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Jim Reagen's avatar

Small correction on your reference to my post. Desmet's book justifies not only psychological handling of dissenters, but everyone, in order to prevent the anxiety and confusion that are, in his view, necessary precursors to totalitarianism. But yes, dissenters could very well be singled out for special treatment.

I'm not saying that this is what Desmet intended, but I am saying that in a future perhaps 10 or 20 years from now (or sooner?) his theory for how totalitarianism arises could be trotted out to justify society-wide psychological measures to "prevent totalitarianism" (such as tailored psychiatric drugs or a "soma.") This is because for Desmet totalitarianism doesn't arise from censorship/propaganda but from society's anxiety and fear and confusion (derived from our supposed addiction to mechanistic thinking) which then lead to censorship/propaganda.

This isn't true at all. Censorship and propaganda can be imposed on a perfectly "normal" society to then create fear and anxiety. I think we've seen this somewhere ....

I operate from the principle that freedom requires vigilance, and vigilance requires imagining possible futures. Thus I imagine what the consequences of Desmet's theory might be. The Breggins noticed the same thing.

Desmet definitely believes conspiracy thinkers are dangerous as their anxiety may lead to mass formation. So all of us who believe in a vast conspiracy are dangerous.

Many people are confused about Desmet and believe that he's found the key to mass formation during Covid. What they miss is causation: what does Desmet say causes mass formation and thus totalitarianism? It's us!! It's our propensity for mechanistic thinking. It is not induced from outside by those who orchestrate.

It really is an insidious work.

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Joe Van Steenbergen's avatar

I can't tell you how enlightening your perspectives are about all this. Unfortunately, so many of those we were hoping were working in our best interests, appear to not be. Questions are: Are they witting or unwilling players? If they really are "in on it," who got to them and what was their price for complicity?

In the end, none of that really matters. The games are afoot, and we either will be alert and do our own research, or we will be swept along with the herd.

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