Antisocial Minds and Their Means

VI.1 Antisocial Minds and Their Means

Homo homini lupus--Man is a wolf to man .

Titus Maccius Plautus (ca. 254–184 BCE)

"Man is the best beast of prey," and "the only beast that preys systematically on its own species." Wars, massacres, and pogroms; beatings, tortures, and murders on an individual scale; enslavement, oppression, and exploitation on a social scale--a sorry record which makes up a large part of human history.

Abraham Kaplan (1918-93)

. . . as perception increases, any sensitive person will feel a deep sense of estrangement. Seeing how society is riddled with dishonesty, stupidity, and brutality, he [the autonomous person] will feel estranged from society, and seeing how most of one’s fellow men are not deeply troubled by all this, he feels estranged from them. . . . After all, most of them are a rather sorry lot. . . . Where those who shut their eyes and lull their minds to sleep, as well as those reduced to brutishness in one way or another, find it possible to feel at home, the autonomous spirit who insists on keeping his eyes open to examine critically his own position and alternatives finds it impossible to feel at home.

Walter A. Kaufmann (1921-80)

Intelligence is necessary to overcome foolishness. But it is not sufficient to tame fanaticism. Only courage can do that. A handful of men who are prepared to fight, to bleed, to suffer and, if need be, to die, will always triumph.

Sidney Hook (1902-89)

We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds;

our planet is the mental institution of the universe.
Goethe (1749-1832)

History reveals, it is not the most moral and intelligent societies, institutions, and ideologies that survive and flourish, it is those who do whatever it takes--their selfish ends justify their means.

This writer

Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.

Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

He who lives only to benefit himself

confers on the world a benefit when he dies.

Tertullian (ca. 160-230 CE)

Introduction

A. Antisocials' Claims and Decadence

B. Deficiencies of the Antisocial Mind

C. Key Manipulative Means

D. Specific Mind Control Methods

E. Changing Minds without Their Knowledge

F. Dominating Others with Their Consent

G. Absence of Self-Confidence among People

H. Restricted Reporting by the Mass Media

I. Freedom of the Press in the U.S.

J. The Just World Hypothesis

Introduction

To be social is to get along well with others and to cooperate with them unselfishly for one's own and the common welfare. To be antisocial is to be the opposite. Those who practice what is often a pernicious antisociality, frequently cooperate and share a unifying mentality. For brevity's sake, and though not frequently used as a noun, I shall refer to them collectively as "antisocials."

Antisocials are most harmful to the welfare of humanity in generally because they are aggressively against the basic principles that would bring about a rational and humane society, that is, a community with universal freedom and well-being made possible by Educated Citizens governed by a Just Social Contract in a Functional Democracy. These enemies of the people everywhere often operate insidiously, that is, with treachery or slyness that is more dangerous than apparent.

For the antisocials, the ends justify the means and might makes right because their supreme goal is their survival and growth. Although existing at a low level of intellectual, moral, and social awareness, they are most capable of manipulating, controlling, and exploiting others. They practice what some call Machiavellian intelligence, that is, they use underhanded means to achieve their objectives. This type of intelligence is named after the Renaissance political scientist Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527). His book The Prince advises to be if necessary beyond morality and "combine the strength of the lion with the cunning of the fox." The abysmal antisocials have existed since the beginning of civilization. Often organized around self-serving, unifying ideologies, they include individuals, groups, states and institutions of the economic, corporate, political, legal, and religious kind.

A. Antisocials' Claims and Decadence

Antisocials often claim:

to have sources of knowledge that are superior to what science can give us;
to be guided by a supernatural authority or higher cosmic principles;
to be in possession of, or have a monopoly on, truth that is absolute and final;
to know with certainty what is best for others who "for their own good" are actually being deceived and exploited;
to fight for a supreme good cause, actually theirs, but send others to be crippled and killed. It used to be for "God, King, and Country," but now it is sometimes "to protect" the country from imaginary threats and "make the world safe for democracy" meaning predatory capitalism.
to do the thinking for the entire human race on account of the before mentioned extraordinary abilities and other self-deceptions that they keep to themselves.

The mindset, means, methods, and ideology of the antisocials represents intellectual, moral, and social decadence with abnormal behavior as a consequence. Unlike normal behavior, where the individual and the group benefits, abnormal behavior has pernicious consequences for other individuals, groups, whole societies, and even the entire planet as for example in world wars and environmental degradation. Therefore, normal behavior should not be defined as the conduct of a majority because an entire society may be afflicted by antisocial disorders.

