How is a cult a total institution
The Cult Mentality of the Masses Part III: Resocialization/Total Institutions
[Music]
hello it's dazzling one and this week's
discussion is on the cult mentality of
the masses part 3 re socialization and
methods of brainwashing it's been three
years since another part has been made
to the series and I've learned a lot in
way of social psychology and sociology
I'll first talk about this from an
individual perspective and then apply it
to how it takes place on a mass
collective scale of society
socialization is the process of learning
to behave in a way that is acceptable to
society this is where our norms are
learned what's considered deviant and
what's considered acceptable our taste
in clothing music food and even basic
skills like hygiene and grooming
secondary socialization which takes
place over the course of life whereas
primary socialization takes place during
childhood was secondary we're constantly
being socialized through the new
experiences through the new environments
were introduced into through the jobs
that we take through the people that we
meet through situations whether positive
or negative and re-socialization is when
one's conception of how to behave the
norms the values are change either
rewired to fit another mold or they're
unlearned completely and usually this
takes place in way of a total
institution and there are four aspects
of a total institution the first is
residents lives are conducted in the
same setting and under the same
authority structure second each
residents daily activities are carried
out in the media company of large
numbers of others all are treated alike
and all are required to do the same
thing there the day's activities are
tightly scheduled pre-arranged times and
sequence is imposed fourth all
activities are rationally planned and
carried out for the benefit of the
institution some examples of this would
be prison the military and cults and
usually for those who are with
a total institution they undergo a
process known as self-mortification
which is a form of resocialize ation and
self-mortification is when a person's
old identity is stripped away
essentially erased and a new identity is
built up in its place old values and
behavior patterns are unlearned and new
values and behaviors are adopted an
extreme example of this would be
brainwashing that sometimes is forced
upon prisoners of war and an example of
self-mortification is with boot camp
those who go to boot camp are required
to give up their clothes that they wore
as civilians and are given uniforms to
wear and everyone gets the same
hairstyle personal names are used as
little as possible instead they are
addressed as soldier or sailor or by
rank they are allowed little if any
contact with former friends and
relatives and are subjected to long
hours of physical labor and considerable
sleep deprivation as a result of these
stripping's
while recruits old identities start to
weaken and they become increasingly
dependent on the total institution much
as young children are dependent on their
parents and when it comes to
self-mortification this is done in a way
by five steps and the first is
depersonalization this is through
symbolic means where an individual's
personal belongings are taken away and
they're issued standard clothing and a
number instead of a name second there
are barriers between residents and the
outside world and there's a loss of
roles attached to the outside or the old
self there may be visiting restrictions
restricted passes no phones loss of a
familiar way of living third there's
deference obligations this is when they
are forced to be subservient cooperative
and take orders from others and are
treated like a thing fourth there is
verbal and physical humiliation and this
is when an individual is made to focus
on the negative attention from a group
and require to ask permission for
everything even something as simple as
going to the rest
they may endure extreme beatings strap
downs shock therapy and withholding
treatment in some extreme cases and v
contaminate of exposure this is where
areas of self are violated as well as
private info may be disclosed and there
may be forced relationships and denial
of privacy a example within the military
of self-mortification in the second
phase is when recruits are indoctrinated
with the behaviors that will now be
expected of them through exposure to
positive role models who reinforce such
things as saluting officers being
concerned with presenting a neat and
orderly appearance and following orders
without question a few weeks ago the
recruit was a civilian now he or she as
a soldier sailor or marine and I find
this so fascinating because essentially
they're breaking down their victim and
once their victim has been he
personalized once they have been cut off
once they have been made to be
subservient and endure this sort of
humiliation and basically violated
whether it's with information or
physically then they can begin building
them up and giving them allegiance to
whatever group this is and we really do
see patterns of this in the military in
prison and this is also where in-groups
and out-groups come in and in group is
the group of the individual most
identifies with and feels he or she is a
member of this is the us the out group
is the them it's a group with which an
individual does not identify the group
of which one is not a member of and they
may perceive those outside of their
group in the out group as different from
them in groups and out groups are so
powerful because it can lead to people
not coming together or seeing too many
differences when there are actually some
similarities and some methods of
brainwashing are rejection and then
retreat otherwise known as door in the
face this is when the profit urbe Ginn's
by making a large request one that is
likely to be refused once the target has
refused a large request the profit or
makes a smaller request which is unknown
to the target that
the original goal the target then
receives a second smaller request as a
concession and should feel obligated to
respond with a concession compliance
with the second request so a good
example of this would be if my motive
was to get you to give me a side dollar
donation but I know if I just come out
and ask for the $5 you may not go for it
so instead I ask you for a $50 donation
and you're thinking to yourself $50 are
you serious I'll never give you $50 not
even if the cause is something I really
care about I just don't have the means
so then and instead I say how about five
dollars and you go well you know five
dollars isn't too much that's about 10%
of what I was gonna originally give you
so in the end I get what I initially
intended to get foot in the door is
another tactic that's often used and
this technique is when a profit will
begin with a small request and gain
compliance the small commitments begin
to change a person's self-image although
not all commitments affect self-image
after compliance with a small request
their attitude is likely to change and
they begin to see themselves in a manner
that is consistent with a self-image
shift once the self-image has been
changed people naturally comply with
large requests that are consistent with
the new self-image the proffer can now
move on to a related larger request and
