Thread: Что происходит в Украине? События, новости.

I think we are all "brainwashed" about certain things. No need to judge people for it. I just think people should be open to that possibility. Anything we heard a lot as children, or saw a lot of films about tends to be quite firmly ingrained.
I am definitely "brainwashed" about certain things. But it doesn't tend to be things I write about here though.

Technically there is no such thing as "brainwashing" though! This came up at university, and it's quite interesting. It's just a word that the CIA invented when they could not understand why some American soldiers who had been captured during the Korea war came back as convinced Communists. It didn't occur to them that Communism can genuinely appeal to a person on its own merits.

So they invented the expression "brainwashing" and a Hollywood film was made about it. And the term has been thrown around ever since. Totally ridiculous film btw.



The CIA did some experiments to try to brainwash people, because they thought that the USSR was already doing it... However after 5 years all they achieved was to drive a few people completely crazy. They did not manage to change anybody's opinion for real, or their personality. If you try extremely hard, all you will achieve, is to make the person schizophrenic.

People believe what they want to believe, anything else is just faking it for the sake of expediency.

Originally Posted by Hanna

Technically there is no such thing as "brainwashing" though! This came up at university, and it's quite interesting. It's just a word that the CIA invented when they could not understand why some American soldiers who had been captured during the Korea war came back as convinced Communists. It didn't occur to them that Communism can genuinely appeal to a person on its own merits.

You are mostly correct, Hanna, but not totally. The term "brainwashing" was popularized in English by the CIA, but it was a direct translation of a phrase originally coined in Chinese:

The Chinese term 洗腦 (xǐ năo, literally "wash brain") was originally used to describe methodologies of coercive persuasion used under the Maoist government in China, which aimed to transform individuals with a reactionary imperialist mindset into "right-thinking" members of the new Chinese social system. The term punned on the Taoist custom of "cleansing/washing the heart/mind"(洗心, xǐ xīn) before conducting certain ceremonies or entering certain holy places.

Note, however, that the original Chinese phrase did not imply total mind control under which people were put into a zombie-like trance (as happened to Laurence Harvey's character in The Manchurian Candidate); it was more analogous to "politically correct propaganda."

So they invented the expression "brainwashing" and a Hollywood film was made about it. And the term has been thrown around ever since. Totally ridiculous film btw.

Portions of it were scientifically ridiculous, yes, but they were consistent with what the public generally believed about The Mysterious Power Of Hypnosis[tm] at the time.

And the underlying political warning about far-left communists and far-right fascists (beloved Disney actress Angela Lansbury, in the 1962 film!) mutually exploiting each other as tools (to the disadvantage of the masses) is not ridiculous at all, IMHO.