Are YOU Brainwashed?
By Uri Avnery
June 11, 2018 "Information
Clearing House" -
IT'S FRIGHTENING. Unprincipled
psychologists, in the service of a malignant
regime, use sophisticated techniques in
order to control the mind of a person from
afar.
The term "brainwashing" was born in 1950. It
is a Chinese word ("xinao", literally wash
brain). Originally it served to describe a
technique used so it was claimed - by
Chinese masterminds to manipulate the minds
of American prisoners in the Korean War.
They changed their unconscious mental
processes and turned them into agents of
sinister forces.
Many books and movies purported to show how
this works. For example, the classic film
"The Manchurian Candidate" shows how the
communists take an American prisoner-of-war
in the Korean war, an officer, manipulate
his mind and give him an order to kill the
US presidential candidate. The American
officer does not know that he has been
turned unconsciously into a communist agent.
He does not remember the order given him
under hypnosis and does not know that he
acts accordingly.
THIS PLOT is ridiculous, like most of the
pseudo-scientific descriptions. In practice,
it is much easier to manipulate the minds of
people, individuals and collectives.
For example, the Nazi "propaganda". It was
invented by Adolf Hitler himself. In his
book, "Mein Kampf", he describes how, as a
soldier on the Western front in WWI, he
witnessed the extremely successful British
propaganda. The British dropped leaflets
over the German trenches and shattered the
soldiers confidence in their leadership.
When Hitler came to power in Germany, he
entrusted one of his faithful henchmen,
Joseph Goebbels, with the creation of a
Ministry of Propaganda. Goebbels turned
propaganda into an art form. Among other
means he turned all the German media
newspapers and the radio into government
agencies. In German that was called "Gleichschaltung"
connecting all components to one electric
line. Thanks to this, Nazi Germany continued
fighting long after it was clear that it had
lost WWII.
One of the means was the disconnection of
the German public from any other source of
information. The official propaganda was
blared from every medium. Listening to a
foreign broadcast was a major crime,
punished severely.
Thus it happened that the Germans still
believed in their final victory the
Endsieg - even after the Soviets in the East
and the Anglo-Saxons in the West had already
crossed the borders into Germany.
DOES IT take a dictatorial regime Nazi or
Communist to turn the media into a
brainwashing machine? Common sense says that
this is impossible in a democracy. Common
sense is wrong.
Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? |
It will be remembered that
Hitler attained power by democratic means.
Even now, fanatical nationalists are winning
democratic elections in many countries. All
their leaders are busy destroying the
courts, stuffing the parliaments with useful
idiots and especially turning the media
into brainwashing instruments. In our
country, too.
How is this done? It's quite simple, really:
one has to suppress all other voices. One
has to make sure that the citizen hears only
one voice. One that repeats a few messages
over and over, endlessly. This way the lie
becomes truth.
In such a situation, the ordinary citizen
becomes convinced that the official line is
really their own personal opinion. This is
an unconscious process. When one tells a
citizen that they are brainwashed, they are
deeply insulted.
This has been happening in Israel over the
last few years. The citizen is not conscious
that it is happening. He or she absorbs
diverse newspapers, TV programs and radio
broadcasts, and sees that all these media
are freely arguing with each other and even
quarreling with each other. The citizen is
not conscious of the fact that on the one
critical subject of our life war and peace
all the media are "connected" to one
singular line of brainwashing.
DURING THE last few weeks we have been
seeing a perfect example of this mechanism.
The events on the Gaza Strip border have
activated a mechanism of brainwashing that
dictatorial regimes in the world can only
envy.
Let's examine ourselves: what have we heard
over the radio? What have we seen on TV?
What did we read in the papers?
Within a few weeks more than a hundred human
beings were shot dead, and many thousands
were wounded by live fire. Why?
"We were forced to fire at them because they
were storming the border fence". And indeed,
did the Gazans themselves not proclaim their
will to "return home" meaning, to return
to Israeli territory?
But on May 14, "Black Monday", 63 unarmed
demonstrators were shot dead and over 1500
wounded by live fire. Every Israeli knows
that this was necessary because the
demonstrators stormed the fence and were
about to swarm into Israel. Nobody paid
attention to the simple fact that there was
not a single photo showing such an
occurrence. Not even one. In spite of the
fact that on both sides of the fence there
were hundreds of photographers, including
Israeli army photographers, who filmed every
single detail. Tens of thousands stormed,
and not a single picture?
One should notice the use of the word
"terror". It has turned into an adjective
attached to everything. There are not just
tunnels they are all always
"terror-tunnels". There are
"terror-activists". There is "the Hamas
terror-regime" and there are "terror-bases".
Now there are "terror-kites".
Notice: not just "incendiary kites", or
"destruction-kites", only "terror-kites".
The same every day in all media. Someone has
made the terminology decision. Of course,
everyone who has the word "terror" attached
to his name is "a son of death", as you say
in biblical Hebrew. Another proud term of
the brainwashing.
