By Raeford Davis, "Former Cop Turned Freedom Advocate. "
twitter.com/RaefordD/status/1109173636726951938Does the concept of institutions dedicated to mass social control using government funding, education system, psychological tactics to further ulterior malevolent agendas seem far fetched? Here's Bertrand Russell advocating for exactly this: Impact of Science on Society (1952):
I think the subject which will be of most importance polit-
ically is mass psychology. Mass psychology is, scientifically
speaking, not a very advanced study, and so far its professors
have not been in universities: they have been advertisers,
politicians, and, above all, dictators. This study is immensely
useful to practical men, whether they wish to become rich
or to acquire the government. It is, of course, as a science,
founded upon individual psychology, but hitherto it has
employed rule-of-thumb methods which were based upon a
kind of intuitive common sense. Its importance has been
enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of
propaganda. Of these the most influential is what is called
"education." Religion plays a part, though a diminishing one;
the press, the cinema, and the radio play an increasing part.
What is essential in mass psychology is the art of per-
suasion. If you compare a speech of Hitler's with a speech of
(say) Edmund Burke, you will see what strides have been
made in the art since the eighteenth century. What went
wrong formerly was that people had read in books that man
is a rational animal, and framed their arguments on this
hypothesis. We now know that limelight and a brass band
do more to persuade than can be done by the most elegant
train of syllogisms. It may be hoped that in time anybody
will be able to persuade anybody of anything if he can catch
the patient young and is provided by the State with money
and equipment.
This subject will make great strides when it is taken up
by scientists under a scientific dictatorship. Anaxagoras
maintained that snow is black, but no one believed him.
The social psychologists of the future will have a number of
classes of school children on whom they will try different
methods of producing an unshakable conviction that snow is
black. Various results will soon be arrived at. 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.
Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be
rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will
not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated.
When the technique has been perfected, every government
that has been in charge of education for a generation will be
able to control its subjects securely without the need of
armies or policemen.