So well said. I fear that what Google Maps did to our sense of direction, AI will do to our capacity for critical thought. We risk becoming, in the words of Erik Hoel, brain-drained “meat puppets.”
I read Strength through Joy. Just look at the word framing of that phrase, like, who could possibly be against Joy? Today, this reframing via words is ubiquitous and effective , as all forms of social media lulls people into slumber and acquiescence to what is happening in our cultures, our schools, our countries. You recently quoted Richard E. Nisbett,, who reminds us that, “The most important lesson of cultural psychology is that mind and culture are inseparable.” Nowhere is this more evident than in the outcome of the Strength through Joy strategy that was used to achieve an agenda through using culture to impact their people’s minds. It is not surprise that by creating this collective sense of pride in their nation, those who would feel they should dissent would be less inclined to do so.
When I reread it, I began to wonder how we have failed to create that intense sense of belonging and community for a good purpose. Where are governments today spending money on leisure and cultural offerings to mesh everyday life with the ideology of freedom to learn, and freedom to speak? Instead, check how people spend their free time. Check the anxiety over monetary concerns, the insecurity of personhood, the prevalence of loss of personal agency where we feel we have no control over what governments do, nor with the AI paradigm shift.
Everyone everywhere, even during evenings, weekends, and vacations, are less engaged with local communities or honouring their cultural unity. Why is this? In North America it is rare to meet someone who is not always ‘hustling’, everyone seems to have a side hustle to make extra money. Strength to Joy created a collective national pride of purpose, so how have we failed to do so? And, what can we take away from the success of it, for it was effective as evidence by the detrimental and disastrous effects.
I realize these are not optimistic thoughts, but still, your article raises them, and they are thoughts worth pursuing. Ideas can be used for good and ill, just as propaganda can be.
Sadly, I agree with you, we are all susceptible to being lulled into doing terrible things, as is evidenced in recent history. I remember when I was a teen, I read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, The Cost of Discipleship, and wondered why he was only one of the few who countered what was happening in Germany. Over time, I lost my naivety about how we humans react to the ‘maddening of the crowd’, a rather apt phrasing, and our need for self-preservation. I’d like to believe I would have been a Bonhoeffer; I fear that I would not be.
It is imperative that we each consider your question, “What am I doing now?”
The situation today is equally, no, I’d say it is far more extensive for the tools of global influence are boundless, and so far, unstoppable. As you wrote at the beginning, more and more we are creating a society that does not and eventually will not be able to think critically. If we fall to raise the alarm, to stand up and honour our own hearts and minds , this dumbing down will continue exponentially, with disastrous and detrimental outcomes.
"What am I doing now?" Fighting the tyranny of throwaway plastic. Trying to figure out a way to live without throwing plastic away (where only 15% is recycled anyway; 85% goes into landfill). In Switzerland some time back, when they started charging per bag of waste put out by the roadside once a week, people at supermarkets left the packaging at the supermarket till as they loaded up their bags. The packaging industry had to respond, quickly. Supermarket parking areas were soon drowning in plastic waste left there.
I like that a lot Joshua, brilliant comment. Polution is a terrible, terrible thing. Haffner alluded to the the power of "simultaneous mass decisions taken individually and almost unconsciously by the population at large". The key difference, as you point out, is that the Swiss shoppers made a conscious choice to act, creating positive pressure for change, whereas the collective decision in 1930s Germany was one of acquiescence and a "millionfold nervous breakdown".
Those shoppers were, in their own small but significant way, refusing to participate. They drew a line and said, "This part of the problem, the packaging, is yours, not mine." It’s a mundane but profound act of refusing to accept the "rules" of a system one knows is flawed. It is the very opposite of the thoughtless capitulation that Haffner and Mayer document.
Milton Mayer’s subjects “thought they were free” while accepting one small, seemingly inconsequential compromise after another until it was too late. Your example shows the reverse: individuals acting as if they are free and therefore creating freedom by refusing the small, daily compromise of accepting waste. It’s a rebellion against the very "thoughtlessness" that Hannah Arendt identified as the soil for the "banality of evil."
