Published in mirassiran fall issue 2007

INDOCTRINATION VERSES SELF-ACTIVATION

M.K.SADIGH

The first one signifies the conditioned mindsets, which formed into some fixed intellectual structures and bound to follow certain paradigms. To instruct in a body of doctrine or principles, to initiate by means of doctrinal instruction, to imbue or to inspire, permeate, or invade with a partisan or ideological point of view, such as a generation of children who had been indoctrinated against the values the determination and will.

The second part introduces a liberated mind set directed not by any doctrine or principles, to initiate by means of doctrinal instruction, but rather by the self- knowledge, self guidance, self-judgment, and his or her own consciousness which follows the logical discourse, to formulate and conceptualizes the problems and issues and peruse an appropriate path toward a goal.

When we are talking about materializing a concept, we mean being ready and committed for action and doing it, which is the state of activation of thoughts and materialization of concepts, but to conceptualize our thoughts we should be knowledgeable, alert and conscious. Now we arrive at a point that the ingredients for success, comprehension, and advancement are not praying, wishing, compassion of merciful magical forces, ignoring our realistic potentials, living in an imaginary state of stagnation, but rather a materialistic and vast educational capacities, motivations and a will power to drive us toward a clear goal and absolute rejection of any negativity which no matter what is the cause of its existence, it is a neutralizing force in any progressive endeavor, a conscientious or concerted effort toward an end; an earnest attempt .

Raising the issue of indoctrination certainly attempt to describe the hidden mechanism that in an ongoing process functions toward the conditioning of the humanity particularly those who live under suppressive and theocratic regimes. The majority of these people become accustomed to imposed mind sets as their second nature, that are not the humane and fair and democratic setups toward their own welfare, but rather socially, politically, religiously controlled and conditioned for the stability and the security of the dominant power.

By raising the issue of indoctrination indeed. I am trying to understand the mechanism of the functionality of pretension and deception being presented as democracy in the secular systems and faith in the religious systems that generally dragged the humanity in such a confusion and particularly our Iranian people to a cultural and social devastation since the Arab - Islamic conquest of sixth century 638 A.D. and the domination of fanatics, brutality and stagnation of our own identity.

When the whole structure of a theocratic regime is based on the a doctrine that the determinant factor is only the supreme religious ruling power, then it is clear that” self ” is meaningless and absolute obedient and being conditioned into certain fixation is the set conditions for living. This is not by any means allegation against any particular ideology or religion but rather the analytical truth about the basic mechanism of religious stability which its existence as observable facts which our people live with it and recorded history of suppression under the pretext of faith and spiritual believes define it. For example, the identity of non Moslems in Umayyad Dynasty AD 661-750 as “ Movalies” were subjected to certain taxes and payments and being subjugated, segregated and deprived from many privileges of Moslems, and the distinction of non Moslems in the Ottoman Empire. Also called Turkish Empire. A vast Islamic Turkish sultanate of southwest Asia, northeast Africa, and southeast Europe It was founded in the 13th century by Osman I and ruled by his descendents until its dissolution after World War I. Originally a small state controlled by Ottoman or Osmanli Turks, it spread rapidly, superseding the Byzantine Empire in the east empire in Balkan regions.

The most recent example, tremendous discriminations and segregations of minorities, particularly different religions and particularly, women in present Islamic republic of Iran is the most familiar example that every Iranian have been grown up with it. The major mechanism of suppression in any one of these political and religious dominations is the control of the masses by deep and profound functionality of indoctrination complimented with suppression by force. How this suppression escaped out of logical and intellectual evaluations and judgment, simply by vast and profound penetration of religious indoctrinations, or degradation of “self ” in every individuals’ personality structures trough the conditioning which turns the believers to “self, operated crusaders” and defenders of the faith or regime against any different point of views and those who had different interpretation of their ideologies and religion, which they considered them their enemies.

. Indoctrination in this case is the soul mechanism of ” self- sensor “, and absolute and the most reliable mechanism of controles. This indoctrination mechanism then not only become a system of education but also become an instrument of ” reliable suppression” because it is an innate and embedded instrumentation that its operation does not need to be guarded constantly by some third party as long as the conditioned individual is firmly fixed in the imposed mindset and doing what ever was the orientation intended to be.

How could possibly such an old mechanism be firmly implanted into our mind for so long? The answer is, it is reinforced by punishment of the burning in hell for those who are not faithful followers. In the other hand going to the paradise after death because, they have fidelity and are faithful to the cause whole-heartedly and advocate, support, and follow the covenants of the faith will reward the blind believers that are securely being conditioned to follow the order.

