Guide to Book Club Sessions
Stella’s Book Club will begin with an overview of her book to familiarize members with the thesis of The Weaponization of Loneliness. For each session there is a guide below that contains a brief summary along with study questions to promote discussion within your group. If your club prefers to condense these four sessions into two or three, just allow time to cover the material.
After the discussion of The Weaponization of Loneliness, the designated “fifth session” will mark the beginning of our deep dive into several other books that will help us explore the methods and psychology behind the weaponization of loneliness and how to resist it. Members may supplement the reading at their leisure with additional materials-- articles or movies or clips--where indicated.
Summary: The first book club session covers the Prologue and Introduction to The Weaponization of Loneliness, pages viii-xxx. Let’s get an overview of the thesis to understand how social isolation—and the fear of it--are used as weapons of tyranny. We will discuss how severe isolation weakens us as individuals, causing illness and despondency, and how it leads to dependence upon the tyrant. We should also quickly review the main components of “the machinery of loneliness:" identity politics, political correctness, and mob agitation.
Some Study Questions:
Prologue: Our March into Virtual Solitary Confinement
How can severe isolation affect our mental health, even causing psychosis in a person? How can it affect physical health?
The author traces her observations of social isolation throughout life – on the playground, in school, in the work place, and in her studies of totalitarian systems, and how isolation is used as a weapon to control others. Can you detect similar patterns in examples from your own experiences?
Introduction: The Machinery of Loneliness
When do you think Americans first became aware that we were straying from our foundation of individual rights? How did the enforced isolation of the Covid shutdowns and mandates affect your thinking on that?
What are the components of the “machinery of loneliness” and how can they instill a sense of isolation within us? [The three primary components are: Identity politics, political correctness, and mob agitation. Other features include propaganda, criminalization of comedy, snitch culture, and censorship.]
SOME OPTIONAL SUPPLEMENTS:
Here are links to two short videos (less than 10 minutes) on the effects of social isolation on the brain:
Dr. Tracey Marks speaks about “What Social Isolation Does to your Brain”
“How Changes in Our Brain Make Us More Susceptible to Indoctrination." This is a segment from an interview with Dr. Michael Nehls, author of The Indoctrinated Brain in which he discusses how the brain and its stored memories can atrophy due to social isolation:
Summary: The second book club session focuses on Part I: “The Political Uses of Loneliness,” PAGES 1-83 in The Weaponization of Loneliness. We’ll discuss chapters 1-3: a) how radical utopian revolutions of the past used social isolation to control people; b) how the conformity impulse works within us; and c.) how the totalitarian impulse works in tyrants. Allow about 30 minutes to discuss each chapter.
Suggested Study Questions:
Chapter 1. A Brief History of Previous Utopian Revolutions
Consider the five utopian revolutions the author highlights. Briefly check off the similarities you can find in a feature of those revolutions, compared to America in the 2020s
Cromwell’s Puritan Revolution – Demand for purity of belief
French Revolution – Dechristianization Campaign and iconoclasm (i.e., toppling statues and renaming places)
Bolshevik Revolution in Russia – Government control over family and private life
Nazi Germany -- Gleichschaltung, the synchronization of all institutions to enforce the Nazi narrative and extreme race consciousness
Mao’s Cultural Revolution – War on the private mind using “struggle sessions”
What is a struggle session?
Chapter 2. The Conformity Impulse and the Making of Mobs
Watch this four-minute video of Solomon Asch’s conformity experiment performed in the 1970’s.
What is the bright side of Asch’s conformity experiments? Why is it so important to have partners who also speak truth and resist propaganda?
What is a "spiral of silence"?
Chapter 3. The Totalitarian Impulse and the Operation of Mobs
What is an “almost-psychopath” and how can such a person become a powerful elite and a totalitarian?
What are the six characteristics of mobs?
SOME OPTIONAL SUPPLEMENTS FOR SESSION 2:
This two-minute excerpt from the movie The Last Emperor is called “The Loyalty Dance.” A cohort of Red Guard youth justify Mao’s Cultural Revolution and their brutal treatment of anyone considered an enemy. Note on the sidelines the victims of “struggle sessions” wearing degrading posters and dunce caps. See below for English transcript posted on the youtube clip in lieu of subtitles to the Red Guard lyrics
革命無罪 造反有理 "revolution is innocent, rebellion is justified"0:17 拿起笔，作刀枪 "pick up a pen and use it as a weapon"0:20 集中火力打黑帮。 "concentrate firepower on the gangsters."0:24 革命师生齐造反， "The revolutionary teachers and students revolt together,"0:27 文化革命当闯将！ "and the Cultural Revolution becomes the leader!"0:30 革命無罪 造反有理 "revolution is innocent, rebellion is justified"0:37 拿起笔，作刀枪 "pick up a pen and use it as a weapon"0:40 集中火力打黑帮。 "concentrate firepower on the gangsters."0:44 革命师生齐造反， "The revolutionary teachers and students revolt together,"0:47 文化革命当闯将！ "and the Cultural Revolution becomes the leader!"0:50 革命無罪 造反有理 "revolution is innocent, rebellion is justified"0:57 要革命就跟我走 "come with me if you want a revolution"1:00 不革命就滾他媽的蛋 "if you don't want a revolution, get the fuck out!"1:03 革命無罪 造反有理 "revolution is innocent, rebellion is justified"
Here’s a two-minute clip from an official propaganda film about Mao’s Cultural Revolution (which lasted from 1966 to 1976):
To learn more about the conformity impulse, you may want to watch at your leisure the 2015 movie Experimenter: The Stanley Milgram Story. Here’s the official trailer:
Summary: The third session of Stella’s Book Club will focus on Part II: “The Vivisection of America” in The Weaponization of Loneliness. Pages 85-144. We will discuss how a machinery of loneliness divides us into hostile demographic groups, induces self-censorship in us, and uses mobs to enforce our divisions and to silence any word of dissent.
Study Questions for Each Chapter
Chapter 4. Identity Politics and the Resegregation of Blacks
How does identity politics categorize people in order to separate them? What does “intersectionality” mean?
Chapter 5. Political Correctness and the Estrangement of Women
Do women seem more susceptible than men to conforming with political correctness? If so, could this be why social engineers seem to focus so heavily on influencing women voters?
Chapter 6. Youth Revolutionized and Programmed for Mobs
Why do you think youth are so susceptible to joining mobs? What are some historical examples of tyrants organizing youth to push their agendas forward? [The Soviet Komsomol/youth league; Nazi Youth; Mao Zedong’s Red Guard mobs.]
Chapter 7. Whites Dehumanized through Identity Politics, Political Correctness, and Mob Agitation
What do you think was the purpose of the July 2020 Smithsonian display on “whiteness”? You should be able to find a copy of the display here: https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1283372233730203651/photo/1
Why do you think it linked universal values such as politeness, hard work, and being on time with “whiteness”?
OPTIONAL SUPPLEMENT FOR SESSION 3:
“The Children’s Story” is a 25-minute Television movie from 1980. It’s based on a novella by James Clavell. It illustrates the great suggestibility of a class of second grade children as they are propagandized by their new teacher.