"...accepting one small, seemingly inconsequential compromise after another until it was too late". It's hard to know when to call a halt on the slippery slope. People differ in their tolerance-thresholds. I reckon the volume of plastic packaging has got worse of late. There may be global warming to consider but I'm more concerned with pollution of air, water & soil/land, the access to 'clean' thereof which used to be a 'natural right' of the commons.
Thx! But, I must admit I tend to think the opposite: Great minds don’t think alike. Anyway they should have the power to think in non-conformist, non-mimetic ways. (That is said with an eye blink due to the paradoxical turn of the tables here).
"...Arendt's theory challenged traditional notions of evil, suggesting that it is not always radical or demonic but can be a result of thoughtlessness, indifference, and a failure to exercise moral judgment"
This reminds me that one of the underhanded methods of dark propaganda is to gradually introduce and normalize increasingly atrocious thinking and action, to "sneak up" on an unsuspecting populace as it were. A populace, I might add, that's "trained" from early childhood not to question authority, to not think critically.
//
Herr Trumpkopf is attempting to do something similar - one outrageous act following another, and attempting to normalize it with the help of a compliant press. Numerous individuals and institutions have capitulated, mostly out of fear.
Much ado is made about America's polarization, but this might prove to be a good thing. It prevents more than half of us from falling prey to the MAGA crowd normalizing the Kool-Aid.
Parallels have been drawn between the U.S. under the Orange Scourge and Nazi Germany, and to be sure there are many. However, we have significant differences as well. For one thing, Hitler didn't face the kind of opposition en masse such as occurred on April 5, April 19, May Day and June 14 a week ago. We won't go down without a fight.
Your line struck me, that this unsuspecting populace was ""trained" from early childhood not to question authority, to not think critically." While yes, it is true that many of the younger generation, through media and schools, may have lost their ability to question authority or to think critically. But, I wish it was only that generation. I've found that there is a multitude of people over 60 who would seem today to fail to exercise moral judgment despite their knowledge and training. .They were raised well, educated well, read all the dystopia novels in school, learned about how easily it is for people to be swayed o lack of moral judgment through intensively studying the rise of nazism before World War II. I am often confused how this came be so.
I wasn't really referring to a specific generation - maybe even my own grade school experience back in the '70's when obedience training was still a thing.
I'd say one important element is the semantics of being "raised well". These folks were no doubt raised in Conservative households, and took on the ideology of their parents - like most people do, as I certainly did. But by standard measures, we'd say they were raised well.
The missing element here is how we define raised well. They can function in their lives, in their marriages, on the job, etc., etc. They have their own version of moral judgement, usually formed in a church.
Yet, you look at the blatant graft of Sam Alito or Clarence Thomas, and it makes you wonder. To Sam Alito, morality means controlling a woman's body. Accepting expensive gifts from a billionaire who has business before the court? No problem. Absolute presidential immunity? No problem.
At least in that time, I don't think the political leaning of a household necessarily connotes mindset. I was raised in a conservative household, where my parents supported and campaigned for Goldwater, pushed Nixon, loved Reagan. However, I was raised to question, never blindly accept any idea without considering its validity. Proof was always required. I came to differ from my parents' politics fairly young, due to that training. If one is raised to think critically, no matter the politics, I think - I hope! - rationall and ethical action follow.
It was generational. It was even tougher arguing with my grandfather and uncle, both arch conservatives, as they had photographic memories. That definitely sharpens the brain - or shut me up.
My apologies for misunderstanding you. I was in high school in the 70's. So, I know what was being taught.
I was thinking of 'raised well' as in functioning members of society ( as you outlined them) and I'd add , with some knowledge of political systems and world affairs. While your examples of two people who had poor moral judgment, to put it mildly, I tend to focus on the majority of people who are living functional lives, aided by following a certain level of right and wrong, that ultimately creates and fosters a morally agreed upon set of values to live by . Unfortunately, as outlined in this article here, it is that consensus on what is morally right in a society that can be easily bankrupted, under the right circumstances.
No apology necessary. It seems that someone can be raised to live a functional life, have some, or even considerable, knowledge of political systems and world affairs, yet still be ideologically "skewed", or as you describe, morally bankrupted. Sadly, they represent nearly half the population.
