The need for indoctrination during the pandemic

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December 28, 2021

Subject: Society & Culture The spread of infection increases and more restrictions are reintroduced. It takes a kind of benign manipulation for people to want to follow the authorities’ guidelines, says researcher Johan Dahlbeck, who is based on the ideas of the 17th century philosopher Spinoza.

Indoctrination has not always had a one-sided negative meaning. Johan Dahlbeck, associate professor of pedagogy, twists and turns the concept in a new book about the 17th century philosopher Benedict de Spinoza,

Spinoza – Fiction and Manipulation in Civic Education.
. How do authorities make people want to follow the guidelines and recommendations that follow for increased infection in society? Not just by rational arguments anyway, Spinoza would have answered. – Spinoza argued that a realistic political philosophy must be based on the realization that people are largely guided by their passions, that we are more emotionally driven than we tend to be. to want to believe, says Johan Dahlbeck. Education through indoctrination

Spinoza’s way of thinking was radical, and still is today, according to Johan Dahlbeck who has been interested in the philosopher’s world of thought ever since his dissertation almost ten years ago. – Unlike thinkers like Plato and Descartes, he does not make a sharp division between body and world of thought. Nor are there any higher powers to rely on, but man is the smith of his own success. However, she is dependent on others for a long-term sustainable existence. But the critical thinking understood as an inherent and objective ability is thus largely an illusion, Spinoza claims.

– As a citizen of democratic countries we are encouraged to think critically, but the fact is that we are constantly manipulated and influenced by external circumstances. It is about both written and unwritten rules that we are supposed to follow and that we teach our children to adapt to. We are brought up in society through a form of indoctrination, we just do not see it that way, says Johan Dahlbeck. Play on people’s emotions During the pandemic, the countries of the world have used various methods to reduce the spread of infection. Everything has happened through a kind of indoctrination of the citizens, according to Spinoza’s way of seeing it. For him, it is a neutral tool that can be used for either good or evil purposes. And the key to successful community building is to play on people’s emotions, but in the right way. Namely by finding common stories that strengthen the will to cooperate as opposed to creating division, mistrust and suspicion. – Political leaders can either frighten people or make them want to protect each other and indirectly themselves. The latter is more difficult but also, according to Spinoza, more long-term successful, says Johan Dahlbeck. Indoctrination to pull in the same direction Spinoza opposes not rational thinking. He simply wants us to relate to the ability of emotions to control us. And this is relevant not least at a time when many issues, such as the pandemic fight, are strongly polarized, says Johan Dahlbeck. – Those who join the anti-vaccine movement and those who follow government recommendations would probably both claim that they think critically. Using rational arguments to reach them then becomes almost impossible. Instead, it is about speaking to emotions, a kind of benign indoctrination, which can make people unite and pull in the same direction.