Lancaster 1

Chris Lancaster
Professor Hansen & Blood
English 1A
12/11/16
Brainwash Society
In the Giver by Lois Lowry, there are critical issues that progress and regress from an
ideal society. One progression to consider is brainwashing. The Elders have their reasons for
running the community in a specific regime that allows the people to be happy. In every society,
there are leaders and community broad people that make decisions for the citizens and the
people. The leaders believe that they are making the right decisions and have the best interest for
their society. Protecting their society is the most important objective to the leaders and they are
willing to go out of their way to convince their citizens in order to keep the peace in the utopia.
In order to maintain harmony in an ideal society, leaders must implement keeping and revealing
secrets, conformity, obedience to authority and psychological repression. These features can be
seen in different societies such as the U.S. and utopias like in the movie called The Island as
well. In order to maintain an ideal society, brainwashing is necessary to protect the citizens from
getting hurt and keeping the peace.
First, by keeping and revealing secrets, this contributes to brainwashing because it allows
people to know just enough so a society can continue on with their lives. This is important in all
societies because leaders of each community must be able to maintain their people and keep
valuable information private especially if it may adversely affect the community if they find out.
By keeping secrets and revealing them, this protects citizens from getting hurt and slowing down
on their productivity as a community. Societies will benefit by keeping sensitive information in

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the dark and out of peoples ears to allow for a seamless community to work and function
together without any obstacles in the road to slow down community goals. In the Giver, Jonas
and The Giver are talking privately during a training session about if the community had choices,
Oh. Jonas was silent for a minute. Oh, I see what you mean. It wouldnt matter for a
newchilds toy. But later it does matter doesnt it? We dont dare to let people make choices of
their own. Not safe? The Giver suggested (98). This discussion is between the two of them
behind closed doors and with the microphone speaker off. This is very important because if
anyone else heard the conversation that went on between Jonas and The Giver, this would
devastate the citizens of the community and would cause an uproar if they found out that they
were deprived of choices. By keeping information that people of the community do not need to
know a secret, this enables a community to strive and prosper. Citizens are not given the
opportunity to react to secrets. With the power of not knowing, citizens are brainwashed so they
dont get hurt from information that may disrupt the peace or offend a community.
In addition to keeping secrets, revealing secrets have their benefits for maintaining a
prosperous utopia and brainwashing citizens in order to keep them safe. By allowing the public
to know just enough information, the citizens of the community feel empowered and convinced
that they know exactly what is going on while putting on a diversion for plans in the background
to circulate within the leaders of the community for other agendas. This is a very important
aspect to keep an ideal society because this allows the citizens to buy into the leaders vision and
create a sense of trust and hope that the leaders know best. In Keeping and Revealing Secrets by
Tamara Afifi and Keli Steuber, they mention that the research team demonstrated that the
strategies people use to reveal secrets are complex. Results also showed that people often use
multiple strategies to reveal their secretsstrategies may be used at the same time or one after

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the other (Secrets). This research shows that in any given utopia, societies use strategies in order
ease their secrets to the citizens to not cause an uproar or distress in a community. In other
words, it helps to soften or ease the truth no matter how disturbing or hurtful it may be. By
revealing secrets, communities are brainwashed with information to allow the flow of a seamless
society to continue and keep everyone unharmed.
Equally as important, conformity is an essential tool to execute brainwashing in an ideal
society in order to keep citizens safe. Conformity pressures people and entire groups of societies
to be the same in beliefs and behaviors, it prevents citizens from standing out too much which
causes disagreement with each other. The act of changing to someone that the person is not
accustomed to is caused by social influences, their environment and low self-esteem. These 3
factors manipulate a person and how they envision themselves to be around others. In a
community or an ideal utopia, most citizens dont want to standout because if the citizens decide
to be an outcast, they are looked at differently and they are constantly judged. Judgment puts the
citizen out of their place and they feel pressured to change the situation in order to feel accepted
and be normal like everyone else in the society. In What is Conformity by Sam McLeod, he
writes, conformity can also be simply defined as yielding to group pressures (Crutchfield,

1955). Group pressure may take different forms, for example bullying, persuasion, teasing,
criticism, etc. Conformity is also known as majority influence (or group pressure)
(Conformity). In an ideal society, it is important to have group pressures in order to maintain
unity and sameness throughout a society. This is essential to prevent small groups of outcast
from questioning what is right and wrong because the majority of the group will be following
the social norm which will blur the outcasts judgement and convince them to conform.