Summary: The fourth book club session will focus on Part III: Mass Alienation Through Institutional Subversion,” pages 145-216 of The Weaponization of Loneliness. In this meeting we’ll review all the institutions of society—starting with education-- and discuss how their corruption has caused us to be more isolated from one another. We’ll explore why the “mediating institutions” in the private sphere of life --family, Faith, and community--are especially targeted by tyrants. Let’s reserve the second half of the session to strategize and discuss what we can do about it.
Study Questions for Each Chapter:
Chapter 8. Cloning Lonely Puppets: The Subversion of Education
Why is education (along with media) always the first institution targeted by tyrants?
What are some of the differences between true education and coercive thought reform (also known as brainwashing)?
Chapter 9. The Long March through All Our Institutions
What are some of the most shocking examples of institutional takeover? (For example, in the courts, medicine, law enforcement, the corporate world, banking, the military, etc.)
Chapter 10. Attacks on Family, Faith, and Friendship
What are the three main “mediating institutions” (family, faith, and community) and why do tyrants always target them for infiltration and destruction?
Conclusion: A Wrench in the Machinery of Loneliness
What are three ways individuals can prevent further attacks on our private lives? [Building awareness; building parallel institutions or “polises”; small, meaningful acts of individuals.]
In what ways is this book club a parallel polis? Going forward, how can it amplify the message of The Weaponization of Loneliness: How Tyrants Stoke Our Fear of Isolation to Silence, Divide, and Conquer?
SOME OPTIONAL SUPPLEMENTS FOR SESSION 4:
Here's a brief video produced by the Academy of Ideas that describes parallel societies and parallel institutions: "The Parallel Society Vs. Totalitarianism:"
“The Singing Revolution” is a documentary about how the citizens of Estonia won back their freedom and independence from the yoke of Soviet communism. They used a traditional festival to come together in solidarity through the singing of forbidden songs. The subtext of this documentary is that tyrants always seek to isolate people to prevent us coming together to resist tyranny and win freedom. Here’s a trailer to the documentary:
Can you think of other examples where the communal singing of songs or anthems has been used to build morale and bonding? (How common is communal singing today? At sporting events, why is the Star Spangled Banner a solo celebrity act instead of sung by everyone?)
Summary: This fifth session begins the readings of other works related to the thesis of The Weaponization of Loneliness. We start with a lesser known classic published in 1956 by Dutch psychiatrist Joost Meerloo,titled The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing. As always, I prefer having a hard copy, but if you'd like a readily available pdf of the book online, here is one:
According to Meerloo, “This book attempts to depict the strange transformation of the free human mind into an automatically responding machine." The book is filled with insightful observations about the uses of propaganda and mass psychology to condition people’s behavior, speech, and thoughts. Meerloo studied the various methods that caused most Germans to comply enthusiastically with Hitler’s violent policies, and he wrote about the show trials during Stalin’s Reign of Terror in the Soviet Union describing how defendants confessed to crimes they did not commit, and even asked for their own executions. This book offers a key to understanding how such absurdities happen.
The main areas of focus will be
The Foreword and Chapters 1-2 From Part One: “The Techniques of Individual Submission” -- pages 13-54
“The Need for Companionship” in Chapter 4 – pp. 78-80.
Chapters 5-9 in Part Two: Techniques of Mass Submission – p. 93-176
Chapters 11-12 – pages 193-217
Chapters 16-18 in Part Four: In search of Defenses -- pages 259-304
Study Questions:
Why is isolation such an important part of conditioning? (p. 43) How does “love and laughter” hinder conditioning? (pp. 51-54)
What does Meerloo mean by the “robotization of man” and how is this accomplished? What examples of this can we see today?
What role does technology play in the rape of the mind?
What is a mass delusion and how does it happen? Note this quote: “Delusion is the loss of a permanent verifiable reality with the consequent relapse into a more primitive stage of awareness.”
SESSION 5 OPTIONAL SUPPLEMENTS:
If you'd like to look at material related to this book, you can check out the following videos produced by The Academy of Ideas. They quote much from Meerloo’s work. “”The Manufacturing of a Mass Psychosis: Can Sanity Return to an Insane World?”
And “Is Mass Psychosis the Greatest Threat to Humanity?”
Summary: In her book, Cults in Our Midst: The Hidden Menace in Our Everyday Lives, (published 1995) renowned cult expert Margaret Thaler Singer explains how coercive persuasion causes people to do things they would have never dreamt of doing had they not fallen under its influence. She writes that all thought reform programs are organized to do three things: destabilize your sense of self; get you to alter your worldview and accept a new version of reality; and develop dependency in you. The goal is to turn you into a deployable agent for the controller or the agenda. The book is a must-have reference work on the inner workings of cults and the cult mindset. But keep in mind that the book was published in 1995, which means that cult processes may have since infected some of the institutions that Singer (d. 2003) thought were immune at the time.
The main pages of focus:
Foreword and Introduction
In Part One: What are Cults?
Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 (pages 3-102 in 2003 edition)
Chapter 5 (pages 105-124)
Chapter 7 (pages 150 up to p. 174)
Chapter 9 (pages 213-243)
in Part Two: “How do Cults Work?”
Chapter 11 (pages 270 up to p. 290)
Chapter 12 (pages 299- 342 including Postscript)
Pay special attention to Table 3.2 “Continuum of Influence and Persuasion” which shows the differences between true education and four other forms of influence: propaganda, advertising, indoctrination, and thought reform
Study Questions:
How might today’s epidemic of loneliness make people more susceptible than ever to being “love-bombed” and adopting a cult mindset?
What are the six conditions necessary for the thought reform process to take place in someone, and why is deception the Number One condition?
Can you detect thought reform processes around us today? In education, other institutions, in everyday life?
Can you think of ways to help people who are being pulled into dangerous cultic influences?
SOME OPTIONAL SUPPLEMENTS:
You may gain a greater understanding of the material by watching this one-hour video of Margaret Thaler Singer discussing the basics of cults, “What is a Cult and How Does it Work?” (taped in 1994)
You may also find it worthwhile to watch Larry King’s interview with newspaper heiress Patty Hearst 25 years after her kidnapping and conditioning by the violent Symbionese Liberation Army cult:
Part I:
Part II:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0201/22/lkl.00.html
“How to Recognize a Mind Hacker.” https://njsafeandsound.org/NJSS_Mind_Hacking_Alert_Guide.pdf
This is a very useful pamphlet put out by anti-cult organization, NJ Safe and Sound. It’s intended to guard against family separation by building awareness of a cult technique called “predatory alienation,” which turns the recruit against his loved ones.
Summary: In this session we’ll look at the classic, Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes by Jacques Ellul. In my opinion, it remains the most authoritative work on the topic, despite being written in 1965 with many examples from the post-WWII era. It can be very dense reading, so we will limit our focus to about 50-60 pages of it. If you would like a readily available pdf of the book online, here's a link where the page numbers will correspond to those below: https://www.ratical.org/ratville/AoS/Propaganda-JE-Vintage1973.pdf
Selections: Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes, by Jacques Ellul. Page numbers correspond with Vintage Books edition:
Preface (9 pages)
In Chapter I – The Characteristics of Propaganda, read sections on “External Characteristics” pages 1-32 and “Propaganda and Truth” pages 52-61
In Chapter II – The Conditions for the Existence of Propaganda – read section on “Individualist Society and Mass Society” pages 90-98
Chapter IV – “Psychological Effects of Propaganda” pages 161-192
Study Questions:
Ellul writes: “Propaganda is most effective when someone is alone in a mass.” (p. 9) Why would our sense of isolation in a crowd make us more susceptible to propaganda? And why does propaganda rely on our separation from community? (p. 90-99)
How does propaganda aim to take TOTAL control over life, especially through technology? Why are thought and reflection not permitted under conditions of propaganda? (p. 26) Can you provide examples of how this is happening today?
