashed that smoking cigarettes is something that people might do, and therefore could critically analyze the situation, instead of acting on it emotionally.

The brainwashing effects that I consider all seem to very much rely on the repetition mechanism, and this seems to work because of the human need for familiarity as a survival mechanism ( = safe = where should be with who and doing what should be....). The repetition is usually is of presenting false information, as is common with common propaganda.

There are many parts of society that are effectively brainwashed by the society itself. Some of these I consider in the categories of passing the responsibility/blame game, and not thinking for one's self. Both of these categories, and many others simply fall into place for enabling people to satisfy their own personal greed and not maintaining any kind of balance or reasonable resource usage.

But to me since I try not to allow these things to influence how I view the world, the blame game type stuff does not work for me. Or hopefully most of the rest of brainwashing either.

I really make an effort to try to think for myself when I view anything or are faced with a situation. But it is difficult. The brainwashing effect almost is just an integral part of being a human being.

The hope with the project is that it will change for people how and what they do in society by providing clear and organized information to base decision making on. In essence, I see this part of the project as a system to make it easy for people to learn to and actually think for themselves, instead of just following the flock (brainwashed or not).

Some of the specific brainwash items are sometimes quite interesting or funny (in a dark way). Some that are quite surprising to me are the ones that are used in the united states of america for the purpose of defending using cars. Like - "I'll stop using my car when everyone else has stopped first" and "it's impossible to live without a car". And they usually start with a statement referring to the "need" to have a car. A very small part of the project is capturing and archiving these kinds of observations of societies of current times.

It also seems that people who either intentionally or unknowingly and indirectly brainwash the public, generally use emotions to guide people into making wrong decisions. Greed and hate seem to be very common in such efforts.

What I call "self-brainwashing" is a positive feed-back mechanism where false information is spread around for whatever reason, even a little bit to start, and it is just spread around until it comes back and then the everyone spreading it further has confirmation that the information is "true" because they've heard it from "others".

Most self-brainwashing that is culturally driven seems to be self-fulfilling in how it works. So for example in the united states of america, the citizens are brainwashed that the country is number one, and this meaning in basically all respects. As everyone feels and talks this way, this presumption is spread around, and then comes back so each individual gets constant and clear reinforcement of this. This example is so strong in it's working, it's very difficult to get usa citizens there to accept that all people and therefore all countries are equal, and to relish in the differences.

One example I see that illustrates how strong brainwashing can be is the "cars are not wrong" brainwashing to the point that someone who has their own child killed or severely injured by a car will continue to use and support usage of cars. Knowing full well that they are supporting a system that is going to injure some other child, and actually many others. Such a clear example of how dangerous cars are and must be stopped, but the brainwashing allows them to continue to support cars, and then just for the sake of living with the luxury of cars (see greed).

There are many examples of brainwashings going on strewn through my pages and to be found elsewhere. One of the most obvious and blatant deliberate brainwashings is the pledge of allegiance in the united states of america. Children are forced to recite a commitment to support a specific country and it's government. This is kind of opposite of what I would hope is considered important - learning to think for one's self.

With the project, I hope that these things can be isolated, listed, and organized by types, degrees, people affected, etc.