I presented two especially egregious examples - but they represent only the tip of the spear. I'll never forget the sick feeling I had when St. Reagan started talking about "allowing" children to pray in public schools. He really meant >forcing< children to pray. That's just one example of moral corruption masquerading as morality. It's ironic, and that's the idea. It's the nature of some of the most insidious propagandizing. That, along with the "trickle down" lie.
Clearly, the current moral corruption we're seeing predates The Orange Scourge. Indeed, one can trace it even further back to Sen. McCarthy's "Un-American Activities Committee", together with Tricky Dickie and Trumpkopf's mentor Roy Cohn. We can go even further back to the Civil War and slavery.
At this stage, we can begin to see the pattern of corruption simply being human nature. It's about dominance, as it is in all social creatures, whether in a pack or a herd. The big problem for us is that we carry these primitive impulses into "civilization", and we haven't evolved beyond it yet - if we ever will.
I hope that didn't grow too incoherent. I could go on an on like this forever and a day.
Not incoherent at all. You express your thoughts well, and have background knowledge to support your points.
If you don't mind me asking--and if you do, just ignore the question- I'm just wondering if you are planning to post your own articles on SS. I realize you restack others' posts, just as I often do. But, since you write well, and have a perspective that has merit, I was just wondering if you planned to do so in the near future.
I've been considering that possibility, but it's hard work and I'm not sure I'm up for it just yet. If I were to do so, I'd want to include at least some rudimentary research and include links to relevant - and credible - studies, articles, etc. The majority of posts I read are by high level scholars such as Paul Krugman and of course, Colin. I can't match that. I can't even come close to it.
"They Thought They Were Free" is excellent and disturbing. My big takeaway from reading it was that the distance between us and Nazis is really not far at all. The Nazis had the same human nature as us, even though they experienced different circumstances.
So well said. I fear that what Google Maps did to our sense of direction, AI will do to our capacity for critical thought. We risk becoming, in the words of Erik Hoel, brain-drained “meat puppets.”
More: https://www.whitenoise.email/p/the-inverse-mechanical-turk-meat
Yes,Tom. That is exactly my concern!
Thank you for awareness and the book reviews and recommendations.
Thank you Cathie. Important reads to have perspective in our world.
Excellently written, illuminating in every way. Seductive in its logic. Sharing. 👍
Thank you so much Methusela. It is such an important issue and harrowing historic books
I read Strength through Joy. Just look at the word framing of that phrase, like, who could possibly be against Joy? Today, this reframing via words is ubiquitous and effective , as all forms of social media lulls people into slumber and acquiescence to what is happening in our cultures, our schools, our countries. You recently quoted Richard E. Nisbett,, who reminds us that, “The most important lesson of cultural psychology is that mind and culture are inseparable.” Nowhere is this more evident than in the outcome of the Strength through Joy strategy that was used to achieve an agenda through using culture to impact their people’s minds. It is not surprise that by creating this collective sense of pride in their nation, those who would feel they should dissent would be less inclined to do so.
When I reread it, I began to wonder how we have failed to create that intense sense of belonging and community for a good purpose. Where are governments today spending money on leisure and cultural offerings to mesh everyday life with the ideology of freedom to learn, and freedom to speak? Instead, check how people spend their free time. Check the anxiety over monetary concerns, the insecurity of personhood, the prevalence of loss of personal agency where we feel we have no control over what governments do, nor with the AI paradigm shift.
Everyone everywhere, even during evenings, weekends, and vacations, are less engaged with local communities or honouring their cultural unity. Why is this? In North America it is rare to meet someone who is not always ‘hustling’, everyone seems to have a side hustle to make extra money. Strength to Joy created a collective national pride of purpose, so how have we failed to do so? And, what can we take away from the success of it, for it was effective as evidence by the detrimental and disastrous effects.
I realize these are not optimistic thoughts, but still, your article raises them, and they are thoughts worth pursuing. Ideas can be used for good and ill, just as propaganda can be.
Sadly, I agree with you, we are all susceptible to being lulled into doing terrible things, as is evidenced in recent history. I remember when I was a teen, I read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, The Cost of Discipleship, and wondered why he was only one of the few who countered what was happening in Germany. Over time, I lost my naivety about how we humans react to the ‘maddening of the crowd’, a rather apt phrasing, and our need for self-preservation. I’d like to believe I would have been a Bonhoeffer; I fear that I would not be.