How does propaganda used to change our perception of reality?
OPTIONAL SUPPLEMENTS:
In 1984 Russian KGB defector Yury Bezmenov explained to Americans the process of ideological subversion that was already well underway. He described how propaganda distorts the perception of reality. Here’s a short clip from that now famous interview:
The following clip is an example of constant repetition to drill viewers into accepting its narrative as the only truth. By definition, propaganda serves to prevent access to any other point of view. The solution is not debate or reasoned argument against other points of view. Here we see projection of the label "propagandist" on anyone who disagrees with them!
You might look at the following to get a very brief (though not always accurate) and fun introduction to numerous propaganda techniques.
When I first stumbled upon Prisons We Choose to Live Inside, by Doris Lessing I was astonished by her insights. It's a very short book, so there are no specific selections.
SUMMARY: In the five essays of this slim volume, Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing noted that there is now more information than ever about human social behavior and group think. She asks: Why don’t we use that knowledge and why are so few aware of that information? She suggests that elites seem interested in suppressing our understanding of mob psychology so that our ignorance would continue to empower them. She also lamented that too often we choose not to think for ourselves. Do you agree with those conclusions? As you read this book, keep in mind that the purpose of our discussion groups is to build the knowledge required to resist groupthink.
STUDY QUESTIONS:
Reflect on this passage: “. . . we can stand in a room full of dear friends, knowing that nine-tenths of them, if the pack demands it, will become our enemies. . . . But there is always the minority who do not, and it seems to me that our future, the future of everybody, depends on this minority.” How can we strengthen that minority?
Reflect on this passage: “The professionals, the possessors of a certain field of knowledge, never like it when mavericks among them share it with the mob.” What effect might our growing knowledge of mob psychology have on us as a society? Why is knowledge of coercive thought reform (or " brainwashing") techniques so critical to the preservation of freedom?
What do you think Lessing gets wrong – or right – about Christianity and religious wars?
According to Lessing, our future depends on thoughtful individuals who resist group think. If governments and cultures do not produce such individuals, how might individuals and small groups produce them, as she says we must?
SOME RELATED SUPPLEMENTS:
There are some great resources to inspire us to bridge the many divides in this country. The polarization is largely manufactured through propaganda. That's why it's so important to reach out to others and to value friendship. The best way to build bridges is to talk to people face to face in the real world. One resource that looks good is the Youtube channel of Peter Santenello, which he titles "Videos about a World the Media Fails to Capture." Below are just a few examples of Santenello striking up friendships and learning about people all over America.
He also looks at some of the most unique community outreach operations, such as this one run by Hasidic Jews in New York who will answer calls for help from anyone 24/7:
Check out his many videos where you'll find him striking up friendships in what seem to be the most unlikely places. For example, Chicanos in East Los Angeles. Blacks on the South Side of Chicago. People who live in the large retirement community at The Villages in Florida. Las Vegas. Appalachia. The Amish. You name it. The common thread is that there are lots of good people who crave friendship. They don't buy into the media-manufactured propaganda that Americans are divided. They like learning from others and getting to know others. But we must get out of the propaganda bubble to do that.
Summary: In this session we’ll read selections from Edward Bernays’ brief 1928 book, Propaganda. Interestingly, Bernays was a nephew of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Bernays believed that elites actually should manipulate people through propaganda to get them to comply with the elites’ agenda. There’s a big difference in outlook between Bernays and Jacques Ellul who wrote Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes. Ellul’s approach is scholarly and clinical. He sees propaganda aided by technology as a threat to civil society. Bernays, on the other hand, believes propagandists actually should guide the masses into conformity and compliance with the agendas of the elites—without the masses knowing about it. Bernays claimed this is the only way to create social order. Also note that Bernays invented the neutral term “public relations” as a way to rebrand the term "propaganda" and its negative implications.
Reading Selection: We’ll focus on about 30 pages in Propaganda by Edward Bernays:
Chapter I – “Organizing Chaos”
Chapter II – “The New Propaganda”
Chapter IV – “The Psychology of Public Relations”
Study Questions:
Describe the attitude behind Bernays’ rhetorical question: “If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it?” (p. 71)
Bernays believed this manipulation of the many by the few was a necessary part of social order. What do you say to this?
What role does technology play in creating a “group mind”? How does this affect a civil society where people feel free to interact openly?
Supplements:
Below is a brief clip (less than 2 minutes) on the effects of information overload through constant propaganda and advertising. It includes a brief glimpse of Edward Bernays (who died in 1995) in which he mentions the importance of “engineering” the consent of the governed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR1FIdM10hw
If you’d like to see how propaganda is woven into movies to drive popular culture, this 11-minute clip narrated by Jonathan Pageau explores “Symbolism and Propaganda in Popular Culture” using scenes from the Wonder Woman movie as an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soh-3jiHq4s
Here is a 30-minute interview with Edward Bernays from 1986. In it he states that ideas are weapons even more effective than bullets.
SUMMARY: We by Yevgeniy Zamyatin is a fascinating read. It's probably the first dystopian novel of the 20th century and some argue the greatest. Zamyatin's novel We inspired George Orwell to write 1984. I wrote an essay about We, which you can read here: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2013/09/the_dynamics_of_tyranny.html
The narrator of We is a mathematician known as D-503. In a series of log entries -- which comprise the 40 brief chapters of the book -- D-503 explains how the One State under the guidance of its Benefactor is building the perfect world. It is a mechanized world that abhors spontaneity. It is in the process of destroying the human imagination. It’s a world in which having a soul is considered a defect. D-503 records his experiences, including a woman called I-330 who influences him and causes him to doubt his commitment to the One State. Readers should be prepared for some unusual symbolism, especially in how the narrator describes the physical characteristics of individuals (“ciphers”) in strange or mathematical terms. There are several translations of We. I’m most familiar with the translation by Nathasha Randall.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. How would you describe the relationship between I-330 and D-503? Interpret the critical conversation between them in Chapter 30 which I-330 asks D-503 “what is the final number?” Why does I-330 tell him that “children are the only brave philosophers?”
2. What do you think causes the citizens of the One State to reject freedom and to snitch on one another? Where might we see examples of this attitude today?
3. Why does One State consider the human imagination so great a threat that it feels compelled to obliterate it?'
4. How would you interpret the religious imagery in the conversation (in Chapter 32) between the Benefactor and D-503?
Three bonus questions:
(1) What is the significance of the “Integral?” How might we compare it to the Borg in Star Trek?
(2) Why is it illegal to crack a joke in the One State?
(3) What is Taylorism and why does it seem so basic to utopian schemes?
