Learned helplessness

Learned helplessness  (dumbing down,  deception,  conditioning)
Techniques applicable to running a deep state

Learned helplessness is a psychological process whereby people internalise their inability to help themselves.

School

John Taylor Gatto used to recount how he was impressed by the owner of a flea circus, who explained what he referred to as the "trapped flea principle". Fleas trapped under a glass lid would try to jump out, but hit themselves on the lid. After a certain experience of trying to escape, they would eventually resign themselves to theeir incarceration and give up their painful attempts to gain freedom, even after the removal of the lid. Gatto used this as a metaphor for the schooling process, likening school discipline as the lid. He reported that it took 2-3 years to break most kids' wills to resist the system of mass compulsion schooling.

Origin

The term dates back to (rather cruel) experiments with dogs by Pavlov. When pain was unpredictable (unpredictability was the key property of the experiments) and externally imposed after a prolonged period of time, the dogs would not attempt to flee, even if a escape gateway was readily visible and available to them.

As with many extreme case studies the concept has been translated to a dimensional paradigm of undue influence of humans, i.e. in schooling, the military, lock downs, and numerous other scenarios where stress or punishment can be imposed in unpredictable time frames or by changing rules, when the subject has no or little influence on the process.

 

An example

Page name	Description
Permanent war/Mentality	A form of paranoia associated with high stress and aggression, low empathy.

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author
George Carlin	“Where would we be without our safe, familiar, American bullshit? "Land of the Free," "Home of the Brave," "The American Dream," "All men are equal," "Justice is blind," "The Press is free," "Your vote counts," "Business is honest," "The good guys win," "The police are on your side," "God is watching you," "Your standard of living will never decline" and "Everything is going to be just fine:" the official national bullshit story. I call it the American Okie Doke. Every one, every one of those items is provably untrue at one level or another, but we believe them because they’re pounded into our heads from the time we’re children. That's what they do with that kind of thing—pound it into the heads of kids, 'cause they know the children are much too young to be able to muster an intellectual defense against a sophisticated idea like that, and they know that, up to a certain age, children believe everything their parents tell them. And as a result, they never learn to question things. Nobody questions things in this country anymore.”	George Carlin

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References

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