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To Inculcate or not to Inculcate
Friday, February 29th, 2008 by admiralBeing a stand up philosopher means being an idea addict. This is not a real profession for me so I do not have to take this too seriously. That also means that I have limited resources available to explore ideas because my resources have to go into other, more profitable, functions during the day. I come across ideas in those other things that I often have to do. My current subject comes from a lesson that I had in Sunday School.
I was aware of the concept of inculcation long before I came across the term. You may have noticed my unhealthy obsession with the concepts of brainwashing. Well, I did graduate from the state schools. My first formalized exposure to the concept of inculcation dealt with socialist campaigning around the build up to the second world war. Inculcation is probably something that you have also seen all around you but have never been formally exposed to as a concept.
Since you should already be asking, inculcation is the process or indoctrination by repetition. At first it may look like hard headedness. A hard headed person may argue a point, yet he will address his former losses in the arena of ideas. His faith requires him to believe that there are answers to all honest challenges. He may even be right.
Inculcation comes into play when you go back to the person you debated earlier and he does not acknowledge his former loss or your challenges to his ideology. He holds the same view and uses the same arguments as though you had scored no points in your former contest. Practitioners of inculcation are like drones replaying a recorded argument over and over again. It almost implies that they do not believe in what they are preaching. Once this seed takes root in the mind of the initiates, it is as effective as if it had been true.
It is not easy to counter inculcation. If I was going to give you advice, I would advise that you not address the drone. The process is all about the audience. Get personal with the audience, inducing an emotional response to the indoctrination. Inculcation will wear out your ability to reason and cause you to doubt your own understanding, so do not stay in the game too long at any one time.