SUPPLEMENTS:
If you'd like to become more familiar with the legacy of the novel We, read this article at The New Criterion:
https://newcriterion.com/article/one-hundred-years-of-we/
Consider watching the 1984 production of the movie 1984 based on George Orwell's novel. Here’s a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8BA7adK6XA
The full movie is available for purchase or rental: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwge9jZAISk
A Russian film of We was in production a few years ago, but was never released. However, there is a trailer available on youtube:
SUMMARY:
Sharyl Attkisson is an Emmy-award winning investigative journalist who chronicles attempts by political operatives to silence her investigations into government corruption. In The Smear Attkisson describes the process of demonization by those operatives. The goal is to prop up one narrative and to discredit all others. So instead of asking “Is this true?” people should ask “Who wants me to believe this? And why?” Attkisson defines “the smear” this way: “It’s an effort to manipulate opinion by promulgating an overblown, scandalous, and damaging narrative. The goal is often to destroy ideas by ruining the people who are most effective at communicating them.” Much of the latter part of her book deals with the 2016 election, and asks where the unprecedented resistance to Donald Trump was coming from – and why.
FOCUS ON CHAPTERS/PAGES:
Introduction, Chapter 1 and part of Chapter 2 -- Pages 1-40
Smear Industrial Complex, pp. 67-93
Chapter 10 “Brave New World of #FakeNews (and Chilling Efforts to Censor It) – pp. 249-275
Epilogue: The Smear Gone Global” – pp. 249-275
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What do you think is behind the smear term “conspiracy theorist”? What is the origin of the use of the term to discredit an idea? And why does it persist?
2. How does smearing a person isolate him even from friends and family? Would you say that imposing social isolation is key to the effectiveness of a smear?
Here's a critical quote from the book: “Their slander alienates your bosses, clients, colleagues, and the general public. They isolate you from your support system. Eventually, your own family and friends start to wonder about you. You feel the icy chill of distancing from those you consider closest.”
3. How does the brokenness caused by the isolation of a smear serve the smear artist? “When smears do their job, the victims are eschewed by their friends and associates. They’re separated from their support structure. Their resolve is weakened. They’re broken.” (p. 27)
SUPPLEMENTS:
Laird Wilcox’s excellent two-page essay “The Practice of Ritual Defamation” is a must-read for understanding this content: https://www.thesocialcontract.com/pdf/twenty-three/tsc_20_3_wilcox_defamation.pdf
Here’s a six-minute interview with Sharyl Attkisson about her book and the message behind it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnX2Ns8z7U8
Here's a two-minute excerpt from a Book Notes interview with Attkisson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJuShi2tRTk
Another good resource is Attkisson's TedX talk "How Real is Fake News" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQcCIzjz9_s
SUMMARY: Influence by Robert Cialdini is a must read for understanding how easily people can be manipulated. The author would claim that persuasion should be done ethically, and I think all ethical people would agree. But you’ll recognize that his “six principles” of persuasion – or of getting compliance for an agenda – are constantly in use to manipulate people in an unethical manner. These same principles are used in propaganda, in advertising, in indoctrination, and in coercive thought reform. What are these six principles? Each is covered as a chapter in Cialdini’s book:
1. Reciprocity. This means initiating some kind of favor or gifting a product that naturally produces a sense of obligation in the other person.
2. Consistency. This means that once someone makes a commitment or expresses an opinion, they’ll want to show that they are consistent with it.
3. Social Proof. Going along with the crowd, especially if you identify with the people in the crowd. In a word, conformity, especially when others seem similar to us.
4. Liking. When you like someone you’re more likely to be persuaded by that person. This principle is key for celebrity endorsements of a product, an agenda, or a political candidate.
5. Authority. Listening to the experts because they are deemed to possess information not easily available to you.
6. Scarcity. People place greater value on things that are not easily attainable. Status symbols, job opportunities, fashionable items fought over at Black Friday sales, to list a few examples.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Can you provide a familiar example of how each of these principles can be used? How have you observed them in your daily life?
Which of these principles might affect you the most in terms of influencing you? How might another principle work for someone of a different group or social status?
Do you think these principles of influence are most often used deceptively and to manipulate people? Is it even possible to "use" them ethically on people? If so, how so?
How might demonization and cancel culture play into the use of these principles of influence?
SUPPLEMENTS:
Take a look at Robert Cialdini's websites to get an idea of how great his own influence is. Among Cialdini's clients are the World Economic Forum, NATO, and a host of companies from Big Pharma and Big Tech. He is known as "the godfather of influence." Scott Adams of "Dilbert" fame refers to Cialdini as "Godzilla." Cialdini has advised presidential campaigns including those of including those of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. check out the following pages on his websites:
A related book by Robert Cialdini is PRE-suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade. The basic idea is to prime people for accepting an idea – so that they will be ready to accept your message even before you deliver it. He cites the ancient military strategist Sun Tzu: “Every battle is won before it is fought.” PRE-suasion is about knowing what to say or do just before you make an appeal. It’s about frontloading the attention of those you want to influence. It means: “what’s focal is causal.” In other words, when your attention is drawn to a certain focus, nothing else will get through because most human beings cannot process more than one thing at a time any more than they can read two different books at once. So when the media keeps repeating the same propaganda over and over again, we end up being prepared for all the messages that follow. Read this supplemental book PRE-suasion to understand psychological frames of reference and how you as a listener are being conditioned for messages and agendas. Here is Cialdini giving a very brief introduction to PRE-suasion:
SUMMARY: The Abilene Paradox and Other Meditations on Management blends observations about business management and social psychology. The author, Jerry Harvey, was a professor of management at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The central thesis is that many problems in business and in life come “not from disagreement, but agreement.” In other words, many of our problems stem from conformity – from not communicating what we really think.
Too often the result is disaster when people act on their perceptions of what everyone around them expects. The term “Abilene paradox” stems from Harvey’s own personal experience when he, his in-laws, and his wife agreed to drive over 50 miles on a super-hot day (with no AC) to eat at a cafeteria. Nobody really wanted to do this, but they all agreed because they thought it was what everyone else wanted. Harvey suggests that human beings often do this because they fear “anaclitic depression,” which is another term for separation anxiety. In a word, we fear social isolation.
SELECT EXCERPTS TO READ AND DISCUSS (approximately 80 pages):
Chapter 2: “The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement”
Chapter 6: “Eichmann in the Organization”
Chapter 7: “Group Tyranny and the Gunsmoke Phenomenon”
SELECTION OF DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Can you describe the experience of one of the five themes of the Abilene Paradox and how it leads to group think? The five themes are: 1) action anxiety; 2) negative fantasies; 3) real risk; 4) separation anxiety; or 5) the psychological reversal of risk and certainty.
2. In what way is a “RIF” (reduction in force, or unexpected layoff at work) a “little murder?” How does it affect morale and lead to complicity and conformity? Where else can we detect this same dynamic? [e.g., cancel culture, ostracism, mean girl mentality]
3. When Harvey describes a morality play, as in a TV Western like Gunsmoke, he explains how one person might disperse a lynch mob by facing it down, and even threatening to shoot. He describes how this can serve as a “face saving measure” especially because there are likely to be members of a mob who never really wanted to participate anyway. Can you think of examples in daily life where this sort of dynamic would dilute support for a bad idea?