It is imperative that we each consider your question, “What am I doing now?”
The situation today is equally, no, I’d say it is far more extensive for the tools of global influence are boundless, and so far, unstoppable. As you wrote at the beginning, more and more we are creating a society that does not and eventually will not be able to think critically. If we fall to raise the alarm, to stand up and honour our own hearts and minds , this dumbing down will continue exponentially, with disastrous and detrimental outcomes.
"What am I doing now?" Fighting the tyranny of throwaway plastic. Trying to figure out a way to live without throwing plastic away (where only 15% is recycled anyway; 85% goes into landfill). In Switzerland some time back, when they started charging per bag of waste put out by the roadside once a week, people at supermarkets left the packaging at the supermarket till as they loaded up their bags. The packaging industry had to respond, quickly. Supermarket parking areas were soon drowning in plastic waste left there.
I like that a lot Joshua, brilliant comment. Polution is a terrible, terrible thing. Haffner alluded to the the power of "simultaneous mass decisions taken individually and almost unconsciously by the population at large". The key difference, as you point out, is that the Swiss shoppers made a conscious choice to act, creating positive pressure for change, whereas the collective decision in 1930s Germany was one of acquiescence and a "millionfold nervous breakdown".
Those shoppers were, in their own small but significant way, refusing to participate. They drew a line and said, "This part of the problem, the packaging, is yours, not mine." It’s a mundane but profound act of refusing to accept the "rules" of a system one knows is flawed. It is the very opposite of the thoughtless capitulation that Haffner and Mayer document.
Milton Mayer’s subjects “thought they were free” while accepting one small, seemingly inconsequential compromise after another until it was too late. Your example shows the reverse: individuals acting as if they are free and therefore creating freedom by refusing the small, daily compromise of accepting waste. It’s a rebellion against the very "thoughtlessness" that Hannah Arendt identified as the soil for the "banality of evil."
"...accepting one small, seemingly inconsequential compromise after another until it was too late". It's hard to know when to call a halt on the slippery slope. People differ in their tolerance-thresholds. I reckon the volume of plastic packaging has got worse of late. There may be global warming to consider but I'm more concerned with pollution of air, water & soil/land, the access to 'clean' thereof which used to be a 'natural right' of the commons.
Just want to add an idea on how our concepts, our words are paving the way for us all to become complicit: https://open.substack.com/pub/maxkern/p/we-could-never-become-complicit?r=3bp1hq&utm_medium=ios
Wow - great minds think alike - excellent post Max, yes our words matter immensely.
Thx! But, I must admit I tend to think the opposite: Great minds don’t think alike. Anyway they should have the power to think in non-conformist, non-mimetic ways. (That is said with an eye blink due to the paradoxical turn of the tables here).
Yes, that is a better way of framing it :-)
"...Arendt's theory challenged traditional notions of evil, suggesting that it is not always radical or demonic but can be a result of thoughtlessness, indifference, and a failure to exercise moral judgment"
This reminds me that one of the underhanded methods of dark propaganda is to gradually introduce and normalize increasingly atrocious thinking and action, to "sneak up" on an unsuspecting populace as it were. A populace, I might add, that's "trained" from early childhood not to question authority, to not think critically.
//
Herr Trumpkopf is attempting to do something similar - one outrageous act following another, and attempting to normalize it with the help of a compliant press. Numerous individuals and institutions have capitulated, mostly out of fear.
Much ado is made about America's polarization, but this might prove to be a good thing. It prevents more than half of us from falling prey to the MAGA crowd normalizing the Kool-Aid.
Parallels have been drawn between the U.S. under the Orange Scourge and Nazi Germany, and to be sure there are many. However, we have significant differences as well. For one thing, Hitler didn't face the kind of opposition en masse such as occurred on April 5, April 19, May Day and June 14 a week ago. We won't go down without a fight.
Your line struck me, that this unsuspecting populace was ""trained" from early childhood not to question authority, to not think critically." While yes, it is true that many of the younger generation, through media and schools, may have lost their ability to question authority or to think critically. But, I wish it was only that generation. I've found that there is a multitude of people over 60 who would seem today to fail to exercise moral judgment despite their knowledge and training. .They were raised well, educated well, read all the dystopia novels in school, learned about how easily it is for people to be swayed o lack of moral judgment through intensively studying the rise of nazism before World War II. I am often confused how this came be so.