From the above it follows that deviation from social norms is not necessarily abnormal in a negative sense. Behavior is abnormal only when it interferes with the well-being of the individual and the group. It follows that there can be a sick society if its social norms as, for example, expressed in customs, traditions, ideology, religion, or laws, are detrimental to well-being. For consequences of the antisocials' activities see the other chapters of this section.

B. Deficiencies of the Antisocial Mind

We humans have anti-social or selfish motives as well as social motives; we often follow the former, and with higher intelligence we may even become cleverer for satisfying our selfish motives rather than social motives.

This writer

The antisocial mind is deficient because it:

Lacks conscientiousness which is the quality of "caring what one says and what one believes. It means that one takes some trouble to determine what speaks for and against a view, what the alternatives are, what speaks for and against each, and what alternatives are preferable on these grounds."
Acts not according to the tenets of an intellectual and moral conscience because they are unfamiliar and not internalized. Therefore, it cannot judge its own values, actions, and performance.
Does not realize or understand the concepts of right and wrong and has little regard for consequences of its actions.
Practices a low or no Standard for Intellectual Honesty.
Tends to be low on making compromises, "my way or the highway."
Disregards The Common Moral Decencies and Ethical Excellences in favor of a self-serving morality at the expense of others that yields a "good" but false conscience.
Enacts self-serving laws. They then boast to be law-abiding and claim that justice has been served, which adds insult to those who have received little or nothing on account of this malpractice.
Perfects self-deception by habitually practicing it. This, together with a lack of moral integrity, allows it to keep and increase unearned privileges with a good but false conscience.
Invents theories of knowledge that find self-serving "truth." For this mindset acceptable sources are revelation, tradition, authority, and dogma. And slogans like "might makes right," "the ends justify the means," and "my country right or wrong" are readily approved. However, these sources do not pass the test of Knowledge as Justified True Belief, and the slogans content is contrary to The Common Moral Decencies.
Reasons, knowingly or unknowingly, fallaciously as explained in The Common Fallacies.
Uses dirty tricks, suffers from erroneous subjective influences, and incorporates common errors, all as outlined in Where Thinking Goes Wrong.
Ignores the pernicious consequences of self-serving actions. Moreover, victims are explained away with the "Just-World Hypothesis" (below) or hated and sometimes punished because they make the perpetrators feel uncomfortable or guilty.
Submits and attaches itself to powerful and prestigious others to gain security and advantages.
Overestimates its own importance, and uses this as a justification for dominating others for its own selfish goals.
Creates supernatural figures and powers in its own image and which tell it then what it wants to hear. This way it can commit atrocities with a "good" conscience.
Orders "courageously and patriotically" others to die in battle for its self-serving causes.
Tramples underfoot the socially weak, the helpless, the uneducated, and the vulnerable. In particular women and children have historically been their target.

There is a strong correlation between the mentality of the antisocial and narcissism as well as psychopathy. Narcissistic disorder is characterized by a person's extreme self-centeredness and self-absorption, fantasies involving unrealistic goals, an excessive need for attention and admiration, and disturbed interpersonal/social relationships. Psychopathy is a mental disorder in which a person manifests amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal/social relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc.

C. Key Manipulative Means

Political language . . . is designed to make lies sound truthful, and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

George Orwell (1903-50)

Manipulative methods are used by religious, political, and economic antisocials for the purpose of social control and institutional power. It is the intentional, systematical influence to hoodwink people in general and in particular children during their formative years:

Bullying is the hurting, frightening, or tyrannizing of those who are weak and often defenseless. it may be the act of intentionally causing harm to others through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation.
Coercion is the practice of compelling a person to behave in an involuntary way by use of threats, intimidation or some other form of pressure or force. The coerced has a choice, but whatever he chooses he loses: "Believe and follow our teachings or you shall be damned." Coercion may typically involve the actual infliction of physical or psychological harm in order to enhance the credibility of a threat. The coerced makes the best out of the situation and chooses whatever he perceives does the least harm.
Indoctrination, in the negative sense, is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, emotions and ultimate beliefs such as a religion. It is distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned. The faith is often presented as the one and only true one leading to salvation from an invented thread such as eternal damnation.
Intimidation through psycho terrorism, that is, is intentional behavior "which would cause in a person of ordinary sensibilities" fear of injury or harm. Terms with a close meaning are: bullying, browbeating, coercion, threatening, cowing, daunting, frightening, terrorizing, demoralizing, awing, one-upmanship, scare tactics. The calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to attain goals political, religious, or ideological in nature, that is, through intimidation can be defined as terrorism because it is often done in in reckless disregard of the risk of causing terror.