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Conformity is a powerful tool to keep a society brainwashed and for preventing disagreement
within a society that may escalate into endangering the citizens.
In the same fashion, psychological repression is a huge indication that brainwashing
is in full effect to run an ideal society and keep the community out of harms ways. This
influence in a society helps citizens to ignore their feelings and makes it easier to follow the
rules and laws of a society even if the citizens know its not right. In Psychological
Repression by Lyman A. Baker, he mentions that hence part of what requires to be
understood in such cases is how these fantasies (and their motivation, appetites, wishes,
fears, etc.) are expressed in and through the disguises they have been outfitted with in order
for the person not to be aware of them for what they are. Another part of what requires to be
understood in such cases is the motive that leads the person to find these facts too painful to
acknowledge as facts about himself (Repression). Even though the citizens are conflicted
internally with events going on in their life, they might try to forget or might try not to accept
certain aspects about themselves. This heavily promotes psychological repression in a
community because many citizens dont like to look at the bad aspects about themselves or
events going on around them, they rather focus on the positive features make them feel better
about themselves. This feature is extremely useful in American society, people are
continuously upset and unhappy with the government within themselves. There is so much
talk and less action that is taken to take the necessary steps in order to make proper changes.
So citizens are generally upset about the end result and learn how to move on and repress
those feelings of not being a good citizen, ignoring the fear of what is going to happen next
based on their decisions, and telling themselves that everything is going to be alright.
Psychological repression can be seen in the Presidential Election that just occurred. Many are

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upset that Donald Trump won, but many citizens didnt utilize their vote in order have
Hillary Clinton win. This internal conflict between voting and not voting caused frustration
with the outcome of the election where millions are in denial of the winner. U.S. citizens
have endured the pain and have gone through the misery but they learn how to adapt in order
to live to see better days. Its the optimism that allows psychological repression to take over
and put all the horrible memories in the back of the mind to allow the citizens to tell
themselves that they are better off now and that the leaders of the nation will do their best to
stir the nation in a better direction. Psychological repression is a key component to
brainwashing in order for citizens of an ideal community to stay out of harms way and
prosper.
Last but not least, obedience to authority is the most important feature of
brainwashing citizens in order to sustain an ideal society and prevent citizens from facing
danger. Having authority figures in communities are essential for guidance and structure in
an ideal utopia. In Milgrams Progress by Robert Levine, he writes about Stanley Milgrams
research on obedience. This research is derived from questions about the Holocaust and
specifically, he wondered why tens of thousands of ordinary German citizens willingly provided
the manpower to carry out a massive killing program. He reasoned that when a type of behavior,
no matter how evil, becomes "normal," an explanation for it can probably be found in features of
the situation. In this case, he hypothesized, the toxic trigger for the behavior was obedience to
authority (Milgrams Progress). During this time Adolf Hitler was the dictator of the Nazi Party.
He ruled with an iron fist and the obedience that the citizens gave him was astonishing and it
lead to mass killings. This became normal for the German citizens and sadly they did not know
better under a ruler like Hitler that thought he had the countrys best interest. In an ideal utopia,

