“Authoritarianism in religion and science, let alone politics, is becoming increasingly accepted, not particularly because so many people explicitly believe in it but because they feel themselves individually powerless and anxious. So what else can one do…except follow the mass political leader…or follow the authority of customs, public opinion, and social expectations?” Rollo May, Man’s […] The post Why are Most People Cowards? | Obedience and the Rise of Authoritarianism first appeared on Academy of Ideas.

“The State takes the place of God…the socialist dictatorships are religions and State slavery is a form of worship.” Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self Since the birth of totalitarianism in the 20th century much has been written about this form of rule and millions have read George Orwell’s depiction of it in the classic novel […] The post Is Government the New God? – The Religion of Totalitarianism first appeared on Academy of Ideas.

“I rejoice that horses and steers have to be broken before they can be made the slaves of men, and that men themselves have some wild oats still left to sow before they become submissive members of society.” Henry David Thoreau, Walking If this claim of Henry David Thoreau’s is true – that we must […] The post Is the Mainstream Media a Threat to Freedom and Sanity? first appeared on Academy of Ideas.

“What is addiction, really? It is a sign, a signal, a symptom of distress. It is a language that tells us about a plight that must be understood.” Alice Miller, Breaking Down the Wall of Silence In the Buddhist’s conception of the universe, the wheel of life revolves through 6 realms, each representing a different […] The post The Crisis of Addiction – Childhood Trauma and a Corrupt Culture first appeared on Academy of Ideas.

In the book The Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt describes the rudimentary mass surveillance system used by the secret police force of the Russian Empire. “Every suspect was noted on a large card in the center of which his name was surrounded by a red circle; his political friends were designated by smaller red circles […] The post Smartphones and Social Media: A Mass Surveillance Dystopia first appeared on Academy of Ideas.

“WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT?” These were the first words sent over the newly invented electric telegraph machine in May 1844. This message proved to be prophetic. For the communication technologies that followed in the wake of the telegraph, from the telephone, to the radio, to TV, computers, the internet, and now smart phones and social […] The post Social Media – Why it Sickens the Self and Divides Society first appeared on Academy of Ideas.

“And the lie has, in fact, led us so far away from a normal society that you cannot even orient yourself any longer; in its dense, gray fog not even one pillar can be seen.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago Lying has always been used for political purposes. Lies cover up corruption, past mistakes and […] The post The Big Lie – How to Enslave the World first appeared on Academy of Ideas.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, reflecting on the Soviet Union’s descent into totalitarian rule in the mid-20th century, and all the things that could have been done to prevent it, wrote the following:  “If…if… We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation. . .we hurried to submit. We submitted with pleasure! … We purely and simply deserved everything that […] The post How to Escape from a Sick Society first appeared on Academy of Ideas.

In 1940 George Orwell wrote:  “Almost certainly we are moving into an age of totalitarian dictatorships – an age in which freedom of thought will be at first a deadly sin and later on a meaningless abstraction. The autonomous individual is going to be stamped out of existence.”  George Orwell, Inside the Whale George Orwell’s dystopian novel […] The post Is 1984 Becoming a Reality? – George Orwell’s Warning to the World first appeared on Academy of Ideas.

In his 1958 book Brave New World Revisited, Aldous Huxley wrote the following:  “If the first half of the twentieth century was the era of the technical engineers, the second half may well be the era of the social engineers — and the twenty-first century, I suppose, will be the era of World Controllers, the scientific […] The post Do We Live in a Brave New World? – Aldous Huxley’s Warning to the World first appeared on Academy of Ideas.