This catastrophic and devastating mindset will never ever go away, or being eliminated, or replaced, unless the mindsets are changed and no body possibly could be able to change it, besides the people themselves. It is exactly the same mechanism implied in a tyranny or totalitarian regimes that indoctrination is the fundamental mechanism of control and suppression. In both cases “ the person or self “ is not functioning as a liberated individual but rather conditioned person. There will never be any salvage or hope for the people unless they themselves become aware and conscious of their deficiencies and transform themselves trough the self- education to a conscious person and the “manipulated self ” becomes and turn in to “ self-activated and self-conscious” to be liberated from this long lasting intellectual devastation.

The major question will be that how and what ways we can change this old embedded destructive mind set out of our cultural life, and its deadly grip out of our existence? And I only assume and based on my own hypotheses developing toward a “self-activated person” rather than being indoctrinated or brained washed by dominant imposed paradigms. But is it possible for all those people who have inherited this mind set for fourteen hundred years? The answer is yes. Not through the forceful bloodshed and imposition activities, but rather trough the gradual and planed system and defenetly, by a deep individually commitment and national awareness as a nation.

Development of educational capacities, motivations, a will power to drive us toward a clear goal, and absolute rejection of any negativity. As matter of fact simply we should reveres what the regime of Iranian Islamic republic did in just one generation.

The same way that a dominant theocratic regime within only one generation was able to create such a cultural devastation, we can reveres and undo whatever had been done, if we create the appropriate reorientation environment through the lectures, publications, artistic committed means of expressions such as movies and electronic channels and medias we could be able to bring even those old mind sets to their senses. As far as I remember from my childhood, the more crucial and cardinal mechanism of Islamic promotional instrument is the Mullah’s long and effective speeches in masques, the most effective platform to indoctrinate masses by millions. Fortunately the advancement of global electronic communication and the presence and expansion of the awareness of our people are reflected in such a vast proportion that brings hopes and joy of the existence of such a great potential of change.

Educational capacities, motivations,

A will power to drive us toward a clear goal,

And absolute rejection of any negativity

We hear a lots of success stories from the life of successful people, perhaps among a numbers of them there were elements of chances and “being in the right time and right place or having the appropriate connection” but the most part of their success is educational capacities, a will power to drives them toward a clear goal and absolute rejection of any negativity. Some of these persons are the children of those people that never were capable of changing from the fanatic mindset and yet their children become the pioneers of the most progressive human advancement.

This is the most valuable psychological cultural stimulation that could intrigue and drive a vast spectrum of possibilities for our people, particularly those true stories of personal successes that wisely reflected in my favorite and magnificent magazine Persian heritage, which I am proud of being part of it. These kinds of reflections should not by any measure be denounced or devalued because the documented realities that we bring our selves back to our selves, which was crushed and depressed by fanatics for a long time.

We should and must prove to the world that our identity was contaminated by false introduction of our culture, our real people and distinguish our selves from invaders, plunders, and rapists, and pretentious religious aggressors that we never were defeated by them. It is undeniable historical facts that our nation was attacked by Alexander in 334 B.C. Arab conquest 638, Ghaznavid Dynasty invasion of 999, Seljuq Turks in 1030, Gharakhani Turks 1141, Ghaz Turks1156, Mongols Genghis Khan1220, Timur and Timurids 1381 A.D. and Afghans 1729. We overcame all these devastated attacks and invasions and in many of them we were able to convert them to historical opportunities to use their forces toward our cultural advancements, and now we will overcome this present devastating ordeal just like others.

We went trough hells and we reoriented our culture so many times and we should be strong enough to do it again by educational instrumentation, which could be the most effective way.

Educational capacities refers to the capability of a person who is able to see and evaluate any phenomena or any event, which they are facing or witnessing, in a holistic view rather than being confined in his own limited scope of limited perception. The educated person should be able to see the world in a related configuration rather than confinement in a personal feeling and limited understanding, which eventually ends up with inappropriate assessments and wrong judgment.

Let us not be confused with the word’s fascination, or the word power and assume an educated person has to go trough the institutionalized training in order to be capable to be qualified for such a capacities.

It is comprehensive that most educated people will achieve their educational capacities trough the educational institutions, but I am trying to get rid of this taboo and break this fixation and myth and take away the excuses from a great majorities of people that withdraw from improvement of their understanding because they assume they do not have time for some reason to read, write, or be informed of the facts that elevate them to educated level.

The main objective of education is the capacity of being self activated rather than trapped into a fixation by a persuasive power of predators that constantly are expanding their domain of promotional activities for the quest of dominations, whether it is political, religious, or simply personal or social. The self -activated person unlikely will be persuaded by projection of any negative indoctrination process, which as the routine for social, political, or religious stability executed in the process of domination and the stability particularly in our modern living environments.

