CONNECTIONS!

So on stumbleupon.com, I ‘stumbled’ into this article about initiation rituals or as some anthropologists haved coined, mortification rituals.  Basically these rituals were initiation ceremonies that were supposed to bring the initiated pain or humiliation.  Almost exactly like the book that i was reading (which is called Battle Dress if you want to read it).   “Hazing is one variety of initiation ritual. Now banned on many college campuses, hazing rituals can be painful, humiliating, or dangerous. In a typical hazing ritual, new members of a group are forced to endure pain or ridicule. For example, first-year student at a military school may be given insulting names (like “grunts,” “rats,” or “pleebs”) and required to perform humiliating services for older students.”

Once the initiated members ‘graduated’ the ceremony (which could sometimes last as long as a couple of years) they all had a very strong bond with their fellow members forged through their humiliation and pain.  Often because of the physical stress placed upon the person, it makes them more susceptible to to the propoganda being told to them constantly.  Yet another form of brainwashing!

A book….

So over spring break, I was reading a book (obviously) and it was about these students in west point and how they lived, what they were taught, and how they were taught.  It was quite enlightening and lets just say that I am never going into the army.  The students or cadets as they were called were not given any free time and vacation that they got (which was right after a brutal training camp called ‘The Beast’) only lasted half a day and they had to spend their time watching a militaristic movie that just enforced all of the propaganda that they had beeen learning into their heads.  But in all this because of the harsh treatment, the cadets learned to bond with each other and learned how to operate efficiently under a lo t of stress so maybe this ‘brainwahing’ wasnt that bad after all.  because after all it did shape them into better people. 

A Subcription

So now i am subscribed to the personality feed on psychology today.  one of the bloggers on that page caught my attention with a blog about rage and what victims of rage are capable of. 

AN update….

So far most of my research about political ‘brainwashing’ has only turned up loads upon loads of biased information on how democrats are better than republicans and vice versa.   Its very hard to find a non- biased article on how politicians can influence you subconciously but I’ll keep looking.

Hello fellow bloggers, so my topic is of now still undecided but I know that its going to be something to do with how you think and how outside forces can influence how you think.. In other words, brainwashing. I started out in the WW2 section with how hitler brainwashed German kids to become docile, perfect, non-thinking Nazis. but then it got a little grotesque once the war ended and they had to become unbrainwashed.  Then from there it went into propaganda and how political leaders use the media and the internet to ‘brainwash’ the public into believing in their causes.   pictures like the above circulate throughout the internet. So thats were I am right now