Many decades ago, I worked for a while in one of the old Victorian lunatic asylums in England. They were by then called ‘long-stay mental hospitals’ and the patients were all highly institutionalized, conditioned by years of dull routine to an existence of passive compliance. Psychotropic medications helped, and if a patient displayed some reluctance to follow routine, the usual response was to instigate a short program of behavioral conditioning. It was all designed to be very humane. The days of violent confrontations were largely in the past, and the dreaded glass syringe containing paraldehyde was becoming only a memory, as were the straitjackets and the padded cells. But we still wore white coats and walked the wards as if monitoring for any signs of deviance, and the psychiatrist’s verdict was final.
What is happening today in the West increasingly reminds me of what I saw in that long-stay mental hospital many decades ago, but is less humane. Today, when a person displays signs of deviating from political correctness, the cultural overseers leap into action and denounce the behavior and the culprit, whose guilt is incontestable. If confession, contrition, and penance are not instantly forthcoming, the only sentence is to be declared a ‘far-right bigot’, with the likely result that the mainstream news media will then pick up the story and try to ruin what is left of the pitiful target's life. Only the most courageous and resourceful will stand fast to their values and principles and defy the modern Maoist cultural revolutionaries of the radical progressive liberal-Left. The task of enforcement by the latter is, however, made considerably easier by the almost ubiquitous smartphone, which makes social conditioning extremely easy.
The smartphone functions as a virtual Skinner box. The original Skinner box was constructed of clear perspex inside which a hungry pigeon pecked at a lever. A reward of grain was delivered only for the desired behavior. Today the box is virtual, as humans tap the keys of their smartphones. Usage of social media from these smartphones appears to be highly addictive, and can turn even previously well-adjusted people into obsessive narcissists who crave ‘likes’ and will leap onto any bandwagon in an attempt to increase their virtual popularity.
Many decades ago, I worked for a while in one of the old Victorian lunatic asylums in England. They were by then called ‘long-stay mental hospitals’ and the patients were all highly institutionalized, conditioned by years of dull routine to an existence of passive compliance. Psychotropic medications helped, and if a patient displayed some reluctance to follow routine, the usual response was to instigate a short program of behavioral conditioning. It was all designed to be very humane. The days of violent confrontations were largely in the past, and the dreaded glass syringe containing paraldehyde was becoming only a memory, as were the straitjackets and the padded cells. But we still wore white coats and walked the wards as if monitoring for any signs of deviance, and the psychiatrist’s verdict was final.
What is happening today in the West increasingly reminds me of what I saw in that long-stay mental hospital many decades ago, but is less humane. Today, when a person displays signs of deviating from political correctness, the cultural overseers leap into action and denounce the behavior and the culprit, whose guilt is incontestable. If confession, contrition, and penance are not instantly forthcoming, the only sentence is to be declared a ‘far-right bigot’, with the likely result that the mainstream news media will then pick up the story and try to ruin what is left of the pitiful target's life. Only the most courageous and resourceful will stand fast to their values and principles and defy the modern Maoist cultural revolutionaries of the radical progressive liberal-Left. The task of enforcement by the latter is, however, made considerably easier by the almost ubiquitous smartphone, which makes social conditioning extremely easy.
The smartphone functions as a virtual Skinner box. The original Skinner box was constructed of clear perspex inside which a hungry pigeon pecked at a lever. A reward of grain was delivered only for the desired behavior. Today the box is virtual, as humans tap the keys of their smartphones. Usage of social media from these smartphones appears to be highly addictive, and can turn even previously well-adjusted people into obsessive narcissists who crave ‘likes’ and will leap onto any bandwagon in an attempt to increase their virtual popularity.