4. Does Harvey’s assessment of the Watergate scandal ring true to you? Consider how a White House aide said he had qualms about participating in the break-in, but he “just drifted along" despite his concerns. Others involved described the same sentiment, summed up in the statement: “because of the fear of the group pressure that would ensue, of not being a team player. . . "
SUPPLEMENTS:
This 25-minute training film of “The Abilene Paradox” sums up the thesis nicely by presenting three cases in which “agreement” (conformity) causes problems easily solvable by frank and open communication: the drive to Abilene; the crazy idea of turning peanut oil into jet fuel; and a wedding in which neither bride nor groom really wanted to get married. (You may have already watched this in the list of “Related Clips" on this website.)
Here's an intro to a related management video on group think, using as an example the disaster of the space shuttle Challenger:
The scene below is from the movie To Kill a Mockingbird, based on the book by Harper Lee. In it an innocent child, Scout Finch unwittingly disperses a lynch mob that has come for Tom Robinson who was falsely accused of rape. Robinson's lawyer, Atticus Finch (played by Gregory Peck) is standing guard at the jail to protect his client. When Scout recognizes "Mr. Cunningham" who is leading the lynch mob, she disarms him with her innocence and tells him that his son Walter, "a nice boy" is a classmate of hers. In the end, Cunningham feels shame and tells everyone to go home. Obviously mobs and mob leaders today aren't apt to behave this way, but it's worth considering how a sincere one-on-one appeal to someone you know can influence that person.
Let me start by saying that if you’d like a list of hundreds of titles dystopian fiction through the modern era to the present day, you can find one here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dystopian_literature
The weaponization of loneliness, however, is a theme you can detect in practically any work of fiction that deals with human relationships. For our purposes in this session, we’ll look at two classics: the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and the modern novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
“The Lottery”
SUMMARY: In 1948, The New Yorker magazine published Shirley Jackson’s short Story “The Lottery.” It became an instant classic and a fascinating study in social psychology. A reader unfamiliar with the story might find the narrative intriguing and odd, but it does not really prepare the unsuspecting reader for the twist at the end. Jackson’s story highlights the power of group consensus, and shows how easily people will publicly comply with situations that they actually abhor.
Here is a pdf of “The Lottery” https://bpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/sites.middlebury.edu/dist/d/2396/files/2019/09/jackson_lottery.pdf
And from the archives of The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1948/06/26/the-lottery
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS for The Lottery:
1. Why do you think people were dismissive of the idea of giving up the lottery like other towns in the area, especially if they didn’t want to participate?
2. How many people would it take to turn the tables on the organizers of the lottery?
3. What do you think motivated the townsfolk—all of whom went through the lottery--to gladly participate at the end? Do you believe such a motive is a hard-wired human trait?
SUPPLEMENT: watch this 17-minute dramatization of “The Lottery” produced by Encyclopedia Brittannica in 1969:
Lord of the Flies:
SUMMARY: Lord of the Flies, a novel by British author William Golding, was first published in 1954. It remains another intriguing study in human psychology, particularly since the characters are all boys ages 12 and under left to their own devices after a plane crash on an isolated island leaves them without any adult supervision. The story tackles issues of morality and the fragility of civilization. It also looks at the formation of leadership roles, bullying, and imposed isolation. Here is an online text of the book: https://colleronline.weebly.com/uploads/2/8/2/0/2820270/lotf_text.pdf
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Would you say that a descent into tribalism and chaos is natural in such situations – whether children or adult? Or can it be prevented? Is distrust and antipathy towards strangers the default nature of human beings when civilization breaks down?
2. What caused the boys to form hostile groups or tribes?
3. How would you describe the personalities of the three main characters Ralph, Jack, and Piggy? What does each one symbolize to you?
SUPPLEMENTS: Consider Lord of the Flies in light of the famous “Robber’s Cave Experiment” which was conducted in 1954, the same year Lord of the Flies was published. Also known as “realistic conflict theory,” Muzafer and Carolyn Sherif’s Robber’s Cave experiment involved two groups of boys around 11 years old, all with similar backgrounds. The boys in each group bonded with one another in adjacent campgrounds, but were unaware of the other group. There was a “friction” phase of the experiment in which each group warily met the other. The supervisors suggested they compete in games, but only one group would win prizes. Hostilities brewed, and the group that didn’t win invaded the other group’s cabin, stole their prizes, and engaged in fist fights. In the end, the boys were instructed to take part in the repair of a water tank, which caused cooperation and friendships among boys previously hostile to one another.
SUPPLEMENTS: Here is a five-minute video that sums up the Robber’s Cave Experiment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PRuxMprSDQ
The 1963 production of the movie Lord of the Flies can be viewed here:
I prefer the 1963 version, but you can watch the 1990 remake of Lord of the Flies here:
SUMMARY: This should be a fun session! Having looked at the genre of fiction, featuring the short story “The Lottery” and the novel Lord of the Flies, let’s consider fiction in the context of cinema.
As I summarized in the previous session, just about every work of fiction that deals with human relationships will touch on the theme of the weaponization of loneliness. Very often you can detect the use of isolation as a way to gain power over others. We should be able to detect this same theme in movies. Often there are lines that sum up the various dynamics of that theme: the fear of rejection, concerns about living alone, the human need for friends, bullying, revenge, conformity, betrayal, search for identity, and ultimately, the need to feel a sense of belonging.
EXERCISE: In this session, I suggest you select a movie or two (or three!) to watch and explore the theme. Here is a blog post in which I provide examples of movies -- comedy and drama alike – along with some of the more iconic lines that capture some aspect of the weaponization of loneliness: https://www.stellasbookclub.com/post/learn-to-detect-the-weaponization-of-loneliness-in-every-movie-you-watch Please read it!
Watch a movie or two (either from the list in the above link or one of your own choosing.) And then discuss where in the story you detected the theme, particularly in a telling line or two from the dialogue or narration.
STUDY QUESTIONS:
Can you analyze the meaning of the most iconic line in the movie(s) you watched?
How will this exercise help you detect patterns of the weaponization of loneliness in real life?
What aspects of the weaponization of loneliness can you identify in the movies you watch? Conformity? Fear of rejection?
Compliance in the face of evil?
SUPPLEMENTS:
Look up some of the movies in the link above to get a feeling for why the quotes listed are so iconic. You can get started with the ones below.
Galadriel tells Frodo that "even the smallest person can change the course of history."
Gandalf explains that "it's the small things, the everyday deeds of ordinary folks that keeps the darkness at bay."
In the following line we learn the origin of the term gaslighting as psychological abuse to make the victim think he or she is crazy. The detective explains to Paula that "you're not out of your mind. You're slowly and systematically being driven out of your mind"
In "The Devil Wears Prada," cruel and narcissistic high fashion designer-and toxic boss- Miranda Priestly delivers the iconic line to her protege Andrea: "Don't be ridiculous, Andrea. Everybody wants this. Everybody wants to be us."
SUMMARY:
The Quest for Community can feel like a dense read for many. But it is well worth it! If you would like a pdf of the book, here's a link to an edition with the title Community and Power: https://ia800502.us.archive.org/32/items/RobertNisbetTheQuestForCommunity/Robert%20Nisbet%20The%20Quest%20for%20Community.pdf
Here’s the gist of it. Humans always crave a sense of belonging. This is what Nisbet calls “the quest for community.” Our personal relationships of trust and affection are KEY to our ability to function as a free people in a free society. It is only through personal relationships that individuals can develop a sense of identity. This sense of identity comes through relationships in our families and in our religious and secular communities and our friendships. In other words, through the mediating institutions of society – those institutions that serve as buffer zones between the individual and the government. If those institutions break down, then our social relationships break down. We eventually end up at the mercy of the government or The Mass State.
