It has been clear for years that the UK Nudge Unit is only one aspect of official attempts to mould public behaviour via behavioural psychology. Even at the time of it’s formation, the basic idea of moulding behaviour via this kind of mass therapy cannot have been new to many senior officials. Nor to many international bureaucrats.
For example, Klaus Schwab founded the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 1971, the same year that American psychologist B. F. Skinner published his book Beyond Freedom and Dignity.
Beyond Freedom and Dignity is a 1971 book by American psychologist B. F. Skinner. Skinner argues that entrenched belief in free will and the moral autonomy of the individual (which Skinner referred to as "dignity") hinders the prospect of using scientific methods to modify behavior for the purpose of building a happier and better-organized society.
A few decades later we have the notorious "You'll own nothing and be happy”, also associated with the WEF via its originator Ida Auken.
"You'll own nothing and you'll be happy" (alternatively "you'll own nothing and be happy") is a phrase originating in a 2016 video by the World Economic Forum (WEF), summarising an essay written by Danish politician Ida Auken. The phrase has been used by critics who accuse the WEF of desiring restrictions on ownership of private property.
There are numerous indications that influential people in the developed world have similar views on the general direction of modern government. That direction is relentlessly top-down because a government rationale based on moulding public behaviour cannot be anything but top-down.
Like hordes of amateur psychologists let loose in a humongous asylum, officials and major political actors do not require input from the inmates – or voters as we used to call them. Democracy has faded into the pages of history, to be replaced by weird totalitarian therapy.
6 comments:
There are two ways of dividing the people of the world - no, wait - there are two extreme positions for dividing the people of the world:-
(1) The individual, rugged and self sufficient, naturally
(2) The collective, ordered and tidy, ideally
On one hand you have the left wing activists trying to remove individuality so that we may all march forward, arm in arm, to Utopia. On the other hand you have supranational bodies trying to remove statehood so that we may all march forward, arm in arm, to Utopia. I detect a theme.
Meanwhile humans tend to live in small groups of family or clan, often puzzled by the hysteria of their (alleged) betters.
An American blogger has come up with a brilliant scheme for changing the direction of American government. I heartily recommend his piece.
https://www.oftwominds.com/blogoct23/Taylor-Swift-president10-23.html
DJ - I detect a theme too. It would be very interesting to gain some insight into the number of people who are generally sceptical about the march towards Utopia. Many online comments suggest the number could be surprisingly large, but that may be deceptive. Conditioning does work.
dearieme - I know very little about Ms Swift, but she wouldn't find it easy to be be worse than Biden. The blogger is right though when he writes - "there is no upside--none--to accepting public office." For successful people that seems to be the case, we don't get the best.
It's worth remembering that the most successful 'nudge units' are commercial advertising agencies.
I wonder what connection there is between the "Nudge Unit" and the BBC - whether they have formal meetings and have exchanged ideas, or whether there is merely a loose happy coincidence between their overall aims. Only history will tell, I guess...
Vatsmith - they are and commercial success seems to be the major reason why governments think they can sell policies in a similar way.
Sam - I'm sure there is a connection, at least socially because at least some senior BBC people are bound to be interested in the mass moulding of behaviour. They want a world in which millions of people would become anxious about mass media with no BBC.
Post a Comment