Francis Berger
  • Blog
  • My Work

The Creation of Anti-Society Requires Anti-Social Engineering

5/23/2020

7 Comments

 
By social engineering, I am not referring to the information security context of the term - though that certainly plays a part - but rather to the political science definition that refers to the utilization of central planning to initiate social change and manage the future development and behavior of society.

A quick check of social engineering on Wikipedia reveals the following:

Social engineering is a discipline in social science that refers to efforts to influence particular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale, whether by governments, media or private groups in order to produce desired characteristics in a target population. Social engineering can also be understood philosophically as a deterministic phenomenon where the intentions and goals of the architects of the new social construct are realized.


The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany are two obvious examples of large-scale social engineering projects in the twentieth century. In both cases, authoritarian central governments sought to reshape the characteristics of their respective target populations by modifying or abandoning previous social and cultural frameworks and replacing these with social and cultural frameworks subjugated to encompassing political/economic ideologies. 

The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany can be considered 'all in' social engineering efforts aimed at transforming all aspects of their respective societies, primarily by influencing human behavior at the individual level through a comprehensive series of incentives and disincentives that basically left individuals with no viable means by which to 'opt out' of the new social constructs being erected around them.

Nevertheless, the Soviets and Nazis were true social engineers. Though their societal endeavors fundamentally addressed individuals, the overarching goals of these endeavors were firmly positioned at the collective, or more appropriately, at the communal level. As the word communist denotes, the Soviets desired to build a new sense of community in which individuals were willing to actively and enthusiastically sacrifice personal liberties for the greater collective good - a greater collective good that promised a more just and equitable society through the emancipation from political/social oppression and financial/economic exploitation. Nazi social engineering also required individuals to relinquish their individuality to the collective, but unlike the Soviets, the Nazis promise of an improved social framework was one in which 'echte' Germans could utilize nationalism to regain their pride and escape from the clutches of international profiteering and unfair war treaties that left their nation devastating and bleeding after the First World War. 

In other words, through social engineering, the Soviets and the Nazis veritably attempted to establish new social constructs. Though both demolished certain aspects of their societies, neither sought to purposively demolish their societies altogether. On the contrary, though they ravaged many traditional and organic social frameworks, both the Soviets and the Nazis used some of these traditional/organic frameworks to craft their new respective social constructs.

Though the Soviets and the Nazis actively marginalized, atomized, and/or liquidated some segments of their populations to create their new social constructs, neither aimed to destroy the concept of society altogether. Twentieth-century communist and fascist approaches to social engineering were driven by the innate ambition to build 'better and improved' societies. They viewed individuals as cogs in a machine, and the primary motivation was to recalibrate the cogs to build an improved machine. In medical terms, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany strove to eradicate cancerous individuals from society in an effort to nurture 'healthy' cells that would effectively work together to build an improved body. Neither intended to kill the body outright. 


The Soviet and Nazi examples are both instances of blatant social engineering, but it would be wrong to assume social engineering projects are limited to authoritarian governments hellbent on constructing new societies. In fact, one could argue that in the past sixty or seventy years most of the world has been subjected the most comprehensive social engineering effort ever initiated through the vehicle of new or progressive leftism.

As in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, the primary 'perceived' intention of contemporary leftism has been the creation of a fairer, more just, and more equitable social framework at the international or global level. In this sense, our current form of leftism is more akin to the Soviets than it is to the Nazis, who made nationhood and ethnicity the foundation of their social engineering project. Like the Soviets, contemporary leftism is cosmopolitan, transnational, and universal in its scope; unlike the Soviets, contemporary leftism has succeeded at imposing its vision upon the most of the world. 

The social engineering projects contemporary leftism has implemented over the past seventy years have been far more pervasive and ubiquitous than anything the Soviets and the Nazis ever managed to achieve. Unlike the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, contemporary leftism lacks a clear, identifiable center or core. Social engineering doctrines cannot be traced back specific locations like Moscow or Berlin, but instead seep from largely untraceable and unidentifiable sources and only become evident once they have permeated governments, media, business, and other private and public organizations. 

Like its authoritarian, twentieth-century predecessors, contemporary leftism is inherently anti-religious in its aims - that is, it seeks to discard the transcendental in favor of the temporal; however, unlike the Soviets and Nazis, our current form of leftist-inspired social engineering, which began shortly after the conclusion of the Second World War, aims not to create a better and improved society, but seeks instead to destroy human society altogether.

Put another way, what we are experiencing now is the culmination of approximately seventy years of purposive anti-social engineering, the end goal of which is the utter marginalization and atomization of every individual on earth. Progressive leftism believes all evil in the world find its origins in 'social constructs'; as a result, progress can only be made through 'deconstructing' social constructs. Modifying or altering social constructs is insufficient. What is needed instead is a thorough dismantling of all social frameworks that define human life on earth. Those who subscribe to this radical vision believe the dismantled social frameworks will then be replaced by new social constructs, but this is where true believers have been misled.

Progressive leftism is a destructive rather than a creative force. Contrary to popular belief, it does not intend to reconstruct the social constructs it deconstructs. On the contrary, social deconstruction is its only real objective. The ultimate goal of progressive leftism is to remove the machine altogether, leaving only a world of atomized, isolated, deterministic cogs.

According to progressive leftism, the greatest evil in the world is society itself. As a result, the ideal society of progressive leftism is actually an anti-society - a sacrilegious abstract conception of purity in which no individual can ever fully and functionally participate for the simple reason that mere participation would render the abstraction impure.

Seen from another angle, contemporary leftism regards society as a massive tumor. Individuals are nothing more than malignant cancer cells comprising the tumor. Shrinking the tumor entails separating and isolating the individual cells and then neutralizing them. The end goal is the destruction of the tumor, which ultimately leads to the destruction of all cells. 