Tyrannical elites have always sought to tear down or regulate human relationships because our relationships stand in the way of their power and authority. That’s why tyrants always first aim to destroy the mediating institutions of society: cohesion in families, in religious communities, in voluntary associations. So, in the end, can you see how freedom and friendship always go together? If you absorb this book, you’ll understand that!
The Quest for Community is a landmark book. I honestly believe that if more people understood its central message, freedom would be easier to secure.
SELECTIONS TO FOCUS ON:
If the entire book is too much to digest, I suggest you limit your focus to a couple of the following parts below (page numbers correspond to the 2010 edition published by Intercollegiate Studies Institute – ISI):
PREFACE to the First Edition, pp. xvii-xx
PART ONE: Community and the Problem of Order, Chapters 1-3; pp. 1-65
Chapter 5: The State as Revolution, pp. 91-112
Chapter 8: The Total Community, pp. 173-192
Chapter 11: The Contexts of Democracy, pp. 229-257
STUDY QUESTIONS (select two or three from the following)
1. The “mediating institutions” of society provide buffers between the individual and the state. They include the institutions of family, church, civic and volunteer associations, neighborhood organizations, clubs, etc. Why are they so critical for human flourishing in the face of the mass state? What is the problem with extreme individualism? [p. 11: “individualism has resulted in masses of normless, unattached, insecure individuals who lose even the capacity for independent creative living.”]
2. In Chapter 5, Nisbet notes that the Mass State exploits our natural quest for community by luring us into dependence upon the government so that we become atomized, alienated, and lonely and thereby form a mass relationship with the state instead of a range of strong personal relationships in our lives. Do you agree? If so, how do you think this happens and why?
3. Why is privacy so critical to the functioning of personal relationships and keeping the mediating institutions alive? Nisbet quotes Lord Acton on p. 227: "All freedom consists in the preservation of an inner sphere exempt from state power.”
4. Contemplate this question: How can a loneliness epidemic promote tyranny? Is it in the interests of tyrants who crave power to cultivate human loneliness?
5. Discuss the following key passage and what it means: “The shrewd totalitarian mentality knows well the powers of intimate kinship and religious devotion for keeping alive in a population values and incentives which might well, in the future, serve as the basis of resistance.” (p. 185)
6. Discuss the following passage. “The state grows on what it gives to the individual as it does on what it takes from competing social relationships – family, labor union, profession, local community, and church.” (p. 237) Can you provide examples of how the state’s power grows by both giving to individuals and taking relationships away from individuals?
SOME SUPPLEMENTS:
Senator Mike Lee heads up the "Social Capital Project" of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) in the U.S. Congress. Here is an introduction to that project and why social capital -- our social relationships -- is so critical to a healthy society.
Below is a JEC video of less than one minute that explains civil society and the importance of social capital to reviving it. This video is followed on youtube by 8 others --each less than a minute--explaining the social capital project:
Here's a very brief video that describes social capital and its importance specifically to students:
Here Professor Daniel Bonevac describes the importance of social capital and the mediating institutions:
From this three and a half minute clip in a series called "Learn Liberty" you'll learn about Alexis de Tocqueville's warning (in his book Democracy in America) against "soft despotism" -- the dangers of allowing government to take over the functions of the mediating institutions, thus depriving us of our social capital (a warning that Nisbet took to heart and shared in The Quest for Community.)
Here, Dr Joshua Mitchell enumerates what needs to be done to revive civil society and the mediating institutions that build social trust and liberty, something that identity politics destroys.
SUMMARY: If you managed to absorb Robert Nisbet’s spectacular book, The Quest for Community, you’ll get even more out of watching the holiday classic movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” starring Jimmy Stewart. Even if you didn't, it is worth watching as a part of our book club discussions. There is so much truth in this movie about human relationships as the foundation of civil society, and even the foundation of individual identity. This movie really shines a light on the fact that as human beings we are molded through our relationships with others and our relationship with God. This point is captured in the cemetery scene where Clarence explains to George: "each man's life touches so many others."
The plot seems admittedly corny: an “angel second class” comes down from heaven to save George Bailey from committing suicide. George is a good man, beloved by his community, but he is in desperate straits after his Building and Loan business is about to face ruin and he’s about to be arrested due to the machinations of the evil banker Mr. Potter. But the angel Clarence arrives in response to the fervent prayers of those who love George, and he decides to “earn his wings” by showing George what a huge impact he made on the lives of others.
For some analysis of the movie in the context of the weaponization of loneliness, please read my analysis of it at The Federalist. “It’s a Wonderful Life . . . But It Will Cost You.”
With this in mind, you can currently watch the movie at youtube below (but it’s worth having a copy of your own on DVD!)
Some questions for relaxing discussion:
Can you offer an example of something you or someone else did (or said) that made a huge impact on your life? And what might have changed if that person was not there (or remained silent)?
What's your favorite line?
Consider the scene in which George finances Violet's need to leave town. How might this clarify the importance of privacy for promoting human trust and therefore strong human relationships?
Reflect on Clarence's inscription to George at the end: "No man is a failure who has friends!" What does the book Tom Sawyer symbolize in this context?
Take a look at the Bailey living room scene at the end. Consider the diversity of the crowd celebrating George's homecoming in the year 1946. How does this scene reflect our common humanity? And why does it provoke so many rivers of tears 80 years later even (especially?) among those who call the movie corny? I discuss this scene in the Federalist article above, but here's the clip of that happy ending:
SUMMARY: After re-reading this momentous essay "The Power of the Powerless," published in 1978 by playwright Vaclav Havel, I realize that some readers may find the content difficult to digest. But as you go into it, just remember that he’s writing about the deepest feelings and frustrations of human beings who have been forced into silence. Havel spotlights the mechanics of the totalitarian’s pseudo-reality, and then shows us the way out of it. Havel was a freedom fighter in communist-controlled Czechoslovakia at a very difficult time of the Cold War. And he faced arrest and prison for his writings and activities in defense of freedom. After the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, Havel became president of Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic.
"The Power of the Powerless" was a shot in the arm to the then demoralized freedom-loving citizens of communist Czechoslovakia who felt trapped in a society run by totalitarian elites. Indeed, it was a morale booster for all who lived under communism. So it is well worth reading the whole thing. But if you need to be selective, I recommend you focus on the following parts of his 22-part essay:
Parts I-VIII
Parts XIII- XV
Parts XVIII-XXII
STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. The two opposing forces that Havel writes about are “post-totalitarian society” and “the hidden sphere.” What are some of the features of a post-totalitarian system? And what is the “Hidden Sphere” that Havel keeps referring to as the center of REAL power?
2. Why is privacy so important to maintaining the health of the hidden sphere, and therefore the mediating institutions of society?
3. Using Havel’s example of the green grocer, how does the hidden sphere – and even one person’s decision to “live within the truth” – put enormous pressure on totalitarian forces? How do totalitarian forces react when confronted with people who insist on living within the truth? Why?
