Menticide

Imprinting upon fearful minds

I want to remind you of this fantastic word menticide which was introduced to me by Joost Meerloo in his book The Rape of the Mind. Not for mere appreciation of the weighty concept but for the incredible salience this word has for us right now…

menticide (ˈmɛntɪˌsaɪd)

(noun) the destruction or undermining of a person's mental independence in order to alter his or her beliefs.

Brainwashing had a more 'flesh-and-blood' quality than a more clinical alternative, 'menticide,' which means murder of the mind.

Collins English Dictionary.

The beginning of menticide is a state of diffuse and pervasive fear. Strong negative emotions of anxiety and fear, coupled with contradictions and confusion, prime the mind to seek emotional (not necessarily logical) relief. A power-hungry ruling class, intent on dominating a society, have the best success when they can manipulate the collective feelings of the people in a certain way - a way of death to logic and reason - a way of menticide.

“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 [ruling class] can imprint [their] own opportunistic thoughts upon the minds of those [they] plan to use and destroy.”

Joost Meerloo, The Rape of the Mind

When individuals are isolated, cut off from any connection or dialogue or alternative narrative to the one being offered by the ruling class, they are vulnerable. Under the constant deluge of propaganda by a rising totalitarian leadership, the individual has little counter-narrative and positive reinforcement of reason they would normally have in a previously well connected society. “Don’t talk to neighbors.” “Don’t meet in public, or private, or anywhere.” “Don’t say anything contrary on social media.” The lack of connection and the constant new narrative conditions the brain to think in a new way, a less rational way, it’s under menticidal attack.

Let me remind you of this insane blast from the past (lest we forget)…

The mind, under such menticide, is less capable of rational, critical thought and more easily accepts what would have been unacceptable in the past. Authoritarian leaders can pass sweeping changes that destroy liberty and be praised for “reasonable” mandates.

Once again, let me remind you of some of the past madness (Skip to the 3:24 mark)…

Covid was in some ways the culmination of a long menticidal program, but it seems also to be the beginning of an accelerated menticidation (not sure if that’s an actual word, but you know what I mean) of the global population - “pandemic + climate” catostrophic phenomenon to murder logic and reason…

This Daily Mail piece takes the health crisis and climate change crisis to new heights by addition. “While the UK and US are only just out of the 'pandemic phase' for Covid-19, scientists are already looking ahead to the next global health crisis – and say it could be sparked by a microbe locked in a Tibetan glacier… The release of potentially hazardous bacteria could affect the two most populated countries in the world: China and India.”

That’s right! Killer microbes being unleashed from glaciers gives us double the reason to lock down, be glad there aren’t as many cows around anymore, ditch the car, and worship Big Pharma for saving us from the climate virus natural world.

Our society needs those who will be free from the mass psychosis and demonstrate a better way. Thankfully we are a community of such people who have escaped the menticide of the 21st Century.

“It is not for nothing that our age cries out for the redeemer personality, for the one who can emancipate himself from the grip of the collective [psychosis] and save at least his own soul, who lights a beacon of hope for others, proclaiming that here is at least one man who has succeeded in extricating himself from the fatal identity with the group psyche.”

Carl Jung, Civilization in Transition