I have actually heard of people saying that they are okay with being brainwashed and/or mind controlled? Does this make sense to you guys?
People okay with being mind controlled/brainwashed?
by Joliette 11 Replies latest jw friends
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BU2B
It does because thinking is too much for some mentally lazy people. It is actually far easier to be told what to think, do, and say than to figure it out for yourself. Being mind controlled is a comfort to them. One time a brother said in his talk that "people may call us brainwashed! It's true! Our minds have been cleansed from worldly satanic practices and thinking!". Puke
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Apognophos
Actually, yes! But it's a good question.
- People who join the army want to be brainwashed by their basic training in order to be unified, efficient soldiers. They give the drill instructor the authority to remake them as hardened fighters (all the more so with advanced training such as for the Marines).
- People who sense that they are worthless or dangerous want someone to remake their thinking so they can be healthy, valuable to society, and to restrict them from hurting others. The reformed spree killer Matthew Lamb is a good example of this, as he chose to go from from psychiatric care into a private army in order to make sure he was in a controlled environment, so as to manage his psychopathy.
- People who want to fit into society allow others to tell them what to like and dislike. For instance, if you are American like me, you probably have a negative reaction to the word "communism". Why? Because you've studied it carefully and know its shortcomings? Or from conditioning that came from the government so that we would know who our enemy was (back when the enemy was considered to be communism)?
In that sense, being social animals, we all allow ourselves to be brainwashed to a certain degree. But people with low self-esteem or serious personal problems are more likely to allow a higher-level mind control group like the JWs to mold them into something that they think is more worthy and valuable. Remember how as JWs we always used to make comments about how we are imperfect sinners, and how God gives us undeserved kindness?
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Iamallcool
Everyone has to make their own choices for themselves. Nothing you can do about it. It is their decision whether to leave the mind controlled cult or not.
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SAHS
I’ve heard people on the platform relate how people have replied to the question of brainwashing that they thought their brains need a good washing.
I think that it’s not so much mental laziness as it is a need to cope with an intrinsic sense of insecurity. It’s a sort of placebo effect in that people have a sense of calm and optimism when they believe that they are in the hands of a good doctor, psychiatrist, faith healer, or “religious practitioner” such as an evangelistic ministry or a quasi-religious movement such as the Watchtower. They can thereby allow themselves to come under their “care,” trusting that at least someone is competent enough to sort of “do the driving” for them and lead them to security, stability, prosperity, and perhaps ultimate salvation.
It’s sort of like how I like to put my trust in taking a daily multivitamin like “Centrum” – I trust that it has a sufficiently balanced proportion of essential vitamins and elements which has a reasonable efficacy to my health. I don’t want to bother taking a bunch of separate supplements or herbal remedies; I just trust that whatever is in each of those Centrum tablets is what it should be – I just trust the men in the white lab coats to figure it out for me. . . . But, unlike a bunch of disingenuous knuckleheads like the Governing Body, I know that those men in white lab coats in the pharmaceutical industry know what they’re doing.
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Fernando
I suppose we are all vulnerable to rationalising that the end justifies the means.
Now all that remains is a control freak person or organisation to deceive us into accepting the appealing picture they paint of the end goal.
Our fear of death has been exploited in this manner for thousands of years.
In particular by means of the perniciously false teaching of "organisational salvation" dispensed by a supposedly indispensable and legitimate "ruling religious clergy class" (Pharisees and Sanhedrin).
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blondie
*** w73 3/15 pp. 186-187 par. 27 Be a Vessel for Honorable Use ***
A musician who had lived the unreal life on drugs began studying the Bible with Jehovah’s witnesses. His associates ridiculed him, taunting: “You’re being brainwashed.” He aptly replied: “The shape our brains are in, they need a good washing.”
*** w56 6/15 p. 360 Getting and Giving the Thoughts of God ***
Why be tricked by crafty men into adopting their thoughts, especially when those men have themselves been snared by Satan and pumped full of his poisonous subtleties and like ventriloquists’ dummies chatter them out under his unseen direction? Why allow yourself to be brainwashed by dupes oblivious to their own mental bondage? The brains of millions need a washing, but not with the political or religious propagandas of this system of things under Satan. Rather, everyone needs regular cleansings “with the bath of water by means of the word” of Jehovah God, to get his thoughts instead of man’s or Satan’s. Then all will rest content in the highest possible wisdom: “The wisdom from above is first of all chaste, then peaceable, reasonable, ready to obey, full of mercy and good fruits, not making partial distinctions, not hypocritical.”—Eph. 5:26; Jas. 3:17, NW.
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ShirleyW
I used to tell my mother she was brainwashed by the Borg and she would say "oh, thank you". . . .ugh !!!!
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nonjwspouse
Yes I have heard that the brainwashing means the brain was cleansed from the bad thinkiing.
it is a no win situation when dealing with a truely braninwashed cult member.
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NewYork44M
I never like to refute the beliefs of another. Some need to live a lie, and refuting the lie creates a strong responsibility on my part. I don't want that responsibility for another person's belief system.