Copyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkMass Formation and Critical Thinking – Mattias Desmet
/
0 Comments
"Mass formation is, in essence, a kind of group hypnosis that destroys individual's ethical self-awareness and robs them of their ability to think critically."
Mattias Desmet
Copyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkTotalitarianism and Science – Mattias Desmet
"As Hannah Arendt states, totalitarianism is ultimately the logical extension of a generalized obsession with science, the belief in an artificially created paradise: “Science [has become] an idol that will magically cure the evils of existence and transform the nature of man.”"
Mattias Desmet
Copyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkScience and Mystery – Mattias Desmet
"As such, science stumbles upon an unknowable and mysterious essence that escapes logical explanation and which can be described only in the language of poetry and metaphor."
Mattias Desmet
Copyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkMattias Desmet on Control and Totalitarianism in Times of Crisis
"The coronavirus crisis did not come out of the blue. It fits into a series of increasingly desperate and self-destructive societal responses to objects of fear: terrorists, global warming, coronavirus. Whenever a new object of fear arises in society, there is only one response and one defense in our current way of thinking: increased control. The fact that the human being can tolerate only a certain amount of control is completely overlooked. Coercive control leads to fear and fear leads to more coercive control. Just like that, society falls victim to a vicious circle that inevitably leads to totalitarianism, which means to extreme government control, eventually resulting in the radical destruction of both the psychological and physical integrity of human beings."
Mattias Desmet
Copyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkTotalitarianism as Technocratic Rule – Mattias Desmet
"Totalitarianism is the belief that human intellect can be the guiding principle in life and society. It aims to create a utopian, artificial society led by technocrats or experts who, based on their technical knowledge, will ensure that the machine of society runs flawlessly. In this view, the individual is completely subordinated to being a cog in the machine of society."
Mattias Desmet
Copyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkPrivacy and Health in the Technocratic Society – Mattias Desmet
"The fact the the human being is like a flower that only blooms when it can enjoy the shade of privacy once in a while is of minor importance in a technocratic worldview. Anyone who refuses to go along with the system lacks civic sense, considers oneself more important than the collective. Your health is no longer your personal business, because some diseases are contagious."
Mattias Desmet
Copyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkTotalitarianism and Technocracy – Mattias Desmet
"Totalitarianism and technocracy like to present themselves as the pinnacle of rationality and science."
Mattias Desmet
Copyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkExperimentation on Humans – Mattias Desmet
"Experimentation on humans is the prototypical activity of totalitarianism. It is the ultimate submission of reality to the pseudoscientific ideological fiction."
Mattias Desmet
Copyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkChanging Social Connections – Mattias Desmet
"Social connections were also transformed beyond recognition. The invention of radio and television led to the rise of the mass media and a corresponding decline in direct human interactions with a merely social function. Evening meetings between neighbors, pub gatherings, harvest festivals, rituals, and celebrations—they were progressively replaced by consumption of what the media presented."
Mattias Desmet
Copyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkAnxiety and societal images of illness and death – Mattias Desmet
"When society as a whole is in the grip of anxiety and the accompanying images of illness and death, those images in themselves become a causal factor."
Mattias Desmet