DEGRADATION, SHOCK AND ENDURANCE

Degradation and conquest are companions.
In order to be conquered, a nation must be degraded, either by acts of war, by being
overrun, by being forced into humiliat- ing treaties of peace, of by the treatment of her
populace under the armies of the conqueror. However, degradation can be accomplished
much more insidiously and much more effectively by consistent and continual
defamation.
Defamation is the best and foremost weapon of Psychopolitics on the broad field.
Continual and constant degradation of national leaders, national institutions, national
practices, and national heroes must be systematically carried out, but this is the chief
function of Communist Party Members, in general, not the psychopolitician.
The realm of defamation and degradation, of the psycho- politician, is Man himself. By
attacking the character and morals of Man himself, and by bringing about, through
contamination of youth, a general degraded feeling, command of the populace is
facilitated to a very marked degree.
There is a curve of degradation which leads downward to a point where the endurance of
an individual is almost at end, and any sudden action toward him will place him in a state
of shock. Similarly, a soldier held prisoner can be abused, denied, defamed, and degraded
until the slightest motion on the part of his captors will cause him to flinch. Similarly, the
slightest word on the part of his captors will cause him to obey, or vary his loyalties and
beliefs. Given sufficient degradation, a prisoner can be caused to murder his fellow
countrymen in the same stockade. Experiments on German prisoners have lately
demonstrated that only after seventy days of filthy food, little sleep, and nearly untenable quarters, that the least motion toward the prisoner would bring about a state of shock
beyond his endurance threshold, and would cause him to him to hypnotically receive anything
said to him. Thus, it is possible, in an entire stockade of prisoners, to the number of thousands, to bring about a state of complete servile
obedience, and without the labour of personally addressing each one, to pervert their
loyalties and implant in them adequate commands to insure their future conduct, even
when released to their own people.
By lowering the endurance of a person, a group, or nation, and by constant degradation
and defamation, it is possible to induce, thus, a state of shock which will receive
adequately any command given.
The first thing to be degraded in any nation is the state of Man, himself. Nations which
have high ethical tone are difficult to conquer. Their loyalties are hard to shake, their
allegiance to their leaders is fanatical, and what they usually call their "spiritual integrity"
cannot be violated by duress. It is not effici- end to attack a nation in such a frame of
mind. It is the basic purpose of Psychopolitics to reduce that state of mind to a point
where it can be ordered and enslaved. Thus, the first target is Man, himself. He can be
degraded from a spiritual being to an animalistic reaction pattern. He must think of
himself as an animal, capable only of animalistic reactions. He must no longer think of
himself, or his fellows, as capable of "spiritual endurance", or nobility.
The best approach toward degradation in its stages is the propaganda of "scientific
approach" to Man. Man must be consistently demonstrated to be a mechanism without
individu- ality, and it must be educated into a populace under attack that Man's
individualistic reaction are the product of mental derangement. The populace must be
bought into the belief that every individual within it who rebels in any way, shape, <of>
form against efforts and activities to enslave the whole, must be considered to be a
deranged person whose eccentricities are neurotic or insane, and who must have at once
the treatment of a psychopolitician.
An optimum condition in such a programme of degradation would address itself to the
military forces of the nation, and bring them rapidly away from any other belief than that
the disobedient one must be subjected to "mental treatment." An enslavement of a
population can fail only if these rebellious individuals are left to exert their individual influences upon their fellow citizens, sparking
them into rebellion, calling into account their nobilities and freedoms. Unless these restless individuals are stamped out and given into the hands of psychopolitical operatives
early in the conquest, there will be nothing but trouble as the conquest continues.
The officials of the government, student, readers, partakers of entertainment, must all be
indoctrinated, by whatever means, into the complete belief that the restless, the
ambitious, the natural leaders, are suffering from environmental maladjust- ments which
can only be healed by recourse to psychopolitical operatives in the guise of mental
healers.
By thus degrading the general belief in the statues of Man, it is relatively simple, with cooperation
from the economic salients being driven into the country, to driven citizens
apart, one from another, to bring about a question of the wisdom of their own
government, and to cause them to actively beg for enslavement.
The educational programmes of Psychopolitics must, at every hand, seek out the levels of
youth who will become the leaders in the country's future, and educate them into the
belief of the animalistic nature of Man. <Thus> must be made fashionable. They must
taught, above all things, that the salvation of Man is to be found only by his adjusting
thoroughly to this environ- ment.
This educational programme in the field of Psychopolitics can best be followed by
bringing about a compulsory training in some subject such as psychology or other mental
practice, and ascertaining that each broad programme of psychopolitical training be
supervised by a psychiatrist who is a trained psycho- political operative.
As it seems in foreign nations that the church is the most en- nobling influence, each and
every branch and activity of each and every church, must, one way or other, be
discredited. Religion must become unfashionable by demonstrating broadly, through
psychopolitical indoctrination, that the soul is non- existent, and that Man is an animal.
The lying mechanisms of Christianity lead men to foolishly brave deeds. By teaching
them that there is a life hereafter, the liability of courageous acts, while living, is thus lessened. The liability of any act must be markedly increased if a populace
is to be obedient. Thus, there must be no standing belief in the church, and the power of
the church must be denied at every hand.
The psychopolitical operative, in his programme of degrada- tion, should at all times
bring into question and family which is deeply religious, and, should any neurosis or
insanity be occa- sioned in that family, <to> blame and hold responsible their religious
connections for the neurotic or psychotic condition. Religion must by made synonymous
with neurosis and psychosis. People who are deeply religious would be less and less held
responsible for their own sanity, and should more and more be relegated to the
ministrations of psychopolitical operatives. By perverting the institutions of a nation and bringing about a general degradation, by
interfering with the economics of a nation to the degree that privation and depression
come about, only minor shocks will be necessary to produce, on the populace as a whole,
an obedient reaction or an hysteria. Thus, the mere threat of war, the mere threat of
aviation bombings, could cause the population to sue instantly for peace. It is a long and
arduous road for the psychopolitical operative to achieve this state of mind on the part of
a whole nation, but no more than twenty or thirty years should be necessary in the entire
programme<;> having to hand, as we do, weapons with which to accomplish the goal.