D. Specific Mind Control Methods

Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.

Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)

The immediate above section is included or implied by Steven Hassan's more detailed "mind-control model." He is the author of the book Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves (2000).

Behavior Control

Regulation of individual’s physical reality
Major time commitment required for indoctrination sessions and group rituals
Need to ask permission for major decisions
Need to report thoughts, feelings, and activities to superiors
Rewards and punishments (behavior modification techniques positive and negative)
Individualism discouraged; "group think" prevails
Rigid rules and regulations
Need for obedience and dependency

Information Control

Use of deception
Access to non cult sources of information minimized or discouraged
Compartmentalization of information; Outsider vs. Insider doctrines
Spying on other members is encouraged
Extensive use of cult generated information and propaganda
Unethical use of confession

Thought Control

Need to internalize the group’s doctrine as "Truth"
Use of "loaded" language (for example, “thought terminating clichés" [see Where Thinking Goes Wrong]). Words are the tools we use to think with. These "special" words constrict rather than expand understanding, and can even stop thoughts altogether. They function to reduce complexities of experience into trite, platitudinous "buzz words."
Only "good" and "proper" thoughts are encouraged.
Use of hypnotic techniques to induce altered mental states
Manipulation of memories and implantation of false memories
Use of thought stopping techniques, which shut down "reality testing" by stopping "negative" thoughts and allowing only "good" thoughts
Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism. No critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy seen as legitimate.
No alternative belief systems viewed as legitimate, good, or useful

Emotional Control

Manipulate and narrow the range of a person’s feelings
Make the person feel that if there are ever any problems, it is always their fault, never the leader’s or the group’s
Excessive use of guilt
Excessive use of fear
Extremes of emotional highs and lows
Ritual and often public confession of "sins"
Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about ever leaving the group or even questioning the leader’s authority. The person under mind control cannot visualize a positive, fulfilled future without being in the group.

E. Changing Minds without Their Knowledge

There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

In his writing about "brainwashing" by totalitarian political systems, Robert Jay Lifton (b.1926) describes eight coercive methods which, he says, are able to change the minds of individuals without their knowledge. However, these methods have been most enduringly and successfully used by the world's religions:

Milieu Control. This involves the control of information and communication both within the environment and, ultimately, within the individual, resulting in a significant degree of isolation from society at large.
Mystical Manipulation. There is manipulation of experiences that appear spontaneous but in fact were planned and orchestrated by the group or its leaders in order to demonstrate divine authority or spiritual advancement or some special gift or talent that will then allow the leader to reinterpret events, scripture, and experiences as he or she wishes.
Demand for Purity. The world is viewed as black and white and the members are constantly exhorted to conform to the ideology of the group and strive for perfection. The induction of guilt and/or shame is a powerful control device used here.
Confession. Sins, as defined by the group, are to be confessed either to a personal monitor or publicly to the group. There is no confidentiality; members' "sins," "attitudes," and "faults" are discussed and exploited by the leaders.
Sacred Science. The group's doctrine or ideology is considered to be the ultimate Truth, beyond all questioning or dispute. Truth is not to be found outside the group. The leader, as the spokesperson for God or for all humanity, is likewise above criticism.
Loading the Language. The group interprets or uses words and phrases in new ways so that often the outside world does not understand. This jargon consists of thought-terminating clichés [see Where Thinking Goes Wrong], which serve to alter members' thought processes to conform to the group's way of thinking.
Doctrine over person. Member's personal experiences are subordinated to the sacred science and any contrary experiences must be denied or reinterpreted to fit the ideology of the group.
Dispensing of existence. The group has the prerogative to decide who has the right to exist and who does not. This is usually not literal but means that those in the outside world are not saved, unenlightened, unconscious and they must be converted to the group's ideology. If they do not join the group or are critical of the group, then they must be rejected by the members. Thus, the outside world loses all credibility. In conjunction, should any member leave the group, he or she must be rejected also^[1].