I wasn't really referring to a specific generation - maybe even my own grade school experience back in the '70's when obedience training was still a thing.
I'd say one important element is the semantics of being "raised well". These folks were no doubt raised in Conservative households, and took on the ideology of their parents - like most people do, as I certainly did. But by standard measures, we'd say they were raised well.
The missing element here is how we define raised well. They can function in their lives, in their marriages, on the job, etc., etc. They have their own version of moral judgement, usually formed in a church.
Yet, you look at the blatant graft of Sam Alito or Clarence Thomas, and it makes you wonder. To Sam Alito, morality means controlling a woman's body. Accepting expensive gifts from a billionaire who has business before the court? No problem. Absolute presidential immunity? No problem.
At least in that time, I don't think the political leaning of a household necessarily connotes mindset. I was raised in a conservative household, where my parents supported and campaigned for Goldwater, pushed Nixon, loved Reagan. However, I was raised to question, never blindly accept any idea without considering its validity. Proof was always required. I came to differ from my parents' politics fairly young, due to that training. If one is raised to think critically, no matter the politics, I think - I hope! - rationall and ethical action follow.
Absolutely! You're experience is unusual however. You were taught to think for yourself - that's unusual, especially in conservative households.
It was generational. It was even tougher arguing with my grandfather and uncle, both arch conservatives, as they had photographic memories. That definitely sharpens the brain - or shut me up.
It sounds like you had plenty of practice! :D
My apologies for misunderstanding you. I was in high school in the 70's. So, I know what was being taught.
I was thinking of 'raised well' as in functioning members of society ( as you outlined them) and I'd add , with some knowledge of political systems and world affairs. While your examples of two people who had poor moral judgment, to put it mildly, I tend to focus on the majority of people who are living functional lives, aided by following a certain level of right and wrong, that ultimately creates and fosters a morally agreed upon set of values to live by . Unfortunately, as outlined in this article here, it is that consensus on what is morally right in a society that can be easily bankrupted, under the right circumstances.
No apology necessary. It seems that someone can be raised to live a functional life, have some, or even considerable, knowledge of political systems and world affairs, yet still be ideologically "skewed", or as you describe, morally bankrupted. Sadly, they represent nearly half the population.
I presented two especially egregious examples - but they represent only the tip of the spear. I'll never forget the sick feeling I had when St. Reagan started talking about "allowing" children to pray in public schools. He really meant >forcing< children to pray. That's just one example of moral corruption masquerading as morality. It's ironic, and that's the idea. It's the nature of some of the most insidious propagandizing. That, along with the "trickle down" lie.
Clearly, the current moral corruption we're seeing predates The Orange Scourge. Indeed, one can trace it even further back to Sen. McCarthy's "Un-American Activities Committee", together with Tricky Dickie and Trumpkopf's mentor Roy Cohn. We can go even further back to the Civil War and slavery.
At this stage, we can begin to see the pattern of corruption simply being human nature. It's about dominance, as it is in all social creatures, whether in a pack or a herd. The big problem for us is that we carry these primitive impulses into "civilization", and we haven't evolved beyond it yet - if we ever will.
I hope that didn't grow too incoherent. I could go on an on like this forever and a day.
Not incoherent at all. You express your thoughts well, and have background knowledge to support your points.
If you don't mind me asking--and if you do, just ignore the question- I'm just wondering if you are planning to post your own articles on SS. I realize you restack others' posts, just as I often do. But, since you write well, and have a perspective that has merit, I was just wondering if you planned to do so in the near future.
I've been considering that possibility, but it's hard work and I'm not sure I'm up for it just yet. If I were to do so, I'd want to include at least some rudimentary research and include links to relevant - and credible - studies, articles, etc. The majority of posts I read are by high level scholars such as Paul Krugman and of course, Colin. I can't match that. I can't even come close to it.
"They Thought They Were Free" is excellent and disturbing. My big takeaway from reading it was that the distance between us and Nazis is really not far at all. The Nazis had the same human nature as us, even though they experienced different circumstances.
I enjoyed your post. It brings to mind the book The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind by Gustave Le Bon.