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In 1956, the German-Jewish philosopher Günther Anders wrote this foresight: "To suppress a possible uprising beforehand, it is important not to use violence. Archaic methods such as Hitler's are clearly obsolete. It is enough to create a collective conditioning so powerful that the idea of insurrection does not even occur to people. The ideal would be to format individuals from birth by limiting their innate biological abilities… The conditioning would then be continued by drastically lowering the level and quality of education, into a form of vocational integration. An uneducated individual has only a limited thinking horizon and the more his thinking is limited to material, mediocre concerns, the less he can rebel. It must be ensured that access to knowledge becomes increasingly difficult and elitist, that the gap between the people and science widens, that information intended for the general public is stripped of any subversive content. Especially not philosophy. Again, we must use persuasion and not direct violence: we will broadcast, en masse, on television, mind-numbing entertainment, always flattering the emotional, the instinctive. The mind will be preoccupied with what is meaningless and playful. It is good to prevent the mind from questioning, thinking and reflecting with incessant chatter and music. Sexuality is placed at the forefront of human interests. There is nothing better than a social anaesthetic. In general, the seriousness of life will be banned, everything of high value will be ridiculed, a constant excuse for lightness will be maintained, so that the euphoria of advertising and consumption will become the norm of human happiness and the model of freedom . Thus, the conditioning will bring about such an integration that the only fear (which must be maintained) will be that of exclusion from the system and thus of deprivation of access to the material conditions necessary for happiness. The masses thus produced must be treated as what they are: a product, a calf, and they must be controlled as a herd should be. Anything that can numb his lucidity, his critical mind, is socially good; anything that might arouse it must be fought, ridiculed, suffocated. Any doctrine that challenges the system must first be labeled as subversive and terrorist and those who support it must then be treated as such.
Günther Anders, "The Obsolescence of Humankind" 1956
( перевод на русский )
