“Free the Springfield 2 Marge, free the Springfield 2!”

In the previous 3 posts in this series I talked about brainwashing and indoctrination in

(1) Religion:

(a) Religion as Undue Influence (kiosk article)

(b) Religion And Brainwashing

(2) Sexuality:

(2/2) Brainwashing and Indoctrination in Culture and Sexuality

But if we are ethically compelled, as Foucault said, to battle fascisms both in society and in ourselves, what does such a process look like?

For instance, we know female breasts are experienced as sexual by many males, even though this is not an objective feature of them since gay men don’t experience them as sexual. Moreover,

• “In African tribal societies breasts are not considered sexual organs and women carry on topless without a care in the world. (Koraly Dimitriadis, Why can’t women take their tops off in public?)

One of the most important continental philosophers of the 20th century, Gilles Deleuze (along with psychologist Felix Guattari) talked about how we can uncouple energies from their traditional objects (either at a psychological individual level or a social psychology societal one) because there is nothing in the production of the energy itself by the machinic unconscious that demands an object in its particularity. For instance, this is true in society such as with the traditional ways fascist regimes energize and indoctrinate their base, since this success does not reflect objective characteristics of societies in general, and so the mindset that causes a society to passionately believe in and vote in a fascist regime can be analyzed and overcome. A political passion for Vladimir Putin can feel very real to the individual who loves him, but this can be overcome and countered by the reality of Putin in all his monstrosity. Passion for fascists cause the individual or group to will their own repression, and so in this we see the hint of a thread of personal and social rights and freedoms that can begin to unravel the fascist sweater: