Most
Americans are familiar with the term social change. It is recognized as a
methodology used in our colleges, under the guise of critical
theory, to convince young gullible kids that our country
desperately needs, as Barrack Obama once put it, a fundamental transformation.
There are an untold number of stories where conservative parents send their
children to prestigious universities, only to realize when they come back, they
have been thoroughly brainwashed into leftist thinking. Even in public
elementary education, it is becoming evident that there is more of an indoctrination
taking place than anything that resembles learning. The role education has
taken in society has changed from one of creating free thinkers, to a system
focused on changing attitudes and restructuring what it is viewed as the old
world, into a new global society. To get people to go along, they must be
persuaded into believing it is in their best interest. Sadly, most Americans
are unaware that this has been taking place since before the beginning of the
twentieth century.
Donald
Trump recently made a big move by signing an executive order targeting the use
of critical race theory in public schools. There is little doubt that the use
of such a theory, which aims to teach young children that America is a racist
nation, has contributed to the hatred and resentment many Americans feel
towards their own country. Unfortunately, this will have little effect as they
have been discretely shaping opinions and attitudes in schools for over one
hundred years. The main goal has been training students into a socialized form
of education, envisioned by John
Dewey, where they sought to change the national morality
and attitudes towards their country. The Progressive Education Association for
example, was founded in 1919 (Iserbyt,
p. 11) for such a purpose. In 1927,
according to Deliberate
Dumbing Down of America author Charlotte Iserbyt (p.14) the
state of Maine education commissioner, Augustus Thomas gave a speech in which
he highlighted the process of change that would have to occur in education to
bring about their new order.
If
there are those who think we are to jump immediately into a new world order,
actuated by complete understanding and brotherly love, they are doomed to
disappointment. If we are ever to approach that time, it will be after patient
and persistent effort of long duration. The present international situation of
mistrust and fear can only be corrected by a formula of equal status,
continuously applied, to every phase of international contacts, until the
cobwebs of the old order are brushed out of the minds of the people of all
lands. This means that the world must await a long process of education and a
building up of public conscience and an international morality, or, in other
words, until there is a world-wide sentiment which will back up the modern
conception of a world community. This brings us to the international mind,
which is nothing more or less than the habit of thinking of foreign relations
and business affecting the several countries of the civilized world as free
co-operating equals.
The
point is that for the past one hundred years or more, there has been a
tremendous effort to research human behavior and what methods work best to
persuade people to change their positions, and their attitudes. Many of these persuasion
theories bare similarity to psychological doctrines, like operant conditioning.
For instance, social exchange theory is primarily known for being a theory of
economics in so far as it examines the relationship between individuals and what
they are willing to pay in exchange for economic goods. In an article entitled Social
Exchange Theory: An Integrative Approach to Social Conformity, published in
The Psychological Bulletin 71(3), the authors note that when it comes to social
behavior, social acceptance can be viewed as a “social good” which people will
be willing to pay a price for. The price of course, is conforming to other’s
viewpoints to feel accepted in a group of some kind. This bears resemblance to
B.F. Skinner’s Beyond
Freedom and Dignity when he states that social acceptance is a
more powerful form of control than a police state.
The
child who has learned what to say and how to behave in getting along with other
people is under the control of social contingencies. People who get along
together well under the mild contingencies of approval and disapproval are
controlled as effectively as (and in many ways more effectively than) the
citizens of a police state. Orthodoxy controls through the establishment of
rules, but the mystic is no freer because the contingencies which have shaped
his behavior are more personal or idiosyncratic. Those who work productively
because of the reinforcing value of what they produce are under the sensitive
and powerful control of the products. Those who learn in the natural
environment are under a form of control as powerful as any control exerted by a
teacher.
A
theory called induced compliance posits the idea that positive or negative
emotions, presented in association with information that contradicts one’s
views, is a powerful factor in changing attitudes. In an article entitled Induced-Compliance
Attitude Change: Once More with Feeling, published in The Journal of
Experimental Psychology in 1979, the authors cited a study in which stimulants
or tranquilizers were given to students while being asked to write essays that
countered their typical beliefs. It was found that students who were given the
stimulants were very easily persuaded to change their position. From this experiment,
social scientists came to believe that when people are in a state of arousal,
their attitudes and beliefs can be changed. How is this applied in the
classroom? Charismatic teachers, skilled at trapping the attention of
unsuspecting students, entertain them with meaningless jokes about parents or whatever,
and then present information that is intended to sway their traditionally held
beliefs. This is also known as values
clarification education. It is in this state of arousal, where children are
most likely to go along. Especially considering the theories mentioned earlier
about wanting to be socially accepted.
A
more recent article entitled Attitude Change: Persuasion and Social
Influence reinforces the idea of social conformity as a change motivator. It
highlights long held notions that social change can be affected when there are concerns
about one’s self fitting in, feelings and beliefs being coherent and viewed in
a favorable light, and maintaining positive relationships with others. In fact,
the need to fit in can be such a strong driver of attitude change, it is not
uncommon to see people change their positions primarily based on the company
they are in.
These
change strategies are employed against society everyday not only in education,
but through any means of mass communications. The right works just as hard to
persuade people as the left. Consider the concept of arousal influencing
attitude change and apply it to Donald Trump’s bump stock ban. First, be honest
and admit that if a democrat had done that conservatives would have opposed.
Because the action was associated with a positive, arousal creating stimulus known
as four-dimensional chess, people accepted the infringement against the second
amendment in a passive, if not, positive way. Another example of persuasion,
that was highly effective no less, was Barrack Obama insisting his views on
homosexual marriage had evolved. When running for president, he was opposed
because he knew the attitude of the country towards the controversial subject
was not favorable. His charismatic attitude and positive character image were
useful in persuading the American public to accept homosexual marriage because
he claimed he had evolved to see it in a positive light. This is the same way
they are presenting socialism, homosexuality, transgenderism, and even critical
race theory in the classroom.
If
we are going to get into the education system and make corrections, we must
understand that the behaviorists have been researching human behavior for many decades.
They know more about your behavior than you do. Their goal was to create an
education system devoid of individuality and one that trains people to be subservient
to the state. They have by far surpassed that goal and are very adept at
persuading the masses into accepting things they may have never thought they
would. Just look at every one wearing a face mask over a virus with .02 percent
mortality rate.
Iserbyt,
C. The Deliberate Dumbing down of America: A chronological Paper Trail. (1999)
Ravena Ohio. Conscience Press.
Nord, W. R. (1969) Social exchange theory: An
integrative approach to social conformity. Psychological bulletin 71 (3) pp. 173-208
Rhodewalt,
F. & Comer, R. (1979) Induced compliance attitude change. Journal of
experimental social psychology 15(1) pp. 35-47
Wood,
W. (2000) Attitude change: Persuasion and social influence. Annual review of
psychology. 51 (1) pp. 539-570
.
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