Indoctrination seeks to instill thoughts.
Indoctrination is the process and result of indoctrinating : transmitting a doctrine to a person so that they make it their own. A doctrine, on the other hand, is composed of the ideas and beliefs that are defended by an individual or a group of people.
Indoctrination, in this way, is a practice that seeks to instill certain thoughts in people. To achieve its objectives it appeals to different actions until the indoctrinated people assimilate and incorporate the ideas in question.
Power and indoctrination
It is usually considered that the social groups that hold power carry out the indoctrination of the dominated classes as a mechanism of social control , to preserve their place of privilege without resorting to violence. In this way, the bourgeoisie of a nation can promote the indoctrination of the population through the promotion of a political party that defends its interests in a veiled way. Thus, the citizens who are under domination will not fight for a real change in conditions, since they convince themselves to support the political party that, in reality, is functional to the bourgeoisie.
It is possible to distinguish between education and indoctrination according to their effects on the individual. While education aims to provide the necessary knowledge so that the person gains autonomy through the development of their own judgment, indoctrination seeks to annul the subject's criticism and have the subject repeat the information that is provided.
It is common for indoctrination to seek to sow love for a leader.
Its pillars
In this sense, we can state that it is determined that indoctrination is based on the following pillars:
-Commits to isolating the individual, that is, to disconnect from the reality that is closest to him and to not come to tolerate or know what other ideas or forms of expression are.
-It consists of imposing and not educating.
-It is radical, insofar as it considers that to reach a goal there is only one possible path and that the other alternatives that are established or exist are absolutely erroneous. Hence, it is considered to be a way to clearly and forcefully end diversity and tolerance.
Specifically, based on all of the above, there are experts and scholars on indoctrination who come to indicate that it is synonymous with ridiculing, forcing, imposing and penalizing.
Totalitarianisms, sects and indoctrination
Totalitarian movements and sects are two of the corporations that use indoctrination to attract new followers and so that they are responsible for reproducing their doctrine.
Precisely in this sense we can highlight that there was a lot of talk about the indoctrination carried out by the Nazis on children, especially. What was known as the Hitler Youth was in charge of this and they developed different measures that were based on the following pillars:
-They exalted the Nordic races and more precisely the Aryans.
-They denigrated the Jews, considering them inferior. That is, they praised anti-Semitism and racism.
-They taught love towards the leader, Adolf Hitler.
-They stressed the value of obedience to the State and even the importance of militarism.
-They emphasized highlighting the existence of a German national community.