Establishing the social balance by coordinating the individuals in a balance relation in a democratic order is desirable as far as the end result is the advancement of social welfare, but if such process of indoctrination will end up to destitutions and stagnation of freedom and democracy, then here the self activated and conscious and educated person should be alert to denounce it and reject it. The end result is the emancipation of tyranny and prevention of spread of ideologies of zealous fanatics and corruptions of any kinds, which either is introduced and sugar-coded by revealing deceptive presentations or concealed under a legitimate acceptance and facades.

The process of self reorientation in spite of its apparent improbability because of the non institutional learning and self disciplinary commitment could start with a simple and feasible task and gradually developing a new habit, just like trying to eat a new food and become accustomed to eating it for the rest of your life without rejecting it, to more expanded level of reading, searching, writing, listening to informative documentations, being acquainted with analytical descriptions, re evaluate our own believes fearlessly, and comparative assessment of our own values. For example as a Moslem we might resort to certain values for certain elements of our lives that never ever attempted to question our self of the validity of its value in our existence, and we should be comparing it with other religions or cultures to see what is their assessment and judgment so we will not be fixed in an imposed paradigm inherited from our parents or our tradition for the rest of our life.

This kind of reorientation should be developed gradually into new habits and gradually be replaced the old ones based on the probability of every individual’s possibility and devotion. The achievement of such reorientation could be felt and revealed when every individual will notice his presence in a wider scope of social participation. The acquaintance of more informative sources will expand the capability of the person’s participation in self-activated assessment of social values and less indoctrination to the imposed paradigms.

In an environment of educated self-activated societies there will not be room for corruption, imposition, suppression, concealment of the facts, and impact of persuasive powers toward any domination witch is not beneficial for the well being of totality of social structures. It is not difficult to have a comparative study of what we as the Iranians have that is out of balance with the ones of the self-activated educated ones with less corruptions.

The most obvious distinction of the back warded societies in comparison with those of affluent and advanced and more civilized ones is more educated communities are the level of disorder, crime, restlessness and corruption which are motivated by often significant stimulation of the destitutions and illiteracies. The level of resolution and elimination of those discrepancies could be reduced only if the increase of the level of education, elevate to a degree that before any emotional sensation begun the neutralizes the logical capacities towards any defensive responses, the intellectual capacity will leads and direct and prevent the emotions. It is obviously understandable that emotion is the natural defense mechanism and that natural reaction is inseparable part of human being.

Motivation.

To provide with an incentive; move to action; impel, to urge to action through moral pressure; drive. We are talking about the elements of subsistence and mobility; we are talking about stepping toward rewards or avoiding the punishment. And we are talking about living. What the whole concept of education referrers to alertness and being conscious of what surrounded us and what we know about them and who can we possibly manage to control and manipulate it rather than being consumed by it powerful damages.

Our biggest handicap as a nation is the luck of vision and alternatives, and our absolute ignorance of who we were, what we had and what we have now. When we settle for least fearfully because we do not know more about our scope of our values and capacities and remain in the same position or stick to the same live-style without opening our eyes to discover new horizons and ourselves. We have to tear apart the shell that they created for us. How? By gaining, and gaining, and gaining knowledge, by development of our sensitivities trough our artistic means.

The developments of human sensitivities trough the artistic channels is a proven educational facts. Yet we as Iranians being the lovers of our glorious poetries and proud of our literary and cultural heritage are not benefiting in the stand point of educational values from our arts to improve our taste, our aesthetic awareness from our rich aesthetic creations as a channel toward increasing our sensitivities. The reason for this is not that we do not appreciate our magnificent carpets, we buy and sell and use them every day, our beautiful metal works, our guanine and non-commercialized miniature masterpieces, or significantly crafted artifacts. It is the way we use them and configure them as part of our existence. These objects are not only for beautification of our homes, they are the channels of our learning let us use them as such.

Perseverance, will power to drive us

Toward a clear goal

Perseverance is steady persistence in adhering to a course of action, belief or purpose steadfastness. Will power is the strength of will to carry out one's decisions, wishes, or plans. Drive, to push, propel, or press onward forcibly; urge forward, to repulse forcefully; put to flight, to guide, control, to compel or force to work, often excessively, to force into or from a particular act or state, to carry through vigorously to a conclusion. These are the elements that should be undoubtedly inseparable constructive parts of our personality that could be instrumentally significant in our quest for enhancement to an educated level. In these instrumental vehicles that are fundamental parts of success in some people, or are a kind of innate availability but in most of the people should be embedded through a long and conscious relearning and achieved in order to avail certain appropriate qualities in the person.