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obedience is necessary but must be regulated and not blown out of proportion like Adolf Hitler
did. Hitler completely abused the power of brainwash on the Germans on a larger scale. An ideal
society can feel normal as long as it is realistically appropriate and moral. Citizens must be ruled
in an orderly fashion with rules and regulation mapped out accordingly. Obedience to authority
must be executed in moderation to keep an ideal community satisfied and in check in order to not
harm anyone.
Another example of obedience of authority can be depicted in the movie The Island. Its

about a utopia that is strictly regulated and the head leader is Dr. Merrick, who tells the
subjects living in the facility that the outside world is contaminated and not sustainable for
life. Little do the citizens know that isnt the case. The main character is Lincoln Six Echo
who is a citizen of the utopia and believes what the doctor says about the outside world. The
government tells the community that there is a lottery, if a citizen is selected, they get to go
to an Island that is like paradise and free of contaminates to live there. This is not the case;
the selected lottery winner actually gets killed for organ transplants and their original clone
gets to use these organs. The movie exemplifies when there is an authority figure in the
community such as Dr. Merrick, the citizens of the community will listen and obey authority
no matter what the leaders are telling them thus, enhancing the power of brainwash to keep
the citizens safe. Obedience to authority keeps an ideal utopia in order and for the well-being
of the community.
In contrast, brainwashing in a society does have its faults and imperfections. When
leaders of a community keep and reveal secrets, its a risk that the leaders are willing to take.
This has repercussions, many citizens will feel cheated and betrayed if secret information is
leaked out and they find out from another source that is not the politicians or leaders of a

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society. Conformity will also back fire in an ideal community because many will get bored
and will feel a sense of non-stimulation from the environment they are growing up in. This
sense of boredom may cause a rebellion for change and forward progression in the society.
Psychological repression cannot be contained forever, many citizens will want to voice their
opinion and they will accept that they are not who society is trying to shape them to be which
may disrupt the peace and revolutions may occur. Obedience to authority is dangerous as it
imposes citizens to listen to head figures against their own will, which will cause bitterness
and revolution for freedom. These setbacks might deter politicians or leaders to avoid the
utilization of brainwashing in an ideal society.
In conclusion, brainwashing citizens benefits and helps create an ideal society.
Without the influence of community leaders to give structure and a vision, societies would be
at a lost with no solid foundation to pave the path for prosperity and harmony. The key
features of brainwashing such as keeping and revealing secrets enables citizens to know just
enough so they wont be affected our harmed by sensitive information that may slow down
the production of a whole ideal community. Another aspect of brainwashing that is important
is psychological repression, this allows people to put asides their feelings of what is
conflicting them internally and to ignore what they feel is right and wrong towards the laws
that govern their society. Conformity is an ideal part of brainwashing due to the appeal that
mass amounts of people are pressured into the same social belief and behavior, which
pressures outcasts to do the same so they are not criticized. Lastly, obedience to authority is
an essential part of brainwashing mainly for establishing discipline and a sense of direction
towards an ideal society. Without brainwashing, societies would fail to meet expectations of
where they want to be ideally and third parties would try to take over to become the next

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successor to be the next ideal society. Brainwashing is an important factor to allow a society
to survive through the test of time and outlast other utopias.

Works Cited:
Afifi, Tamara D. Keli Steuber. Keeping and Revealing Secrets. Keeping and Revealing
Secrets. National Communication Association, June 2009. Web.
<https://www.natcom.org/CommCurrentsArticle.aspx?id=927>. Accessed 22 Nov. 2016.
Baker, Lyman A. Critical Concepts: Repression (psychological). Critical Concepts:
Repression (psychological). Kansas State, 7 Mar. 2007. Web. <http://www.kstate.edu/english/baker/english320/cc-repression0.htm>. Accessed 23 Nov. 2016
Levine, Robert. "Milgram's progress." American Scientist, vol. 92, no. 4, 2004, p. 368+. Science
in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A122581619/SCIC?u=collalamedal&xid=9376aa82.
Accessed 11 Dec. 2016.
Lowry, Lois. "98." The Giver. New York: Dell Laurel-Leaf, 1993. 178. Print.
McLeod, Saul. "What Is Conformity?" Simply Psychology. N.p., 01 Jan. 1970. Web.
<http://www.simplypsychology.org/conformity.html>. Accessed 22 Nov. 2016.