The inhabitants of the Gaza Strip are
"terrorists". (In Hebrew, a special term has
been invented: "Mekhablim"). All of them? Of
course, no question. Especially Hamas
members. But Hamas is a political party,
which has won democratic elections in all of
Palestine. A civilian party which has indeed
a military wing. But in our media all party
members and supporters are "terrorists",
sons of death. Of course.
The use of these terms, hundreds of times
every day, clearly constitute brainwashing,
without the citizens noticing it. They are
getting used to the fact that all Gazans are
terrorists, mekhablim. This is a process of
dehumanization, the creation of
Untermenschen in the Nazi lexicon. Their
killing is allowed, even desirable.
In such an atmosphere, even abominable
sentences pass unnoticed. For example, this
week I heard on one of the TV news programs
this sentence from the mouth of a military
correspondent, speaking about the coming
Gaza demonstration: "Iran wants dead
demonstrators, and it seems that they will
get them." One has to read this sentence
twice to realize what it says: that the
Israeli sharpshooters serve Iranian
interests.
Or a sentence that is repeated again and
again, even by respected commentators: "Iran
wants to destroy the State of Israel". I
don't know what 80 million Iranians want,
nor does the writer. But the sentence itself
is ridiculous. Israel is a nuclear power.
How does one annihilate a nuclear power
(with submarines that can launch nuclear
devices in the hour of need). Are the
Iranians ready to turn their country one
of the cradles of human civilization into
a graveyard and a desert?
Or a forecast "Friday another violent
demonstration will take place". "Violent"?
"Another"? There is no argument about the
fact that all the demonstrations along the
Gaza fence were completely non-violent. The
demonstrators did not shoot one single shot,
when thousands of them were wounded by live
fire, and more than a hundred killed. Yet
the lie passes without comment.
Not a single one of the hundreds of TV news
program presenters ever corrects such
statements by correspondents. Because the
directors, presenters, commentators and
correspondents are themselves thoroughly
brainwashed. The army spokesman knows the
truth, of course, but he is a central cog in
the brainwashing machine.
EVENTS REACHED a climax with the murder of
the 21-year old female paramedic Razan
Ashraf al-Najjar, when she was trying to
save the life of a wounded demonstrator. The
sharpshooter who shot her in the chest saw
that she was a medic treating a wounded
person. It was a clear war crime.
Was there a public outcry? Did the media
demand an investigation? Did the media
report this event in their page one
headline? Did the Knesset observe a minute
of silence? Nothing of the sort. A minor
news item in some papers (by no means all).
An excellent article by the admirable Amira
Hass in Haaretz. And that's that.
A few days passed, and abroad there were
outcries. The Argentine soccer team, with
the admired Messi, canceled a friendly game
against the Israeli team in Jerusalem.
The brainwashers realized that it was
impossible not to react. So the army
spokesman published a statement saying that
an investigation had taken place. What did
it discover? Ah, well. It was clearly
established that nobody had shot Razan. She
was hit by the ricochet of a bullet that had
hit the ground far from her. That is such a
blatant lie that even the army liar should
be ashamed of producing it. It was accepted
by the brainwashed public.
One of the hallmarks of brainwashing is a
phenomenon that everyone can notice: the
total absence of a second opinion. When a
commentator voices the official line on an
event, does anyone express an alternative
version? Is there a debate between the
official spokesman and a contrary
commentator? In the democratic media, that
would be commonplace. Here it is very, very
rare.
WHAT CAN be done to counter such
brainwashing?
Not much.
First of all: there is a vital need for a
second voice. Brainwashing can be efficient
only when the official voice enjoys a
complete monopoly. That was one of the aims
of Haolam Hazeh, the weekly which I edited
for 40 years. It met every untrue government
version with a contrary version. Although
our voice was weak, compared to the powerful
government machine (even in those days), the
very fact that there are two voices, however
unequal, prevents a total brainwashing. The
citizen hears two versions and wonders "who
is right?"
If all the peace and human rights groups in
Israel set up a joint center for
information, which will be heard, perhaps
the monopoly of official propaganda can be
broken. Perhaps.
There is in the country a tiny band of
commentators who are not afraid to tell the
truth, even when this is considered treason.
Gideon Levy, Amira Hass and a few others. We
must ensure that their voice is heard. They
must be encouraged.
All the media must be pressured to present a
variation of views on matters of war and
peace, to let the "internal enemy" be heard,
so that the citizen is able to form an
opinion of their own.
The foreign media must be allowed free
access to the sources of information, even
when the foreign media are critical,
"hostile" and "anti-Semitic". Friends of
Israeli-Palestinian peace abroad must be
encouraged to pressure the media in their
homelands to publish the truth about what is
happening here.
I don't like the word "must". But in this
context, no other will do.
THE POWER of the truth against a
brainwashing machine is always limited. But
in the end, even if it takes time, truth
will prevail. It needs courage.
The movie "The Manchurian Candidate" has a
surprise ending: in the last minute, instead
of killing the presidential candidate, the
brainwashed man shoots the communist agent
who was supposed to take his place.
Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. A member of the Irgun as a teenager, Avnery sat in the Knesset from 1965 to 1974 and from 1979 to 1981.
This article was originally published by "Gush Shalom" -
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
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