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.
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.
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