This is a quote from the beginning of "The Second Foundation". The Mule, who can control men's minds, is having a conversation with Pritcher, a man that was once an enemy of the Mule but is now converted into a loyal follower of the Mule by the Mule's mind control powers. The mule is trying to find the Second Foundation and is sending out an unconverted person to scour space for this Foundation. The Mule needs Pritcher to go along and watch this unconverted man to prevent him from going against the Mule.
"'No, I imagine not. But he's got an agile mind[the unconverted man], he's ambitious-and he's not Converted.'"
Pritcher's long jaw trembled for a bare instant, "I fail to see the advantage in that.'"
"'There is one, Pritcher. You're a resourceful and experienced man. You have given me good service,. But you are Converted. Your motivation is simply an enforced and helpless loyalty to myself. When you lost you native motivations, you lost something, some subtle drive, that I cannot possibly replace.'"
"'I don't feel that, sir, '" said Pritcher, grimly. "'I recall myself quite well as I was in the days when I was an enemy of yours. I feel none the inferior.'"
"'Naturally not,'" and the Mule's mouth twitched into a smile. "'Your judgment in this mater is scarcely objective.'" [The Mule goes on to state that the unconverted man has full use of his mind and has initiative.] "'Then'", said Pritcher, still insistent, "'why not remove my own Conversion, if you think that will improve me. I can scarcely be mistrusted, now.'" "'That never, Pritcher. While you are within arm's reach, or blaster reach, of myself, you will remain firmly held in Conversion. If I were to release you this minute, I would be dead the next'"
The general's nostrils flared. "'I am hurt that you should think so.'"
"'I don't mean to hurt you, but it is impossible for you to realize what your feelings would be if free to form themselves along the lines of your natural motivation. The human mind resents control. The ordinary human hypnotist cannot hypnotize a person against his will for that reason. I can, because I'm not a hypnotist, and, believe me, Pritcher, the resentment that you cannot show and do not even know you possess is something I wouldn't want to face.'"
Pritcher's head bowed. Futility wrenched him and left him gray and haggard inside.'"
This very real mind control has the very same effect that this fictitious Mule has Pritcher.
This is a observation that I made while having a discussion where I ended up being, somewhat, jokingly called a racist. (Having a racial preference for a future wife is also racist.) In the conversation, I referred to Koreans and Japanese people as all Chinese. This is racist to group these people together and refer to them as the same thing. Historically, Japanese and Koreans developed from the Chinese culture. To group these people together in our minds based on similar characteristics: from the perspective of an outsider to these cultures these people all look very similar; have similar writing systems; similar religions; hear one of these people speaking in their native tongue, see famous landmarks or their countries and look at their books, one would not be able to distinguish these cultures apart unless one were educated about these cultures. It would also be racist to be walking down the street at night and become more alert when one sees a black male walking with a hoody on. This would be prejudice--or to pre judge a situation or something. The fact is that people do put people's into groups. This becomes a problem for the person doing the stereotyping when their previous beliefs interfere with their ability to judge the person as a individual when they actually come into contact with that person. Although this is the process by which the human mind develops and functions, grouping things based on their similarities in our minds is racist and not to be done: in other words, don't think.
Grouping, or putting things into groups based on their similarities is fundamental to how the human mind develops and works, "When a child observes that two objects (which he will later learn to designate a 'tables') resemble each other, but are different from four other objects ('chairs'), his mind is focusing on a particular attribute of the objects (their shape), then isolating them according to their differences, and integrating them as units into separate groups according to their similarities. [...] The ability to regard entities as units is man's distinctive method of cognition..." This is the same process that a person, maybe uneducated about the different people's of the world, uses to distinguish these various peoples: one groups these people together based on their similar characteristics. When one sees a person or object, their mind groups them into categories based on the characteristics of that person. The normal functioning of your mind is racist.
"Fox News host Greta Van Susteren is apologizing for 'a doozy of a mistake' made on her show Monday when a picture of Shirley Sherrod was used to illustrate a segment on Rep. Maxine Waters, the Huffington Post reports." This somewhat illustrates this topic. I bet Greta and Fox News will be labeled racist before long. The fact is that all people of a different race than the one you belong to do all look very similar. Well why is this racist? Why is the normal functioning of the human mind racist?
This thought control has the effect of stupefying a people, preventing them from thinking, and suppressing thought and action.
After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.
This post does not go into great detail into how the human mind functions, so the point that political correctness and the labels racist and prejudice is a form of mind control will seem a hyperbole to most; but if one reads about the functioning of the human mind and how it develops, this will not seem such an exaggeration. A good book for this topic is Ayn Rand's "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology" or any other book on the topic. If humans lived in the ocean like a fish, would they realize that they are wet? Or in a simpler form, does a fish know that it is wet? Do people realize that their thoughts and minds are being controlled in a subtle way? How many times have you had to not voice what you were really thinking for fear of being labeled something? Do people realize the fact that most are enslaved to the system of credit? Do we realize that our economic system is not capitalist? Taking early America as a base by which to judge the level of freedoms we have, how free are we? Thinking is becoming a dangerous thing to do. Who ever invented this method of mind control deserves a lot of respect for their genius, although maybe in a bad way.