F. Dominating Others with Their Consent

. . . hegemony is a form of domination so deeply rooted in social life that it seems natural to those it dominates. One might also define it as that aspect of the distribution of social power which has the force of culture behind it.

Andrew Feenberg

One could ask, if in a democracy, for example, the exploited are the large majority, why don’t they simply vote those who support unfair systems out of office? And why couldn’t they vote in a government that would level the playing field? This is a good question, and it may be answered by drawing a comparison between the eunuch and the voter. It is known that the concubine-favored Arab, "does not entrust his harem to the virtue of those who are said to guard the harem, but rather to the guard’s inability." By analogy, power elites do not entrust "their" democracy to the informed decision making ability of those who are said to elect the government, but rather to the voter’s inability to change things for lack of choice, relevant information, and intellectual skills. But how is this possible?

The privileged, blessed by good fortune, have the problem of defending their unearned status and enjoying life in the midst of social misery. Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) must have had them in mind when he declared:

The effort of some to shift their share of the burden onto the shoulders of others is the great durable curse of the race. . . . It has so happened, in all ages of the world, that some have labored, and others without labor, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits. This is wrong and should not continue.

It seems that in all ages of the world, the privileged have managed to establish and sustain a system that allows them to dominate others with their consent. This kind of system derived from Marx but often referred to as "Gramsci’s theory of hegemony" after the Italian social philosopher Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937). His Selections from the Prison Notebooks (Gramsci 1995) define such a system as one in which,

The position of a dominant class which exercises control through its ability to achieve acceptance of a particular set of cultural values and norms. Such a class need not to exercise control through the defeat of political and economic challenges. The accepted world-view of the society may prevent the emergence of such challenges.

In sum, this self-serving ideology for social control represents special interests as universal ones, and through its acceptance by the many it bamboozles them into submission.

Although caused by antisocials, new generations of human beings will no doubt scorn our time for its avoidable poverty, diseases, and wars. We can and do deliver bombs within a few feet of their intended target almost anywhere on Earth. But we cannot deliver basics for survival to some twenty thousand children that unnecessarily die everyday after a short and painful existence.

G. Absence of Self-Confidence among People

In his best known work, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (1973), Gene Sharp (b.1928) maintains that power is not monolithic; meaning, it does not derive from some intrinsic quality of those who are in power. For him, political power, the power of any state - regardless of its particular structural organization - is derived from the subjects of the state. His fundamental belief is that any power structure is based on the subjects' obedience to the orders of the ruler(s). Therefore, if subjects do not obey, leaders have no power. Concerning absence of self-confidence among people, Sharp writes:

Many people do not have sufficient confidence in themselves, their judgment and their capacities to make them capable of disobedience and resistance. Having no strong will of their own, they accept that of their rulers, and sometimes prefer rulers who will direct their lives and relieve them of the task of making decisions. The subjects may be disillusioned, exhausted, apathetic, or possessed of inertia, or they may lack a belief system which makes it possible both to evaluate when one ought to obey and disobey, and also to give confidence in one's right and ability to make such a decision. Lack of self-confidence may also be influenced by a belief that the ruling group is more qualified to make decisions and to carry them out than are the subjects. This attitude may be based on perceived greater competence, social customs and class distinction, or conscious indoctrination.

And he continues:

One consequence of the lack of self-confidence is a tendency to avoid responsibility, to seek to delegate it upward and to attribute greater authority to superiors in the hierarchy than is in fact merited. People lacking self-confidence may seek a ruler, a leader, a despot, a tyrant who will relieve them of responsibility for guiding their present and their future. Wrote Rousseau:

Slaves lose everything in their chains, even their desire of escaping from them: they love their servitude, as the comrades of Ulysses loved their brutish condition.

Even where subjects wish to alter the established order, they may remain submissive because their lack of confidence in their ability to act effectively in bringing about the desired changes. As long as people lack self-confidence they are unlikely to do anything other than obey, cooperate with, and submit to their rulers.

H. Restrictive Reporting by the Mass Media

Philosophers, writers, newspaper men, and journalists point out:

To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves.

Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715–71)

Wealth and speed are what the world admires, what each pursues. Railways, express mails, steamships and every possible facility for communications are the achievement in which the civilized world view and revels, only to languish in mediocrity by that very fact. Indeed, the effect of this diffusion is to spread the culture of the mediocre.

Goethe (1749-1832)

A free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a great society. ... A great society is simply a big and complicated urban society.

Walter Lippmann (1889-1974)

. . . under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.