expect compliance this tactic can also
increase the likelihood that a person
will perform a variety of large favors
that are only remotely related to the
original small request so foot in the
door is very gradual and one example I
think that's easy to use is Jim Jones
and Jonestown people didn't wake up one
day and say I'm going to give up all my
belongings and move to a foreign country
it was a slow gradual process and with
that being said it started with
voluntary small donations then he began
asking for larger sums of money for
donations and eventually they became
mandatory and people often have a
tendency to feel that whenever they are
doing something they need to remain
consistent so they don't look weird or
sporadic
and so even when people see things are
getting a little out of hands sometimes
they will still continue to go with the
flow because they're afraid of looking
inconsistent or being wrong or at fault
especially if they see others giving in
to it as well and so what is interesting
also when looking at situations like
Jonestown and in part one of the cult
mentality of the masses Jonestown was
used as a prime example of a cult there
were a lot of structural factors that
played into these people's
vulnerabilities to figures like Jim
Jones and that's something that we often
don't take into account when looking at
why people Bend or why they give it many
of us would say I'm a strong person I am
an adult
I have a fully made up mind no one could
ever come and reeducate or brainwash me
and fair enough maybe that's the case
but sometimes these slight tactics are
used on us to create confusion to create
doubt to create a little hole and
entryway to shift us in a different
direction and structural issues could be
as simple as you have a community that
has a lot of jobs that have been lost
and they're being outsourced or you have
people who are in a situation where
there's extreme discrimination or
alienation and someone comes in and they
promise to bring a solution to those
problems many would call these people
the cult of personality some would say
that they were a demagogue playing on
one's emotions either way they use these
methods and people's susceptibility to
these figures often have a lot to do
with what's going on in society around
them at the time as much as it does with
what happened to them and on a personal
scale because there's often this
obsession with looking at the individual
and just their personal issues rather
than looking at even structural issues
and with that said on a mass scale I
believe that a lot of these mass
shootings that we've seen and even just
a lot of the degradation of culture has
a lot to do with methods like foot in
the door or the rejection then retreat
or door in the face technique
one example I can think of pop culture
where we saw a door in the face sort of
technique used to desensitize people
furthermore was in 2013 with Miley
Cyrus's VMA performance with Robin
Thicke many people were turned off by
this 19 year old woman's working on this
middle-aged man who was married and with
teddy bears implying a lot of sexual
innuendos that were sexualizing children
and with her being at that age where
she's an adult yet she's a teenager it
made it even more dicey and of course
after that she came out said she didn't
think it was gonna really going to be
that bad and we know Hollywood plans
these things out ahead of time but they
did this shock value so later on when
she continued to push the envelope
although she did tone it down somewhat
already that shock had been done and
people were like well Lee she's not you
know doing this with a married man
anymore and eventually it led to more
people accepting her behavior and other
celebrities that behave like her and
with a foot in the door kind of
technique many would point to the fact
that if you look at television women
didn't show as much on television as
well as it just wasn't a lot of nudity
even of men because there's a lot of
nudity of men now on TV as well and it
started with a little bit of you know
showing a little bit of skin here a
little bit of skin there and eventually
we get to the point where people address
like strippers out award shows and just
pure sexual mayhem on stages so it's a
gradual process that they take us
through and the same thing happens when
there's a sort of terrorist attack or a
shooting they just asked for us to
change a slight policy it's just a
little bit here and there and eventually
people don't even realize because
they're trying to stay consistent how
much rights they have given up how much
liberties they have compromised for the
greater good or for safety so these are
sort of methods that are often employed
and they do play upon structural issues
even with protests there's been a lot of
people who have played into the protest
bandwagon
or the anti-protest bag wagon because I
believe that they want more people to
protest so there can be more instability
but they also want more people to be
against protesters so they can feel that
the freedom of speech should be limited
as well and this sort of goes back to
even the Hegelian dialectic and the fact
that society is not in competition and
as far as change in continuity
continuity and change work together to
maintain the system similar to how the
Hegelian dialectic uses two opposing
sides the thesis and the antithesis to
maintain synthesis or Society this is
why the political system was set up so
society would never fail even if you
have two people arguing opposite points
and this is why we see a maintaining
even though there's changes happening a
society but these are just some methods
and if we're not careful and we're not
tuned in we can find ourselves being
resocialized or even our brains being
rewired through the things that we
consume through different changes in
laws just give a little here and
eventually you end up giving at all or
just compromise here and we just have to
be so careful that we don't give in to
any of these techniques because I
believe and this is a mass conspiracy
theory of course that they are trying to
on a mass scale do a process of
self-mortification where they are
stripping away many of us identity re
socializing us with the identity that
they want and even though we're not in a
total institution collectively we're
still allowed to use our names so many
of us feel dehumanized by the sort of
work that we're doing or feel like
there's a lot of anxiety on trying to
keep up in this competitive culture that
many of us do feel like we're being
watched we're always being judged and
we're always having to keep up and there
is just mass anxiety collectively
there's so many people I know who either
are diagnosed with anxiety disorder or
just struggle with anxiety and anxiety
is a natural response to a threat in
nature so why are so many people
feeling threatened and a lot of it just
has to do with the brutal nature of the
way things are set up in society and
that is all for part three but I hope
that you found this information useful
and that now that you're aware of it you
can try to catch resocialize ation and
brainwashing techniques when they're
happening as well as inform others and I
hope that you all have a wonderful week
and I'll talk to you either in next
Monday's livestream or next Wednesday's
video take care and God bless
