Indoctrination
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Indoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology. It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned. As such it is used pejoratively. Instruction in the basic principles of science, in particular, can not properly be called indoctrination, in the sense that the fundamental principles of science call for critical self-evaluation and sceptical scrutiny of one's own ideas.
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[edit] Military indoctrination
The initial psychological preparation of soldiers during training is referred to (non-pejoratively) as indoctrination. See Recruit training.
[edit] Information security
In the field of information security, indoctrination is the initial briefing and instructions given before a person is granted access to secret information. [1]
[edit] Criticism
Noam Chomsky remarks, "For those who stubbornly seek freedom, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the system of 'brainwashing under freedom' to which we are subjected and which all too often we serve as willing or unwitting instruments."[2]
Robert Jay Lifton argues[3] that the objective of phrases or slogans like "blood for oil," or "cut and run," is not to continue reflective conversations but to replace them with emotionally appealing phrases. This technique is called the thought-terminating cliché.
[edit] References
- ^ The National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual defines indoctrination as "the initial security instructions/briefing given a person prior to granting access to classified information."
- ^ Chomsky, Noam. "Propdaganda, American Style". http://www.zpub.com/un/chomsky.html. Retrieved on 2007-06-29.
- ^ Lifton, Robert Jay (1989). Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 524. ISBN 0-8078-4253-2.
[edit] See also
- Behavior modification
- Brainwashing
- Manipulation
- Propaganda
- Recruit training
- Religious indoctrination
- Self-deception
- Socialization
[edit] External links
- Students for Academic Freedom
- Habermas and the Problem of Indoctrination Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Education