4. What are the “parallel structures” of independent life that can emerge right under the noses of totalitarians? Can you see such structures being developed in America right now? How might they prevent or bring down totalitarian systems?
SUPPLEMENTS:
Here is a nice 8-minute encapsulation of "The Power of the Powerless" set to classical music and with many of Havel's select excerpts to read, particularly of the parable of the green grocer whose message in promoting the propaganda with signage is basically "I am obedient and therefore have the right to be left alone." Then Havel offers the hypothetical of the disruption to the totalitarian order that could happen if the green grocer decided to take down the sign.
What if others followed suit with the green grocer? Take a look at this talk about the "dancing man" and how "the first follower" can create a movement. "When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in:"
There is a film made called "The Power of the Powerless" about the fight for freedom led by Vaclav Havel. Here is the link to learn more: https://thepowerofthepowerless.org/the-film/
And here is the trailer:
SUMMARY:
Eric Hoffer was not a lettered man. He was widely known as “the longshoreman philosopher.” His slim 1951 classic, The True Believer, is subtitled Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. It’s a useful guide for trying to understand why people attach themselves to political mobs like the Jacobins of the French Revolution, the Red Guard of the Maoist Cultural Revolution, or today’s Antifa and Black Lives Matter street rioters. Hoffer’s insights on social psychology are fascinating, though we may not agree with him on every point. He was a keen observer of the behavior of crowds, the behavior of demagogues, and particularly the psychological make-up of the person who attaches himself to a mass movement.
Among the points Hoffer makes are the following. Fanatics have certain characteristics in common. Central to them all is intense frustration. This can come from a feeling of alienation and a feeling of meaninglessness outside of the “movement.” The fanatical adherent to a “cause” is not willing to engage others in discussion or debate. He is certain of his position and has contempt for all who are “outside” the movement. The fanatic tends not to have a strong communal life or sense of creativity, both of which could have served as buffers against frustration. He tends to be bored and tends to have a sense of estrangement from self. So he adopts the identity of a movement's adherent (for example, “social justice warrior” or “non-binary.”) Hatred tends to be a unifying force for him and other true believers. They tend to fear freedom, and especially the responsibilities of freedom. If power corrupts the few, weakness corrupts the many. Demagogues who try to spark mass movements “aim to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a cure.”
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Analyze this: “To maintain itself, a mass movement has to order things so that when the people no longer believe, they can be made to believe by force.” (p. 106)
2. Evaluate this statement: “In a free society the leader follows the people even as he leads them.” (p. 119) How is a “leader” different in a totalitarian society.
3. What role does conformity play in the personality of the fanatic? How might conformity be tied in with being “isolated” from others as well as from self?
4. Discuss the following statement made by Hoffer: “A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people’s business.” (p. 14) Can you cite some examples of this sort of snitch culture happening in our own society? In history? How does one combat this dangerous tendency?
SOME SUPPLEMENTS:
This 1967 interview of Eric Hoffer by CBS correspondent Eric Severeid will give you a good idea of why Hoffer felt that the “intellectual” – i.e., the sneering academic or know-it-all politician – is the antithesis of the common man. America was built for the common man while the intellectual expects everyone to bow down to him:
The Academy of Ideas offers this 10-minute summary of The True Believer:
In this two-minute clip British TV host Neil Oliver describe Hoffer’s point that mass movements serve to break down a person’s identity and separate him from relationships:
SUMMARY:
Noelle-Neumann, Elisabeth. The Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion – Our Social Skin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. Noelle-Neumann was a German immigrant who served at the Public Opinion Research Center in Chicago. She was fascinated by the effects of political correctness on shaping public opinion. She developed a model called “the spiral of silence” whereby our fear of expressing our opinions allows opposing opinions to dominate public opinion even if they are not majority opinions. She thus recognized that people can go along with agendas simply because they fear being lonely. Let’s always remember her key point: We shape public opinion whenever we exchange ideas with others or when we refrain from expressing our ideas.
READING SELECTIONS:
Let’s focus on a total of 60 pages from the book, as follows:
Chapter 1: “The Hypothesis of Silence”
Chapter 3: “Fear of Isolation as a Motive
Chapter 4: “Public Opinion: What Is It?”
Chapter 8: “Public Opinion as Tyranny: Alexis de Tocqueville”
Chapter 13: “Fashion Is Public Opinion”
Chapter 14: “The Pillory”
Chapter 17: “Avant Garde, Heretics, and Outsiders: “Challenging Public Opinion”
If you cannot read the book, consider digesting this nine-page article in the Spring 1974 issue of the Journal of Communication. It summarizes Noelle-Neumann’s model of the Spiral of Silence:
https://msp1021.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/8/4/11840812/noelle-neumann-1974-journal_of_communication.pdf
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. How do you assess Noelle-Neumann’s key point that “The climate of opinion depends on who talks and who keeps quiet.” Can you think of agendas that became public policy simply because people were too afraid to speak up, thereby allowing a noisy minority view to prevail?
2. In Chapter 17, the author states: “Those who do not fear isolation can change public opinion.” How so? What kind of person can carry this off?
3. Noelle-Neumann studied elections in the Federal Republic of Germany during the 1960’s and 70’s that were seen as “upsets” because the results defied public polling prior to the elections. How might we compare these examples to the 2016 upset victories of Brexit in the United Kingdom and Donald Trump as U.S. president?
4. Noelle-Neumann was the subject of a blistering 1991 article in Commentary Magazine taking her to task for being a journalist active in Hitler’s Third Reich. She replied that she was just a young woman trying to get by in a totalitarian society. Her critics doubled down that she was responsible for the Holocaust. How might we analyze her situation in retrospect and what effect it had on her coming up with the model of the spiral of silence?
SUPPLEMENTS:
Chuck Colson explains:
Explained with graphics, no narration, music background:
C-SPAN Interview with ENN from 1990:
Glenn Loury discusses the book with Lex Fridman @ 2:50
THE GIVER – Movie released in 2014, based on the 1993 dystopian novel by Lois Lowry. The movie, which pleased the author greatly, is worth watching for group discussion. Consider reading the novel before (or after) seeing the movie.
SUMMARY: The action takes place in a dystopian community that’s founded on the premise that sameness is the antidote to suffering in life. So they created a community in which everybody is the same, virtually anesthetized. They live together, but in a state of virtual isolation – because nothing of substance connects them. There is no emotional depth because there is no cultural memory to truly bind them together. The elders made a point of wiping out the historical record because they considered memories a source of disorder to society. However, the elders allow one person to be the repository of memories in case they ever need to consult in order to handle any future threats to their utopian order. The boy Jonas is assigned to take over in that role from the aged handler of the memories who must soon retire. Jonas learns about the history of humanity through “the Giver” whom he will replace. He discovers that people are isolated when they cannot share memories. Without memory there can be no love, only loneliness that renders us powerless against bad actors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvp6FnYWRZU
READING SELECTION:
The 1993 book is available in paperback, on Kindle, and as audio. It’s an easy read in its entirety. Discussion will focus on the 2014 movie which you can watch as a group or individually.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Why is cultural memory so important to human bonding?
2. What do individuals in the community lack by living without biological ties in their organized “family units”? What do the elders think people have to gain from such a living arrangement?
