First, let’s get disagreements about values out of the way: I hate the term “brainwashing” since it’s virtually indistinguishable from “teaching”, the only difference being the intent of the speaker (we’re teaching our kids liberal democratic values while the other tribe is brainwashing their kids with Marxism). But to the extent “brainwashing” has a useful definition at all, creating “a population who will perpetuate the state” would be it. In my view, if our civilization can’t survive without tormenting children with years upon years of conditioning, it probably shouldn’t.
Second, I’m very skeptical about this model of a self-perpetuating society. So “they” teach us literature and history? Who’s “they”? Group selectionism doesn’t work; there is no reason to assume that memes good at perpetuating themselves would also be good at perpetuating the civilization they find themselves in. I think it’s likely that people in charge of framing the school curriculum are biased towards holding those subjects in high regard that they’ve been taught in school themselves (sunken cost fallacy, prestige signaling), thus becoming vehicles for meme spread. I don’t see any incentive for any education board member to stop, think and analyze what will perpetuate the government they’re a part of.
I also very much doubt the efficacy of such education/brainwashing at manipulating citizens into perpetuating the state. In my experience, reverse psychology and tribalism are much better methods for this purpose than straightforward indoctrination, particularly with people in their rebellious youth. The classroom, frequently associated with boredom and monotony, is among the worst environments to apply these methods. There is no faster way to create an atheist out of a child than sending him through mandatory Bible study classes; and no faster way to create a libertarian than to make him memorize Das Kapital.
Lastly, the bulk of today’s actual school curriculum is neutral with respect to perpetuating our society—maths, physics, chemistry, biology, foreign languages, even most classical literature are apolitical. So even setting the issue of “civilizational propagation” aside, there is still enormous potential for optimization.
I disagree on multiple dimensions:
First, let’s get disagreements about values out of the way: I hate the term “brainwashing” since it’s virtually indistinguishable from “teaching”, the only difference being the intent of the speaker (we’re teaching our kids liberal democratic values while the other tribe is brainwashing their kids with Marxism). But to the extent “brainwashing” has a useful definition at all, creating “a population who will perpetuate the state” would be it. In my view, if our civilization can’t survive without tormenting children with years upon years of conditioning, it probably shouldn’t.
Second, I’m very skeptical about this model of a self-perpetuating society. So “they” teach us literature and history? Who’s “they”? Group selectionism doesn’t work; there is no reason to assume that memes good at perpetuating themselves would also be good at perpetuating the civilization they find themselves in. I think it’s likely that people in charge of framing the school curriculum are biased towards holding those subjects in high regard that they’ve been taught in school themselves (sunken cost fallacy, prestige signaling), thus becoming vehicles for meme spread. I don’t see any incentive for any education board member to stop, think and analyze what will perpetuate the government they’re a part of.
I also very much doubt the efficacy of such education/brainwashing at manipulating citizens into perpetuating the state. In my experience, reverse psychology and tribalism are much better methods for this purpose than straightforward indoctrination, particularly with people in their rebellious youth. The classroom, frequently associated with boredom and monotony, is among the worst environments to apply these methods. There is no faster way to create an atheist out of a child than sending him through mandatory Bible study classes; and no faster way to create a libertarian than to make him memorize Das Kapital.
Lastly, the bulk of today’s actual school curriculum is neutral with respect to perpetuating our society—maths, physics, chemistry, biology, foreign languages, even most classical literature are apolitical. So even setting the issue of “civilizational propagation” aside, there is still enormous potential for optimization.