Now could these instruments of reorientation be applicable to an ordinary individual who is not even aware of the most elementary values in his life? It is questionable that he or she without assistance of the so call committed intelligentsia who is willing for sacrifices could be ready for any further advancement

We need an enlighten movement which fortunately has been born but slowly maturate and we the indifferent members of our awakened intelligentsia should participate more committed to assess those who are or being pushed into a dormant state of mind

When I am talking about Perseverance, will power that can drive us toward a clear goal and absolute rejection of any negativity I am talking about two crucial elements that analytically the luck of the first part is the major obstacle in denouncing any positivist and forceful motivations that could forward our thousand of intellectuals toward the participation in the social involvements and for some irrelevant excuses they shay away from our national and political problems. I am addressing the most pessimistic and inactive and indifferent segment of our intelligentsia who sees the world only within a small limited world and personal success in his or her self segregated environment, while our daughters and sons are devastated by suppression and corruption of zealous pretenders of religious faith and theocracy.

Within the tremendous numbers of Iranian Diaspora scattered all over the world we witnessed the most severe struggles in the personal levels particularly within the post-Islamic revolution toward achievements in varieties of social, economical, political, scientific, and artistic levels. It is obvious that for immigrated people being somehow forced out of their home-land is extremely painful particularly the first generations to readjust themselves to entirely different cultural setups different from that of their own, but those psychologically strong managed to deviate from the negativities that could bring them to devastation, instead step by steps not only they found their way out of negative impact of migration, but also rise gloriously to higher and successful places that we are now proud of their achievements.

The impact of negativity is the most apparent in the created environment of destitutions, drug addiction, prostitution and unemployment, we should not consider our fortunate selves alien to them undoubtedly they are part of our existence as a nation which strongly penetrated and damaged the psychological structures of our people.

How can we eliminate, or reduce this huge corrupted, well-guarded environment of slavery? It is difficult to fix some thing that have been shuddered and disoriented in a long time process. Again the people with such devastated psychological and desperate living condition that their only motivation is instinctual drives and their motivation hardly could go beyond that should be helped by those who are in a position to positively devote themselves to awaken and stimulate them from this stagnation not directly to them in the level of charity but creating the facilities for them to pull themselves out of the misery trough a more awareness. And in the direction of their enlightenment and betterment of their lives should come to a commitment not only pretension and lip services. The negativity, is the force that practically denunciates all the potentials and qualities that are the drive and willpowers of human toward creativities, enhancements, and finally achievements.

When we talk about the negation our reference is the human rejection of logical discourses deliberately in all kinds of circumstances, particularly denial of the facts which are the most destructive attitude as egocentric viewing the realities of hard and proven facts to persistent levels. We can not call that ignorance, because those who are intelligent to be manipulative to the extend of using the denials as an instrument to their advantages are capable of being rational, if really they chose to be, but they will never ever will deviate from the only instruments that keep them in power. .

The elements that create the environment politically, religiously, traditionally, and socially based on the policy of denial always promote corruption to its highest degrees, because action and execution of human social activities and commitments turn into lip-services, which does not implied to any thing which is truly materialized. The continuation and spread of such social behaviors eventually leads to distrust, discouragements, disorientation, fixations and psychological phobias and fears in social relations.

In the environments of destitutions whether created deliberately or the consequences of economical miss managements, the negativity becomes the most powerful preventing force to takes away the willpower and self steams of the people. Because people will witness that practically honesty does not get them anywhere and consequently become corrupted and when corruption reward them and result in a better living conditions individually, then corruption become a common accepted social practice.

It is obvious that in the environment of destitution the instinctual forces of subsistence and survival does not allow the intellectual faculties of the destitute people function logically and for the sake of survival any individual uses only his instinctual drives and departs gradually from his capacities of logical discourses. The increase of level of crimes will be an inseparable part of living conditions.

We now face a social true dualism, in one side the process of practical but concealed indoctrination, which as a mechanism of so called social controls, political, and most strongly intense religious indoctrination and brainwashing will not only eliminate and reform the destitution and improvement of people living conditions, but also maintaining it. The reason is the more the level of social conformity expands the more stability and security the dominant social, political, and religious power will have and the longer they remain securely in power.

Te other part of our social dualism which is my main hypotheses and was sufficiently described before is the educational and intellectual capabilities of the people to be self activated and not being manipulated in every aspects of their lives. The individuals that are self guided by their own appropriate and intelligent assessments, their own judgments, and their own conscious decisions with the vision not only in their own private life but in their vast and holistic view for their own society, their own world and eventually their own future generation. This should be the agenda for all of us particularly those of us who claime of being the forces of our nation’s intelligentsia. Let be a doer rather than pretender and talker. Haven blesses all of us in this possible task toward a desirable goal.

M. K. Sadigh

Sunday, July 30, 2006. Montreal.