Originally posted by SingaporeTyrannosaur:
If you don't mind me asking, what exactly is so bad about brainwashing?
I found three definitions of brainwashing:
- (aka thought control, mind control, coercive persuasion). A non-violent method that uses mind control techniques to convince a person to abandon some of their basic beliefs and adopt the beliefs of the indoctrinator. The anti-cult movement teaches that many small religious groups, which they call cults, engage in brainwashing. Sociologists and mental health researchers who are not involved in the anti-cult movement generally reject the concept.
- forcible indoctrination into a new set of attitudes and beliefs
- Brainwashing or thought reform is the application of coercive techniques to change the beliefs or behavior of one or more people for political purposes.
I'm sure you can see why brainwashing is bad. It's bad by definition. The key words here are 'mind control', 'thought control', coercive, forcible'. You are basically deceiving or manipulating people into changing their beliefs.
For example, let's say you don't believe in UFOs but I wanted to convince you that UFO's existed. I stage an elaborate kidnapping where I surround your car with bright lights. I knock you out with a gas and when you wake up, you see what looks like aliens around you. I knock you out again and when you wake up, I leave you what appears to be evidence that you were abducted by aliens.
Now suppose I did all that because I really believe there are UFOs and alien abductions and I really need you to believe as well. I might justify it to myself that there's nothing wrong with staging the hoax. Alien abductions, after all, do occur. I'm just helping you realise it sooner rather than later.
This is a troubling justification. There are some religious people who believe that when it comes to religion, the end justifies the means. Winning souls for Christ, for example, is the most important goal and as long as that objective is achieved, anything is justified. They might say "sure we realise that we do a lot of things to place our audience in what seems to be a suggestible state. But you mischaracterize it. We just create an environment that makes is easier for people to perceive and receive god. They don't understand why it's almost never justified to use falsehood or trickery to convince people of the truth.
In the documentary Jesus Camp, a young girl is show saying she wants to open a manicure shop one day and specialise in nail art. She then explains that she's not really all that interested in nail art, but she feels that it's a great opportunity to evangelize. She plans to play soft christian music in the background and create an atmosphere that would be 'perfect' for spreading the gospel to her customer. Now what's wrong with this? When she sets up her shop, she will have to disguise her true intent because if she advertises that she is an evangelical nail art shop, only the converted would go to the shop. That defeats the purpose. If she hides the fact that her purpose is to evangelize, she is being deceptive and unfair to all her customers who just want their nails done without being preached at.