Unlike cancer cells, individual human beings are indivisible; that is, they cannot grow, prosper, learn, or reproduce on their own. The growth, prosperity, and reproduction of individual human beings requires the establishment of relationships with other individual human beings. In this sense, man truly is a social creature. The Soviets and Nazis understood this and used it to their advantage.

Our contemporary form of leftism knows this as well and is also using it to their advantage, but the advantage of the anti-social construct objectives contemporary leftism aims for only makes sense beyond the limits of temporal considerations. 

Relationships are the essence of Divine Will and Creation. This holds especially true for this world, which is primarily a place for learning. The bulk of this learning rests upon two necessities - freedom and relationships with other Beings. Contemporary leftism is on the brink of eliminating both for the bulk of humanity, and it has done so primarily through the success of its anti-social engineering campaign.

Establishing and maintaining free will and relationships are the only effective means of counteracting anti-social engineering. The former must happen primarily at the levels of thinking and believing; the latter must continue to be nurtured and maintained at the personal and local levels.

I can see no other viable way forward at this time.

Note added: The most significant belief and relationship that must be maintained in this era of anti-social engineering is our belief and relationship with the Divine. 
7 Comments
bookslinger
5/25/2020 01:43:16

Frank, have you read Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" ?

It's unfolding before our eyes.

Reply
Francis Berger
5/25/2020 10:47:59

@ Bookslinger - No, I haven't read it, but I'll take a look at it.

Reply
bruce charlton
5/25/2020 09:20:00

This rings true to me - esepcially because I regard evil as essentially destructive; essentially about being 'anti-'.

The sheer scale and ambition of the current destruction is pretty staggering, which is, I suppose, why people can't see it. It is the biggest of Big Lies.

People cannot comprehend (because they themsleves are corrupted) the extent of the corruption of the Establishment - for instance of the media and governments around the world. In effect the masses are saying - if corruption and evil really are That widespread, then we must just go along with it...

That may be the case in terms of behaviour - but the masses' error is to assume (because they are Godless) that 'going along with' also means *thinking* as prescribed: and then the masses are complicit and self-damned.

Reply
Francis Berger
5/25/2020 10:53:53

@ Bruce - At first I considered the whole concept of purposive anti-society to be hyperbolic, but when I look back at the past seventy years, nearly everything the Left has implemented has served to weaken society - to cause division; estrange people from God, from each other, from common social interaction. What we are experiencing now truly does appear the culmination of - for lack of a better term - anti-social engineering; atomizing people and influencing them to behave in increasingly anti-social ways, and then encouraging them to accept these new anti-social modes of being as normal and welcome.

Reply
Ingemar
5/26/2020 02:20:52

We've had a century of lessons learned regarding totalitarian social engineering.

The totalitarians got smarter. The rest of mankind did not.

Reply
newrouter
5/26/2020 05:48:01

Vaclav Havel Power of the Powerless:
>The post-totalitarian system touches people at every step, but it does so with its ideological gloves on. This is why life in the system is so thoroughly permeated with hypocrisy and lies: government by bureaucracy is called popular government; the working class is enslaved in the name of the working class; the complete degradation of the individual is presented as his ultimate liberation; depriving people of information is called making it available; the use of power to manipulate is called the public control of power, and the arbitrary abuse of power is called observing the legal code; the repression of culture is called its development; the expansion of imperial influence is presented as support for the oppressed; the lack of free expression becomes the highest form of freedom; farcical elections become the highest form of democracy; banning independent thought becomes the most scientific of world views; military occupation becomes fraternal assistance. Because the regime is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It falsifies the past. It falsifies the present, and it falsifies the future. It falsifies statistics. It pretends not to possess an omnipotent and unprincipled police apparatus. It pretends to respect human rights. It pretends to persecute no one. It pretends to fear nothing. It pretends to pretend nothing.

{10}Individuals need not believe all these mystifications, but they must behave as though they did, or they must at least tolerate them in silence, or get along well with those who work with them. For this reason, however, they must live within a lie. They need not accept the lie. It is enough for them to have accepted their life with it and in it. For by this very fact, individuals confirm the system, fulfill the system, make the system, are the system. <

Reply
Francis Berger
5/26/2020 06:54:26

@ newrouter - Yes, I recall having read this a long time ago. I generally agree with Havel's assessment here.

"For this reason, however, they must live within a lie. They need not accept the lie. It is enough for them to have accepted their life with it and in it. For by this very fact, individuals confirm the system, fulfill the system, make the system, are the system."

This is the point I am stuck on at the moment. The first and most crucial step is recognizing the lie and rejecting it, but then follows the uncomfortable reality of continuing to live with the lie. How does one/can one come to terms with this? Fighting the system in an organized manner seems impossible - Whom do you attack? Whom, specifically, do you resist? The only solution I have been able to find is spiritual in nature - staying focused on the Kingdom that is not of this world (but I admit, there are times when it does not seem to be enough, even though it is).

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Blog and Comments

    Blog posts tend to be spontaneous, unpolished, first draft entries ranging from the insightful and periodically profound to the poorly-argued and occasionally disparaging.
     

    Comments are moderated. Anonymous comments are never published (please use your name or a pseudonym). 

    Emails welcome:

    f er en c ber g er (at) h otm   ail (dot) co m
    Blogs/Sites I Read
    Bruce Charlton's Notions
    Meeting the Masters
    From The Narrow Desert
    Synlogos ✞ Aggregator
    New World Island  
    New World Island YouTube
    ​Steeple Tea
    Berdyaev.com
    Adam Piggott
    Fourth Gospel Blog
    The Orthosphere
    Junior Ganymede

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Picture
    A free PDF is also available in My Work. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.