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Joost Meerloo's "Rape of the mind". Its an incredible older book looking at the mechanisms exploited by totalitarian systems to subdue their victims. Namely na

Joost Meerloo's "Rape of the mind". Its an incredible older book looking at the mechanisms exploited by totalitarian systems to subdue their victims. Namely nazi Germany, soviet Russia and revolutionary China. The author was part of the dutch resistance against the nazi occupation and headed the psychological department of the dutch army in exile after he had to flee mainland Europe. He later also acted as a witness for the defense in the trial against Frank Schwable for collaborating as a PoW in Korea. In addition to the really interesting and still highly relevant topic his writing shows him to be among the other awe inspiring scientists of the "greatest generation". Its quite simply an extremely impressive yet pleasant to read opus magnum.

uxcolumbo 4y ago
How do you fight a totalitarian from the inside, eg China, Russia, Iran, where surveillance is high and any opposition will be ‘disappeared’. Does this book go into detail how the Dutch resistance did it?
- pacija 4y ago
  How do you fight a totalitarian from the inside, eg USA, EU, where surveillance is high and any opposition will be ‘disappeared’?
  - uxcolumbo 4y ago
    In the West we still have democracy - yes might be on its last few legs, but it's not too late, as the 2020 election showed - we the people just need to come together and be more organized and strategic and remove the corruption. In the US or EU no political opposition was 'suicided' or disappeared in a Gulag like it happened in Russia multiple times. In Russia or China you will be arrested for holding up a white piece of paper. If you're trying to say current day Russia is the same as current day US or EU then you're way off line.
    - pacija 4y ago
      That we the people just need to come together and be more organized and strategic and remove the corruption is applicable to any society, on any level of corruption. It was not too late for Netherlands under nazis, it is not too late for anyone.
    - chiefalchemist 4y ago
      I see it different, and to the comment one level up...we have the illusion of democracy, which takes the oppression of opposition to a whole new level. In fact, this episode of Freakanomics talks about The Politics Industrial Complex and how The Media is on the inside of that bubble. In short, without a healthy and objective Fourth Estate there is no democracy. Add in the duopoly one-party choices and it gets even worse. There's more to democracy than getting to vote. What we're living is the Orwellian defintion of democracy. https://freakonomics.com/podcast/im-your-biggest-fan/ https://freakonomics.com/podcast/im-your-biggest-fan/ I also heard it said on another reputable podcast - I think it was "How I built this" - that the top corporate guest of the Obama WH was Google. I'm trying to verify that. This looks close enough. It's odd that a POTUS who sold hope would be so closely aligned with a surveillance company. https://theintercept.com/2016/04/22/googles-remarkably-close-relationship-with-the-obama-white-house-in-two-charts/ https://theintercept.com/2016/04/22/googles-remarkably-close... See also: "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" for a look behind Google's public facing narrative. The Pentagon keeps failing its audits, to the tune of trillions of dollars, and the people are silent. Trillions? If it walks like corruption and talks like corruption...well we all should see where this is going. Yet, zero opposition to this? That's enough for now.
      - pacija 4y ago
        I think you are smart and insightful person. There's too many of "yes we could be better but we are still the best while those other suck beyond improvement unless we fix them" East and West, left and right. I hope to fix my country and I hope you fix yours. Maybe we even come together and fix them both. But I hope some won't attepmt to fix my country again with dropping depleted uranium bombs on civillians in the name of democracy.
    - 4y ago
- cf141q5325 4y ago
  During the war he debriefed people interrogated by the Gestapo to figure out ways to resist and briefed other resistance fighters with what to expect. Its obviously impossible to "resist" many things on that level, for example the threat of having your family put into Sippenhaft with you. While other mechanisms, especially on a societal level, are much more easily countered. You can summarize his approach with "knowledge is power". So the book is using the same approach he applied during the war and which he had recommended since, that true and honest information in an open society is the best medicine against a rise in totalitarianism and the resulting corruption. Its an approach you should be familiar with when it comes to combating the different methods of propaganda, psychological warfare or information operations. Or simply cognitive biases. Once you describe how they work, you are primed to recognize them when you come across them. Which hopefully reduces their effectiveness. To give an example, there is the rather famous quote concerning the title: >“Many victims of totalitarianism have told me in interviews that the most upsetting experience they faced "…" was the feeling of loss of logic, the state of confusion into which they had been brought — the state in which nothing had any validity "…" they simply did not know what was what.” Recognizing that this is an actual tactic, aimed at creating a predictable reaction is rather helpful to break out of that predetermined path for your thoughts.