A. Einstein (1879-1955)

Freedom of the Press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose.

George Orwell (1903-1950)

Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.

A. J. Liebling (1904-63)

The media's the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.

Malcolm X (1925-65)

Freedom of the press, or, to be more precise, the benefit of freedom of the press, belongs to everyone - to the citizen as well as the publisher... The crux is not the publisher's "freedom to print"; it is, rather, the citizen's 'right to know."

Arthur Sulzburger (b.1926)

Those who manipulate the organized habits and opinions of the masses constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.

Edward Bernays, assistant to W. Paley, founder of CBS

Journalists must seek and speak the truth,

for we are the voice of the voiceless millions.

Razia Bhatti (1944-1996)

I. Freedom of the Press In the U.S.

Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.

First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1791)

The press is protected [by the First Amendment] not for its own sake but to enable a free political system to operate. In the end, the concern is not for the reporter or the editor but for the citizen--critic of government.

Anthony Lewis of the New York Times

no individual can obtain for himself the information needed for the intelligent discharge of his political responsibilities. . . . By enabling the public to assert meaningful control over the political process, the press performs a crucial function in effecting the societal purpose of the First Amendment.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice L. F. Powell (1907-98)

The security of the Nation is not at the ramparts alone. Security also lies in the value of our free institutions. A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know [June 1971].*

U.S. Federal Judge M. I. Gurfein (1907-79)

*In supporting the right of the New York Times to publish the Pentagon Papers after the government failed to demonstrate any breach of security but only the possibility of embarrassment.

However, the corporate owned mass media in the U.S.:

Generally prevents its citizen from obtaining the social truth, e.g., a comparison with countries where he people have a higher standard of living. Instead, citizens are indoctrinated into a manufactured, an unjust status quo supporting falsehood.
Has historically been silent on American foreign policy disasters. If the public is eventually informed, it is because the bad news cannot any longer been contained.
There is almost no reporting on corporate crime substantial though it is. Again, things come out if they cannot be any longer covered up.
Practices self-censorship to avoid the loss of advertisers and government favors such as free airwaves for TV and radio as well as reporter access to info, news conferences, and interviewing leaders.
Censors known as "gatekeepers" control reporting and news releases. Hence, there is little or no such thing as professional, independent journalism at these private, special interest owned corporations.
Repeats tentative news stories that even if subsequently disconfirmed, can assist in the creation of false memories in a substantial proportion of people. For example:

A poll conducted between June and September of 2003 asked people whether they thought WMD [weapons of Mass destruction] had been discovered in Iraq since the war ended. They were also asked which media sources they relied upon. Those who obtained their news primarily from Fox News were three times as likely to believe that evidence confirming WMD had been discovered in Iraq than those who relied on PBS and NPR for their news, and one third more likely than those who primarily watched CBS.

Media source Respondents believing evidence of WMD had been found in Iraq since the war ended
Fox 33%
CBS 23%
NBC 20%
CNN 20%
ABC 19%
Print media 17%
PBS-NPR 11%

Based on a series of polls taken from June-September 2003."

J. The Just-World Hypothesis

The just-world hypothesis is a device to blame victims for their undeserved misery, poverty, lower social status, etc. Its core belief is that the world is fair and that therefore people get what they deserve. The desire to hold this belief is very common and strong because it lets people go on with their life's when they witness, for example, poverty, suffering, and injustice. Rather than doing something about it, they will rationalize it, that is, find reasons why the victim deserves it. This sedates their conscience, thus, no helping or corrective action on their part is necessary. They remain satisfied and at peace with themselves by continuing to believe the world is a just place.

Moreover, the perpetrators of wrong doing often use the just-world hypothesis because they cannot forgive their victims. Indeed, they often hate their victims, for they are the cause that makes them feel guilty, thus, uncomfortable. Again, they do it at the expense of blaming victims for things that were not their fault.

Examples are:

Economic humiliation: If you are not successful, it’s your fault because anybody who works hart makes it in our country.

Religious guilt assignment: Individuals suffer because humanity must suffer on account of the transgressions of its ancestors Adam and Eve (in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition). Or you suffer on account of transgressions in a previous life--you reap what you sow--the law of Karma in the tradition of Hinduism and Buddhism.

The perpetrators of wrong doing often use the just-world hypothesis because they cannot forgive their victims--for they are the cause that makes them feel guilty, thus, uncomfortable.