the ESP that you're talking about might have been a response to broadcast (color) television, which has always been about controlling public psychology and beha

the ESP that you're talking about might have been a response to broadcast (color) television, which has always been about controlling public psychology and behavior. the classic text on propaganda was written in 1928, it would be a bit strange if anxiety about secular religion (i.e. politics) didn't ramp up during the decades that followed. with arguably the biggest scandal of this year being Cambridge Analytica/Emerdata, seizing control of other people's minds was correct in its precociousness. more broadly, sci-fi inherits from religion (really religious fantasy), which has always been about control of group behavior and group think, power and identity, the relationship between creator and creation, etc. "we shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us" was said by mcluhan, but it may as well have been said by victor frankenstein or any other critic of science and industry.