Meerloo explains menticide

With great relevance to today

I had previously written a little about menticide HERE and included a short quote from Meerloo on the topic. But I did not do him, or the topic, justice.

To amend, I’d like to just quote two paragraphs from Meerloo which, you will see, are directly relevant and so poignant to our current situation.

Menticide is an old crime against the human mind and spirit but systematized anew. It is an organized system of psychological intervention and judicial perversion through which a powerful dictator can imprint his own opportunist thoughts upon the mins of those he plans to use and destroy. The terrorized victims finally find themselves compelled to express complete conformity to the tyrant’s wishes. Through court procedures, at which the victim mechanically reels off an inner record which has been prepared by his inquisitors during a preceding period, public opinion is lulled and thrown off guard. “A real traitor has been punished,” people think. “the man has confessed!” His confession can be used for propaganda, for the cold war, to instill fear and terror, to accuse the enemy falsely, or to exercise a constant mental pressure upon others.

One important result of this procedure is the great confusion it creates in the mind of every observer, friend or foe. In the end no one knows how to distinguish truth from falsehood. The totalitarian potentate, in order to break down the minds of men, first needs widespread mental chaos and verbal confusion, because both paralyze his opposition and cause the morale of the enemy to deteriorate - unless his adversaries are aware of the dictator’s real aim. From then on he can start to build up his system of conformity. (Meerloo, 2016, p. 28)

Although first published in 1956, what Meerloo is expressing here sounds so contemporary to me. Our conditions may be different to those under fascists or communists of the early 20th Century but it seems the techniques of psychological control are not. And why should they be different? We are, after all, still human. It is to the very core of our humanity that these psychological techniques target, while social/cultural differences are but a veneer.

If we replace the example of rigged court procedures, where a victim ‘confesses’ and criminalises himself, with health officials who “mechanically reels off an inner record which has been prepared,” to preserve their reputation and career¹. Then we have a closer exposé of the current political game. Given, there is no Hitler or Stalin at the helm, but rather a global technocratic oligarchy. Nevertheless I’m sure you can see the point and I won’t tease it out further.

The important thing to point out is the phrase “- unless his adversaries are aware of the dictator’s real aim.” Awareness is everything here. To know what the oligarchy is up to and not subscribe to the “widespread mental chaos and verbal confusion,” is the key. We need to keep our heads, as it were, and realise what is going on and with great mental effort avoid the mass psychosis.

Meerloo, J. A. M. (2016). The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing. Progressive Press.com. San Diego, CA. (first published in 1956)

1. And we might also include the nurse who is forced to comply to vaccine mandates to keep her job or the school kid who is pressured by the ‘court’ of peers and influencers, or any number of other situations where someone is coerced “to express complete conformity to the tyrant’s wishes.”