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Meme 5 – Strength
For someone to reject the authority and control of a high demand group, they would have to show personal strength.
By linking personal strength to deference to authority (i.e. obedience) groups which exert undue influence over their members create an internal culture which allows and may even promote all forms of personal strength – except that strength which would enable a person to escape the system.
Members are encouraged to develop themselves, but only in ways which would promote deference to group authority.
They are placed in a bind where members are told to be strong, but strength which would liberate them from control is considered a weakness.
Meme 6 – Freedom is…
One of the problems that people who manipulate others encounter is that individuals are sensitive to the notion that they are being controlled.
In order to disguise the degree of control, the manipulator establishes a sort of doublethink narrative that equates absolute obedience to his demands with free agency.
This also serves to exonerate the manipulator from any accusation of taking advantage of people. When accused, they simply state that their followers voluntarily choose to obey.
Orwell described the concept and utility of doublethink in his novel 1984:
“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself – that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word ‘doublethink’ involved the use of doublethink.”
“The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them… To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just as long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.”
(Orwell, George (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, London, part 1, chapter 3, pp 32)
You can see the similarity to these messages when depicted as such:
North Korea could have employed this meme with great effect. That speaks volumes.
It can be so liberating to acknowledge that 2+2 does not, in fact, equal 5.
Meme 7 – Obedience
Groups which make God’s approval dependent upon obedience to the requirements of the leaders capitalize on the sincerity of faithful members. This primes the members to accept the dictates of the leaders.
By making obedience alone insufficient for God’s approval, the group sets up an even stronger system of control. This compels members to not only obey – but to obey without critically questioning the demands of the group. The goal is not simply obediece. Obedience is not enough.
More than obedience, the goal is to unify the mind and heart of the individual with that of the group and its leaders.
This theme was a central principle in George Orwells novel 1984.
When such a surrender of the individual is given, the leaders can then take whatever action they choose and the members are enjoined to not only accept it, but enthusiastically endorse it – even if it completely contradicts some prior stand.
This idea was so important in Orwells novel that the very moment which obedience to Big Brother ceased to be an irritant to the main protagonisit is the moment that the novel ends:
In order to overcome this pressure, an individual has to preserve and value their unique identity, even when – and especially when – it diverges from the groups imposed template of existence.
Meme 8 – Try Harder
This message of self-improvement coming from within, with a knowledge and acceptance of your personal limitations, is good and healthy.
This message coming from a self-proclaimed religious authority imposing external standard of arbitrary worthiness and a culture of sacrificing yourself to the group is toxic and imparts the message that you are not good enough, no matter how hard you try. That you could and should always be doing more, giving more, sacrificing more, and thinking about and caring for yourself less.
Such innocent appearing messages are the software that implements a culture that erodes individual self-worth.
Meme 9 – Design
By creating numerous expectations on all parts of the individuals life, groups which exert undue influence place their members in a perpetual state of never living up to expectations. This is usually done with a backdrop of a tacit or explicit demand for purity and conformity.
People who do not meet all the demands feel imperfect and struggle with their failure. Excessive time commitment to the group’s numerous meetings, lessons and activities also leaves the individual exhausted. This mental and physical exhaustion leaves the individual in want of relief.
Individuals are placed in a psychological bind when the organization tells them that by meeting the requirements of the organization they can be healed from the problems that arise from the demands of the organization. When the relief does not come – they are told that they need to work harder within the system to try to meet the requirements of the group so they can experience the promised healing.
Meme 10 – Uphill Battle
Groups that exert undue influence prepare their members with instructions on how to interpret the negative consequences of obedience to the leaders’ commands.
By telling members to interpret negative experiences as proof of legitimacy of the organization and it’s leaders, the group absolves itself of responsibility for the hurtful effects of unethical control, removes accountability for institutional missteps and silences legitimate criticism of hurtful policies and teachings.
Members are placed in a bind where they experience hurtful consequences as a result of group policy and teaching, and must accept that these negative experiences are proof of their legitimacy.
Meme 11 – Attractiveness
Groups that exert undue influence over their members will often use the relationships of family members as a means to bind individuals to the group.
By instructing members that their love or affection for their spouse should be conditional upon the spouse meeting the groups expectations of thought and behavior, the group uses that relationship as a lever of control. People then avoid contradicting leaders or withholding consent out of fear of losing family relationships.
If a spouse does start to break away from the hold of the group, the remaining faithful spouse has been preconditioned to see the doubter as less desirable. This introduces a dynamic into the relationship which would not exist outside of the control of the group when obedience to a third party becomes a requirement to spousal affection.
This meme also uses an appeal to divine authority to impose a specific template for existence and identity upon the members of the group – invalidating the individual worth of members who choose an unconventional path.
The implication of coupling attractiveness to fulfilling stereotypical gender roles instructs members on how to indirectly compel conformity – through the actual or threatened restriction on sexual access in the marriage relationship
It can be surprising to see how easily an organization which purports to promote the family will spread messages that erode the authentic relationships within a family.
Meme 12 – Bad Dad
Unethical coercive groups exploit familial relationships in order to coerce intergenerational group allegiance.
This meme creates a manipulative psychologic pressure by linking the individual worth of a parent to whether a child retains allegiance to the group.
This produces a pressure for indoctrination in the parents of young children as well as presenting a source of individual anxiety and loss of self-worth for members whose children have chosen to break free from the group.
Conclusion
If you have a meme that you would like to submit for translation, feel free to post in the comments or submit in facebook. If you have an alternate translation that you would like to suggest, then post it in the comments here or on the individual page for that meme in facebook.
till next time