uxcolumbo 4y ago

How do you fight a totalitarian from the inside, eg China, Russia, Iran, where surveillance is high and any opposition will be ‘disappeared’. Does this book go into detail how the Dutch resistance did it?

pacija 4y ago
How do you fight a totalitarian from the inside, eg USA, EU, where surveillance is high and any opposition will be ‘disappeared’?
- uxcolumbo 4y ago
  In the West we still have democracy - yes might be on its last few legs, but it's not too late, as the 2020 election showed - we the people just need to come together and be more organized and strategic and remove the corruption. In the US or EU no political opposition was 'suicided' or disappeared in a Gulag like it happened in Russia multiple times. In Russia or China you will be arrested for holding up a white piece of paper. If you're trying to say current day Russia is the same as current day US or EU then you're way off line.
  - pacija 4y ago
    That we the people just need to come together and be more organized and strategic and remove the corruption is applicable to any society, on any level of corruption. It was not too late for Netherlands under nazis, it is not too late for anyone.
  - chiefalchemist 4y ago
    I see it different, and to the comment one level up...we have the illusion of democracy, which takes the oppression of opposition to a whole new level. In fact, this episode of Freakanomics talks about The Politics Industrial Complex and how The Media is on the inside of that bubble. In short, without a healthy and objective Fourth Estate there is no democracy. Add in the duopoly one-party choices and it gets even worse. There's more to democracy than getting to vote. What we're living is the Orwellian defintion of democracy. https://freakonomics.com/podcast/im-your-biggest-fan/ https://freakonomics.com/podcast/im-your-biggest-fan/ I also heard it said on another reputable podcast - I think it was "How I built this" - that the top corporate guest of the Obama WH was Google. I'm trying to verify that. This looks close enough. It's odd that a POTUS who sold hope would be so closely aligned with a surveillance company. https://theintercept.com/2016/04/22/googles-remarkably-close-relationship-with-the-obama-white-house-in-two-charts/ https://theintercept.com/2016/04/22/googles-remarkably-close... See also: "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" for a look behind Google's public facing narrative. The Pentagon keeps failing its audits, to the tune of trillions of dollars, and the people are silent. Trillions? If it walks like corruption and talks like corruption...well we all should see where this is going. Yet, zero opposition to this? That's enough for now.
    - pacija 4y ago
      I think you are smart and insightful person. There's too many of "yes we could be better but we are still the best while those other suck beyond improvement unless we fix them" East and West, left and right. I hope to fix my country and I hope you fix yours. Maybe we even come together and fix them both. But I hope some won't attepmt to fix my country again with dropping depleted uranium bombs on civillians in the name of democracy.
  - 4y ago
cf141q5325 4y ago
During the war he debriefed people interrogated by the Gestapo to figure out ways to resist and briefed other resistance fighters with what to expect. Its obviously impossible to "resist" many things on that level, for example the threat of having your family put into Sippenhaft with you. While other mechanisms, especially on a societal level, are much more easily countered. You can summarize his approach with "knowledge is power". So the book is using the same approach he applied during the war and which he had recommended since, that true and honest information in an open society is the best medicine against a rise in totalitarianism and the resulting corruption. Its an approach you should be familiar with when it comes to combating the different methods of propaganda, psychological warfare or information operations. Or simply cognitive biases. Once you describe how they work, you are primed to recognize them when you come across them. Which hopefully reduces their effectiveness. To give an example, there is the rather famous quote concerning the title: >“Many victims of totalitarianism have told me in interviews that the most upsetting experience they faced "…" was the feeling of loss of logic, the state of confusion into which they had been brought — the state in which nothing had any validity "…" they simply did not know what was what.” Recognizing that this is an actual tactic, aimed at creating a predictable reaction is rather helpful to break out of that predetermined path for your thoughts.