3. The chief elder states: “When you let people choose, they always choose wrong.” What do you think drives a conclusion like that?
4. Why does Jonas feel he must escape with the baby Gabriel? How do you interpret the ending?
SUPPLEMENTS:
Excerpt of interview with Lois Lowry about the importance of memory for human bonding:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo2gIijEU6I
Official movie trailer of The Giver:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk0zjfYy1_E
Excerpt of Lois Lowry interview in which she expresses delight in the screenplay and movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXcdsBaH6rE
THE HIDDEN PERSUADERS by VANCE PACKARD
SUMMARY:
The Hidden Persuaders became an instant best seller when it was first published in 1957. It examines the uses of “depth psychology” by advertisers to manipulate people and engineer their consent and conformity. The advertising industry shot back by instantly ridiculing Packard as “paranoid.” Amazon’s summary of the 50th anniversary edition of the book calls The Hidden Persuaders “a classic examination of how our thoughts and feelings are manipulated by business, media and politicians, The Hidden Persuaders was the first book to expose the hidden world of “motivation research,” the psychological technique that advertisers use to probe our minds in order to control our actions as consumers. Through analysis of products, political campaigns and television programs of the 1950s, Packard shows how the insidious manipulation practices that have come to dominate today’s corporate-driven world began.”
READING SELECTIONS:
Focus on the following short chapters which comprise about 80 pages of the book. An open source pdf of the book is available here: https://www.ditext.com/packard/persuaders.pdf
Chapter 1 – “The Depth Approach”
Chapter 2 – “The Trouble with People”
Chapter 3 – “So Ad Men becomeDepth Men”
Chapter 7 – “Marketing Hidden Needs”
Chapter 12 – “Selling Symbols to Upward Strivers”
Chapter 15 – “The Psycho-Seduction of Children”
Chapter 17 – “Politics and the Image Builders”
Chapter 19 – “The Engineered Yes”
Chapter 23 – “The Question of Morality”
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Packard anticipated that social manipulation would become ever more sophisticated as technology advanced. How might we assess his 1957 thesis about the uses of psychological manipulation in light of today’s internet technologies and social media?
2. Do you think we can trace the recent development of governmental “behavioral insights teams” or “nudge squads” to Packard’s thesis about “motivation research” which seeks to tease out and exploit patterns of human behavior? (Here’s a brief explanation of nudge theory: https://octet.design/journal/nudge-theory/
3. How do you assess Packard’s last words? “the most serious offense many of the depth manipulators commit, it seems to me, is that they try to invade the privacy of our minds.”
4. According to Packard, protecting the privacy of our minds begins with our awareness of these psychological manipulations by building up a “recognition reflex.” How does this discussion group help us to do that?
SUPPLEMENTS:
Interview with Vance Packard in 1989:
Vance Packard’s 1966 talk at UCLA in which he focuses on the effects of technologies on human behavior:
Marshall McLuhan’s book Understanding Media seems to echo Packard’s thesis about the uses of technologies to influence our behavior. In this clip, you’ll see how McLuhan outline his point that “the medium is the message:”
Experimenter: The Stanley Milgram Story
SUMMARY: This film which was released in 2015 traces the development of the famous and controversial “shock” experiments by Yale professor Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. He was stunned to conclude that Americans could just as easily fall under dangerous social conformity behaviors as the Germans who lived under the Nazis of the Third Reich. Anyone could become compliant with malevolent orders. Milgram also coined the terms “agentic state” and “six degrees of separation.”
READING SELECTION:
This session is all about enjoying and discussing the movie “Experimenter.” But if you would like some background reading, you can take a look at Stanley Milgram’s book on the experiments, Obedience to Authority. You might also like to review this six-page article by Solomon Asch (Milgram’s mentor) on the famous line experiments: Asch, Solomon. “Opinions and Social Pressure,” Scientific American, Vol. 193, 1955 https://archive.org/details/solomon-asch_confirmaty/mode/2up
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Why do you think social pressure is such a dominant force in our everyday lives?
2. What are the dangers of allowing social pressure to cause us to self-censor or even lie about what we believe?
3. Why do you think so few people talk about the effects of social pressure on our decisions? Do you think this is changing – that the subject of fear of isolation is becoming more a matter of discussion?
4. What makes the ending of this movie (Milgram’s death) so very ironic?
SUPPLEMENTS:
Clip from the actual experiments,1963:
Full 1962 documentary on Milgram’s experiments:
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1VOZhwRvWo
Small world experiment explained in the 2015 film: “Six degrees of separation”
1970s Solomon Asch line Experiment:
The Manipulated Mind, by Denise Winn
SUMMARY:
The Manipulated Mind: Brainwashing, Conditioning, Indoctrination by Denise Winn was first published 1983. It is an excellent primer or a refresher for your discussion group. You’ll come away with a clearer picture of the vulnerability of the human mind to harmful influences. In just over 200 easy-to-read pages, Winn gives you key insights from the giants of mind control research and famous experiments on social conformity, such as those of Solomon Asch. You’ll be introduced to many of the other big names in this field during the 20th century, including Hannah Arendt, Stanley Milgram, Robert Lifton, Joost Meerloo, and so many more.
For young adults, Winn’s book promises a lot of insights about how bad actors might exploit their insecurities, deep feelings, and “learned helplessness.” Once we become aware of how propaganda uses our buried resentments and hurt feelings, we are less likely to become unwitting agents for those who seek to close our minds to separate us from others and use us. In her preface to the 2000 edition of the book, Winn felt that her original case still held. I would say even more so today.
READING SELECTION:
This is not a long book. And it provides such a worthwhile panorama of the basics of propaganda and thought reform, that it is definitely worth reading all the way through. This link takes you to an open source pdf of the book: https://ia800500.us.archive.org/22/items/WinnDeniseTheManipulatedMind/Winn_Denise_-_The_manipulated_mind.pdf
However, if you and your group prefer to focus on specific chapters, read these:
Chapter 2 – Brainwashing
Chapter 4 – Conditioning
Chapter 5 – Influencing Effect of Feelings
Chapter 6 – Attitude Influence
Chapter 10 – Resisting Influence
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. In her chapter on brainwashing, Winn explained how the Chinese communists did not use just one technique on American POWs in Korea. How would a combination of various techniques – including group discussion, self-criticism, interrogation, rewards and punishments,, forced confessions -- be most effective in weakening resistance?
2. Discuss how and why an isolated captive would bond with his captor for companionship? What’s behind this process often referred to as Stockholm syndrome, and is there any way to resist it?
3. Discuss and review Winn’s list of the 10 processes of brainwashing that Robert J Lifton identified. (Assault on identity; Guilt; Self-betrayal; Breaking point; Leniency; the compulsion to confess; the channeling of guilt; re-education --logical dishonoring; Progress and harmony; final confession and rebirth.)
4. Why is humor such a prime path to resisting coercive thought reform?
SUPPLEMENTS:
Here are a couple of short videos that’s the backstory to the term “Stockholm Syndrome” – from a 1973 bank robbery:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LyLduRW_sSk
Here’s a quick review of the history of brainwashing put out by the Academy of Ideas:
Brainwashing and coercive persuasion explained by cult expert Rick Alan Ross: