In 1956, philosopher Günther Anders wrote the following prophetic reflection:
“To suppress any uprising, one does not need to act violently. Methods like those of Hitler are outdated.
It is enough to create such a strong collective conditioning that the very idea of revolt will no longer appear in people's minds. Ideally, people would be shaped from birth, limiting their innate biological abilities.
After this, we would continue the conditioning by sharply reducing education, limiting it to the acquisition of professional skills. An uneducated person has a limited worldview, and the more his thinking is confined to mediocre pursuits, the less capable he is of rebelling.
We must make access to science increasingly difficult and elitist, ensuring a gap between people and science, and ensuring that information for the general public has no subversive content.
The main thing is to eliminate philosophy. Here, too, we should use the power of persuasion, not direct violence: we will broadcast entertaining programs on television that touch only emotions or instincts.
Minds will be occupied with the useless and playful. Keeping the mind from reflection can be done with continuous talk and music. We will place sexuality at the top of the list of human interests. There is no better social tranquilizer. In general, we will act in such a way as to eliminate the serious aspects of existence, mock anything valuable, constantly encourage frivolity so that public euphoria becomes the standard of human happiness and the model of freedom.
Thus, conditioning will lead to such integration that the only fear we will have to maintain is the fear of exclusion from the system, and therefore the inability to access the conditions necessary for happiness.
With the mass human shaped in this way, we will treat him for what he is: like a cow, and we will watch over such humans like a herd. Anything that leads to apathy of clear thinking will be considered a public good, and anything that might awaken him must be ridiculed, suppressed, and combated. Any doctrine that questions the system must be labeled as subversive and terrorist, and those who support it will then be treated as terrorists.”
All of this has been happening directly in Western Civilization for about 60 years, with forced pauses during the Reagan, Thatcher, and Trump eras. This ideology and these methods are called Neo-Marxism of the Frankfurt School, disguised under the camouflage of 'liberal democracy'.
Günther Anders was an Austrian writer, philosopher of German-Jewish origin, and an active participant in the global anti-nuclear and anti-war movement. He was also a cousin of Walter Benjamin, one of the founders of the Frankfurt School.
Main interests: Politics, Frankfurt School, anti-war movement, anti-nuclear movement.
Awards: Theodor Adorno Prize (1983).
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