Indoctrination and brainwashing in Israel and Zionism

This is a key part of my chapter on indoctrination and brainwashing in Israeli society

Aside from a few changes and additions, I only wrote the Summary here, not the introductory sections:

Challenging belief sets and inherent attitudes

Cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is a psychological concept that refers to the mental discomfort experienced by a person who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or ideas at the same time. This discomfort often leads to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance.

For example, for a relatively trivial example, if someone claims and believes that they are environmentally conscious, but frequently uses single-use plastics, they might experience a form of cognitive dissonance. To alleviate this discomfort, they may change their behaviour by reducing plastic use, or they might adjust their belief by convincing themselves that their own individual actions don't significantly impact the environment.

Cognitive dissonance was first introduced by psychologist Leon Festinger in 1957. He suggested that people have an inherent desire to maintain consistency among their cognitions (beliefs, attitudes, etc.). When inconsistency arises, it creates psychological tension, motivating individuals to reduce the dissonance through various means, such as changing their beliefs, acquiring new information that outweighs the dissonant beliefs, or inappropriately rejecting the dissonant belief as irrational or illogical even when it wholly or largely true, or simply reducing the importance of the conflicting belief. It helps explain partly how people rationalise their decisions and behaviors.

Black and white thinking

'Black and white thinking' is nothing to do with racism in itself. It is commonly referred to as **"splitting"** in north america,) or **"dichotomous thinking,"** mostly in the UK and Europe.

It is a cognitive distortion where a person views situations, people, or concepts in absolute terms, such as all good or all bad, with no middle ground or nuance.

This type of thinking is often associated with certain mental health conditions, such as **borderline personality disorder (BPD)**, but it can also occur in everyday thinking patterns. It can lead to rigid, extreme perspectives and difficulty in seeing complexity or grey areas in life.

That is not to say that sometimes issues are indeed 'black and white.'

Brainwashing and indoctrination

Brainwashing and indoctrination are related concepts but differ in their methods, intensity, and intent. Here's a breakdown of their differences:

### **Brainwashing**

- **Definition**:

Brainwashing is a process of forcibly and systematically altering someone's beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors, often against their will.

- **Methods**:

It typically involves extreme psychological manipulation, coercion, isolation, and sometimes physical or emotional abuse. The goal is to break down an individual's existing beliefs and replace them with new ones.

- **Context**:

Brainwashing is often associated with captivity, cults, or authoritarian regimes where the victim has little to no control over their environment.

- **Intent**:

The intent is usually to completely control the individual's thoughts and actions, often for the benefit of the manipulator or group.

- **Example**:

Prisoners of war can sometimes be subjected to relentless propaganda, sleep deprivation, and psychological torture to change their loyalties. This is particularly true in Israeli prisons and detention centres.

### **Indoctrination**

- **Definition**:

Indoctrination is the process of teaching or instilling a specific set of beliefs, ideologies, or values, often in a one-sided or uncritical way.

- **Methods**:

It relies on repetition, education, persuasion, and social influence rather than coercion or force. It often occurs in environments like schools, religious institutions, or political groups.

- **Context**:

Indoctrination is typically a gradual process that happens over time, often starting in childhood or within a community.

- **Intent**:

The intent is to shape an individual's worldview or loyalty to a particular ideology, but it may not involve the same level of control or manipulation as brainwashing.

- **Example**:

Children being taught a specific religious or political ideology without exposure to alternative perspectives.

### **Key Differences**

1. **Volition**:

Brainwashing is usually involuntary and coercive, while indoctrination can occur with the individual's participation, even if they are unaware of the bias.

2. **Intensity**:

Brainwashing is more extreme and often involves breaking down the individual's identity, whereas indoctrination is more about shaping beliefs.

3. **Control**:

Brainwashing seeks total control over the individual, while indoctrination aims to influence their thinking.

Summary

In summary then, brainwashing is a more aggressive and manipulative process, while indoctrination is generally a subtler, often institutionalized form of influencing beliefs.

In other words, the subjects of indoctrination are generally unaware that they are being gradually indoctrinated (a form of gaslighting, if there are lies or distortion of the truth involved.)

Therefore, Israeli society, and particularly secular and religious Zionism, are nearly always highly vulnerable to extreme examples of indoctrination, elements of brainwashing, and black and white thinking's inherent bias and polarisation.

The very strong religious and secular nationalistic element of Israeli society, means that the majority of Israelis will struggle to challenge their inherited belief set and inherent attitudes. They will be unlikely to realise that much of what they were taught (and expected to fully accept, almost without question,) particularly about Palestinians and Islam, is, in fact, either not true, or a distortion of the truth.

Peer pressure, plus living in a centrist or right-wing Zionist bubble greatly reduces the chance of Israelis changing their belief set and attitudes. Even with left-wing Zionists (whatever that really means,) the problem is not that different, albeit slightly easier.

When you add to most Israelis irrational state of mind in constantly living in existential fear, to wit, their largely unfounded paranoia of a complete genocide, destruction, or constant attacks on their country.

These facts alone make it very difficult for Israelis, particularly Zionists, to open their eyes to an alternative narrative but, unfortunately, there is an even worse problem to overcome:

The problem is that Israel is a strongly nationalistic, highly militarised State. This State enforces compulsory military service in their I.D.F. or I.A.F. (Israeli Air Force,) for all of their younger citizens, with rare exceptions. They are mandated to serve at least two or three years in the Israeli military. Refusal to become a part in these military units, even on grounds of conscientious objection, is usually punishable by imprisonment.

On top of this, there is quite extreme censorship and inherent political bias in Israel, particularly in Israeli media.

Ex-Zionists, particularly those living in, or from, Israel, are therefore a very special breed of Israelis and/or Jews. Whilst they may never fully recover from their indoctrination and brainwashing, they can slowly - and occasionally quite quickly - change a lot of their belief set and attitudes. This is especially true when otherwise logical, intelligent Zionists are presented with clear facts and evidence, which they can go away and fact check to verify whether it is true or not.

The difficulties of recovering from indoctrination and brainwashing is common in every single cult, religion and religious sect in the world. Indeed, it is even transparently evident in politics. It is not just a problem for Israelis and Zionists.

However, the cult of Zionism - and it is indisputably a quite extremist cult - is so closely intertwined with Israeli society, education, family tradition and Judaism, that it is akin to separating twenty cables and wires which have been repeatedly moved around and put in a storage box. The difference being, of course, that this storage box is the human brain, and the cables and wires are actually entrenched beliefs, and ways of thinking, often impressed deeply in the mind, usually from a very young age.